Chances are you own an Apple product: iPod, iPhone, iPad, MacBook or maybe an iMac? Or perhaps you own several. Me, I also had my Apple phase. MacBook Pro, first generation iPhone, several iPods, and a Cinema Display. It’s been quite a while since I used the MacBook, though, and the iPhone has been replaced with an Android phone.
I once was on my merry way to becoming a real Apple fanboy, but for several reasons I’ve turned into an Apple skeptic instead: I don’t like the closed Apple App Store ecosystem where you are at their mercy at all times, Apple’s quest to sue anyone and everything, the annoying fact that my iPhone got slower and slower with every update (with my Android phone it’s the other way around, for some reason) and how Apple reseller Humac handled my laptop battery issues. But the thing that grinds my gears the most when it comes to Apple are the Apple users themselves. A lot of you them develop an amazing tunnel vision: Apple products have no flaws whatsoever, and all other competing products are crap. Period. I’m even seeing this a lot amongst my industry peers, people who you’d expect would be open to the idea that Apple is not the only way to go. And it’s not. I’ve been on the other side of the fence, in many ways the grass is actually greener there.
That said, Apple do make some great hardware – when workers at the Foxconn factories are not busy throwing themselves off the factory roof. And the piece of hardware they’ve really hit a home run with is the keyboard. I’ve burned through quite a lot of keyboards in my time and the Apple keyboard is without doubt the best I’ve ever used. It’s responsive, the button layout is well thought through and it doesn’t make a lot of noise – I’m a heavy hitter when it comes to typing, much to the annoyance of people around me.
I think it’s important to break out of the tunnel vision. It’s not all about Apple or Android or Intel or Google or any other big brand for that matter. Take a look around, be a bit open minded. Maybe you’ll discover that there are some pretty great stuff outside of your technological comfort zone.
I was about to say something about never having bought any Apple product, but the I remembered; I have a iPod nano 3Gen… :-P And I agree, the Apple tunnel vision is a strange thing..