Was trying to understand the Apple mania. It all starts with the naming of its devices with the “i”. Puts the owner in perspective. Massages his ego. It sure plays with the “Esteem” need in Maslow’s hierarchy. “Congratulate me! I own the “i” device”Pretty much in-line with the thinking that goes on nowadays.
With its pretty features and its “doing simple things better, intuitively” Apple has a cult following. The arrogance of the CEO seeps into the devices, to the owners of the device. When they do listen to your feedback, it is like they did a favor to us..Hey we were just working on HOW to do it better!! (claims, tall claims, there are people who do it better than you my friend) It is similar to having a good looking wife– “Hey she is hot and that’s what matters! So what if she refuses to have the basic courtesy to speak to my folks/friends and loves doing things her and her way only?”
But all said and done, they sure know how to keep competition on their toes. I give them credit for coming up with original ideas (Touch computing), hence giving us cheaper, better working and reasonably good looking varieties churned up by ‘competition’ within a few quarters of their release.
Thank you Steve Jobs 
(Picture from http://www.cloudave.com/link/apple-is-just-as-sneaky-as-microsoft-dumping-software-on-your-computer )
your pondering sounds rhetoric yet I’ll make an attempt to answer it metaphorically
a shiny silver Mercedes E350 costs about $50000.. I would want to buy that if I had that kind of money.. it’s competition is the BMW 535i which costs about the same and has almost similar features so I’ll be doing a comparison shopping to decide which to buy
now Hyundai makes a car called sonata which costs half of the Mercedes but gives about 3/4th of the merc’s features..
imagine if the BMW and Hyundai never existed.. then everyone will be buying the Mercedes and it’ll like the E class was designed for the mass market but because and only because the competition exists, we have a clear picture of the niche market for the E class
all I am saying is we wait for the competition to bring on real products and let the market forces take over… until then, bashing at the lack of certain “features” in i-devices or how Apple doesn’t listen to consumers or users (knowing that monopolies behave arrogantly and think they are self righteous) is just shallow and in vain
Any questions, anyone?
There is a difference btw the Mercedes and the Hyundai here… 3/4th of the Mercs features are missing in Hyundai right? You cannot even compare a Porshe with a Merc. Apple has competitiors in other cos producing similar devices with more features. So how is it a monopoly? How are you comparing apples and oranges then? The comparison is at par.
In the current world, typically, you dont tell the consumer what’s good for him… they tell you…at the most you can try to subtely nudge them towards your offerings. And the way Jobs apologized for the iPhone4′s attennae problem smacked of hubris “users must learn how to hold the device!” O please! And he said his Retino display is the best??? Samsung’s Galaxy S has a far superior display (The CEO challenged Jobs, but the chap wdnt respond) , can work better than the iPhone4, has better features than the iPhone4, is better priced as well. So now how is it a monopoly? Why do you think Apple does not focus on the Indian market? So basically the extra $200 that you shell out is for an over hyped, over priced name. So, even you got fooled?
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