Why Apple has so many fans

[aaron]

There was a period - call it the post-Jobs, pre-Jobs period - during which Apple let its OS stagnate while also dropping the quality of its hardware. Windows 95, for all of its faults, was in many ways markedly better than anything Apple could offer. It took the acquisition of NeXT, the return of Jobs, the complete reinvention of the OS and a couple of years of very hard work for Apple to recover to the point where I would again consider purchasing one of its systems.

Apple products still have their eccentricities. The stubborn refusal to add a second button to the mouse (with the gradual implementation of features that replicate the functionality of right-clicking), for example. A few years ago I asked somebody associated with Apple how he kept the mini track ball in his "Mighty Mouse" clean - he replied, "I wouldn't know, I use a Logitech mouse." I sometimes encounter issues with software, such as iTunes, that assumes that I want to do things in a particular way - and makes it really easy - but if I in fact want to do things in a different way I may find my quest difficult or even impossible. And in terms of the finder, I find the simplicity and consistency of the Microsoft's system to be more user-friendly than Apple's. (Conversely, from the introduction of OS X through the introduction of Windows 7, OS X was on the whole markedly superior to Windows. In their current forms I can't say that I have an overwhelming preference for one over the other - I use both on a daily basis - although I'm interested to see OS X Lion.)

The issue with the iPhone antenna dropped in importance primarily because when iPhone users actually used the phone they realized that it was largely a media contrivance, and the actual impact of how you held the phone was pretty minimal. The manner in which you hold a phone is, actually, an issue with certain other cell phones; but that didn't interest the media. (I don't have an iPhone, or for that matter a smart phone, but I have relatives with that model.)

I purchased an iPad for my daughter, as my nephews enjoy theirs, I wanted her to be able to call distant family members using FaceTime, and it is incredibly intuitive. Before it arrived I was skeptical - it is incredibly intuitive, but it's also very limiting. It seemed like an oversized iPhone but a lot harder to hold to your ear. But in using it, even for a short time, I could see how tablet computing with the larger screen, multi-touch interface is a game changer. It's great that competitors are starting to release tablets to the market, as that will help keep Apple on its toes, but I can see how tablet technology might soon be ubiquitous.

[Monique]

We are Apple fans at our house too. Our first home computer was one of the very first Apples. Then we bought a Hewlett Packard...big mistake and then decided we would always stick with IBM since our business used IBM too...make it easier for us. THEN we retired. A few months bef. we retired my husband bought an Apple lap top. Well, I took it and have had an Apple ever since. I just buy the entry level lap top...nothing fancy for me. I absolutely love Apple. There is a store at the mall and the service there is great. I dropped my lap top a couple years ago and panicked as I never back up. I dropped it face down on the floor from waist high with the lap top open. I rushed over to the Apple store and even with a busted screen they were able somehow to transfer my info to the new one I bought. I did not lose a thing! I could have kissed the guy! We never even think of buying anything but Apple. Once we find a good company, we are life long customers. My husband is a real tech. He has all the I-pads, etc. but I am just tickled to death with my MacBook! It is enough for me.

[aaron]

I saw an article the other day with a picture of an Apple SE and the caption, "Your dad's first computer was seriously ugly." I think that was taken for my daughter - the first computer I bought for myself was, in fact, an SE/30. They should have used a picture of an Osborne, but that's probably too obscure.

[Briant73]

I saw an article the other day with a picture of an Apple SE and the caption, "Your dad's first computer was seriously ugly." I think that was taken for my daughter - the first computer I bought for myself was, in fact, an SE/30. They should have used a picture of an Osborne, but that's probably too obscure.

Actually the early 80s dos clone XT cases to me were some of the ugliest cases out there. Just a metal box with grey sides, offwhite/beige front and brown disk covers usually.

[harland]

My family's first computer was an 8088 XT clone with a 20 MB Seagate hard drive and 640 KB RAM. (The turbo button boosted the processor clock to 8 MHz, rendering some games unplayable.) When the hard drive died, we then traded up to a 486 DX2 66 MHz. Around that time, PC Magazine was nearly an inch thick and Computer Shopper killed as many trees as the yellow pages. Sigh.

I've been a Mac user since 2003. The PowerBook G4 is still going (though it barely has enough horsepower to play streaming videos). My MacBook Pro still feels pretty zippy without having to occasionally reformat the hard drive that seems to be necessary for other OSes. But my experience hasn't been without problems - mainly involving the display. The PowerBook developed "white spots" on the screen (incredibly noticeable and distracting) and one of the memory slots died. The MacBook Pro display flickers to a blank screen every once in a blue moon. They had a display trade-in program for the former (though they never acknowledged the memory slot problem) and replaced the motherboard while under warranty for the latter, but the MacBook Pro still has the problem even with the new hardware. If I purchase another Apple computer, I would definitely consider getting the AppleCare extended warranty.

Still, I like Apple products - the MacBook Pro chassis feels a lot more solid than the plastic shell that the HP's and Dell's of the world use in their consumer lines. Mac OS X is also really great (why does it still take third party tools to mount and burn an ISO image in Windows?), although I have to say that the previews of the Windows 8 interface look pretty slick.