My closest friends and family will always know one thing about me. I don’t like Apple products. Well... maybe more like despise Apple products. I’m tired of people who do love Apple products showing me what the latest Apple product can do. Especially since most people who will approach me about what the latest Apple product can do think it’s actually new, when in fact it is only new to an Apple product.
Since I haven’t liked Apple products for many years (mostly when the first iPod was released), that I need to explain myself. As a lot of people do not understand why I do not like these products. So for everyone today, I will explain the reasons why I do not like Apple.
The Fans: These fans of Apple are the craziest people I have ever met. To me they come close to Twilight fans. They live and breathe Apple products and will always buy Apple products. Every little thing that their new Apple product can do, they seem as though it is the best thing in the world.
Intangible: New movie coming out? Don’t worry about buying the DVD; let’s buy it from the Apple Store. New album released from your favourite band? Let’s buy it from the Apple store. It makes me sick. When I buy a movie or an album, I like holding the item which I’ve just purchased. So basically I like the product which I’ve just bought to be tangible. The product I just bought is faulty? Let me grab that receipt and go back to the store where I purchased it and get a refund or exchange.
Product placements: It seems as though every movie, music video or TV show that is released will always have that perfect shot of an Apple product. It’s not subtle either. It’s a close up view of the item with the logo in plain view, and it will always be the main item. Music video? The apple product will be controlling the music within that video. Movie? It’s what saves the day. I’m pretty sure if the iPhone or iPad was invented back in 1996, it would have been an Apple product that saved the world in the movie Independence Day, not a laptop.
Just give us all your money: I understand that Apple products have their own design which everyone is so very proud of (even though when it is re-released the design never changes). But do you really have to charge an arm and a leg for all your items? They even charge more for Microsoft Office for Macs even more then what Microsoft is charging for it.
Ever been inside an Apple store lately? I’ll guarantee you everything within that store is more expensive than other stores are selling the exact same item. Seriously, paying around $30.00 for a movie, when all you get is the data which you’ve downloaded? If your PC dies, gets stolen, or just get old, that movie or song which you downloaded cannot be sold within a garage sale or through eBay. If you don’t want that movie anymore, you just have to delete it to make room for the other items on your computer.
Image: The image that Apple likes to portray about their items is that when you purchase their items your whole social life will explode, and you’ll be such a socialite that you can’t ever remember life ever been boring and dull. I do release that a lot of products do this, so I won’t be too harsh on Apple for this reason.
No competition: With the image that Apple portrays itself with its ‘exciting and revolutionary’ products, a lot of consumers believe in this hype and do in fact buy a lot of their products. Funnily enough even if the new product which was released just has one new feature that the older product.
But because of all this hype, with a lot of consumers actually buying their products it makes it all bad for all the little companies who unfortunately have to compete in this market. With everyone buying iPods, iPod shuffle, and the iPod Touch, all other multimedia players out there get shifted to the back shelf and don’t have a chance at all.
The best example that I can give you of this, is for a while now I've been thinking of purchasing a tablet computer. Mostly due to the 2 hour train ride I do every day, there is only certain amount of books I can read when I decide I need a bit of a change. Then I realized that a tablet computer was probably a bit too much just to watch a movie or a TV show on the way to or from work, and that a multimedia player would not only save me a lot of money, it is technically what I was looking for anyways.
Every store that I went to asking for the item, pointed me in the direction of the iPad or the iPod touch. They didn’t have any item out there. Not even for a simple MP3 player or an MP4 player. If I just wanted an MP3 player, then I would have to buy an Apple product, especially for an MP4 player. Mind you I did find one store which sells the item which I’m looking for and I will be going back to purchase that item. Isn’t it very sad that there is no range at all?
Ok I’ve had my rant. Keep in mind that I am not jumping up and down and saying Microsoft is better. I know that there is a whole variety of items out there which one type of product is a lot better than another, but I love having that choice. When you have a large freedom of selection to choose from, it is up to you – the consumer – to decide which item is more suited to your needs. When that selection comes down to either one or two items or nil, you really don’t have a freedom of choice. Unless you’re stuck with the illusion of choice. This just means you think you have a selection, when in fact it is one Apple product or another.
If I had just one favour I could ask people who do go out and buy these products, it’s just to take a moment and think before you purchase that next Apple product. Are you only purchasing it because it has what you need, or are you only purchasing the item because it is what everyone else is buying, and it’s just another fashion accessory.
No comments:
Post a Comment