To Steve Jobs Apple Fans are Just Another Snack Cake
Snack cakes are, most dieticians would likely aver, a nutrition free food. Sure they might taste okay and they are nice to have around but they aren’t something most of us are particularly loyal too. If Little Debbie threatened to take away Fudge Rounds the reaction would be nearly silent. Yes, people may ostensibly enjoy snack cakes but the confections inspire no true love so the first time a snack cake maker makes the tiniest demand of the consumer that snack cake purveyor will be history. In short, the consumer/snack cake relationship is a one way deal: it is all about what the snack cake can do for you. Unfortunately, Apple’s relationship with long time Mac users bears more than a passing resemblance to the consumer/snack cake relationship. Apple knows their long time customers will never abandon them so the only question considered pertinent by the Execs at Apple seems to be: “How can we squeeze the faithful for a little more cash?”
At this point it is important to remember that Apple is a luxury brand. To assure ourselves of this fact let us recall the comparison of Mac and BMW market share by Steve Jobs. Now let us further remember that a luxury brand rewards loyalty. Mercedes, to cite one example, will send you a mileage badge should your Mercedes run for 155,000 miles. Apple used to reward long time users by rolling out the newest stuff for Mac users only. Want the first iPod? Gotta have a Mac. Want to buy a song from iTunes? It was a Mac only proposition in the beginning. It is Apple saying we have a great product, a product we intend to sell a lot of but, for now, you are going to get the first shot at the iPod because you have been loyal to Apple. This pattern of introductions reinforced a Mac fanatic’s decision to say with Apple. It was akin getting a sneak peek at what the wider computer world would be doing in a few months. That is a feeling true Apple connoisseurs are used to and one of the rewards of being loyal to Apple computer. Those rewards are now just a sweet memory. Instead of giving long time Mac fans a glimpse of the future Apple is acting like a drug dealer who knows there is a certified addict at his door and believes the addict has a bulging wallet.
Of course, the above is an easy charge to make and thus it positively begs for supporting evidence. Let us begin with Apple’s latest iPod and the iPod nano. The nano is simply breathtaking to see in person and the new iPod is getting rave reviews. But both these products lack something that should be present if Apple is concerned about their rabidly loyal user base: FireWire support. Apple told the faithful since the introduction of the B&W G3 (1999) about the inherent superiority of FireWire. When USB 2.0 came out Apple reiterated the benefits of FireWire. Apple’s disdain for USB 2.0 was so deep that USB 2.0 wasn’t included with any Mac until the first G5s shipped in 2003. Currently if you want a new iPod and you are a Mac user either your computer must be fairly recent or you should bone up on methods to install a USB card (or just wait, USB 1 works, albeit very slowly). Some will argue that only makes sense, catering to the largest market segment available is what businesses should do. That argument rings hollow particularly when considering the newest iPod. There is undoubtedly space inside the black or white enclosure for the necessary FireWire components.
One example does not constitute a trend. Let us reach back in Apple history to see if we can find another germane example. Here we find he interesting case of SOS Apple. Apple, in an effort to sell more computers, had promised lifetime telephone technical support to people who bought certain Macintoshes. Obviously, it wasn’t the most brilliant marketing scheme devised as it cost a ton to administer. Still it was a promise made by Apple to their customers. Steve Jobs inherited that promise when he returned to Apple and quickly broke it. The temptation is to think that the program was a cash drain, Apple didn’t have much of the green stuff in the late nineties, and hence the decision was painful but necessary. That notion is generous. Rather than a stomach churning unavoidable move the decision was reportedly cemented when an Apple employee pointed out that Apple was contractually obligated to give the support to consumers. Steve Jobs responded by chirping “Just f*** ‘em.” Not exactly a reply that fosters the feeling that Apple cares about the loyal core.
Perhaps those examples are aberrations? A hopeful thought, but they seem to be norm. Raise your hand if you remember iTools. If you arm is still by your side don’t feel bad, iTools wasn’t around very long. iTools was a bonus for buying OS 9, the program gave OS 9 users a .mac email address and a little bit of web space on Apple’s servers to call their own. Clearly, iTools wasn’t going to lure anyone over from the Windows side. The program was obviously a perk designed to induce Mac users into moving to OS 9. Investing in 9 meant, more or less, that you were planning to stick with Apple and were a loyal Mac consumer. Well, probably using the same vulgarity as mentionned above, someone at Apple decided that instead of honoring their commitment it would be better to rename iTools .mac and charge people a hundy per annum for the service. The experience would be better Apple argued. As Cool Hand Luke once said: “Wish you’d stop bein’ so good to me, Cap’n.”
We have two (in computer terms) ancient examples but only one modern day example. That distribution might lead us to suspect that things are getting better. Not so fast. Got a new iMac with the built in iSight? That thing seems optimized to be a great platform for hobbiest use of Final Cut Pro. Well it probably is if you have the latest release of Final Cut Pro. If not the new iMac might as well be a brick for the majority of FCP users. That’s because if you’re half a release out of date you’re completely out of luck. Final Cut Pro 4.5 doesn’t support the video card in the new iMacs and (if you followed the link) there is no patch forthcoming. We all expect old software to be no longer updated after a time but FCP 4.5 was released in April of 2004. Add to that dope slap that the upgrade price for FCP is a whopping $400 and you can see why the built in iSight doesn’t do much to ease the sting.
None of this would be a very big deal, more of a minor annoyance for long time Mac fans, if the Intel switch wasn’t coming. Apple says they envision PPC support to last long into the future and it likely will. Third party programmers would be foolish to toss away the million of customers using Gx based Macs out there. Apple on the other hand wants to sell new boxes, not cater to your computer using yesterday’s technology. So where is their incentive to keep iMovie going for both platforms? Truth is Apple doesn’t have one and lacking a good reason to do something (read good as “cash incentive” not as “it is the right thing to do") you can expect Steve to drop his favorite f-bomb followed by the “‘em” as quickly as possible once Apple goes all Intel. And that will be yet another cheap shot to the groin of the Mac faithful. At least with Hannibal Lecter there was the occasional smidgen of “Quid Pro Quo.”
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Another example of whacked out priorities at Apple is Quicktime Pro. Old licenses aren’t upgradable, so you need to shell out an extra $30 every year or so. Gee, the $2,500 for the new Powerbook (and $400 for an iPod) I just bought isn’t enough, you want $30 more? No thanks.
You make it sound as though Apple just took away Firewire support with no benefit to the consumer. I seem to recall that the prices came way, way down at that time. I think it’s a great idea to lower the price and let the consumer choose what accessories he or she needs. It allowed for more flexibility and better options. Just because the new iPods don’t support old technology? Firewire is more expensive. Apple is in this to make a profit, not pander to people that whine about what they do no matter what. The iTools thing was great. They provided a service for free. When it was gone, we either paid for .mac or got something else. I’m sure the costs were too much to bear. In my opinion what iTools was really for was to help the transition along from the floppy era to the burnable CD era. At that time iTools came out, Apple also got rid of floppy drives and had to give us a way to move small files around. When CDR was finally accepted as the standard, iTools was not really needed. And, .mac offers a lot more than iTools did.
It just seems to me that Mac users have such a sense of entitlement when it comes to Apple. Why is it this group of people seems to think that Apple should continue a money losing venture just to please their fan base instead of making the sound financial decisions to grow the company and create a better future for the comapny and it’s employees? I just want a better computer (or electronic device, iPod etc) for as good a price as I can get it. But, I am willing to pay for it.
When Jobs returned to Apple he carried out some major surgery and anyone who has had major surgery knows it ain’t fun - especially when you wake up. That surgery let Apple be what it is today.
As for the nano, it would be nice to have Firewire, but Apple made a decision to exclude it - probably on costs, especially considering the costs of the Flash innards. Since the vast majority of the sales go to PC users USB was the logical choice for a single connection approach. I really can’t complain that loud since the PC users have been making some hefty contributions to Apple recently - nice to have when little old Apple drops half a billion in R&D;each year.
In the end it gets down to the fact that Apple is a business, not a religion. They make the decisions that are in their long term interests and actually take far better care of their faithful than companies like Dull. Having been users of both Macs & PCs I can appreciate Apple more than the long term faithful.
Actually when FireWire support went away for iPods the price stayed, uh let me see here, exactly the same. In this case of the nano storage decreased and you got a color screen. In the case of the regular iPod you got a larger screen and more storage. One of the reasons FireWire is more expensive is because manufacturers have to pay Apple when they use it.
Itools came out after the original iMac which lacked a floppy. And it easy too say it was just too expensive but it was a promise made by Apple so if the costs were too high that is on the people at cupertino, they don’t send me a new ibook when I drrop mine. IBM has (or had) a policy of always doing what the said they would. So when OS/2 wasn’t going replace windows they just kept on developing the OS because they said they would. That fosters a certain amount of trust.
And no one who uses Apple products minds paying (or else they’d be using windows stuff) but since we are paying for the good stuff we expect to be treated a little better than cattle with wallets.
Gabe H
You forget they also took away the charger when they included USB only. Now you have to fork out extra for a charger or else take a laptop with you when on a trip.
While on the subject of iPods - has anyone ever tried to have one repaired out of warrantee. Well I tried and Apple’s response was - we don’t repair them - but you can buy a new one. I offered to pay for the repair but they basically told me that they only guarantee their product for 1 yr. After that they won’t even honour a repair. That is one whacked sense of customer loyalty.
Show me a consumer electronic device other than a TV, microwave, refrigerator or similar appliance, and maybe computers, that has a warranty of more than 1 year. Video game consoles? Handheld devices? Cell phones? I wouldn’t be surprised if they’re only one year. I’ve seen plenty of things with warranties that don’t even go half of a year.
Apple’s warranties might be stingy compared to a couple of companies, but I’d say 8 times out of 10 their basic plan works fine. I do, however, think AppleCare costs way too much for two more years. Even if they only knocked $50 off AppleCare it’d seem a little better. $300 though?!
On the subject of the intel switch and continuing support for the ppc platform. I won’t be surprised if Apple continued updating the ppc versions of all their software for a very long time - at least behind the scenes in cupertino like they did with the intel version of OS X.
I know Steve Jobs has said that the cell processor isn’t all that great - but still, a lot of people seem to be thinking it’s the next generation of microprocessors and since it is (according to my info) at least loosely based off PowerPC (and supposedly OS X could run on it). Seems like a good idea to always have that as a backup option.
Since, OS X is microkernal based - keeping it cross platform should be much simpler than everyone makes it out to be. I think that would give Apple a lot more flexibility than say somebody like Microsoft.
Now on the otherhand, while I have a hunch they will continue to keep OS X on PPC development going - I don’t know if they will release it to the public. That is a different topic
Steve Jobs responded by chirping “Just f*** ‘em.”
Apple fans are like abused wives. The husband can smack ‘em around, treat them like dirt, but they simply keep taking it. And when the neighbors try to question the most recent black eye, Apple fans dutifully respond, “I walked into a door” and “it’s his way of showing me he loves me.” Examples of which abound:
“You make it sound as though Apple just took away Firewire support with no benefit to the consumer. I seem to recall that the prices came way, way down at that time. I think it’s a great idea to lower the price and let the consumer choose what accessories he or she needs.”
And
“In the end it gets down to the fact that Apple is a business, not a religion. They make the decisions that are in their long term interests and actually take far better care of their faithful than companies like Dull.”
I should be clear: I sincerely love a lot of Apple products, they make some nice stuff. I appreciate their engineering and OS X. On the other hand I know Apple is a business and often a business that doesn’t treat their consumers in the best way in the big scheme of things.
I remained perplexed by the notion that if you like Apple’s products you, seemingly, must like SJ and Apple corporate. Once I was unlucky enough to meet a now famous football player. He is a great player and a national celebrity. The guy was a jerk in person. So just because I appreciate his football skills doesn’t mean I have to appreciate his interpersonal skills. I feel the same way about Apple. Good stuff, jerky company.
What does iSight have to do with Final Cut? Granted, one would expect support for so recent a version of an app, but how does iSight get dragged into that argument?
For the past few years, ever since OS X came out, there’s been this strand in discussions about Apple by Mac fans, complaining about how Apple isn’t playing nice. Part of this is that Apple is getting more and more attention and is putting out some very successful products, and it’s losing some of its cultishness (like when your favourite obscure band hits the big-time and a bunch of jerks who have no idea what the band’s music is really about are suddenly acting like they are the band’s greatest fans - but I digress). It’s just that Apple is acting like a real company instead of the high school computer club. Yeah, it’s losing some of its goofy friendliness, but it’s becoming a powerful player in the world computer scene. Considering that it wasn’t long ago that reports of Apple’s imminent demise were coming pretty regularly (and were probably not that far from being true), I say bravo Steve. And if you don’t want to take it from me, just ask anyone who’s had Apple stock for the past 5 years or so.
Prretty easy Metryq, the new iMac comes with iSight built in (a 149.00 value for those scoring at home) so if you buy the prvious gen iMac you get FCP compatability (ver 4.5) but you pay for the isight. You get a new iMac you get iSight but no FCP compability (ver 4.5)
Bravo! An article I really enjoyed reading. Of course, every business has to make a profit and, to stay ahead of the game, a substantial one. Innovation is generally well rewarded but when things go wrong, as with the Nano cracked screens, it is important that representatives take the issue seriously and be seen to acknowledge customer’s concern. Employees must remember that the CEO of a company does not pay the wages and salaries. The only people who pay employees are customers.
For a successful business, you need one objective and two rules:
Objective ~ Make as much money as possible by using the two rules.
Rule number one. Look after your customers or somebody else will.
Rule number two. Read rule number one.
Let’s face it though, part of the reason “the next thing” Apple offers up offends so many people is because of the way they market products. I bought a shiney new iMac G5 just a couple of short months ago, only to see them revamped yet again, offering more (DDR2 RAM FINALLY!) at the same price point. Does this irk me? Well I guess it does a little, sure. But why? Every company does this, and they do it constantly. The new HP 52343Q89X replaced the 21329AB4 and no one cared. Oh sure, it has all the same features and even more RAM and HD space for less money. But it’s because HP doesn’t really put a face on the majority of their computers that no one really pays a whole lot of attention.
The iPod is the same way, old color TV’s used to come with an antenna and sure enough, someone eventually stopped packing it in the box. Other companies followed suit and pretty soon no one had an antenna in the box. You want a decent picture out of your DVD player? Buy the add-on component video cable. It goes on and on.
Apple, like any other successful corporation, is concerned first and foremost with their bottom line. They aren’t evil because of this, their just smart. Companies that don’t prioritize in this manner just don’t last.
As for AppleCare, I witnessed a guy the other day bring in a PowerBook 15” that had fallen out of his backpack while he was on his bike down around the university. The Apple tech (I’ll never call them genius’s) looked it up, smiled, and said “We’ll give you a call in a couple of days, you still have about 200 days on your warranty”. And that’s it? That’s great! I have to agree, most companies out there do NOT support their products (in the first year) nearly as well as Apple does. In this age of disposable electronics, after all who gets a $150 repair on a $229 TV, it’s nice to see a company looking out for people for a change - whatever the limitations might be.
I read a dissection of the new ipod and the nano which discovered that the firewire chip was removed, not just for monetary or convergence reasons, but because it takes up a LOT of real estate inside the case. The reason the nano and new ipod are so thin is a lot attributed to the fact they made a compromise with losing convergence with those people with old Macs. I understand it’s a problem, but I rather the thinnest nano possible, rather than compatibility with older Macs. I believe you should update your article reflecting this information you apparently weren’t aware of until just now.
I completely understand the anger you feel. And Apple have made some neglectful decisions, and I don’t doubt they will continue to, and may do even worse ones.
But to be completely honest, I would rather have an Apple Mac with OS X and to risk some neglect in a few years (or months), than to have a PC with windows xp and have the best treatment from Microsoft.
Although “best treatment” and “Microsoft” aren’t really allowed in the same sentence.