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Originally Posted by Crytone
I hate to play devils advocate but again I have to disagree with your first point. The only thing Rescuecom's scores tells us is that Apple's own Customer Support is doing it's job. To quote from the 2nd article "Rescuecom says that reliability depends on both the quality of components and the strength of customer support. If that support is lousy, customers will go looking for third-party options like Rescuecom." How many people would go to 3rd party support for an Apple? I wouldn't! I therefore find their score is irrelevant to Apple's reliability and more a "How many people come to us instead of Apple" score.
The iPad is not revolutionary. If anything it's a disappointment. I had high hopes for the iPad (I absolutely LOVE my iPod Touch) but Apple didn't deliver. No Flash support, No multitasking, no camera, etc.. iPad Version II and/or a firmware upgrade will likely fix some of these problems. I have no qualms in stating that the iPad is just an iPod Touch with a larger screen, which is how myself and many others feel. The only advantage Apple has is they already have their infrastructure in place already for the iPad- the iTunes stores and apps. Personally I'm way more interested in the Microsoft Courier as it, seems way more 'revolutionary' than the iPad.
And before I hear people call foul and that MS is copying- it was announced and had videos of it's interface in action well before iPad's announcement. Here's a small video from September 2009 of which we see what the Courier interface is conceptualized to do.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UmIgNfp-MdI
I know I probably sound heavily anti-Apple but that's far from the truth. I've stated countless times that I love my iPod Touch. I'd also likely own a Mac as my PC if I didn't dislike the OSX interface and their computers would run the apps I need them to run (running parallels and buying a copy of windows to install would defeat the purpose of owning a Mac and I'd still be limited to their hardware which isn't geared for CAD and gaming). I just don't feel Apple is as revolutionary as everyone makes them out to be but they do make slick products for sure and they do drive other companies to release more polished products/experiences. |
Fair enough Mr. Devil's advocate
However, since Rescuecom is not an authorized Apple repair company then the Apple computers they see are the older out of warranty ones. So it stands to reason that the older machines are still functioning well and reliably and Rescuecom is not receiving many service calls for older Macs. Also, others such as Consumer Reports and even PCMag have rated Apple products at or near the top. My personal experience is also one of great reliability. Of all the Macs I have bought or worked with or friends and family have owned, only two ever had a hardware problem. A faulty CDROM drive that failed within a day or two. It was replaced under warranty. And my latest Macbook Pro that had one of the faulty Nvidia chips that failed almost a year after the original warranty expired (Not Apple's fault since Nvidia shipped a bad batch of chips that ended up in many computers from Apple and Windows laptops too). Apple still replaced my entire logic board at no cost to me as they are honouring an extended warranty on that particular problem. Typing this on that machine right now. Every other machine has enjoyed a long productive life, often amongst several owners. I have passed on or sold every used Mac I ever had in still functioning condition. And not having to worry excessively about viruses and malware is also a big plus. Yeah , hackers could write Mac viruses if they wanted too but they don't at this point. So the end result is not having to deal with viruses in the same way a PC user has to.
As for the iPad, I don't think Apple has shown all its cards yet and nobody has really had a chance to use one to see what it can do. Even the developers have to make do with the software simulation at the moment. Flash? Who cares. Flash is probably on its way out and, at least the Mac version, is a major memory and performance hog. Flash on an iDevice would seriously degrade performance and battery life. HTML5 is coming and Flash is on its way out.
I also have every confidence that Apple will offer some form of multitasking to third parties. Your iPod Touch and iPhone do multitask now, just in limited ways that Apple has implemented. I stand by an earlier comment that for 98.3% of what the average user will do with their iPhone/iPod Touch multitasking is irrelevant and would significantly degrade battery life. I have rarely wished to be able to multitask. As battery performance improves and processors become more efficient I imagine Apple will open this up more. Apple seems to have specific battery life targets and implements things to meet those targets.
Now I think reading will be a killer app for the iPad. Imagine your newspaper and magazines with interactive content and videos etc. or textbooks with interactive diagrams and videos etc. Imagine the internet in your lap on the couch in an easy to use and very lightweight device that is better than any netbook but lighter then any laptop. I think as a textbook device this will be HUGE (note capital letters). I would have killed to have something like this in school instead of carrying 40 pounds of textbooks around. Now imagine your textbook being fully interactive. Videos, animated diagrams, interactive anatomical drawings that you can rotate and see from any angle and add or subtract layers or anatomical features. How about interactive quizzes to hep you test your knowledge? no more doing the sample questions and then having to flip back and forth between the quiz page and the end of the book (or end of the chapter and reading upside down) to find answers. Now have the textbook take you back to review only the topics you had problems with in the quiz. This could be a major change in education.
As for the Courier, I'll believe it when I see it. It's a nice cartoon concept but Microsoft has not shown any real device. I seriously doubt MS can pull off anything half as nice as the Courier concept in a real device. I guess we'll see but it is vapourware at the moment.
When it comes to multi touch both Apple and Microsoft and others are copying. The actual technology was developed and experimented with at various Universities and was really perfected by Jeff Han at NYU (look up some of the youtube videos of his work). Apple was the first to adapt and implement it for the mass market. I don't think Apple claims to have "invented" it but they have patented their implementation of it and if others are trying to implement it in the same way then I guess they infringe Apple's patents.
I think Apple is incredibly innovative as they are often the first to be able to bring new technology to the market, even if the concept came from Universities etc. They are masters at making technology work for the average person. Microsoft and others have never been innovative in the same way. Is Apple perfect? of course not. They make mistakes and sometimes get it wrong. But overall they get it way more right then others way more often. If appreciating elegant and stylish devices and software that allow me to work efficiently or make the technology intuitive and transparent in my everyday tasks is being a fanboy then I guess I'm guilty as charged.