3 ms·

You are absolutely correct. In fact, it is this (the elitism), that makes me hate Apple and their products more than any lack of feature in iOS ever could.

by thechut 14y ago

astrodust 14y ago
The problem is not elitism, but that there is virtually only one "elite" brand and that is Apple. Sony at least gets points for trying. Everyone else is just flailing. This is an anomaly in any other industry, and many industries are the polar opposite. Can you imagine a world where there are hundreds of varieties of wine, but only several that are any good? Where you can pick between dozens of $2 bottles and several at $50 or more? Apple's perceived elitism comes from people that produce something they truly care about, that are opinionated and uncompromising. That this is shockingly rare in the technology industry is fundamentally worrying.
- kmfrk 14y ago
  I think the problem is not that there is an "elite" brand and "the other one"; the problem is that when you are basically dealing with a two-party competition, especially in politics, people become incredibly entrenched, be it Windows vs. Mac, PlayStation vs. Xbox, Republicans vs. Democrats, and so on and so forth. It encourages a narrative of a hero and a villain, a protagonist and antagonist, right and wrong, good and bad.
- mayanksinghal 14y ago
  I am sorry but it seems really unfair to developers of other tech products when you say truly caring about products is rare. Opinionated and uncompromising - that I may agree to, yes that is rare. But when we see attempts in this direction, by anyone other than a few companies (don't want to name Apple because I fear I will be marked as a fanboy), the attempts are marked as anti-user, draconian and anti-competitive (may not be illegal yet). Examples: Twitter pulling off API (widespread criticism), Facebook and Google+ real name policies (I think Facebook doesn't really enforce it anymore and Google+ now supports pseudonyms), Windows secure boot, Chrome making it difficult to sideload extensions, Quora locking up its contents etc. While we see all of these other attempts as largely evil, we consider Apple to be producing _pieces of art_ that are allows them to compromise on universal acceptability. We, however, don't give that leeway to virtually anything else.
- anthonyb 14y ago
  > there is virtually only one "elite" brand and that is Apple Bzzt, thank you for playing. What sticks in my craw is that they're not even "elite", they just do things differently, and not always better than the competition/Android, even for things like UI. And if Apple are found to have done or said something stupid (Nexus 7 vs. the iPad mini springs to mind here, along with the early 'supercomputer' G4s being hamstrung by their PC133 memory bus), then history is revised, instead of people learning from their mistakes.
  - astrodust 14y ago
    I don't see how Motorola/Freescale and IBM having shifted focus from competitive consumer PowerPC chips to embedded applications reflects so badly on Apple. That platform remained competitive with Intel until the G5, which never hit its stride. Apple learned from their mistake. They made a dramatic transition to Intel inside of a single year. The impact to consumers was nearly zero. Compare this with Microsoft's recent efforts to switch to ARM.
    - anthonyb 14y ago
      This is nothing to do with the processor, or PowerPC vs. Intel, but the memory bus in early G4s being a limiting factor. The G4 was great in specific Photoshop benchmarks, but getting beaten in real world tests by 18 month old Pentium IIIs. Of course, you'd never know that from the ads or commentary at the time (www.youtube.com/watch?v=IwI7xcdYV2k).
- lubujackson 14y ago
  This, right here, is the elitism. The idea that Apple's employees "produce something they truly care about" is applying quite a brushstroke of glowing praise to thousands of random people. How do you know this? Because Apple TELLS you they produce something they truly care about. It really is that simple - that is their marketing message.
lukeman 14y ago
Creating stereotypes of users is not a valid excuse to hate a company and its products. One could find any number of asswipes under any banner to justify this type of silly tribalism.

You are absolutely correct. In fact, it is this (the elitism), that makes me hate Apple and their products more than any lack of feature in iOS ever could.

by thechut 14y ago

You are absolutely correct. In fact, it is this (the elitism), that makes me hate Apple and their products more than any lack of feature in iOS ever could.

astrodust 14y ago

The problem is not elitism, but that there is virtually only one "elite" brand and that is Apple. Sony at least gets points for trying. Everyone else is just flailing. This is an anomaly in any other industry, and many industries are the polar opposite. Can you imagine a world where there are hundreds of varieties of wine, but only several that are any good? Where you can pick between dozens of $2 bottles and several at $50 or more? Apple's perceived elitism comes from people that produce something they truly care about, that are opinionated and uncompromising. That this is shockingly rare in the technology industry is fundamentally worrying.

kmfrk 14y ago
I think the problem is not that there is an "elite" brand and "the other one"; the problem is that when you are basically dealing with a two-party competition, especially in politics, people become incredibly entrenched, be it Windows vs. Mac, PlayStation vs. Xbox, Republicans vs. Democrats, and so on and so forth. It encourages a narrative of a hero and a villain, a protagonist and antagonist, right and wrong, good and bad.
mayanksinghal 14y ago
I am sorry but it seems really unfair to developers of other tech products when you say truly caring about products is rare. Opinionated and uncompromising - that I may agree to, yes that is rare. But when we see attempts in this direction, by anyone other than a few companies (don't want to name Apple because I fear I will be marked as a fanboy), the attempts are marked as anti-user, draconian and anti-competitive (may not be illegal yet). Examples: Twitter pulling off API (widespread criticism), Facebook and Google+ real name policies (I think Facebook doesn't really enforce it anymore and Google+ now supports pseudonyms), Windows secure boot, Chrome making it difficult to sideload extensions, Quora locking up its contents etc. While we see all of these other attempts as largely evil, we consider Apple to be producing _pieces of art_ that are allows them to compromise on universal acceptability. We, however, don't give that leeway to virtually anything else.
anthonyb 14y ago
> there is virtually only one "elite" brand and that is Apple Bzzt, thank you for playing. What sticks in my craw is that they're not even "elite", they just do things differently, and not always better than the competition/Android, even for things like UI. And if Apple are found to have done or said something stupid (Nexus 7 vs. the iPad mini springs to mind here, along with the early 'supercomputer' G4s being hamstrung by their PC133 memory bus), then history is revised, instead of people learning from their mistakes.
- astrodust 14y ago
  I don't see how Motorola/Freescale and IBM having shifted focus from competitive consumer PowerPC chips to embedded applications reflects so badly on Apple. That platform remained competitive with Intel until the G5, which never hit its stride. Apple learned from their mistake. They made a dramatic transition to Intel inside of a single year. The impact to consumers was nearly zero. Compare this with Microsoft's recent efforts to switch to ARM.
  - anthonyb 14y ago
    This is nothing to do with the processor, or PowerPC vs. Intel, but the memory bus in early G4s being a limiting factor. The G4 was great in specific Photoshop benchmarks, but getting beaten in real world tests by 18 month old Pentium IIIs. Of course, you'd never know that from the ads or commentary at the time (www.youtube.com/watch?v=IwI7xcdYV2k).
lubujackson 14y ago
This, right here, is the elitism. The idea that Apple's employees "produce something they truly care about" is applying quite a brushstroke of glowing praise to thousands of random people. How do you know this? Because Apple TELLS you they produce something they truly care about. It really is that simple - that is their marketing message.

lukeman 14y ago

Creating stereotypes of users is not a valid excuse to hate a company and its products. One could find any number of asswipes under any banner to justify this type of silly tribalism.