Re: [NTLK] [OT] Apple, Design and "Different" (Was: "Where would Newton would be today)

From: Norman Palardy (palardyn_at_shaw.ca)
Date: Mon Feb 23 2004 - 13:13:57 PST


On Feb 23, 2004, at 1:57 PM, Jared Bland wrote:

>
> On Feb 23, 2004, at 3:36 PM, Norman Palardy wrote:
>
>>
>> On Feb 23, 2004, at 12:26 PM, Jared Bland wrote:
>>
>>>
>>> Apple, hear my plea! Bring that "WOW" factor back into your
>>> computers
>>> and the OS they run. Thin and light no longer mean "different".
>>> Show
>>> us the light, Apple - like you did in 1984, 1998 and 2001.
>> I'd tend to disagree on that front.
>>
>> For one, if you looked at the rest of the portable market when Apple
>> introduced the TiBook, everything else was black, including Apple's
>> Pismo.
>> They brought in a stunning looking machine that ran very nicely.
>>
>> They were the envy of everyone else.
>
> 1984: Macintosh
> 1998: iMac
> 2001: PowerBook G4
Thanks for the history lesson.
I'm plenty old enough to have owned every one of those.

My point is Apple has done some things that are very innovative and
compelling in many areas.

The Cube is a very slick design. Commercial failure.
The TAM is a cool design. Commercially not viable.
The iMac was a great design. But the new iMac is much nicer IMHO

>> The OS, I feel, is way better than it has ever been, and will simply
>> get better.
>
> You're saying panther is "way" more stable, eye-pleasing and functional
> than Jaguar?
> I beg to differ.
>
> 1: Stability has gone down the tubes. I feel like I'm in OS 9, except
> when an app quits unexpectedly (rather than expectedly in Jaguar -
> where it only crashed if I was doing something I shouldn't have been) I
> am prompted with an annoying submit crash form window and it doesn't
> take down the entire OS (usually). I've gotten atleast 1 KP in Panther
> so far. I have lost much work in Panther and it is annoying.

On the 8 machines I have I've had 1 kernel Panic since the day of the
first developer release.
Maybe I'm just lucky.

Stability has never been an issue for me even though I develop software
for a living.

>> The iBooks are similar, except they went from "fruity candy colors"
>> that no one in the corporate market would ever own, to a beautiful
>> highly functional bright white. I like their looks.
>
> iBooks so went from "quality" to "...not". Logicboard problems,
> anyone? PowerBooks, white screen spots (even my 12" PB Rev. A has
> them!)

They've had issues with just about every machine ever released in one
form or another.

> Apple's internal and external quality is not as good as it was before.
> Machines are more cheaply made (in contrast to less expensively made)
> and that is showing. Machines are nice, but quality has bitten the
> dust. How many times do I have to go over this? Twice, I hope. Apple
> is LOSING converts because people's first Macs, which alot of the time
> are iBooks or PowerBooks, are breaking. It's perceived quality - and
> this time perceived quality does not lead into the same amount of true
> quality.

Apple continues to have one of the lowest, if not the lowest, defect
rate in the industry.

They are suffering from the same kinds of component problems everyone
else has.

The complaint had always been "too expensive because you use
proprietary non-standard components"
So they use industry standard IDE, LCD's, etc.
Now the complaint is "You're quality is gone like you used to have"

Ummm ... yeah ... but our pricing is more like industry standard
because we use the same parts as everyone else.

You can't have this both ways.

They use industry standard parts (although I think they use better than
most dirt cheap parts like Dell does) and this helps bring the price
down.

>>
>> We will all have our own likes and dislikes about Apples designs. but,
>> they continue to win over converts and continue to win design awards.
>>
>> And, if you don't like the color there is always paint.
>
> I don't really have a problem with the color, in particular. It's just
> the machine as a whole. It's uninspiring. TiBooks were amazing
> machines. Thin, light and something completely different from the
> previous design. AlBooks are a continuation of the design (but
> cheaper). I hope you're understanding this. AlBooks are very
> different from what we had 4 years ago, but they are almost a replica
> of the machines 3 years ago (except a lower build quality).

And they are still a very nice design.

Why change a nice design just to change it ?

They could have packed a G5 into the old G4 tower case. But there were
very good reasons to change it.
So they did to accommodate all the new stuff they wanted in it.

The AlBook's have no compelling reason to change the design.
Maybe when a G5 book comes out.

As for lower build quality, I have a Dell here that will show you what
low quality means.
It cracked the plastic case in the first 3 weeks.
Replaced it and it cracked again.

No built in anything. No CD (that's external) No floppy (external)
ethernet (pc card) and it weighs just barely less than my iBbook.
It cost 2800 CDN. The iBook was 1800.

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