[Philbert]

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It's clear from what you write that if an issue doesn't concern you personally it has little standing in your eyes.

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That's quite the statement. If an issue doesn't concern someone, why would it have "standing" in their eyes? I'm not defending whomever you're replying to, but I wanted to point out that their opinion is just as relevant and right to THEM, as yours is to you. Disagree all you want but no one's opinion here necessarily equates to fact, including mine, whitedog or the immortal Chris Breen.

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In any case, no one example by itself means Apple is losing it. It's only when you take them together that the perspective shifts and the preponderance of evidence becomes worrisome. It's not hard to rationalize away one or another of the issues Chris raises, but to dismiss them all suggests a rather high degree of credulity.

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That would carry some weight if this were a new trend, but it's not. For good or bad, Apple/SJ has ALWAYS had a "our way or the highway" attitude. Questionable design decisions (puck mouse), yanked technologies (bye-bye floppy), business ventures out-of-left-field (Apple Stores), and the most stubborn of all ... the refusal to license the OS. (the clone era doesn't count - Apple isn't Apple w/o Steve Jobs at the helm.) They make mistakes (often admittedly), rectify them and then move on.
Every move Apple makes generates a certain amount of hand-wringing. Always has and always will. When the first iPods were introduced, "An overpriced mp3 player - what the hell is Apple thinking", permeated the web. (I think I even remember Chris commenting that the things couldn't possibly sell at $500 a pop - I thought the same thing) Apple Stores? "Gateway failed with brick and mortar - Apple is doomed!"
OF COURSE Apple thinks it knows what you want better than you do - that's the very thing that allows them to innovate. There are missteps to be sure but dang if most of the time they're not right. When my B/W G3 showed up without a floppy drive, I was a little miffed - until I realized I couldn't remember the last time I used a floppy disk. More recently, I had no clue that I "needed" a cell phone to do more than phone calls - until Apple showed me the possibilities. Is it perfect? Of course not but it's still a compelling enough device that I plunked down $400 for it and added $20 a month to me cell plan. (Had that same device come from Motorola, they would have got my money instead. I buy nothing simply because it comes from Apple.)
To answer Chris' question: "Is Apple on the wrong path"?, I say no - it's just Apple business as usual. In fact, I'd say this same obstinate path is the very reason Apple is enjoying success today! It's what differentiates them from the rest of the pack.

[Chris Breen]

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To answer Chris' question: "Is Apple on the wrong path"?, I say no - it's just Apple business as usual. In fact, I'd say this same obstinate path is the very reason Apple is enjoying success today! It's what differentiates them from the rest of the pack.

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I've mostly checked out of this tread as I've taken and given my lumps, but I've heard this "Apple has always been arrogant" response and while I don't disagree, what I'm trying to say is that I believe more of what some might consider "arrogant" actions have taken place recently than in the past several years. And that it matters more now because as Media and Wall Street darling, a lot of fresh faces are looking at Apple. These folks (who, I would suggest have a significant amount of influence on Apple's eventual fortunes) may be less tolerant of this attitude than those of us who have lived with Apple for years.

[edmetric]

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...I believe more of what some might consider "arrogant" actions have taken place recently than in the past several years...

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Whatever you do, whatever you write, whatever position you argue, protect the MacWorld reader - and we'll support you. /forums/ubbthreads/images/graemlins/smile.gif

[whitedog]

...as a reader I have to conclude that Chris's writing, like that of Rob Griffiths, really has no meaning to me for the future. His thinking is too distant from mine to be of any use.
What, exactly, does that prove? Do you suppose you will be missed?

[whitedog]

Thank you for the condescension. I am far from blind.
So Apple is to respect its customers but you're free to insult yours. Very nice.
In regard to the (mild) condescension and the (tepid) insult, you are obviously far too sensitive to engage in byplay on the blogs. Or, as they used to say, you can dish it out but you just can't take it.
I think Chris has been quite restrained on this thread considering the heat some posters here have thrown his way. I know I couldn't do half so well biting my tongue - or fingers, as the case may be.
I disagree with him, too, to some extent on the "bricked" iPhone business, but I don't find his opinions distasteful - that would be taking the whole thing far too personally. Also, I agree with the general thrust of his article - that Apple has been too arrogant lately in some of its "my way or the highway" decisions. I think this is so even excluding the unlocked and subsequently broken iPhones issue.
Speaking only for myself, if I went into a sulk every time I failed to convince someone of the value of a point I was making, I would have no friends and very little to read. I would only be hurting myself in such a case - an entirely futile exercise in intellectual snobbery. Since I am prone to precisely that kind of snobbery, I find patience and tolerance to be effective anodynes to my own arrogance. I recommend them highly.

[Civet]

Someone above wrote:
<Some of you act like Apple's business decisions are personal affronts to you.>
That's funny. I was thinking the same thing about you. Like anyone disagreeing with Apple is a personal affront to you? The way you responded, sounded so personal to me. Apple must be the drunken spouse who beats you up or something; if it does something bad you'll still defend it.

[Civet]

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Yes, Apple probably could have prevented the update from installing and thus breaking unlocked iPhones. Which means they intentionally chose not to do so.

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I think this bricking issue has a further-reaching implication. I think we have just seen what Apple would have done to protect the Mac OS X if that platform had gained the kind of marketshare that Windows has today. That is to say, Apple would have reacted in a far more violent way than Microsoft has.
We've always derided Windows for being so full of holes, right? And we've always been smug about the security of our Macs, even though the small marketshare presenting a smaller, less juicy target could be one of the key factors that have been saving us from an all-out hacker assault.
Well, guess what? The iPhone shows that Mac OS X is vulnerable. Despite the absence of SDKs, published documentations and whatever, the hackers managed to crash in and shine their torchllights around enough to actually develop apps that can run in the dark room.
And what would Apple have done if Macs populated 90% of the PC landscape and was under constant hacker attack? They would have bricked some of these PCs, and then forced developers to create only browser-based apps. That doesn't give me a warm and fuzzy feeling.

[Chris Breen]

[Donning his moderator hat]
The remarks are starting to get personal. Back on topic, please (if, indeed, anyone has anything else to add to this monstrous thread).
[Removing his moderator hat]

[whitedog]

There may very well be technical reasons that prevent Leopard from running as it should on older hardware. For one thing, OS X 10.5 has very hefty video requirements - it's rather like Vista in that regard. Stock G4s have pretty anemic video cards by today's standards - with from 16 to 64 MB of VRAM on most models. Only the last G4, a Mirrored Drive Door from 2003, came with more, 128 MB. Of course you could upgrade the video card and give Leopard a try. Just because Apple says it doesn't support 10.5 on your machine doesn't mean it absolutely won't work. Be that as it may, you cannot expect Apple to support old hardware indefinitely in an evolving OS. It's just not feasible.
But if an older G4 suits your needs, chances are you don't need Leopard anyway. On the other hand, many people have been waiting for Leopard's release to buy a new Intel Mac. That might prove to be a wise decision for a number of reasons, not the least of which could be new Mac hardware coming out at the same time - like a moderately priced Mac tower and an iMac with a non-glare screen.

[whitedog]

That's quite the statement. If an issue doesn't concern someone, why would it have "standing" in their eyes? I'm not defending whomever you're replying to, but I wanted to point out that their opinion is just as relevant and right to THEM, as yours is to you. Disagree all you want but no one's opinion here necessarily equates to fact, including mine, whitedog or the immortal Chris Breen.
A number of the issues Chris raises don't affect me personally. I have a new Mac Pro so the glossy screen iMac isn't a problem for me directly, except that I consider it to be a part of the big picture, which does concern me. Likewise, I don't own an iPhone, but that doesn't mean I have no interest in what's going on there.
To judge the value of things only insofar as they affect one personally is short sighted, to say the least. We are all connected in this great big world whether we recognize the fact or not. What happens to my neighbor has implications in my life as well, even if I'm not aware of them immediately.
As for all opinions being equal, that's debatable. Everyone has a right to their opinions, of course, and like most people I've been wrong at least as often as I've been right. But to rate all opinions as equal is to say there is no difference between right and wrong. I consider that to be a very misguided form of egalitarianism. The closer an opinion is to the truth, the more it is worth. If all this blogging back and forth is not in its essence a search for truth, then it is a colossal waste of time.
That would carry some weight if this were a new trend, but it's not. For good or bad, Apple/SJ has ALWAYS had a "our way or the highway" attitude.
That is true up to a point. The difference now is that Apple has been manifesting this attitude more frequently and to what some of us deem an unhealthy extent. Yes, in their arrogance, they've made mistakes from time to time. Sometimes they acknowledge the mistake promptly and correct it quickly - as they did in providing rebate credit to early iPhone adopters. Other times, they hang on to their mistakes for far too long before finally owning up to them and making adjustments - as they did with that horrible hockey puck mouse.
But Apple is not invincible. In any case the real issue isn't Apple's arrogance, it's the mistakes the arrogance leads to. Too many mistakes in too short a span of time can reach a tipping point and do a great deal of harm to the company - and, by extension, to its customers. As users we have a vested interest in Apple doing things right. Which is why we have an obligation to speak up when we think they are doing things wrong. Otherwise, how would they know? Steve Jobs didn't offer that iPhone rebate until after a lot of people complained. Apparently it never occurred to him that people would have a problem spending $200 more for a product yesterday than they would today. He is not infallible and needs our input whether he knows it or not. Apple is nothing without its customers. If we are unhappy in sufficient numbers then Apple has a problem no amount of arrogance can hide.

[whitedog]

We've always derided Windows for being so full of holes, right? And we've always been smug about the security of our Macs, even though the small marketshare presenting a smaller, less juicy target could be one of the key factors that have been saving us from an all-out hacker assault.
That is a myth, an urban legend if you will. There were plenty of viruses around for OS 7 through 9 and those operating systems had no greater market share than OS X. In the day virus protection was almost as important on the Mac as it was on Windows PCs. That changed with OS X but apparently most people have very short memories and have forgotten the bad old days.
Sometimes the simple explanation is the best one. OS X has no viruses because it's much harder to propagate them than it was for its predecessors.

[edmetric]

Mr. Breen, (see I'm trying to be nice) you started this thread a week ago /forums/ubbthreads/images/graemlins/shocked.gif with a three day old out of control family fight. /forums/ubbthreads/images/graemlins/crazy.gif You didn't tell us there would be rules to follow. /forums/ubbthreads/images/graemlins/smirk.gif
When we puke all this Apple stuff up on our own shoes, sometimes those standing nearby get some on their shoes too. /forums/ubbthreads/images/graemlins/grin.gif It doesn't mean anything - other than it's an out of control family fight with a little puking. /forums/ubbthreads/images/graemlins/tongue.gif
After a couple of beers I can't stand myself much less anyone else. /forums/ubbthreads/images/graemlins/mad.gif I'm not surprised we partied a bit too hard over these Apple things. /forums/ubbthreads/images/graemlins/blush.gif
You threw a good Apple party. It was good for community life. /forums/ubbthreads/images/graemlins/grin.gif /forums/ubbthreads/images/graemlins/grin.gif /forums/ubbthreads/images/graemlins/grin.gif A lot of people came to the party. /forums/ubbthreads/images/graemlins/smirk.gif You did good. /forums/ubbthreads/images/graemlins/laugh.gif Some of us are going to need help finding our way back home though. /forums/ubbthreads/images/graemlins/smirk.gif I'm sure you know what I mean. /forums/ubbthreads/images/graemlins/cool.gif

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[Donning his moderator hat]
The remarks are starting to get personal. Back on topic, please (if, indeed, anyone has anything else to add to this monstrous thread).
[Removing his moderator hat]

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[Roberts4tune]

Mr. Breen's list of Apple's Lemons failed to include the mirror finish lcd screen on latest iMacs which reflects every light and light colored surface behind you, obscuring a good clear view of screen content. He also left out: (2) undersizing the iPod Shuffle and removing the USB connector and (3) substituting an unnecessarily complex Spotlight for a quite useful Sherlock.
It appears that Apple is forgetting some basic design rules: "If it works, don't fix it." and "Just because you CAN do something does not mean that you should."
Has Apple been hiring complexifiers from MS?

[supermonkey007]

I'd like to add to Mr. Breen's editorial by lamenting the loss of the data-fax modem port, which in this day and age, I still absolutely require (along with Windows) for business purposes (not for internet, and no, there is no workaround). Yes, there is the annoying Apple USB modem, which I now have to purchase separately, and which sometimes gets confused by a call-waiting signal, takes up a USB port, and is most likely to get lost in my travels. Even my relic 1998 Dell Inspiron's modem works far more reliably than this one. Apple's modem doesn't work with $100 Parallels, by the way (or Fusion, I am told), though Apple has finally made some drivers for it to work with Boot Camp, whose license is about to expire shortly. This only took me a few days of relentless testing and tweaking and research to figure out, without any useful help from Applecare!
Thanks, Apple, for making my life easier!
Though I use my MacBook Pro, PowerBook 12 inch, and modified PowerMac G4 Digital Audio for 95% of what I do, the other 5% has to be on Windows with a modem, and is about 20 times more important. I wonder if others have had the same regret about the modem issue? Besides, don't a lot of people still dial up to use the internet?
There is a larger theme here: Apple constantly defunctions its' devices or software - whether we're talking about iPhone, iPod, modem, keyboard, mouse, Quicktime, iMovie, etc. It seems to be happening more frequently, too.
My hypothesis: Apple is a successful business which is trying to sell and resell its products by taking advantage of a fiercely loyal, yet growing, niche market who is dependant on Apple's hardware and software, as well as third party Mac products. Defunctioning some products may force you to spend more money on other solutions made by Apple. But not always: sometimes a product's looks is emphasized far more than its utility, as in the new wireless keyboard example.
Though I still love working with my MacBook Pro, and have got the modem to work OK, I am concerned about Apple's direction, just like the author, and for the first time, I experienced Apple anger!
I'd be interested to hear others' responses.