The Apple fanboy frame of mind

I had to laugh at a recent development on a thread I have been following. For the most part the conversation has been lively, relevant and fun with a little good natured MS and Apple ribbing here and there, but one comment posted tonight kind of quantified the type of “Stockholm Syndrome” that many Apple users seem to have to the almighty fruit.

I had left a comment earlier saying I was frustrated a few years ago when I bought a brand new Powerbook 12” and a Dual 2.0Ghz G5 PowerMac within a few months of Aperture’s original release. As both of those machines lacked video cards with Core Graphics support, I was left out in the cold of Aperture support on both machines. (Although it did seem there was a hack you could do to enable the support which makes me wonder why they didn’t support them after all – but that’s another topic | while I am on topics, Adobe Lightroom manages non-destructive image editing without Core Graphics, but I digress again )

So here I am with what amounts to $5,000 worth of new computers that are both unable to run Apple’s latest software.

The comment that rubbed me the wrong way said:

I have to nit pick with your examples contrasting Microsoft’s generous and noble legacy support with Apple’s irresponsible abandonment. You mentioned you had a dual-2Ghz Power Mac G5 that wouldn’t run Aperture due to the lack of Core Image support. I also had a Power Mac G5. At worst, you would have had to do a graphics card upgrade (even the ATI 9600 would work) to run Aperture on it. Graphics card upgrades are not unheard of in the Windows world, either.

Bot.

Ok, you got me, graphics card upgrades are common. Of course the PowerMac could not be upgraded, but setting that aside, this is a perfect example of the Apple fan mentality. They are so agreeable, that they find it totally reasonable to have to replace the video card in a $3,000 computer, two months after purchase, to support the latest software. Am I the only one that finds that a bit odd?

Let’s run down some of the things they have done recently:

- Snow Leopard officially drops support for PowerPC computers, that means in 2006 Apple began a transition to Intel chips in Macs. I think it was a great move. OS X supports universal binaries so apps can be written to support both platforms, sweet right? Except here we are in 2009, and your Three year old “Super Computer” they sold you is at it’s end of life as far as being able to run Apple’s newest OS. To think people give Microsoft shit about Vista requiring something newer and up to date for decent performance, G5s and below are cut off for good. Ouch.

- Although they seem to have recently have had a change of heart, Apple recently decided you had to spend big bucks to get FireWire, and dumped it off all but the high end Macbook Pros. Game changing, no? But if you are a digital audio or video geek, suddenly you were searching for used laptops when you wanted to upgrade.

Of course those are two little incidents, but I just wonder why so few people in the Apple camp find it offensive when Apple arbitrarily makes a design decision that is so obviously not customer motivated. If they decide something is aesthetically unpleasing to Steve Jobs, it risks getting the axe, no matter what the customer thinks.

I recently read an article where Jonathan Ive said that Apple doesn’t do any sort of focus group testing, and I see how that has it’s advantages, but I also think that being so out of touch with your customers can be a cancer also. Once the Apple love affair ends, people are going to start getting upset at iPhones and iPods that get replaced way before your contract allows an upgrade, or features mysteriously being jettisoned even when many people use them.

And of course, when they charge you extra for features you should have gotten free. (n support, iPod OS updates, etc.)

And don’t get me started on replaceable batteries!!!

I want to be clear, I work for Microsoft, but I am an Apple user, I carry an iPhone, I have a 24” iMac, 15.4” Macbook Pro and dual quad 2.8Ghz Mac Pro, even an AppleTV. Of course I have just as many PCs, and I choose a Zune over an iPod, but I think it’s fair to say I am not some Microsoft blue blood that doesn’t have a realistic perspective.

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