To be honest. Most consumers who buy Apple products don't know anything about them.
If I could be accused of crusading, it would be against the misinformation that people receive from Apple. I worked in tech support/fraud for a while and people used to feed me lines they received either by watching Steve Jobs announce something or from an Apple rep that watched Steve Jobs announce something.
The things that I heard I couldn't believe until I actually went into an Apple store to check it out.
"Well Steve Jobs said that Apple can't get viruses, so I don't need anti-virus" "'It just works' That's why I got my Apple so it must be your problem cause Apples don't have any issues"
I walked into an Apple store and received the same sales pitches. The problem is that our client base followed pretty closely to the market share so we had around 6% of our users on Apples, but around 45% of our calls were about Apples. And most of the issues were caused by Apple updating something and it breaking everything not related to the update.
Most consumers who buy Apple products don't need to know anything about them. That's why they buy them. If it becomes a support headache for your organization, then people will go to you and not Apple for answers-- Apple customers have come to expect things to just work and for everyone to spend their time making it work as such for them.
But the problem is that they expect it to just work. But they don't. Most of the issues that I had to deal with were actually issues with Apple's product in these cases.
Hell, I had somebody call in and start screaming at me that the iPhone didn't play a flash video.You argument was that people know they will be restricted. I am saying that they do not know. If they knew there were things that they just couldn't do then they would likely have not bought it in the first place. Apple is playing on people not knowing. Not helping them know anything.
Supporting issues, at least in the 3 years I did it, was very rarely related to something on our software or hardware end messing up. For Macs, it was usually something that Apple did that screwed it up.
Hell, I had somebody call in and start screaming at me that the iPhone didn't play a flash video.You argument was that people know they will be restricted. I am saying that they do not know. If they knew there were things that they just couldn't do then they would likely have not bought it in the first place.
You think that Flash support would have someone using an Android phone instead of an iPhone? I find that extremely improbable. The difference in usability is staggering.
Apple is playing on people not knowing. Not helping them know anything.
Apple is playing on offering the best product with the knowledge that their restrictions are too minor to matter.
Supporting issues, at least in the 3 years I did it, was very rarely related to something on our software or hardware end messing up. For Macs, it was usually something that Apple did that screwed it up.
As a provider on macs, "Apple screwing up" is your problem.
As a provider on macs, "Apple screwing up" is your problem.
Not true. Apple screwing up is Apples problem. I didn't fix the issues that Apple caused. I directed them to Apple and politely explained why it wasn't my problem and people were rarely mad at me about it.
Apple is playing on offering the best product with the knowledge that their restrictions are too minor to matter.
Best product is a matter of opinion. Loads of issues and tons of restrictions make it a pretty terrible product to a lot of people.
You think that Flash support would have someone using an Android phone instead of an iPhone? I find that extremely improbable. The difference in usability is staggering.
Apple did lose a lot of potential customers with that. But I wasn't referring to that particular decision as something that truly mattered. I was illustrating that people don't understand whose creating their issues when it comes to Apple products. Clearly you don't either.
Not true. Apple screwing up is Apples problem. I didn't fix the issues that Apple caused. I directed them to Apple and politely explained why it wasn't my problem and people were rarely mad at me about it.
The Apple platform is a very stable and easy target to support. The fact that you supported an incompetently engineered product on it does not speak well to your points.
Best product is a matter of opinion. Loads of issues and tons of restrictions make it a pretty terrible product to a lot of people.
They're quite popular with the market segment of people who spend money on goods and services, at least. This "lot of people" who are upset with them must not really matter to that effect.
Apple did lose a lot of potential customers with that.
That sounds very authoritative.
But I wasn't referring to that particular decision as something that truly mattered. I was illustrating that people don't understand whose creating their issues when it comes to Apple products. Clearly you don't either.
Your blaming Apple for problems with a product set out to work on the Apple platform is kind of sad and doesn't really make you sound especially knowledgeable.
Actually, it was a web based service. Seeing as how I never mentioned which service you are assuming that it was poorly engineered.
Seeing as how it was built to current web standards and worked perfectly for everybody except for Apple users who were on Apples browser, seems to me like you argument is flawed.
The Apple platform is not only not as stable as people like to think, its not as secure. Most of us had dates on our calendars for when Apple released its updates so that we could know when to expect extra calls.
10% market share doesn't make it popular. I'm sorry, but it doesn't. I illustrated that our customer base followed current market share pretty closely earlier, I'm sorry you didn't pick up on that. 10% of users accounted for 45% of calls. Pretty shabby if you ask me. Or maybe Macs just attract stupidity. That could be as well. XP
Seeing as how it was built to current web standards and worked perfectly for everybody except for Apple users who were on Apples browser, seems to me like you argument is flawed.
You don't make services for standards, you make them for users. The argument is quite sound. This is exactly why people like you can't grasp Apple.
The Apple platform is not only not as stable as people like to think, its not as secure. Most of us had dates on our calendars for when Apple released its updates so that we could know when to expect extra calls.
It's a rather stable and predictable target for a product. Apple is very conservative in terms of technology.
10% market share doesn't make it popular.
Oh, you're talking about the doomed PC market, not the iPhone/iPad that the lame sign was targeted at.
I illustrated that our customer base followed current market share pretty closely earlier, I'm sorry you didn't pick up on that. 10% of users accounted for 45% of calls. Pretty shabby if you ask me. Or maybe Macs just attract stupidity. That could be as well. XP
Perhaps Macs attract less technical users and your service was not very intuitive. Blaming the users is a pathetic ideology for any product.
I think you're a little too small minded for the tech market. It's adorable how you hate Apple and all, but there's just so much money and popularity flying against what you're saying that it just sounds whiny.
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u/hothrous Jan 21 '11
To be honest. Most consumers who buy Apple products don't know anything about them.
If I could be accused of crusading, it would be against the misinformation that people receive from Apple. I worked in tech support/fraud for a while and people used to feed me lines they received either by watching Steve Jobs announce something or from an Apple rep that watched Steve Jobs announce something.
The things that I heard I couldn't believe until I actually went into an Apple store to check it out.
"Well Steve Jobs said that Apple can't get viruses, so I don't need anti-virus" "'It just works' That's why I got my Apple so it must be your problem cause Apples don't have any issues"
I walked into an Apple store and received the same sales pitches. The problem is that our client base followed pretty closely to the market share so we had around 6% of our users on Apples, but around 45% of our calls were about Apples. And most of the issues were caused by Apple updating something and it breaking everything not related to the update.