I partly disagree with you, BC, but you definitely have a point.
It's pretty much the case that everyone knows what an iPod is, and you can brag about it. "Oh look, have an iPod!".
No one knows what an iRiver T60 MP3 Player is. I would argue that not many people know what/who iRiver is.
Or the Rio MP3 player, the first one evar!
IMO Apple had some of their best stuff when Steve Jobs was failing at NextSTEP. Then he came back and spread the fail. Before he returned they were pretty well poised to start being actual competition for the PC; they had 3rd party licenses and manufacturers, so other companies could produce the hardware and use the software.
But when Old Steve returned these contracts were severed and things were returned to the way they were in 1992. (or whenever it was he left). That is- Closed source, closed hardware, and a price point that doesn't match that at all.
Claims are they use "higher quality components" but even if this were the case- you'd think that buying so many of the same exact product would give apple a bulk discount of some sort? having so many Macs built using the exact same "high-quality" components and using the exact same, inflexible software should have allowed them to shave a lot of cost, and in fact, they probably did- they just chose not to pass it along to the consumer.
And to be honest, I really, really, hate their "intuitive UI" concepts, since I don't find them intuitive at all.
My sony MP3 player has four arrow buttons. when I push down, it scrolls down, when I push up, it scrolls up, etc. It's rather simple.
But pundits exclaim that the IPod is the "easiest" to use. I call BS, I used one recently and wanted to throw the thing out a window, and probably would have if it didn't belong to somebody else. This was one of those models that shrugged off the burdens of arrows and went with two buttons- menu, and back. I struggled for a minute or so trying to figure out how to scroll the freaking view, until I noticed the circle around the menu button, after some experimentation, I found it- you spin your finger/thumb around the circle to scroll.
*censored*? This is neither cheaper for apple to produce nor easier to use then arrow keys. The only simplicity is that it contains fewer buttons. This reminds me of a desk fan I saw once that reeked of Apple.
It was just a desk fan.
It had but a single button.
you push it once to turn it on.
each time you press it, it increases in speed- it has four levels.
when you push it on the highest level, it goes back to the first level of speed.
In order to turn it off, you have to hold the button.
Is there something wrong with a Power button and a speed knob? is there some sort of basic UI tenet I'm missing that clearly states that having fewer buttons that are harder to use is somehow better? Because I think I missed that lesson.
Basically- I consider Apple's basic concept to be "too simple to be any use" How was having a single button mouse better then having two button? I have no idea, but they have to compensate with command clicks, so I don't see the net gain.
All that being said, I thought appearance manager kicked *censored*.
