I tell myself I’m not overtly anti-Apple, but I suspect the deeper truth at work is pretty simple: I find their products annoying, because I can’t afford their shininess. There. Happy now, Jobs?
Now, that having been said, I’ll admit I do find some humor in mocking Apple products & consumers (of which I am one, thanks to my iPod). Of course, there are legitimate reasons to dislike Apple, and there are plenty (just as there are reasons to dislike most large companies). The whole iPad thing just makes my annoyance a bit more timely, I guess (Defective by Design can offer more reasoning than I can, with a touch less snarkiness).
Anyway, stuff like the iProduct makes me laugh pretty hard. (And notice the date on it: January 2005. Good jokes never get less funny.)
Don’t get me wrong, I’m no Microsoft-lover, either. Thing is, I’m not even a little jealous that I don’t own a Zune instead of an iPod, so things like this article by a former Microsoft employee only fill me with something akin to pity: Microsoft’s Creative Destruction.
What does it all mean? Well, aside from knowing I will have Andy Rooney style sarcasm-fodder for the foreseeable future, it means that as a consumer of computer-related things, my choice will often come down to choosing a product from one of two companies: (WARNING: gross oversimplifications ahead)
Company A, whose products are designed to be shiny and “cool” almost expressly to distract me from sketchy Big Brother-style policies,
or
Company B, whose products are either ill-timed for the market, clunky, or both, in no small part because it has lost control over its creative employees’ infighting.
Looks like iLose.
Filed under: misc.
