I hate the tribalism regarding Apple products. There are loyal fanboys who won’t hear a bad word about Apple, and then there are Apple haters who criticise everything about them.

I wish we had some more nuance in this debate. The reality is that there are advantages and disadvantages to Apple products. I’ll outline a few:

Advantages

Long iOS support. Typically you can expect an iPhone to be supported for 5-7 years, which is well above the average in the industry.
No bloatware or adverts on the iPhone
Better privacy than Google Android/Microsoft Windows
High-end hardware, e.g. M1 chip in MacBooks.
User friendly design. Nice user experience.

Disadvantages

Overpriced. Seriously all Apple products are more expensive than the competition.
Anti-consumer business practices that influence the industry. They normalised removing the headphone jack and using non-removable batteries, which other manufacturers followed. Another anti-consumer practice is using their proprietary Lighting port, rather than USB (luckily the EU should be forcing them to adopt USB-C and removable batteries soon). Also, no SD card slot because they want you to use iCloud
Walled garden. No support for side-loading apps
Required to use iTunes to add/remove music to the iPhone, which is a problem if you use Linux (you’d have to use Wine to install the Windows version as a workaround)

[–] gooey@lemmy.blahaj.zone 43 points 1 year ago* (last edited 1 year ago) (4 children)

I like to say that there are two Apples, Apple the designer and Apple the business.

Apple the designer is one of the best in the world. Yes they have blunders but they consistently put out some of the highest quality hardware and software. The current design language of the iPhone is beautiful, MacOS has its issues but it's a good OS, the seamlesness with which Apple devices work together is nothing short of incredible. They have some of the best engineers and designers in the world and it shows. (I'll never forgive them for the mouse though, that thing is a travesty)

Apple the business is a ghoul who hates its users and competition, would rather you buy a new phone than repair your broken one and, if they could, would make your device implode if you do anything they don't approve of. I'm still waiting for them to be benevolent enough to allow me to code on an M1 iPad, a device that has all the power of a mac but is completely knee capped by its OS.

I love Apple the designer, but unfortunately Apple the business makes it impossible for me to support them.

[–] xyguy@startrek.website 15 points 1 year ago (1 children)

This is a great point. Anyone that says that the MacBook is a piece of crap has never used one (other than the first gen 12 inch MacBook) they are awesome and the design is great.

MacOS on the other hand really gets on my nerves and all of their anti-consumer stuff is enough for me to avoid them entirely. I won't even call them overpriced because a PC similarly equipped with a monitor as nice as theirs is just as much.

I wish there was a hardware designer as good as Apple on the PC side but because they are so good people excuse abhorrent business practices. You don't see people vehemently defending stupid things that Dell does for instance.

[–] RIP_Apollo@feddit.ch 4 points 1 year ago (1 children)

Great point. I can’t think of another company in the phone/computer industry that has such a cult following, that it allows them to get away with awful business practices without criticism from its loyal fan base.

I would also love to see a competitor to Apple make equally great products without all the awful business practices… Although I think the sad reality is that Apple’s anti-consumer practices earns them so much money, that it allows them to spend more on UX design, R&D, hardware etc and create better products.

As for the “overpriced” description, I’d say it’s a bit more debatable for a MacBook, but it’s a lot more noticeable on Apple’s other products (The most egregious example, of course, is the infamous $999 monitor stand). Even the accessories, such as a simple charger or adapter, will require you to pay the Apple Tax too.

[–] xyguy@startrek.website 3 points 1 year ago

Oh man I already forgot about that monitor stand. Yeah that's the kind of ridiculous stuff that people should be angry about.

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