Oddly, as a contented owner of an iPhone 1.0 (best eBay purchase ever!) I'd argue that the iPhone demonstrates exactly the opposite. I haven't used an iPhone 3G, but people seem to think it's an inferior product in various ways. And the reason it's an inferior product is that, in fact, Apple has a very critical user base. And the user base complained, and Apple listened to their complaints and adjusted the design to suit, with bad consequences.

Last year, when Apple released an EDGE phone without 3G support, folks like Gruber offered some very reasonable explanations: 3G is faster on paper, but the coverage in the USA isn't as good, and the chipsets aren't as mature, and the battery life is bound to suffer.

But the bitching and moaning continued. The public and the majority of tech pundits didn't know or follow these engineering arguments. They just knew that 3G was faster! On paper!

So, never one to miss an obvious marketing hook, Apple designed a 3G phone. They gave the market exactly what it was asking for. And the result was a marketing coup: The 3G phones flew off the shelves. And now it turns out that the coverage isn't that great, and some customers are reporting flaws -- flaws of the kind that tend to happen when you design with newer chipsets and a short lead time. And the battery life isn't as good.

What a surprise!

Another complaint is that third-party apps tend to crash a lot. Apple had that problem solved last year, too: They didn't permit third-party apps. Every app on the phone was directly controlled by Apple's QA team. It wasn't necessarily Apple's idea to allow broken third-party apps onto your phone. It was criticism from the user base that drove them to it.

And the fact that the phone is now more expensive? The market seems to love that up-front subsidy. It's what they're used to. Only those of us who actually do math dislike it.

So it's not so simple. I think that, on balance, it's a good thing that Apple listened to its users. The market seems to like phones that are faster on paper. The market likes third-party apps, even at the expense of occasional breakages. My one wish is that the company hadn't discontinued iPhone 1.0 when they brought out iPhone 2.0. I understand why they did so, from a marketing and a production standpoint, but I'm going to be sad if and when my original iPhone is run over by a truck.

I wish good fortune to the designers who are working away on iPhone 3.0...

Regarding Apple's current problems: I think it's because Apple's getting so ambitious. Right now they're attempting to shut out competitors in a slew of fields at once. Apple has usually done very well at this in the past. However, they launched three things in one (three things, right), and each one has had a set of problems on its own. So it's become noticeable that Apple's products aren't entirely flawless.

I got myself an iPod Touch, and while I'm pissed off at the things that aren't working, and the lagging bits, I at least have some perspective. I know that I'd take the Touch over any other MP3 player in existence, and that includes the 1.0 Touch. I gained more than I lost. And while I want Apple to fix things as quickly as possible, that's not the same as my saying "Apple's doing bad."

Plus, I'm quite fond of complaining but rarely complimenting. I suspect a lot of these problems are selection bias multiplied by mainstream media mostly focusing on problems with the JesusPhone (etc).

(I've been a Mac user since I was born, and I'm on my second iPhone. please don't mistake me as some anti-apple fangirl :) )

That said, Apple products are way above the norm in terms of seamlessness, and while I still nitpick at them a lot, I hate people that criticize them and pretend that that makes all their accomplishments futile.

When I complained about the lack of 3g on the original iPhone, I knew why, I understood the drawbacks, I understood the reasoning. I had prior experience with 3g mobile phones and personally knew that even with said drawbacks that it would be something I could live with. So I bought the original iPhone, then gave it up for the 3g iPhone when released. Don't regret it at all now..the only thing I want now is the mophie juice pack so I don't have to worry so much about battery (not that it's exceptionally bad in only the iPhone, it's pretty bad in most 3g phones, and iPhone more so for some of the applications). I love 3G on my iPhone.

> Another complaint is that third-party apps tend to crash a lot. Apple had that problem solved last year, too: They didn't permit third-party apps.

When I complained about the lack of an SDK for the phone, it was knowing that this was a brand new project (relatively) but that every single public excuse of Apple's was full of shit. I might also note that I jailbroke my phone on 1.1.x firmware and apps crashed too. Yes, Apple has some issues with 2.x (bug report time!), but a lot of the crashing is developer error. Like with any other program. No surprises there. Anyone expecting perfection in this area is completely delusional. Plus, I'd take a crash happy iPhone with third party apps over nothing. Makes my phone much more of a pleasure to use. Even if Apple ignored the third party app request, people would still be hacking away at it anyway (yay jailbreak).

> And the fact that the phone is now more expensive?

I realize the 3g iPhone is subsidized. I realize it's more expensive in the long run. But many phones are like that. I don't approve of Apple's marketing (it's "cheaper"! uh huh), but...really...just don't buy it if you don't like it, like you say.

Anyway, all this to say that maybe I'm not a typical fangirl, but there's plenty legitimate reasons to criticize, and some people are doing it understanding the whole situation.

On a sidenote, most people I've encountered complaining about 3g have nobody but themselves to blame. Yes there are some legitimate issues with 3g on the iPhone, but a lot of these people are overestimating what AT&T can give to them - i.e. it's not the phone they should be blaming in their case, it's AT&T's service or lack thereof. And personally, AT&T is the worst part of the whole iPhone experience, every single one of my troubles starting from day 1 has been with them and only once with Apple (solved in under a day with a free exchange and a store manager apologising, whoops).

edit: Lastly, there's a lot of old iPhones out there, some for cheap. I managed to sell my 8gb one for just over $220 (not so great cosmetic condition), and although prices don't seem to be dropping much, they're still out there. Wish AT&T would let people purchase the edge plan with the 3G phone though, I bet that would make you change your mind too :)

True enough. And, in fact, I was wrong to call the consequences of the 3G redesign "bad". They're arguably bad for me, because what I want isn't necessarily the same as what the majority wants. But lots of people are very happy! Because they criticized the product, and Apple listened!

Whether or not the 2G-to-3G design changes are bad or good isn't my main point. The point is that these changes were made in response to intense customer feedback -- Apple customers are scarcely apathetic -- and that just about all of the problems highlighted in the original article are side effects of this attempt to give customers what they asked for as quickly as possible.

Wish AT&T would let people purchase the edge plan with the 3G phone though

That would indeed be great -- although in my case the real stumbling block was the fact that I scored a spectacular own goal: back in January I switched to AT&T without buying an iPhone at the same time and locked myself out of the subsidy. In retrospect, that was foolish -- I assumed that the second-gen iPhone would be sold on the same terms as the first one, without a carrier subsidy. Until AT&T announced their subsidy policy, months later, I planned to buy a 3G phone, higher monthly price and all -- the cost differential isn't that big once the subsidy is included. The fact that I'm perfectly happy with my 2G phone is a serendipitous discovery.

Also, I'm surprised that your situation happened. I don't know much about upgrading and subsidies for AT&T, but in January? I guess that would mean you bought a subsidized phone back then?

Anyone who were early adopters of OS X went through a lot of pain.

Course, the thing is, Apple took the right risks on OS X - a lot of the pain was to end up with the right end result. I think that is really the part that sets them apart.

but...

one person I know bought a MBP last year and it's been in the shop 3 times.

A different friend has given up on iPods because everyone he has bought has died within the year. He really wants an iPhone but he feels that it would be stupid to buy one given his experiences with other Apple products.

I won 2 of the clip-on shuffles in a raffle and the one that I tried doesn't work correctly. I couldn't get it to play all the music that was loaded on it and it would stop working occasionally. They are both setting on a shelf.

I don't have an axe to grind with Apple. I've gotten really crappy PCs before. But the only positive reviews on Apple products I've gotten from friends/acquaintances has been the fawning/religious kind.

My one iPod lasted 2 years. After that its screen cracked and it became hard to use, though the sound quality stayed the same. I saved it for shuffle mode at parties and for use in cars with built-in systems. I think that 2 years is a decent amount of time, considering I flung that thing around like no other. After that, I got a Touch, and that's where I'm at today.

I think that Apple inspires a sort of fanaticism. It's like all really top-notch things. Would a Volkswagen driver call a Porsche lover a fanatic? (I honestly don't know this, so I could be horribly wrong.)

This assumes that a mac is "top notch". I thought that was the point of contention?

I can come up with a huge list of my friends that have problematic Apple products. But if I gave it some consideration, I could also come up with an even longer list of friends who've had almost no problems with theirs as well.

Yes, I've had to go through the trouble of having my retarded iBook G3's logic board replaced multiple times. But I can counter that with my three MacBooks being perfect until I sold/traded them off. The one I have now has had no problems. My second MacBook had a power adapter that died after one year, but nothing else. Et cetera.

Another co-worker, whose wife works for Apple and therefore gets discounts, is spilling over the top with praise but he can't quantify it, he can only seem to describe it using the words 'cool' and 'awesome'.

I'm sure the problem is with my sample size (very small).

I had a neighbor a long time ago whose computer overheated and died quite often. She kept buying new ones and complaining about them all the time about how unreliable they are. The one time she told me about this I had to go take a look..the inside of her computer then was chock full of dust and animal hairs. Needless to say, she no longer has to buy computers so frequently..filters and some regular cleaning do the job well. :P

I hear ya though, I have had a few close friends with mac books, I know they've had problems (batteries, speed, etc.) but they still wax poetic any time they talk about apple.

My desktop has been going strong for 5 years now with hardly a hitch, but I don't feel the need to say a word about how much I love it: it's a dang computer.

I think that if your sample size grows, you'll find that a lot of people that use Apple really love it and don't know why. Similar to the two people you mentioned. But that's not because Apple HAS nothing good: it's because a lot of the things that they do well are hard for most people to quantify.

For me, the best way of describing it is to talk about what it was like to register my machine once it was turned on. It was a typical registration form. I tabbed over to State and typed in an N, expecting to have to hit it three or four times to get to the right letter. Instead, the drop-down list turned into a text field, and I could just type the second letter normally, no problem.

Small, small detail. If I raved about that during a typical OS dick-waving contest, I'd be laughed at. But it's so typical of what makes the Mac so incomparably good: it is incredibly focused on giving users the best possible experience. Not just in terms of things they can name in ads, though I am a fan of all that stuff, too. But in the small details. The things you notice only long enough to feel slightly irritated. The things reviewers would never mention but still stay there.

I think most Apple users stay with Apple for that precise feeling: the feeling that everything just works. It's something that's hard to contrast, because it's something that no other OS really spends much time on getting right. With every iteration of OS X, though, I see a real leap in terms of how good the operating system's become. Leopard beats Tiger in almost every way. Tiger beat Panther similarly.

And it's easy to rib on Mac, to say that it's too glam and too popular. You can pick on Quicktime and say that it's not as good as VLC, or something similar. Doing that ignores the fact that there are things that Mac does that other things simply do not. Take GarageBand, for instance. I think that of all the things I've messed with, GarageBand blows the most people away on first contact. The built-in keyboard, the really comprehensive set of loops... it's not a godsend, but the fact remains that it's there. That, if I wanted to, I could film myself using iSight, compose a soundtrack using GarageBand, and edit it all together using iMovie and iMovieHD/06, is pretty awesome. It gives you a sense of freedom that you don't get using a clunky Dell laptop and using Windows Movie Maker.

Small things. Partly that means philosophy. In Word 08, when you hover over a button it gets larger, and the button ripples. It's slightly distracting, it's ugly, and it's a waste. Microsoft doesn't get the difference between eye candy and functional aesthetic. In Pages, buttons don't do anything when you hover over them, because it's assumed that you know they're buttons. Again: not something it's easy to rave about. But there's this feeling that you're being respected.

Windows fans get mad at Apple users because they're usually too set with what they've got to change. Gamers insult Apple because it doesn't cater much to gamers, which is a fair criticism, but I've found that Boot Camp solves those problems pretty much perfectly. Linux users? That's a tougher crowd, because they believe in a different philosophy. It's true that learning to use a computer that's basically a glorified prompt results in a faster computer. The problem there lies with the steep learning curve. You can't turn on a computer that's like that and expect to know how to use everything. And when you start to use a shell, things slow down. I don't know how fast Leopard is compared to Ubuntu, but it feels a lot faster. Or, not faster. More precise. Much more polished. And Mac is very hackable. Most people choose not to, but if you DO like tinkering, you can tinker.

You can argue that Mac is overpriced. That's a matter of personal taste, but frankly, I'd pay more than I did to get an operating system that's so enjoyable to use. The more you use the Mac, the better it gets. Another small thing: when you have a file open, and there's the little icon next to the file name on the top of the window, the way you can drag that not only to any open folder but into a chat or a mail message or a file upload, that's nice. It saves me a step. If I wanted, I could go even faster with Quicksilver, but I've never installed it. No reason to.

You can argue that people who use the Mac are pretentious. That one gets thrown out a lot even on Hacker News, sadly. Yeah, and people who use Windows are tasteless, and people who use Linux have no design aesthetic. Either way, getting an OS because of stereotypes just doesn't cut it. You get an OS because it's good, period. (Although I DO like the I'm a Mac commercials, it's because I love John Hodgman.)

And I think I must be the sort of person who perfectly fits into the Mac cliche. I'm a college student, and I got my Mac specifically for college. I get called a hipster on occasion, because apparently, liking typography-related t-shirts and The Big Lebowski and disliking Tropic Thunder makes you hip. Most damningly, I'm a writer, and I dabble in poetry. So I fall under the "artsy" umbrella. Never mind that I actually attempt to make money with my writing, or that I dislike most stuff I read (Beckett excluded). Never mind that I'm only an artist in the sense that I try to make art. I've been told that obviously I only got a MacBook is because I want to seem hip and with it.

(Apology at this point, partly because of the length, and partly because this is aimed not only at the OP but at a bunch of much more brutish Mac critics. I don't assume that you're like this bockris, but I feel like I want to complete the thought before you stop. My apologies.)

Anyway: no. I got it because I tested out all the operating systems before I got this one, and because this one was the best. A lot of people who try all 3 settle for the Mac. If you don't, that's okay, but at the same time it means you're going to put up with a lot of crap Apple users don't have to, and some of us get bitchy and remind you about it because some of us are as bad as the stereotype proclaims. I'll also throw in that the Apple Store is designed to really LET you try out the operating system if you're uncertain: it's all in keeping with Apple's policy of being easy for the customer. Apple's consistent.

As a writer, there are a slew of tools designed specifically to make writing as easy as possible. I don't use any of them: I stick to TextEdit and Pages. I like writing, not planning out writing. When I have a bigger plan, I use actual paper. Even for me, though, using the default text editor, Apple's got an edge for me. Command-Control-D over any word on any application opens up the dictionary for that word in-line. If I right click and actually look it up by OPENING the application, I get instant Wikipedia, which is nice for quick research. There's also the system-wide spell-check, for when I like getting anal in iChat. (Good lord, that sounds wrong.) Or how, when I'm writing, I can hit escape partway through a word and get a list of every word that might match. Little conveniences that mean when I'm in the mood to write, I can actually WRITE.

And Apple goes halfway for me: the little gray button that nobody seems to talk about on the upper right, the one that removes the bulk space from most programs, that's wonderful for me. It gets rid of distractions. Or the drawer aesthetic for windows: I don't know if Windows has a variant on this, but the thing that opens up on any side of a window to hold information. I love that. It's such a great distinguisher. Things go both ways, too: on TextEdit, which is the Mac version of Notepad, I can format my fonts, lay out my page, and even edit images, because those are all built in to the core of the system. I prefer Pages because it's more designed for that stuff, but if I NEED it, it's there for me.

As a coder, I get a MUCH bigger assist from software, because of Coda. I'm not a very learned coder. I have a head filled with big ideas, but I don't know how to implement them. A program like Coda goes above and beyond in helping me get my ideas down. When I use it, I get the feeling I did when I first started writing: the thrill of having a blank slate and the tools I need to create something. And I've used Dreamweaver before, I've tested out other ones. They all feel wrong to me. Too bulky, too ugly. Every time I run into a problem coding, Coda seems to be right there to help me over that obstacle. And that's third-party software, too. I've found that most third-party solutions I've found on the Mac are excellent. My newsreader, my e-book creator, my DVD ripper. My Facebook sync tools with iPhoto and Address Book. Developers share the same mind for aesthetic that I do: that feeling of complete ease. And I've found that when I happen across a web site with the same feel, be it blog or 2.0 service, the ones that I gravitate towards are the ones that were made by Mac users. (I originally got hooked on a Mac when I found DaringFireball, started reading it for the quality of the writing and for the layout of the site, and... you know.)

So that's my humble little piece of advice. I don't know you, so feel free not to add me to your list of people recommending things. But my area of expertise per se deals with explaining things that other people aren't so good at explaining, and hopefully I've explained what it is about the Mac that draws people to it. It's the little things. It's things that make you feel good. And hey, I'll be honest, it's because every time Steve Jobs says "Wow," he sounds like a little kid playing with a golly-gee new toy, and because maybe that's not such a bad thing after all.

That's the longest response I've ever elicited in any formum/email/conversation/etc ever.

As I mentioned, I don't have a problem with people who like Macs, if it works for you, great. I was only replying to the "extraordinary quailty" statement with my own admittedly anecdotal evidence.

And yes, probably what I am seeing is people who feel the same as you where the fit and finish of OSX exceeds their expectations and they are willing to pay more and/or be more forgiving about hardware failures if they happen. That's their choice, but it's not mine.

But now when the bitter fruit of these demands for lower starting costs via subsidization is harvested, the cry is still "Most expensive smartphone!"

Tech media can be terribly depressing sometimes.

The real story, which I'm guessing is just some troll-like law firm looking to make some money, isn't even very interesting.

They are after my buck as the rest of them. I'm sure that if MS would have decided to boot Windows from a specific set of hardware Vista would have been a winning horse.

Same with phones, iPhone isn't a good headset if you'll compare it too blackberry and Nokia n series.

What iPhone did was getting regular folks to buy smartphones and that is its greatest achievement. After its release MS mobile development blog started releasing articles on how to implement double buffering on WM and the .NET compact framework. Why because iPhone created a new standard, and they had to follow.

Other then that it is an ordinary phone.

Every smartphone have his drawbacks, iPhone 3G got plenty of them, and apple refuse to admit it, because when that will happen they will admit that they are just like MS: A company that develop software (Oppose to a company that if you'll buy their products you'll look cool)

  Please, please just stop the bad Apple puns.  If this was 
  1976-8, it would be ok.  But it's 2008.  We've heard them
  all and it's just terrible.  Please. Just. Stop.

  It doesn't matter if you're for Apple's products, neutral, 
  or heavily, hatefully against.  We all hate the puns.  

  Think of the poor children who will think that this bad pun
  behavior is acceptable in civilized society.  I shiver at 
  the thought of a generation of people speaking in rhyme and
  pun like old Batman adversaries -- only without the diction.

  Please. Just. Stop.

I shiver at the thought of a generation of people putting full stops between their written words. As. A. Way. To. Emphasize.

Sorry, that was rude. The periods were just a bit of melodrama :-)

i passed on the first gen iphone and my sister and i picked up the 3g on a family plan. all in all it is functional but not by much. the problem with the iphone is that its a computer that also makes phone calls. cause , uh, thats what apple knows how to do. its not a nokia or some such that is a phone that also does some computing.

as a loyalist im willing to give apple the benefit of the doubt. but now permanently. they need to up their game and be more communicative. also, the quality on the macbooks/imacs is degrading. hard drive failures and all sorts of blow outs. they need to get their manufacturers in check.

i really hope apple takes their sweet time with snow leopard and doesnt deliver it half baked.

(a problem is an opportunity).

i got nothing. and need coffee.