

Is Apple losing its cool factor with techies? - cwan
http://blogs.techrepublic.com.com/hiner/?p=4244&tag=nl.e101

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g0atbutt
"Apple’s buzz with the key 18- to 24-year-old demographic…" != "IT leaders and
tech-savvy business professionals" (from the article)

Money speaks louder then words. This smells like link bait.

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VBprogrammer
I agree that the evidence presented in the article is poor, however I think
the general consensus would be that Apple have lost a lot of geek points.

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ojbyrne
Making inferences about a 35 year old company based on a four month chart...
not even enough to measure seasonality.

And the site is techrepublic.com.com? Huh?

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itg
not really any data, but just an observance, it seems like if you walk onto a
college campus these days, almost everyone is carrying a macbook compared to a
few years ago when i rarely saw people with apple computers.

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gamble
No. It's only because we feel so much affection for Apple's products that
their business practices provoke so much outrage. In comparison, when was the
last time anyone got really worked up about Microsoft?

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pedalpete
How about us that don't have any affection for Apple's products?

Much like Facebook, I'm personally shocked by the tactics of both these
companies.

People were very worked up about Microsoft and their business practices about
a decade ago. Actually, I'd say people were worked up about Vista, and that is
what may have opened the door more for Apple.

The big differences between the two as I see it is that the questionable
business practices of Microsoft were directed at manufacturers and had a
somewhat indirect effect on the end users.

for most people, did it matter if the default browser was/is IE? This is
something that mostly effected competitors, and Microsoft never said you
couldn't run another browser.

By comparison, it seems the business practices at Apple affect both business
and consumers.

Ignoring the app store developer stuff, it is harmful to consumers to have a
company tell them what they can and cannot have on their devices.

Many people have talked about Apple having the right to decide what apps they
sell, and I agree. The challenge is that they are the only store in the
ecosystem, the only way to reach those customers (with the exception of the
browser).

But we wouldn't allow GM to say that you can only fill up your car at Shell.
Or that your flex-fuel vehicle can only run E10.

As the owner of a product, YOU get to define what you do with it. It isn't up
to the manufacturer to decide.

I suspect I'm going to have the same issue with Windows 7 Phone when it comes
out.

Controlled ecosystems are bad for innovation and consumers.

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c1sc0
"..., it is harmful to consumers to have a company tell them what they can and
cannot have on their devices."

While I agree in theory, my practical world of PCs laden with malware &
viruses tells me otherwise. Consumer protections is sometimes protecting the
consumer from himself.

But yeah, a 'manual override' would be nice.

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lrm242
Personally I just ordered an Asus netbook after being all Apple for 3+ years.
I'm going back to Linux... can't stand around and watch the walls close around
me.

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lallysingh
More than that, OS X got _boring_. When's the last time they added anything
interesting to it?

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sleepingbot
Yes.

