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Apple is a church and the Apple Store is its temple

Lucy Kippist

by Lucy Kippist

03 Oct 05:40am

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Filed under: Apple, Customer Service, Iphone, Religion, Steve Jobs

53 comments

Apple is a religion and the Apple Store is its church. The Sydney Apple store, on George Street, is a particularly large version of this church.

You know how people in cults and Sci Fi movies always wear clean, mono-coloured clothing.  Bing, that’s the Apple Store.

You know how churches are always big and bright and filled with sickeningly happy people. Bing, the Apple Store again.

Even the huge, white staircase that somehow appears transparent looks fit for a set of “Heaven”, the movie. 

The first thing to do at an Apple Store if you’re serious about being served is to make an appointment. I had a 3pm appointment and they slotted me in at 12:20, without question. Clearly, the church of Apple understands its followers can be pressed for time.

Here’s the other thing, despite the fact the store is jam-packed, it doesn’t feel crowded and nobody is angry. Groups of people step on each other’s toes to get a closer look at the accessories section where the cheapest thing is $30 RRP. But nobody baulks at the price. 

The man next to me points at the crowds and comments on how popular the products are becoming. It’s like he doesn’t even register how much time it’s taking out of his day just to wait here.

But the Apple people know exactly how long you’ve been waiting. Four or five of them wander around in shorts, swiping at their iPads for no apparent purpose and recommend you top up the parking meter as your appointment is still at least three people away.

Then you make it to the Genius Bar and the guy behind the desk shakes your hand and looks you in the eye and asks how your day is. He then sticks what looks like an ear probe into the back of my phone (it had stopped charging) and hands me a completely new one.

“This problem is not your fault,” he says handing me the shiny, scratch-free version of my old phone before ensuring all my contacts are loaded back in.

Apple gets full marks for service. But I leave with the feeling that if I didn’t rein myself in, I’d wake up with plugs attached to my skull, wandering the store in a blue T-shirt. 

But guess what? The weirdness doesn’t end there. Safely back at home I decide to ring Apple to find out if replacing phones is a normal feature of their repair service. Chris on the Genius Bar phone hotline tells me it depends on the type of problem. 

He says that phones that can’t be fixed are routinely recycled, as per the company’s environmental policy. Still strikes me as a whole lot of toxic waste for a company named after something that drops off a plant. 

Later I ring the Apple media department on my now functioning iPhone only to be told that Apple doesn’t actually have any media spokespeople. 

“It’s not how things are done at Apple,” says the phone drone, whose name I can’t use. Apparently the media get one opportunity every quarter to speak directly to the CEO and chief financial officer. 

In other words they speak to you, you don’t speak to them.

Just like a church sermon. 

Comments close on this post at 8pm AEST

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53 comments

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    • gobsmack says:

      07:24am | 03/10/12

      It sounds like the start of an episode of Dr Who.

      Reply

    • KH says:

      08:00am | 03/10/12

      So you are complaining about good service? Or attentive staff who know their products and look professional?  Really? 

      Apples differentiation factor is its ‘closed ecosystem’ - for the vast majority of people, this doen’t ‘restrict’ them in any way - but it does make things much easier to use, and problems easier to diagnose, quickly.  I work in IT so I know how annoying PC problems can be when it can be any number of third party components or software bugs - for someone who doesn’t work in IT, this can be a nightmare.  I like that all my devices work together - I downloaded an album from itunes on my computer, and it magically appeared on my phone without any cables being involved…....well, not magic, just clever integrated design.  Whether this will remain the case now that Steve Jobs is gone remains to be seen - Apple lost its way a bit last time he was absent (I call it my ‘blue’ period - I had an IBM PC….hehehe).

      I have had a couple of apple store experiences, and they have always been great (with or without an appointment), which is more than I can say for a lot of other retailers whose staff seem to think customers are a massive inconvenience to them - just recently one store I went into the sales assistant was on an obviously private phone call which she appeared to be in no hurry to end even though I was standing there - I just left the goods on the counter and walked out.  And they wonder why their sales aren’t going well - well, its not just the internet that is their problem.  So Apple staff wear uniforms - they are clearly identifiable amongst the usually large crowds, and it looks professional - unlike some of the garish and/or inappropriate outfits you see on some sales staff elsewhere.

      Apple bashers conveniently forget that computers were all beige boxes before Apple came along - we spend enough time with these gadgets, so why shouldn’t they also be beautiful to look at and a pleasure to use?  What exactly is wrong with that?  If you don’t like it, don’t get them.  If you don’t like the ‘closed ecosystem’ approach, buy a PC and a samsung phone and get the big chip off your shoulder.

      Reply

    • Null and Void says:

      08:14am | 03/10/12

      +1

      Seriously. She got a replacement phone instantly and that’s a bad thing? I switched to IPhone when no one would take responsibility for the power button breaking on my old phone. As if three months was long enough for me to have broken it myself. I’ve got iEverything but I’m not an Apple evangelist, their new connections for iPhone 5 and some of their iOS updates suck a fat one but their service is impeccable.

    • Mark says:

      08:35am | 03/10/12

      Wow KH, take a chill pill.

      If anything Lucy’s post describes excellent customer service. You might have been a little quick to judge Lucy and way to quick to defend Apple.

      Maybe you need to get your Thetan levels checked.

    • Mahhrat says:

      08:20am | 03/10/12

      Apple is a religion and the Apple Store is its church.

      Well, no shit.  Why do you think Android is all over them lately? 

      Instead of requiring you to believe in them no matter what, Android opened its doors to all and sundry and said, “here, come build your own castles.”

      Considering the electronic world is largely boundless, I’m astonished that Apple would use the same Business model as Catholicism, and unfortunately unsurprised that despite it being the 21st century, it still works as well as it did in the Dark Ages.

      Reply

    • Mr. Jordon says:

      08:24am | 03/10/12

      In 1997, Apple were a week away from bankrupty and disappearing off the face of the planet.  Today, they are the largest company in the world. There share price is around $700.00.

      Clearly their closed ecosystem works.

      I have been an Apple user for 26 years. In 1986, Apple computers had a graphic interface, a mouse, nested folders etc, PCs at the time had none of this which made PCs difficult to use. Going with Apple was a no brainer. 

      And to this day Apple has remain the “trend” setter. Everybody is copying Apple.

    • Ohcomeon says:

      08:25am | 03/10/12

      If you imagine that Apple sell appliances, and not computers or phones then it all makes more sense. They make tools that are good at their job, like a toaster is, not at every single job you can imagine.

      Android is a mess. Its hellish to support, there is no consistency whatsoever across hardware, software or firmware, or form factor. It does everything OK, but not anything particularly well. The apps for it are also laughable.

      The quality of paid apps on Apple is way way higher than Android, its a simple fact. Statistics show that people dont actually really buy apps on Android, they use free ones or pirate. So a lot of devs are very reluctant to jump into android, and are skipping it to go to Win phone 8.

    • Markus says:

      08:46am | 03/10/12

      I’m looking at the development of OUYA, an android based, open-source gaming console, with great interest.
      If it is as successful as it has the potential to be, we could see the end of DRM once and for all.

    • Ohcomeon says:

      09:32am | 03/10/12

      Jordan,

      not true that everyone copies Apple. Apple have bought and copied and litigated sole use of many technologies that they didnt invent.

      I remember Apple fans telling me how superior RISC chips in PowerPCs were, while I was telling them how gutless they were compared to the current intel CISC PCs.

      A year later, all apples are running on Intel chips like the rest of the world. Motorola simply couldnt deliver on all the promises that Apple made.

    • Anonymous says:

      09:49am | 03/10/12

      Jordon, Apple is becoming stale. The fickle nature of consumers means that they’re only gonna stick with Apple for so long and once they get tired of Apple’s insistence for their users to use the devices how Apple wants them be used, they’ll switch. Your claim that everyone’s copying Apple is laughable too, since Apple got to where it is today by copying other companies. You know those icons you were talking about? Yeah, Xerox did that first. Apple copied the mouse too. Apple didn’t invent the rectangle or curved edges either. It’s worth pointing out that Apple has had many court battles vs. Samsung in other countries than the US, and Samsung’s won most of them.

      You have to remember that Apple isn’t anywhere near as popular amongst consumers overseas as it is here, and we’re already starting to see the cracks in the company as a whole. Old Samsung devices run circles around Apple’s newer ones, which are deliberately crippled in order to release upgraded models a year from initial release to be touted as “groundbreaking” to their followers. Apple truly is the cult of delusion who treats its zealots like suckers. The Apple Maps fiasco is a perfect example.

    • Mahhrat says:

      10:15am | 03/10/12

      Apple is Steve Jobs, and without him Apple is starting to fall apart.

      It will be interesting to see how Microsoft handle the demise of Bill Gates (even though he’s not as directly involved as he once was).

      @Markus:  Agreed.  A basic set of hardware - what Apple do - combined with open-source OS - like PCs try to be but are hampered by the hardware variations.  I think it would also be fantastic for the indie developers.

    • Mr. Jordon says:

      10:10am | 03/10/12

      @Anonymous says: 09:49am | 03/10/12

      See my comment below about Apple and the mouse and UGI.

      Maybe you should watch the mid 90’s doco called Triumph of the Nerds. It’s on youTube. It goes into the whole history of the PC industry.

      @ Ohcomeon says: 09:32am | 03/10/12

      They moved to intel not because of Motorola but because of Jobs bringing to Apple his NeXT which is what OS X is based on. NeXT ran on an intel chip.

    • Mr. Jordon says:

      10:29am | 03/10/12

      @ Anonymous says: 09:49am | 03/10/12

      Samsung?

      Their mo is to rip off the market leader. Look at their vacuum cleaners straight rip off of Dyson.

    • Anonymous says:

      10:32am | 03/10/12

      I’m a consumer with no per-conceived devotion to a particular brand or product. I personally don’t give a shit if Samsung copies another brand or not. They do exactly what you claim Apple did: Reinvent and Value Add. The difference is that Samsung puts more time towards innovation than litigation. It’s hypocritical to the extreme for Apple to claim that their IP is being stolen. Their attitude HARMS innovation.

    • Ohcomeon says:

      11:14am | 03/10/12

      Jordan,

      sorry, but NextStep ran originally on motorola RISC and was only later ported to x86, as it was to Sun etc.

      I was working for an Apple distributor at the time of the switch. The market perception was that Apple RISC PCs were slow, while the current intels were rocketing past them in calculations, regardless of reduced instruction set or not.

      From the wiki:

      Steve Jobs stated that Apple’s primary motivation for the transition was their disappointment with the progress of IBM’s development of PowerPC technology, and their greater faith in Intel to meet Apple’s needs. In particular, he cited the performance per watt projections in the roadmap provided by Intel.[11] This is an especially important consideration in laptop design, which affects the hours of use per battery charge.

    • Mr. Jordon says:

      11:25am | 03/10/12

      @ Anonymous says: 10:32am | 03/10/12

      Apple licensed technology fron Zerox. They did go behind their backs and steal it from them.

      Do you see that that is very different to what Samsung do? And if you know the history of Apple you would know why they litigate so readily.

    • Mr. Jordon says:

      11:37am | 03/10/12

      @ Ohcomeon says: 11:14am | 03/10/12

      OK I accept that. But NeXT was moving towards intel.

      http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/NeXT

      I must say that I do much prefer the OS X architecture over system 9. I haven’t had a software incompatibility problem since OS X was released.

    • Tubesteak says:

      11:42am | 03/10/12

      “it still works as well as it did in the Dark Ages”

      It worked on me and much to my satisfaction.

      I started with the iPod several years ago before any of the digital music players hit the market with any real capability. I had a full 60Gb iPod in a matter of weeks. iTunes was easy to use and this was after I’d spent a few years wondering why I’d want to digitise all my 300 CDs.

      It became pretty obvious once I had done so that preventing the constant skipping that my discman had when I was walking around or at the gym was a godsend. Also, not having to carry around a few CDs to fulfill my daily requirements was also brilliant.

      Then, when I went looking for a phone the iPhone 3G had just been released a few months before. There was nothing that came close. Nothing had the same support from any of the carriers. Android was nowhere and similar phones were not supported or far more expensive on a plan.

      Then my phone provider upgraded me to a 3GS. I was on contract for 2 years until earlier this year when the smartphone war had really heated up. I didn’t get the iPhone 4 or 4S.

      I thought the iPhone was the greatest invention of the past 20 years. Phone, music, apps, maps and games all in one. Excellent.

      Then I was a free agent. Waiting for Apple’s response. The Samsung Galaxy S3 seemed to be the main competitor. I new the 5 was due out some time this year. I waited.

      But all my stuff was on iTunes. My computer died 2 months ago and it was easy to start up again on a new computer with no access to my old data and apps. iTunes made this easy. All my contacts, music, apps and messages updated perfectly.

      Then I compared the iPhone 5 to the newest Samsung. The iPhone had me established. It was easy to set up. The Samsung would require me to learn something new and I wasn’t sure how easily it would transfer over. Would I have to enter everything in again? Upload all my music? What about the apps I’ve paid for?

      Plus, the iPhone 5 was good looking. Sleek and black and thin. The Samsubg is bulky and dated plus that tacky silver backing is ugly.

      For these two reasons (looks and established useability) the iPhone 5 won. It updated with everything in a matter of minutes. That’s how I like things. Simple and pretty. Just like my women wink

      PS the video accompanying this article is pretty cool.

    • Anonymous says:

      11:52am | 03/10/12

      Like I said, Jordon. I don’t give a shit if it was copied. Samsung have made a superior product that offers more to their customers. Either Apple should catch up and meet demand or butt out. Rounded corners aren’t an innovation. Pinch-to-zoom is the most practical way to enlarge and shouldn’t be patented.

    • Ohcomeon says:

      11:57am | 03/10/12

      Jordan,

      true, but OS9 was a bloody delight after the hellish debacle of OS8, which destroyed the near perfection of OS7.

      Ive never really been a fan of the MacOSX GUI, i either prefer proper KDE/Gnome linux, or Windows. Theres too many abstractions in the way of getting into the guts of it. But it also makes it a perfect computer for those uninterested in computers, and I think they bring an acceptable compromise of power, useability and flexibiltiy to that market.

    • Mr. Jordon says:

      12:38pm | 03/10/12

      @ Ohcomeon says: 11:57am | 03/10/12

      True OS 9 was great and I did continue to us it long time alongside OS X.

      People should buy the computer that fits their needs. Mac v. PC has always been a silly argument. I’m an amateur photograph so I use a Mac but I don’t use Apples’ Aperture I use Adobe Lightroom.

      If your a highend gamer or like to play under the hood then you should buy a PC. I remember in the 1990 ‘s advising people to buy PC’s even though I used a Mac.

      I don’t know about you. But I have so much contempt for some snotty little kid in an Apple store telling me about Apple stuff when I’ve been using Apple stuff longer that they have been alive.

      @ Anonymous says: 11:52am | 03/10/12

      If you are not interested in serious debate, go away!

    • Ohcomeon says:

      12:51pm | 03/10/12

      Jordan,

      its funny you mention using Mac for your photography. The PC has been a faster, cheaper and more flexible platform for multimedia than the Mac since about 2000. But the sheer amount of money Apple spent in spreading the perception of its use as a pro multimedia machine still sticks in the hive mind today. A macbook pro is a good music machine, but its terrible value compared to a better specced pc laptop, with less power.

      I do music, and the sheer amount of software and hardware that works better on PC for cheaper than Mac is huge. In fact Apple is abandoning the pro market with its destruction of Premier and dumbing down of Logic.

      They are totally skewing consumer and not pro these days. Smart move, small amount of pros, huge amount of prosumers. Most of hollywood and the music industry are PC based these days.

    • Anonymous says:

      01:17pm | 03/10/12

      @Jordon

      My debating techniques might differ from yours, pal… But I’m still contributing in a serious manner and have made some very good points which you appear to have ignored. So no, I’m not going away.

    • Cobbler says:

      01:12pm | 03/10/12

      Mr Jordan must have been very lucky to have decided to pick Apple in the one week in the past 30 years where Apple was actually more inovative than PC.  Not to mention that his assertion that PCs didn’t have a file system under MS-DOS in 1986 is pretty far off base.

        Since then Apple computers have become such a basket case that the only way they could actually compete was to become PCs that used Linux to Masquerade as Apple OS.  A feat you could achieve better with a PC running Ubunto for 1/4 the price.

        Then pretty much everything that Apple has done since then has been selling crap to Cultists.  The ipod was a copy of quite functional mp3 players with more storage space, an infuriating illogical inaccurate interface with DRM out the wahzoo.

        The iphone was a similar copy of pre-existing smart-phones except 4 times the price where initially you paid everything, even fixes for bugs rather than allowing open-source software.  Oh yeah and the phone part of the ‘i - phone’ barely worked.

        The ipad was even more of a blatant rip off, with PC tablets being around for a good 10 years before it was launched…..... and you couldn’t watch videos on it….... or read pdfs.  What a fantastic product!

        Mad magazine summed it up best with this delightful advert.
      http://www.madmagazine.com/blog/2012/09/21/apple’s-revealing-new-iphone-5-ad

    • Ohcomeon says:

      01:48pm | 03/10/12

      Cobbler,

      I started posting to correct all of your blather, but I gave up. You pretty much have no idea what youre talking about, but you say it with the conviction of the converted.

      Anti fanboys are so dreary. Imagine spending time codifying and thinking obsessively about stuff you DONT like.

      As for tablets, I used pretty much every generation of PC tablet before the ipad. They all sucked. Heavy, slow and useless.

    • TheRealDave says:

      03:12pm | 03/10/12

      So you’re saying he’s right and several generations of Smart Phones and Tablet devices existed years before the iPhone and iPad?

    • Ohcomeon says:

      04:12pm | 03/10/12

      TheRealDave,

      as far as I know apple have never claimed to invent tablet computing. But if you dont see a differrence between the chunky HP stylus tablets of old and the Ipad, then theres no hope for you.

      Calling the Ipad a ripoff of that generation of tablets is like calling Hubble a ripoff of Sputnik.

    • Mr. Jordon says:

      04:41pm | 03/10/12

      Henry Ford didn’t invent the motor car or the production line. But he revolutionized both.

      The same applies to Apple.

    • Cobbler says:

      05:47pm | 03/10/12

      Well actually Ohcomeon the way Apple put their billions behind lawsuits around patents for stuff they didn’t invent suggests that they believe that they did invent all the devices they now so vigorously defend.

      How ridiculous is their attack on Samsung, because the Galaxy has rounded corners and only 1-button?  Can you really patent 1-button?  Hopefully my patent on oxygen gets through so I can start taxing all the Apple fanbois for the oxygen they’re currently thieving.

      “Calling the iPad a ripoff of that generation of tablets is like calling Hubble a ripoff of Sputnik.”

      Lolz.  What revolutionary things can it do besides being light enough to play fruit ninja for more than an hour straight?  Maybe it’s extrordinary ability to separate saps from $900? Maybe it’s the breath-taking way in which it over-rides common sense in people who were disappointed with the iPads 1-3 but will still be head of the queue for the iPad4?  When did the iPad come out? 2010?  Yep, and amazingly for a cut-down device supposedly designed to deliver functionality over raw processing power the have been almost 4 iterations of it….. in 2 years…..

      Then there’s the latest crime against consumers where they made the iPhone 5 too small for the current (and overpriced) chargers and associated peripherals.  So do they provide an adapter.  Sure.  Does it work?  Hell no.  Guess what chumps, time to go buy that clock-radio dock again.  People grumbled about it, but will they switch products.  Nope, they’ll just happily keep racing off the cliff…........

      Apple sucks.  Let’s hope with Jobs gone that people will at last start seeing their products for what they are.

    • bananabender says:

      06:37pm | 03/10/12

      Apple was saved by a $150 million cash injection from Microsoft. Had Microsoft not been involved in antitrust lawsuits Bill Gates could have almost instantly killed off Apple by stopping sales of Office for Mac.

    • Mark says:

      08:32am | 03/10/12

      It is a pity that MP3 sound is not quite as good as the original, unless you download it at lossless I assume. That aside give me the convenience of putting my whole music collection on something the size of a small cigarette box any day over LPs, tapes or CDs.

      As for Neil, what a legend. “One of these days”  will be my funeral song. Give me Neil over Dylan any day.

      Reply

    • Ohcomeon says:

      08:42am | 03/10/12

      Sure, but Apple didnt invent any of that. I had an mp3 player years before the ipod came out.

      They just made it sexy and marketed it well.

    • Mr. Jordon says:

      09:17am | 03/10/12

      @ Ohcomeon says: 08:42am | 03/10/12

      What Apple does is reinvent and value add. They didn’t invent mp3 but the did invent the iTunes store. And then intergrate to the products.

      They didn’t invent the UGI or the mouse. They licensed them and inproved them. The mouse that Apple licensed was the size of a brick, had a button on top and two joy sticks. One for the horizontal an one for the vertical. apple turn that into the to the mouse we now know.

      The UGI that Apple licensed had no nested folders or drop down menus. Apple invented these.

    • TheRealDave says:

      11:06am | 03/10/12

      They re-invented and improved the mouse??

      WTF?!?!

      They only put a second bloody button on the bloody things in the last few years!

    • Keith Hammersmith says:

      01:31pm | 03/10/12

      i tunes is value added?  itunes is crap.  and you dont even own the music you have paid for….

    • Steve says:

      09:44am | 03/10/12

      Behead all those who insult the Apple!

      Reply

    • Troy Flynn says:

      11:18am | 03/10/12

      Sounds like you believe we should all follow Apple’s religious teachings and impose “Citrus Law” smile

    • Anna C says:

      09:38am | 03/10/12

      Apple users act and sound like members of a cult.

      Reply

    • Ohcomeon says:

      11:16am | 03/10/12

      I dont know, anti-apple fanboys are just as whiny as strident in my experience. Anyone who is dogmatic is dull to talk to.

    • Anthony May says:

      09:52am | 03/10/12

      pointless vitriol.  waste of time.

      Reply

    • Mike says:

      10:58am | 03/10/12

      “Bing, the Apple store!?”, not likely; Bing is Microsoft’s search engin. A better sound effect would be the “diabolus in musica” triad that plays when you start up a Mac. What the onomatopoetic word for that would be, I don’t know.

      Reply

    • TheRealDave says:

      11:18am | 03/10/12

      Ahh Apple - Twice the Price for Half the Functionality!

      Now that aside, as an actual IT guy of far too many years - Apple make some great products. None particularly original but they don’t need to. What they do well is market their products - which is well known, but the main thing they do well is allow the completely and utterly IT clueless use their devices quickly and easily. I’d normaly argue that they ‘dumb down’ their interface, but thats just me being disingenous. What they do is make things easy to use quickly and easily. Click an app and away you go. Sure it makes for far far les flexibility and next to useless in a business environment but that is the market they are after. And which is why they still only have less than 10% of the market when it comes to actual IT needs.

      With Windows 8 hitting the Tablet market in the coming weeks you are going to see less and less iPAds in the Business environment - you can take that one to the bank. What idiot is going to spend money on an iPad for, realsitically, only email/calendar access when for the same price they can have Win8 Pro in their pocket carrying around ALL their usual corporate desktop apps, software and databases?? You’d have to be a complete knob to keep buying iPads AND Android based pads for business. Plenty of vendors are all rushing Win8 Pro based tabs to the market after Microsoft kicked off press for their new Surface tablets - I know I’ll be buying 20 of them the day they come out to evaluate and will probably get another 100 more within weeks. Thats the Pro version - not the nub RT version wink

      But back to the topic at hand…Apple has its place, make no bones about it. They are creative and innovative - just like all the other tech giants. They’ve captured one end of the tech market but that is going to start receeding. They still have only a fraction of the desktop market, nada in the big end of town (in terms of Server/Virtualisation/Infrastructure/etc). Now is the time they need to ‘innovate’ and move onto something else, otherwise they are going to stagnate again. But this time there is no Steve Jobs to pull them into line and I daresay there won’t be Bill Gates to pull their arses out of the fire again.

      Reply

    • AdamC says:

      11:45am | 03/10/12

      Apple is good as designing attractive, easy-to-use, non-intimidating consumer devices. Serious IT people seem to dislike Apple because their products lack depth of functionality or flexibility, and also because Apple takes an end-to-end approach of making hardware and software to control everything.

      So long as Apple remains the leader in the consumer market, it should do pretty well. Why should it focus on commercial devices and software when it has no comparative advantage in those sectors?

    • Ohcomeon says:

      11:45am | 03/10/12

      As someone who is currently managing some ipads, I agree with this partly.

      Yep, I could have rolled out 5 labs on a domain in the time it took to setup 30 ipads, and get their look/feel and restrictions right. Absolutely painful.

      Their enterprise tools are laughable, but theyve completely ceded that space. They are a consumer company. I dont even really think of them as a computer maker anymore. I really like their applicances and mobile devices, have no use for the computers at all.

    • Wayne Kerr says:

      04:38pm | 03/10/12

      You’ve nailed it RealDave.  I find the current lot of tablets are good playthings with limited corporate use.  Saying that I use my Galaxy Tab at home for work when checking on servers, email and things like that.  For any real work that I need to do I use the laptop.

      As you’ve said Apple devices such as the iphone and ipad are for people that just want things to work and not have to muck around with where as android is for those who like to play and customise, usually IT geeks like us.

      I think you’re right re: Windows 8. That’s going to be the real business missing link between laptop/pc and tablet.

      I also agree with ohcomeon regarding size of teh S3 and iphone 5.  People have this unrealistic expectation that you can do useful work stuff with a big screen smart phone. I see it at my work a lot.  In reality it’s not that practical that’s why you have a tablet or a notebook. and you do feel like you have a pub schnitzel next to your ear. As I said though, for serious work you don’t use a tablet anyway. I think the 7 inch tablets are a bit of a waste of time too.  Seems a bit of a cheat to me.  Do we really need 3 devices to carry around?

      Big screen phones are good for the kiddies to watch youtube, play on facebook and play games.

    • Ben says:

      11:18am | 03/10/12

      You’re not really a Mac user if you just have an iPhone. You need a Mac computer or laptop as well. Microsoft has more stuff out there than Apple ever will.

      Reply

    • Mark says:

      12:06pm | 03/10/12

      The real telling factor here is that you never see anyone go from a top of the range Android phone to an iPhone. It is only ever the iSheep opening their eyes to the possibilities.
      Never has this been more obvious then with the release of the new iPhone5. Despite one of the only improvements from the 4s being a larger screen, it is still far smaller than the galaxy s3 and quite a few HTC phones. Picking this new iPhone up was immediately underwhelming; something that Apple has never been before and I thinks shows where the future lies.
      Apple lost something with Jobs, Tim Cook is not an exact clone despite his attempts.

      Reply

    • Ohcomeon says:

      01:10pm | 03/10/12

      Mark Said “The real telling factor here is that you never see anyone go from a top of the range Android phone to an iPhone.”

      Do you hold every android user in total visual contact at all times to test the veracity of this? Id hate to think you were just making something up based on your own prejudices. I personally know two people that have done just that.

      So in your world, bigger is better? I would never ever want a larger phone than my 4S, its almost too big as it is. Thats what tablets are for.

      The S3 is a nice phone, but I feel like im holding a pub schnitzel up to my ear to make a call. Its bloody enormous.

    • Mark says:

      03:34pm | 03/10/12

      Did I say I hold visual contact with all users or did I say I never see anyone doing it? If you are going to argue semantics, at least get them right you nong.
      You are completely off the mark. I said it is only one of the improvements, or do you disagree with the fact that Apple is marketing the larger screen as a feature? The other is 4g capability, something the minuscule data limits in Aus will not handle so IU wouldn’t personally benefit from that “feature” (which a large number of Android phones already have)
      In regards to it being too big, it’s not. I have an iPad as well and they are far different devices, only an iSheep would compare the two out of fear that Apple doesn’t offer a product for every perceivable application.

      Get over yourself buddy, you are the definition of an iSheep with 10 comments on an article with a grand total of 44- seems like you are wasting oxygen.

      The beauty of Android is that it doesn’t matter if you disagree with me, there is a phone that suits your taste. iPhone is a one size fits all cattle dog. Rounding up all the sheep regardless of their preference of features.

    • John F says:

      12:23pm | 03/10/12

      Siri is the new born child of artifical intelligence. I got an Iphone 5 last Friday and myself and my partner are staggered by what it can do now, what will it be capable of in another 5 years ?

      Reply

    • Al CHunk says:

      01:55pm | 03/10/12

      The article states that Apple is a religion and then the comments prove the statement.  Reasonable argument is dismissed with unsubstantiated dogma by well meaning members of the Apple congregation, but poorly informed by the marketing texts found in Jobs 3: 16. 
      Appleodians are free to relive the glory days as long as they worship quietly, do not indoctrinate children, door knock or condone violence   The rest of us can move on and enjoy technology without the millstone of religious doctrine or green tinted screen protectors.
      May your brand go with you - and not get left on the train.

      Reply

    • Andrey says:

      07:06pm | 03/10/12

      Apple’s main business is marketing, not device manufacture. They sell midrange hardware at premium prices by selling the image.
      I often see Apple supporters on tech sites spouting Apple’s outstanding financial performance as proof of iPhone/iPad superiority over rivals, a ridiculous assumption. Given that cost of components and manufacture for Apple is largely the same as that of it’s competitors, it means that Apple makes a greater profit for every device sold and consequently has cheaper/inferior components to it’s competitors’ products.
      I don’t even see what is so good about their design, iPhone5 looks like a distended version of iPhone4s, a boring brick, where is the much praised design, less is not always more.
      Last but not least, I find it absolutely disgusting how Apple tries to sue everyone using ambiguous patents with prior art. Apple is the company equivalent of a gym jock high school bully, it is the popular self centered kid picking on the nerds for their lunch money.

      Reply
 
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