The halo effect
Benjamin Hourigan | 2005-02-24Macworld UK - Oz Mac sales double – IDC
Apparently sales of Apple computers are really taking off in Australia.
Macworld UK quotes IT analyst Michael Sager saying “Apple seems to be finally benefiting from the iPod halo effect.”
I get really tired of people talking about how the popularity of the iPod is going to make people buy Apple computers. Especially since iTunes is on Windows now (where, as on Mac, it’s the best music player there is), iPod owners can get on just fine without Apple computers. And, incidentally, Mac owners can get on without iPods. I have an 80GB hard drive in my Powerbook, holding, among other things, my entire 3728-song music collection, which I play through speakers connected to my Airport Express wireless base-station. iPods and Macs don’t need to be paired up.
Despite this, Apple are selling loads more computers lately. Why could it be? Here are some of the things I think might be contributing:
- Windows XP is ridiculously antiquated, much the way the old Apple OS 9 was. On top of that, it suffers drawing glitches, constant and often unexplained slowdowns (usually from too many applications having installed useless memory-resident utilities), myriad viruses, and spyware. Every useful feature is buried under a mountain of wizards, menus, and dialog boxes. It is also just plain broken. Every time I plug in my firewire drives under Windows, the system reboots. Genius.
- After years of having an operating system that geeks laughed at, Apple now has OS X, the best operating system there is. Both geeks and people who don’t know what RAM is manage to love it simultaneously. That’s a fine achievement on the developers’ part.
- Their lead industrial designer, Jonathan Ive, is a god. My white iBook G3 and its successor, an Alumnium Powerbook, are the only computers I’ve ever owned that I’d describe as “beautiful,” and the build quality is superb.
These are the reasons why I tell everyone I know who uses a PC that they should be using a Mac instead. Notice none of them had anything to do with an iPod.
Are you using a Mac, reader? If not, do yourself a favour. Go get one. For the budget-conscious, I recommend a Mac Mini, or an iBook G4.
It’s the Mac that radiates a halo, not the iPod.
Incidentally, about half an hour ago, Apple unveiled its newest revisions of the iPod line. Check them out, if you must.
Ben H, I am sure you are right about Macs
Free Trade Crusader | 2005-03-2 | 11:25Ben H, I am sure you are right about Macs having the Halo effect for iPods. Though as I have said to you in RL, post sales support for Apple Products just plain suck. As a person who bought an iPod, unintentionally damaged it, the fact that I cannot get it repaired, only buy a new one, is a disgrace.
I understand iPod’s have the highest return rates of MP3 players but since you can only return them to Apple Stores retailers are not aware of the situation.
The thing that was attractive to me about an iPod was the design and capacity, and to be honest a certain level of sophistication and style. This was the reason I bought my Canon IXUS 300 camera – noted it was an awesome camera anyway, but I also just liked the way it looked. While it has been a very good played, in the process I have become completely disillusioned by Mac because of their post sales support. There was an article in the Age online about this a while ago saying that Mac enthusiasts are prepared to put up with their crap post sales support because they believe in their systems, especially against the Microsoft effective monopoly, but for general consumers like me they really, really need to get their act together. I was going to but a Powerbook, now I am not and am quite happy sticking with my Sony VAIO which is a great system, even if you do not like Windows XP, but also because Sony’s post sales support is amazing, so much so I wrote to their CEO to tell him how impressed I was.
I think product support for Apple is a mixed bag.
Ben H | 2005-03-2 | 12:27I think product support for Apple is a mixed bag. I was lucky enough that when the motherboard (or logic board, as they call them in the Apple world) failed on my iBook, it would have covered by a replacement program for an acknowledged fault even if I hadn’t had eleven days of warranty left. Apple has, however, been the subject of a number of petitions and class actions that take aim of its sometimes poor treatment of customers with faulty equipment. The latest one is something about iPod batteries.
For the record, there are no Apple-run retail stores in Australia: all are resellers, even the dedicated Apple-brand retailers like Next Byte, Computers Now and MyMac Australia. This is part of the support problem: while Apple controls manufacturing and distribution, and competes with resellers at retail (via their website), retail resellers have to deal with most of the unpleasant stuff like returns, repairs, and customer enquiries and support. The only time you’ll ever deal directly with Apple Australia is on their site, or if you call them directly.
What I’ve experienced in these cases, is that Apple is happy to squeeze you for extra money when they can, and to avoid supporting you if they can. My favourite example is that when I purchased my Powerbook, the site automatically added a $400 extended warranty package to my bill, which was only removable several screens later by changing the invoice quantity of that item to zero. Of course I complained: the sales support representative told me that other people had complained about it, too. I’m not sure whether they changed it yet. Software support on the Apple discussion forums, though, is excellent, and the quality of most of their products (hardware and software) is good enough that you shouldn’t usually need support. Obviously iPods are something of a sore point, though, but part of the reason for this may be the sheer sales volume: the iPod line has over 90% of market share for portable music-file players, while in Australia, Apple computers only have 4% of the PC market. So for iPods, the sheer quantity of faults will be much higher, and many more people will experience problems. Having said that, though, Apple needs to make sure that it resolves those problems to their customers’ satisfaction, or else they’ll suffer in the end. On the other hand, though Sony may offer great support, its crippled music players (which only recently began supporting the MP3 format) don’t allow users to play the music they like, in the format they like, whenever and wherever they like, so no-one’s likely to be switching to Sony players in the near future.
If you want to stick with PCs, my advice to you is this. Windows XP really does suck. It’s a shame you need it for games, but stop using it for work if you can. On your VAIO, if all the hardware is supported, I suggest you install Ubuntu Linux alongside Windows XP. Its desktop interface, GNOME, has learned many lessons about usability from OS X, and the whole Ubuntu system is a lot more usable and responsive than Windows XP. It also comes with a whole lot of great free software, including OpenOffice, Evolution (mail and calendaring), GAIM (messaging), and Firefox (web). (You are using Firefox right now, aren’t you? If not, go get it). Ubuntu will give you some of the things that are best about the Mac world, without having to pay for the hardware.
Dude, you’re addicted to blogging. Go back to work. (So I say, as I’m writing a response to a comment on my blogâ¦)