Is anyone else getting sick of Apple?

[Allyance]

Nope, my Apple stock has triple since I bought it. One should buy the product that best suits their needs and stop rooting for a company like a football team. I like their products and their ecosystem. No company can everything for everybody.

 

[levander]

Your past mirrors mine. In fact I still build my desktops from components. We have a multi-platform computing house and use what's best for the task at hand. Similar to you sometimes I wish that "windows would just work".

The perspectives raised in this thread are not new, and have been stated in various formats over the years.

Nobody likes it when they get hit by a software bug. And I’m sure people have been experienci displeasure.especially amongst a user base like creative professionals who are striving to find excellence in the tools they use to create.

But the idea that Apple has really one-upped itself with the release of iOS 13 is not mine alone. Notable Apple app developers have come out and said the same thing. I’m not gonna go run and find the quotes. They’ve been posted in the forum and on the macrumors front page.

 

[robogobo]

I've taken off the gloves with Apple and Apple apologists lately. I hear all this "if you don't like it, don't buy it." Sure, if you're a casual consumer looking for a phone and earbuds, definitely follow that advice. But when you're tens of thousands of dollars deep in an ecosystem that was plugged incessantly as "it just works" for decades, and you've hooked your workflow, putting your livelihood into a company's promise of pro level tools, that sort of obtuseness really shows a person's ignorance.

Apple has had their head in the sand ever since Jobs' passing, and they've been running off the fumes of his plans and projects. Now it's clear they're lost at sea and their innovation has dried up, leadership has become complacent and products stale. I have never been a fanboy, but I've made the most of my investment in Apple. The dismissal of complaints and criticism is so incredibly stupid, and will eventually come back to bite them. I'm heavily invested, and like any investment, I expect promises to be kept and care to be given to customer's needs.

This past year has been a disaster, and only slightly worse than the year before. If Apple doesn't get their act together and put their ear to the ground, they won't be able to gauge the user experience, only believing their own marketing line. One day they'll wish they had paid attention. People are getting fed up.

 

[Abazigal]

I've taken off the gloves with Apple and Apple apologists lately. I hear all this "if you don't like it, don't buy it." Sure, if you're a casual consumer looking for a phone and earbuds, definitely follow that advice. But when you're tens of thousands of dollars deep in an ecosystem that was plugged incessantly as "it just works" for decades, and you've hooked your workflow, putting your livelihood into a company's promise of pro level tools, that sort of obtuseness really shows a person's ignorance.

Apple has had their head in the sand ever since Jobs' passing, and they've been running off the fumes of his plans and projects. Now it's clear they're lost at sea and their innovation has dried up, leadership has become complacent and products stale. I have never been a fanboy, but I've made the most of my investment in Apple. The dismissal of complaints and criticism is so incredibly stupid, and will eventually come back to bite them. I'm heavily invested, and like any investment, I expect promises to be kept and care to be given to customer's needs.

This past year has been a disaster, and only slightly worse than the year before. If Apple doesn't get their act together and put their ear to the ground, they won't be able to gauge the user experience, only believing their own marketing line. One day they'll wish they had paid attention. People are getting fed up.

Apple’s whole selling point is in making technology more personal and intimate.

I personally believe that Apple has a very bright future with wearables (and any other initiative whose success is strongly predicated on having a strong mobile presence). Their success in the Apple Watch and AirPods so far confirms this belief.

The price of this, I feel, is that Apple may have to give up the Mac. My rationale is that Apple will need to keep funnelling more resources to projects like wearables, which in turn means less time and attention dedicated to the Mac line, which is at the point the furthest away from their interpretation of what personal computing ought to look like.

I believe Apple will go on to become even bigger and more successful than they are right now. No doubt this will rankle the “old guard” who think think that Apple has lost its way and well, sometimes you have a break a few eggs to make an omelette.

 

[kazmac]

Yeah, noisily leaving Apple for 5 years.

I re-think if I should leave or not every time I’m in the market for new hardware.

That would be me for 3 years, but I am finally accepting that it is time to try competitors. The acceptance and getting over the fear of the unknown (W10 under the hood) were my two biggest hurdles.

 

[faust]

That would be me for 3 years, but I am finally accepting that it is time to try competitors. The acceptance and getting over the fear of the unknown (W10 under the hood) were my two biggest hurdles.

You should get a Lenovo Thinkpad! The X1 Carbon series are very nice ultrabooks, and the Thinkpad X1 Extreme(Gen 2) is a wonderful 16" Macbook Pro killer. Their Thinkpad W series are portable workstations that'll slaughter the competition, and their warranty service is quite nice. You can even have on-site repair done, or just have them send the parts you need and do the fix yourself. I'm mostly just using my 16" MBP for the hilarity of it. Can't wait until they one day refuse to service it and I bludgeon a Genius Bar tech with it, lolz.

 

[AustinIllini]

Exactly. Competition is the only thing keeping these corporations honest. And Apple has carved out space that doesn’t have enough competition. For me it’s the unified UI across devices. And every new device I adopt makes it harder for me to switch in the long run.

I think Microsoft is (once again) best positioned to overtake Apple's space. Google and Amazon are too all over the place to pull it off to me. And theit profit motive aren’t even based on consumer computing devices. For Google it’s really advertising. And I don't understand Amazon as much. For Amazon it seems like it’s just wherever they can make a buck, they’ll try it. But even though Microsoft is best positioned, it seems like Microsoft and Apple have some sort of truce of sorts. Have you noticed Apple doesn’t even have a laptop suitable to compete at scale with Windows laptops? An $1,100 MacBook is never going to sell as many units as the $400 Windows laptops. And the desktop computers are the same way.

but like Gates used to follow IBM and wouldn’t do anything to tick them off. At some point he decided it was in Microsoft’s best interest to abandon that ship and do their own thing. It’s not the same. But there’s a similar thought process going on in Redmond with Apple these days I bet. The Surface isn’t really something Apple was originally doing, even though Apple is now moving in that direction with iPadOS. But at some point Microsoft is gonna go head to head with Apple again.

I used to hate Microsoft in the 90’s. I was a computer science student going to college who used Linux. And I could not believe how much higher quality the free software was than the stuff Microsoft was making billions of dollars off of. You did have to fiddle with the Linux stuff to get stuff installed. But once it was installed, it was solid. But for the first time ever I’m looking forward to Microsoft having more success in the future.

it’s getting time to finally sell some of my Apple stock. What Apple is doing now will take time to show up in the short-sightedness of the stock market. Where everybody with real money‘s main concern is next quarter’s financial results. But Apple is incredibly stubbornly eroding away at what was a very loyal customer base. And this will show up in their financial results in at least the next five years I bet. It’s not over yet. It’s not time to grab what you can and jump ship. But it’s time to start figuring out how you’re gonna get off this ship and look for opportunities.

As I’m starting to unload my Apple stock, I’m personally also looking for good spots to buy Microsoft.
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cosmo, I know what you’re saying about Apple having introduced some neat little features that are more seamless than what we are used to in dealing with computers. But wait until you come across a bug that alters your workflow in a way that is a real pain in the ass. And even though it used to work fine, Apple broke it in one of their updates, and you called them and Apple told you they’d fix it in a future update. But you wait and you wait and you wait and they just never fix it. And you call them back and they tell you to keep waiting. And you call them again and then they say they have no record of this ever being a confirmed problem, That’s the kind of stuff happening to a lot of the people posting in this thread, including myself.

The fact that you can send a photo to someone in a few less steps than it would take to email them just doesn’t seem like as big a deal any more. Even though yes, for Microsoft to overtake Apple’s space, they would need to implement something like that. But really, implementing Airdrop is a lot simpler than having an overall quality ecosystem that is well supported.

1. All companies try to make a buck. Amazon, Apple, and Microsoft are no different in this regard
2. Microsoft can’t ”overtake“ Apple I’m the PC market; it’s already the dominant player
3. You don’t sell Apple stock based on your opinion of the products. You gauge other’s opinions of the products
4. Apple has the best supported ecosystem which values your privacy, mostly because Apple unified hardware and software

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That would be me for 3 years, but I am finally accepting that it is time to try competitors. The acceptance and getting over the fear of the unknown (W10 under the hood) were my two biggest hurdles.

Tried it once, too, however Windows is inherently broken. All the things we take for granted on macOS are back on the table.
You shouldn’t have to “accept” a substandard OS like Windows

 

[maflynn]

I'm not sick of apple, but I do I think that apple's strategic and tactical decisions have pushed me away. Pricing, design, and other factors have caused me to abandon the Mac platform. I'm still using an iPhone and iPad/

I think Microsoft's dual screen tablet is incredibly innovative and exciting that I can see myself abandoning the iPad in liu of this, though I have to wait 10 to 11 more months.

 

[Expos of 1969]

I'm not sick of apple, but I do I think that apple's strategic and tactical decisions have pushed me away. Pricing, design, and other factors have caused me to abandon the Mac platform. I'm still using an iPhone and iPad/

I think Microsoft's dual screen tablet is incredibly innovative and exciting that I can see myself abandoning the iPad in liu of this, though I have to wait 10 to 11 more months.
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I am surprised you did not have a problem with the pricing on the iPhone side if you found it an issue on the Mac side.

 

[maflynn]

I am surprised you did not have a problem with the pricing on the iPhone side if you found it an issue on the Mac side.

On the mac side you're paying a premium amount and compared to the competition the difference can be significant. When I bought my ThinkPad, I paid about 2,200, for a similarly configured MBP, it would have run my in the 4k range. Now for that 4,000+ dollars, I'm getting a computer that is sealed (memory/ssd/battery soldered/glued). Lacks ports, has an aging screen (retina vs. 4k) and on top of all that, a keyboard that is defective.

So there wasn't a single factor that drove me away from the Mac, but rather a combination with the defective keyboard being the straw that broke the camel's back.

For the iPhone, it is pricey, too pricey but I do feel that I'm getting value with sticking with iOS, whether its face timing my kids, or using apple music. So far, I've had exceedingly great experiences with the iPhone and it really hasn't had the number of problems that the MBP has over the years (near-constant GPU failures, screen coating coming off, battery swelling, butterfly keyboards, etc etc).

 

[Expos of 1969]

On the mac side you're paying a premium amount and compared to the competition the difference can be significant. When I bought my ThinkPad, I paid about 2,200, for a similarly configured MBP, it would have run my in the 4k range. Now for that 4,000+ dollars, I'm getting a computer that is sealed (memory/ssd/battery soldered/glued). Lacks ports, has an aging screen (retina vs. 4k) and on top of all that, a keyboard that is defective.

So there wasn't a single factor that drove me away from the Mac, but rather a combination with the defective keyboard being the straw that broke the camel's back.

For the iPhone, it is pricey, too pricey but I do feel that I'm getting value with sticking with iOS, whether its face timing my kids, or using apple music. So far, I've had exceedingly great experiences with the iPhone and it really hasn't had the number of problems that the MBP has over the years (near-constant GPU failures, screen coating coming off, battery swelling, butterfly keyboards, etc etc).

Valid points (but Apple Music works fine on my Samsung phone)

 

[Dave245]

I'm not sick of apple, but I do I think that apple's strategic and tactical decisions have pushed me away. Pricing, design, and other factors have caused me to abandon the Mac platform. I'm still using an iPhone and iPad/

I think Microsoft's dual screen tablet is incredibly innovative and exciting that I can see myself abandoning the iPad in liu of this, though I have to wait 10 to 11 more months.
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I completely agree, I'm also very much interested in the Surface Neo and Duo, the only problem is we have to wait almost a full year for those devices. My current plan is to use my Apple devices until Neo and Duo get a resales date, I will then see what the reviews are like before getting one.

In terms of Apple, I'm finding that the software is getting worse with every year. Devices are also getting left for many years without updates, the iMac for example has not had a redesign in so long, I've been holding out in hoped for the last couple of years! I've been a BIG Apple fan for many years but I can certainly see the cracks starting to appear, I fear that my love affair with them is starting to get old boring and just not worth it anymore.

 

[levander]

1. All companies try to make a buck. Amazon, Apple, and Microsoft are no different in this regard
2. Microsoft can’t ”overtake“ Apple I’m the PC market; it’s already the dominant player
3. You don’t sell Apple stock based on your opinion of the products. You gauge other’s opinions of the products
4. Apple has the best supported ecosystem which values your privacy, mostly because Apple unified hardware and software

1. Not sure why you’re stating the obvious here.

2. You didn’t really read the post you’re responding to.

3. If all I based my opinoin on was other people’s opinion, I never would have bought AAPL stock to begin with. And even if I did buy it, I would have sold it at least ten times by now. I have been called crazy for owning AAPL as long as I have many times. I would have missed out on hundreds of thousands of dollars If I were doing things just by gauging other people’s opinions.

4. Privacy protection isn’t going to make much of a difference in the market. Google, Facebook, Amazon do just fine without strict privacy policies.And if you’re relying on Apple to protect your privacy, you’re probably better off than on Android. But there have been Enough stories in the media where Apple products are allowing 3rd parties to gather data on you.

 

[AustinIllini]

4. Privacy protection isn’t going to make much of a difference in the market. Google, Facebook, Amazon do just fine without strict privacy policies.And if you’re relying on Apple to protect your privacy, you’re probably better off than on Android. But there have been Enough stories in the media where Apple products are allowing 3rd parties to gather data on you.

The rest wasn't interesting. This is. Apple is easily the leader on protecting your privacy. I find it interesting you somehow are trying to refute than when it is clearly factual.

 

[TiggrToo]

1. Not sure why you’re stating the obvious here.

2. You didn’t really read the post you’re responding to.

3. If all I based my opinoin on was other people’s opinion, I never would have bought AAPL stock to begin with. And even if I did buy it, I would have sold it at least ten times by now. I have been called crazy for owning AAPL as long as I have many times. I would have missed out on hundreds of thousands of dollars If I were doing things just by gauging other people’s opinions.

4. Privacy protection isn’t going to make much of a difference in the market. Google, Facebook, Amazon do just fine without strict privacy policies.And if you’re relying on Apple to protect your privacy, you’re probably better off than on Android. But there have been Enough stories in the media where Apple products are allowing 3rd parties to gather data on you.

Care to provide some links to these stories, please? Is kinda hard to refute or agree when we do not know the context of said stories.

 

[levander]

The rest wasn't interesting. This is. Apple is easily the leader on protecting your privacy. I find it interesting you somehow are trying to refute than when it is clearly factual.

The first 3 weren’t interesting cause they were just simple responses straightening out your foolish statements.

Which you’re still making.

Saying Apple leads in protecting privacy is like saying Burger King makes the best fast food hamburger. No fast food place makes a good hamburger. You’re just rolling around in the muck acting like privacy is going to make any kind of real difference in the market.
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Care to provide some links to these stories, please? Is kinda hard to refute or agree when we do not know the context of said stories.

Couple of quick examples:

Apps use hidden trackers to collect personal data without consent

After hooking an iPhone up to monitoring software, it was discovered that over 5,400 app trackers were sending data from the device to third parties, like names, phone numbers and IP addresses.

www.dailymail.co.uk

Apple contractors were allegedly listening to 1,000 Siri recordings a day — each

That likely means about two per minute per person.

www.theverge.com

it’s good that Apple is pushing towards privacy in ways. But if you’re relying on them for privacy, you’re making a mistake.

 

[TiggrToo]

The first 3 weren’t interesting cause they were just simple responses straightening out your foolish statements.

Which you’re still making.

Saying Apple leads in protecting privacy is like saying Burger King makes the best fast food hamburger. No fast food place makes a good hamburger. You’re just rolling around in the muck acting like privacy is going to make any kind of real difference in the market.

I totally disagree and find your analogy incorrect. Apple do sell use your location information - a far cry from anyone else. They do not sell any call information to anyone either - your cell provider may well do that. They do not sell your browsing information - again your provider and other ISP's may well do that.

In fact, there's an awful lot Apple do not sell because they don't want to.

So, please provide specifics as to where Apple have failed. Generalities are pointless to argue on.

 

[levander]

I totally disagree and find your analogy incorrect. Apple do sell use your location information - a far cry from anyone else. They do not sell any call information to anyone either - your cell provider may well do that. They do not sell your browsing information - again your provider and other ISP's may well do that.

In fact, there's an awful lot Apple do not sell because they don't want to.

So, please provide specifics as to where Apple have failed. Generalities are pointless to argue on.

Are you guys reading the thread before you post?

I know that Illini guy isn’t. Just weird having two people not reading before they post.

 

[TiggrToo]

Are you guys reading the thread before you post?

I know that Illini guy isn’t. Just weird having two people not reading before they post.

Humor us: assume we haven't. I did go back and didn't find any specifics myself, but perhaps I missed something.

I did see the thing about app trackers - but that's nothing to do with Apple - so please do not use that as an example because it's not relevant. I also saw about the Siri recordings - but that's been stopped and everyone was doing that. What else?

 

[levander]

Humor us: assume we haven't. I did go back and didn't find any specifics myself, but perhaps I missed something.

I did see the thing about app trackers - but that's nothing to do with Apple - so please do not use that as an example because it's not relevant. I also saw about the Siri recordings - but that's been stopped and everyone was doing that. What else?

If you’re gonna close your eyes and be blind to where the Apple ecosystem invades your privacy, there’s nothing I can do to help you.

 

[TiggrToo]

Scroll up about 4 posts.

You mean the app trackers and Siri one that I just quoted?

 

[Dave245]

Humor us: assume we haven't. I did go back and didn't find any specifics myself, but perhaps I missed something.

I did see the thing about app trackers - but that's nothing to do with Apple - so please do not use that as an example because it's not relevant. I also saw about the Siri recordings - but that's been stopped and everyone was doing that. What else?

The thing is I‘ve been an Apple fan for many years! I’m deeply inside the ecosystem, but even I can see the hypocrisy about privacy. Apple use to claim that they were better than the other guys, mainly because Siri was more privacy friendly, I’m afraid it’s not true!

Apple got caught with the contract employees listening in, just like how Amazon got caught in the same way. The difference is that Alexa and Echo devices are much better. I own both a Homepod and an Echo Show 5, the Echo Show I use much more than the Homepod. It’s a great alarm clock and digital assistant. Apple are falling behind big time, they can’t even claim it’s for privacy reasons anymore.

The sad thing is it’s not just the digital assistant area that they are falling behind in. Software is more buggy and hardware is having more failures.

 

[faust]

On the mac side you're paying a premium amount and compared to the competition the difference can be significant. When I bought my ThinkPad, I paid about 2,200, for a similarly configured MBP, it would have run my in the 4k range. Now for that 4,000+ dollars, I'm getting a computer that is sealed (memory/ssd/battery soldered/glued). Lacks ports, has an aging screen (retina vs. 4k) and on top of all that, a keyboard that is defective.

So there wasn't a single factor that drove me away from the Mac, but rather a combination with the defective keyboard being the straw that broke the camel's back.

For the iPhone, it is pricey, too pricey but I do feel that I'm getting value with sticking with iOS, whether its face timing my kids, or using apple music. So far, I've had exceedingly great experiences with the iPhone and it really hasn't had the number of problems that the MBP has over the years (near-constant GPU failures, screen coating coming off, battery swelling, butterfly keyboards, etc etc).

I paid $1300 for my Lenovo X1 Thinkpad Extreme(Gen 2). It has like 16 GB of RAM, some i7 processor I can't remember off the top of my head, 512 GB SSD, an Nvidia Geforce 1650 4 GB, and a 1080p 500 nits display. TBH, I really like the 16" $2799 base configuration MBP more than I do the Thinkpad. I'm kinda on the fence about keeping this MBP, buuuut given the quality of the combined MBP + iPhone + Apple TV 4K experience? I'm probably gonna stick with the MBP. It's just an absolute joy to use.

 

[maflynn]

I paid $1300 for my Lenovo X1 Thinkpad Extreme(Gen 2).

That's a really good price, I have the Gen1 and I'm happy with it, When I went to buy the machine, I got near the top end, i.e., 4k screen 1TB storage 32GB of ram (even though I don't need that much). While I could have configured the ram lower, the shipping was faster with the stock configuration. I wanted the 4k as ell, but now after using it for a year, I find that 4k on a 15" form factor isn't ideal and a FHD screen might be better.

Overall I have no regrets and after seeing some of the complaints with the 16" MBP, I'm content staying away.

 

[petvas]

To answer the original question, I feel for the first time in my life happy with my computer setup. I have everything I need (and want) and it works mostly perfect. I don't want to start any OS discussion, but this kind of integration cannot be achieved outside the Apple ecosystem.
I use an iMac as my main computer and I also have a MacBook Pro, an iPad, an AppleTV an Apple Watch and of course an iPhone. The integration is really great and for the first time I don't feel compelled to buy anything new. Most of my devices were bought last year, so they are still top. The only upgrade for me this year will be the new iPhone when it arrives next September.