@PeterLaursen
Just a few tid bits on your post…
I'm British and I consider myself more a part of Europe than I do America. But obviously the UK has a strong bond with the US given we share the same language. It's easy enough to pick faults with the US, especially with the previous Bush admin which I despised, their arrogance being an obvious flaw, but I value the US above most other countries (Europe aside).
With the Dashboard widgets. They work fine in the UK.
With Apple being arrogant, I'd tend to agree with you. And it's something that has concerned me and even delayed my adoption of the Mac over the years (I had been on the verge of switching several times over the years). I don't like how they treat their customers in terms of valuing them as human beings. For example they havent implemented copy/paste on the iPhone yet (time and time again I'd have found this useful) despite being criticized about it repeatedly by customers and the media. I don't like how they've discarded some iPhone apps which “duplicate already present functionality” which was nonsense. I don't like how typically Macbook memory upgrade options on their website has consistently over the years been nothing short of a scam, charging 3 to 4 times retail. Which meant either beginners got ripped off, and the rest of us had the burden of ordering the memory separately and opening the Mac on day one when it should have been a more realistic price to begin with. Then there is the keyboard on their laptops, which is poor in my opinion – The UK enter key is tiny which is annoying for programmers who press it at the end of every line, there's no Page up/Down or Begin/End keys, which I make heavy use of, no hash key, other missing keys, tiny scrunched up arrow keys. Solution is simply to take a look at Vaio keyboards (or most other laptop keyboards for that matter) and simply add an extra row of keys on the right-hand side.
Anyhow, I could go on, and I've spoke my mind in more detail on the net in the past. So, why have I switched to the Mac recently?
Firstly, Windows. Which I've grown to hate more and more over the years. Windows XP looks like a Fisher Price childrens toy – the default colours of the taskbar, windows and background is laughable. Then there is the general lack of common sense with interface design which is evident all over the place. I had to setup Vista recently and what a horrible experience. Firstly I couldnt get it connected to a wireless LAN, which evidentially sounds like the same problem that Stephen Fry ranted about in his Twitter feed recently to much acclaim. I eventually got it connected, but given every other device I've connected to the network worked flawlessly there's no excuse for this basic feature not to work all the time. Then there is Microsoft's lack of innovation – all they do is copy from Apple. And they really do. Much to their embarrassment when Apple highlighted them in one of their keynotes when they put up “microsoft start your photocopiers” then later Apple said “we didn't mean it” then has side-by-side slides showing all the blatant rip-offs by Microsoft.
For all their flaws, Apple have the best research and development out there by a mile. And I like it when a company strives for perfection rather than copy other companies, acquire others, and milk everybody for every penny they're worth. Apple can seem a little power crazed. But look at the result. Unbox a Mac computer and it's a vastly different experience. The Mac (rather than being US centric!) has an opening sequence welcoming everybody, in all the world's major languages! This is a nice touch. And the rest of the setup is just as polished. I found it much easier and smoother to setup than Vista, and I've been a Windows user all my life! (aside from university years where I only used UNIX). The hardware is a no nonsense affair, there are NO stickers whatsoever on the laptop, there's no stupid stickers telling you whats inside the machine you just bought, there's no Windows product key stickers underneath, it's just clean, beautifully designed, no bullshit, no screwed together plastic panels like on a Vaio i recently setup for someone, no bundled crapware and useless stuff I didnt ask for, again which caused me issues on the Vaio i setup recenly because the trial virus scanner didnt uninstall cleanly. Then when you boot up into the desktop the Mac is ready to be used, while Vista is throwing notification messages up warning you about all kinds of crap instead of just shutting up and getting on with its job. The list goes on and on, and Microsoft have copied the Mac in several ways but still manage to make it more annoying. the UAC got turned off pretty quick.
So in short, Apple have a lot going for them. Their interface is WAY superior to Windows. And that includes the default apps and even third party apps. Everything is so much cleaner and less in-your-face.
As for the iPhone. It's head and shoulders above every other mobile device out there, by a mile. And this is coming from a former Symbian developer and long time Symbian/EPOC fan. Nokia took Symbian and mutilated it, Sony Ericsson didnt do much better with UIQ, Windows Mobile was a joke etc. The iPhone has shaken up the smartphone world and for good reason. Everybody else did an extremely poor job.
Just to finish. Apple arent the only arrogant company. Microsoft do a pretty good job of it too. I had to uninstall Office 2008 Home edition on the Mac because they actively cripple Entourage even if it has a valid key for Exchange use. And Microsoft replied to me saying they couldn't help and to check their FAQ (useless and they dont care basically) even though this screwed up policy has caught many others out and Microsoft are fully aware.
So while Apple have flaws, they're nowhere near as big as Microsofts. Apple have a lot going for them and their market share growth is reflecting that. Now is a good time to be embracing the Mac platform, both users and developers 😉 And incidentally the developer tools are better for Mac too. Microsoft's setup is a convoluted mess while Apple's is a focused set of core tools (or at least according to a hard core Windows developer who tried out the Mac tools).
