One of the most boring arguments that I hear from Apple haters is that all of us that uses Apple’s devices are part of a cult.
It annoys me, because that means that I’m like under a spell and once I got captivated by that spell, my brain stopped working and Apple took over the thinking. And that is the reason to why I keep on buying Apple devices since 1989 when we bought our first MacPlus?
I guess that if you don’t use Apple devices and never have experienced the user satisfaction from doing it, it might seem to be very strange that people use Apple devices and are happy and content. Especially if your experience from Windows and Android is more frustrating and annoying. So of course, you have to come up with some kind of reason to why those Apple users are so happy and loyal.
From my point of view Apple users generally know more about their devices than Windows and Android users do, they are more interested in their devices, because they work well, Apple devices almost turns into your friend. It’s more than a tool.
That’s why Apple users cares more about their devices so that they update their OS and iOS whenever there’s a new version. Read the article on Tapscape.com – yesterday 40% of all iOS devices had upgraded to iOS7. Only in a couple of days! My Facebook feed was full of friends that was upgrading to iOS7 as soon as it was launched in Sweden. What’s more, there are very few iPhones and iPads with older iOS.
Have you heard of anything like it in the Android world? I’m sure you haven’t. The typical Android user would explain that Android users are not part of a cult and therefore don’t follow every step that ”the leader” takes. As an Apple user I think it’s just plain dumb. To upgrade is to care about your devices. This is what it looks like in the Android world:
Add the fact that Android users has more than 3000 different variations to choose from. That is what they call freedom of choice. The developers call this hell. Well, I guess there has to be some enthusiastic developers that actually like to develop apps for Androids, but if you ask me, you probably have to belong to a cult to cope with all the extra difficulties that follows from this mess of variations and different stages of upgrades.
Who’s the master behind this mess? Google. The ”do no evil”-company that gives away everything for free like the kid on the schoolyard that gives candy to everyone and hopes to become popular. Well, that’s not the whole truth. There are no such a thing as a free lunch and there is no such thing as a big search engine company giving away things for free. They earn their money from ads and payed search results. That’s why Android is free to use for everyone that wants to build a smartphone. You can do whatever you want to do with Android if you just know how to do the code.
The problem is: that’s exactly what developers do and especially in China. They figured out that all that ad-stuff was a bore and that they don’t like Google’s search engine, because they have one of their own, Baidu, so it turns out there’s not much for Google to earn their money on? You can read about that in this article from
ExtremeTech. To make it worse, China is the number one source for Android malware.
Now, there are of course some Android power users and they are very easy to detect: they are the ones that actually have found out how to surf the internet on their devices… Do you think that I’m unfair and mean writing this? The fact is that research after research give the same result: iOS users surf the web, Android users don’t. It’s like a mystery why they don’t. Maybe they think it costs a lot of money, maybe they just want to make phone calls with their smartphones (that’s like buying a computer to use it as a lamp) or maybe they can’t figure out how to do it. The consequence is that Android users don’t buy much stuff from the internet either, while iOS users do – which means that more money flows in the system, which makes it more stable. An OS without money in the system is like a house of cards – it offers no stability.
By the way, Android users don’t like to pay for their apps either… they just want everything for free and believe that Apple users are stupid to pay for everything. I guess they thought it was stupid when Apple turned the music business upside down with introducing iTunes several years ago. Pay for music? When you could get free, pirate copied music from the internet? Well, it didn’t take long until a lot of people bought a lot of music from iTunes and they are still doing it and it’s not so bad for the musicians either, because, they get payed. App developers get payed, authors get payed when they sell e-books in Apple’s iBookstore.
I believe in clean business solutions. If you want this, you have to pay this. Simple like that. If you don’t pay, you just won’t get it.
This is why I want to stay in my Apple world as long as it keeps on being smart, functional, beautiful and delivering an excellent user experience.
Great Article Asa. As a musician I am appreciative of the fact that you mentioned the fact that Apple is sure everyone gets paid for their efforts somehow. It is hurtful to hear android fans bragging about how they don’t have to pay for music as though that was a virtue.
Thanks1
Hi BackToJacks!
I’m glad that you liked my article. I have never understood the joy in stealing things, even if they are digital. We have tried to stay away from pirate copied music and movies, but it’s not always easy, because some people have a tendency to give it as gifts… But the family rule has been “don’t download pirate copied music and movies” and I think we have succeeded very well. I have received only two CD:s with pirate copied music on as gifts, that I now have in my iTunes, but otherwise I have paid for everything and that feels good.
I have a small company and as a business owner I sometimes get in the position when someone suggests that they can pay my work with some kind of favor and I don’t like that. It’s very rare that I need their favor for real, so it’s no value in it for me. I want clean money.