Posted on 04/11/2010 2:38:33 AM PDT by Swordmaker
What does Apple get that Sony, HP, Microsoft, Dell, Samsung, and LG don’t?…. Usability in software. All these other geeks out there making hardware love packing on “specs”, stuffing big numbers like RAM, gigahertz, and hard drive space into small or cool looking gadgets. It all looks good on paper, but after you use one of their gadgets for more than a few weeks, you just want to throw it out a window. Thousands of new gadgets released every year all using the same-old crappy unfriendly, unintuitive, unattractive software. It’s no wonder so many are flocking to Apple when we can just pickup one of their simplistic products, start taping and swiping our fingers, and lo and behold… it just does what we want it to do. Of course, it isn’t easy, or cheap, to make software this user friendly, which is why everyone is having such a hard time keeping up.
As a software developer, I hear the phrase “I just want it to…”. Which, as any experienced software developer knows, is the most expensive phrase we ever hear. People have software needs all the time, which may require vast complicated effort to achieve, but they want it to hide all that complication behind a simple and user-friendly interface. What most people don’t know is that making software do just about anything doesn’t cost nearly as much as making it easy and intuitive for them to use. This lack of cost awareness is what ruins so many “brilliant” product ideas.
Sony is, in my opinion, the worst offender. In the past decade, I have seen Sony release cutting-edge gadgets to the market before anyone else. The PSP was an amazing gadget when it came out, in theory. It played music, videos, viewed photos, surfed the web, and of course, played games. The problem was that, excluding the last feature, it didn’t do any of them well. In fact, all the claimed features were so hard to use that almost no one could figure it out. Then, even more idiotically, Sony received reports that users were not using the extra features and stopped improving them! Sony could have been the what the iPod Touch is today, but lost the chance with bad software.
But I don’t just write this to rant, I write this as a warning to other business owners and entrepreneurs out there. Developing software and technology is one thing, but making it user friendly is another. In fact, usability can consume up to 80% of a project’s time and resources. That is, if your actually going to make something people will want to use. You have to build it, review it, fix it, test it, fix it, beta release, fix it, get feedback, fix it, get more feedback, fix it… and maybe… just maybe… people will be able to actually use it.
This is why the only mobile platform even close to keeping up with Apple is Google’s Android. Google is the only one in the fight with the know-how and resources to keep up. Even RIM, makers if the Blackberry, can’t keep their mobile software up to par, they have to invest in starting from scratch or spending huge resources in fixing what they have.
If you or your company has a “great idea” for an application or gadget, just remember, once you price the development… multiply it a couple times for usability.
“There’s plenty of research by people who consider the ipad very short of functionality who have NEVER TOUCHED an iPad”
Sure, there are plenty who look at the specs and say “Wheres the beef?”
And the are plenty who have bought one, held one, tested one and find it lacking functionality and capabilities and consider it a high price geek toy.
“You might want to do a little research on the relative incomes of Mac owners compared to PC owners”
Yes because macs cost so much more. Doesn’t change that business uses PC and individuals use mac.
Market share goes to PC, available software goes to PC, interoperability goes to PC, cost goes to PC.
Pretty and stylish goes to Mac.
Excuse me? Borrow money?
Do you have the slightest idea what you are driveling about? Apple has no debt, no borrowed money at all. People BOUGHT STOCK. I have a buddy who bought stock at $14... he is very happy... his stock he bought at $14 a share is now worth almost $1000 a share... two splits and he now each of his shares is FOUR... at $242 each... that's $968... for a $14 investment. And he owns several thousand shares. He is not demanding ANYTHING. Apple has made him a millionaire.
I do far more with my MacBook than I ever did with any of my PC's.
I even convinced my sister, who has her own consulting business, to switch from Windows to a MacBook Pro. And she couldn't be happier.
People like Macs because they believe that a computer is a means to an end, not an end in itself.
Well if you’re comparing market share you might actually want to look at SALES not some obscure traffic snapshot.
The iphone has been out a while. The droid was just released and is beating everyone.
Of course part of that is the weak network that AT&T has. You’ve heard the comparison, what do the iPad and iPhone have in common? You can’t make a call on either one.
Kinda of a strange thing to say. I doubt people care about who Apple pays or doesn’t pay when purchasing items. I have an Apple Shuffle for running. Everyone who runs has one and it has nothing to do with politics. Do you run or are you a fat ass?
2. That isn't multitasking, it's apptasking, and it blows.
3. Riiiiiiight, unlike "super efficient" Quicktime. LOL
4. So I need 99 cent app.... plus a $300+ iPhone and monthly contract with AT&T to do what a basic laptop can do. FAIL
5. No video means no video. WiFi? Add another $130 to the already outrageous price.
6. It's called a battery-swap, and people who do more than listen to MP3s don't do "charge time."
7. Adapters for USB? Sold seperately! $$$$$
8. Exactly. As for the vast majority of computer users, we use video ports regularly.
9. "a resource hog that eats CPU cycles" suddenly becomes a feature when hardware is shamefully lacking.
10. Blue-Ray is antiquated. Now I've read everything.
11. NOT OSX is NOT OSX
12. On sale now!!! $$$$$$
Just for kicks the media should be comparing a decades old Amiga to any Apple PC and see which is more innovative, capable, valuable...and fun. Too bad the Amiga didn't get the free marketing boost that Apple has been getting for decades because it offered a better alternative to IBM clones than Apple ever did IMO.
Heck I don’t care if people want to buy a Mac. I just object to all the hype and kool aid drinkers.
Are you aware that in almost every comparison of the Total Cost of Ownership between PCs and Macs, that the Macs turn out to be less expensive to own???? In big organizations, the differential, is staggering... sometimes as much as a thousand dollars per year per machine LESS for the Macs... and that's including the initial purchase price.
Most of you remind me of the people who know the price of everything and the value of nothing. Quite frankly, I value my time much higher... and it is too valuable to spend futzing around with the things Windows requires just to keep it running reasonably well. And I speak as a person who makes his living keeping Windows machines running reasonably well.
Everyone customer of mine that I persuade to switch to a Mac ceases to pay me as much money as they did when they were a Windows user. They simply no longer have the problems any more once they have a Mac. That is a fact. And everyone of them has said "Why didn't I listen and switch sooner." The other thing they say, spontaneously, is "I will NEVER go back!" and, after a short learning curve, "I am having fun with my computer again!" or "I never realized a computer could be so easy!"
However, THEY do recommend me to the PC using friends as an honest person who will fix their PCs when they get infected with problems... and I will tell those friends also to get a Mac the next time and these problems will go away... just ask the guy who recommended me...
Some of these were Dyed-in-the-Wool anti-Mac people from way back... who had been told some of the same canards you see on these threads.
“Are you aware that in almost every comparison of the Total Cost of Ownership between PCs and Macs, that the Macs turn out to be less expensive to own?”
Sure the ones put out by apple.
Applers reminds me of Mercedes owners, when the world is run on Fords, Kia’s, and VW’s.
A tool is a tool. The thought of one’s ‘happiness’ being connected to an inanimate object?
I won’t even go there philosophically.
Speaking of who doesn’t know anything, are you familiar with the time value of money? You know, interest, vig, dividends?
I still say lefties are cheap. I bar tend and dread a party of lefties. Lefties donate less than others. A lot of lefties depend on ‘industries’ that derived money from forced tax collection, tax breaks and or subsides.
But know their boycott of advertising on Fox News means they hate Conservatives with every shred of their existence.
Specs are not the be-all-and-end-all of tech... user experience is.
If it has something in the specs but the user can't find it to use, it's no good.
That's what this article is about... and it's why Apple IS kicking everyone else's respective hiney's ...
They know what to take out...
They know what to make as an add on for the minority who needs it and not to foist it on everyone, just because the minority MIGHT want it.
And they know how to make the features they leave in DROP DEAD EASY TO USE.
My last phone I had before my iPhone, a Motorola, had a speaker phone capability. During to TWO years I had that damn phone, I was able to use the speaker phone capability just twice... because I could NEVER find it when I needed it... the two times I did use it, the icon for it just suddenly appeared on the screen over the button... and there it was.
But other times, in the same circumstances, it was NEVER THERE. I went looking for it... and could never find it. I am not a stupid person. I am a tech savvy person. I sat there one afternoon with the thick manual for that phone in my hand and COULD NOT FIND IT. I went to AT&T and THEY COULD NOT FIND IT.
That phone had conference call features... every single time I attempted to use it, it disconnected the first call. Without fail. I had the AT&T people try it. Did the same damn thing for them. It was in the SPECS... but it did not work. Looked good on paper. But as a user interface it sucked big time. I HATED THAT PHONE... and i hated every previous phone I had beyond the first cell phone I had that simply made phone calls.
Strange... I have businesses who use Macs that are clients. They MUCH prefer it. Had PCs and they will NEVER go back. Cost them too much in lost productivity and down time. Just this last week an optometrist was asking me how much it would cost him to dump his PCs and switch to Macs after losing a week for one of his office girls because her computer got infected. Seems her anti-virus ware (not the one I installed for them last year, one somebody else decided to put on) got switched off...
My first computer was a Franklin running cpm. I’ve never once had a ‘problem’ that wasn’t explained in a owners manual.
Now, who do you hand hold? Ever hear of confirmation bias? Seriously now in this day and age.....well, you might have a point in that I know plenty of people that can’t jack a car and put a tire on, hang a door, read a compass, break down and clean a .45, make a martini, clear a paper jam, use a volt meter, bake a loaf of nice crispy crust white bread....
Uh, no... Macs can run more software than PCs can, since Macs can run 100% of all Windows software but not vice verse. And in almost every TCO comparison done by independent agencies, Macs come out ahead...
Did I say that I wanted a computer to be a means to an end rather than an end in itself? Yes I did. You still can't read. Look at all those PC guys forever tinkering with their computers.
And when one "object" provides you with a lot less hassles than another (inanimate) "object", then, yes, that automatically translates into a lot more "happiness" or satisfaction.
Another lie... I've been all around this country with my iPhone... and there are very few places where I have been unable to make a phone call or not had an internet connection. There has either been an adequate 3G connection or EDGE had been available. Two years ago, I traveled from Southern Indiana across to Southern California... I had no signal for a total of only five minutes during that entire trip.
Go peddle your tripe to someone who doesn't have an iPhone... and hasn't had almost three years of experience with it.
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