Registered: Oct 1999
Location: I'm not sure, but I see lots of lights everywhere.
Posts: 1287

Apple roundtable discussion @ Siliconvalley.com

Check it out! Some of the best minds in the Mac camp are there!

http://www.siliconvalley.com/roundtable/

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My blog: Pocketfactory

Registered: Oct 1999
Location: I'm not sure, but I see lots of lights everywhere.
Posts: 1287

I love Jean-Lois Gassee's comment:

"...Of course Apple matters, from style to substance -- it's practically Redmond's advanced development lab. Let me first address style, as I want to react to the perennial "prettier box" comment.

Look at the lame imitation of the iMac colors displayed by some PC makers, a few cheap mauve plastic inserts haphazardly tacked on beige boxes. Looks like Chrysler's idea of wood inserts: "Our customers are idiots, they won't see the difference."

Starting with the Apple ][, style enabled Apple to send a different message to its customers, to practice a different philosophy of computing.

Allow me to call a witness, Herman Hesse, and (mis)quote him in Steppenwolf:
"This computer was no computer, this mouse no mouse, pixels no pixels, the fan no fan. All were the plastic material of love, of magic and delight. Each was a messenger, a smuggler, a weapon, a battle cry."

Apple's view of computing is not strictly utilitarian. It's only one view, not _the_ view -- but one with more than 4 billion dollars in cash, to be discussed in another post."

Beautiful!

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My blog: Pocketfactory

Registered: Oct 1999
Location: I'm not sure, but I see lots of lights everywhere.
Posts: 1287

Of course Apple still matters..

Apple does still matter. Not to everyone, but to those who appreciate innovation and a different way of thinking. Still to this day, they are the tail that wags the dog. The PC industry always follows, or should I say copies, where Apple leads. One need only look at design innovations to see that example. PC makers repeatedly copy Apple�s designs, and fail miserably in the attempt. The Compaq Presario is a hideous example of what happens when a PC maker attempts to apply a new concept to an old paradigm, literally taking a colored plastic face-plate and sticking it on a beige box. Yuck! I believe the beige box metaphor, as it has existed for over 20 years, is a dead medium. It was designed in an age when the PC was nothing more than a piece of office equipment, much like a copy machine. Today the PC is, or rather should be, morphing into something much more than a utilitarian box. Yet PC makers are still building boxes for an environment that has changed more so than the PC itself. Why is it that Apple is the only OEM in the industry that still cares about the experience a user has with its products? DELL, Compaq, Gateway, and HP are only interested in mass produced generic boxen.

Slowing economy aside, I think one reason why PC�s aren�t selling is because consumers don�t want them anymore! They seem to have lost interest.

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Registered: Oct 2000
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Re: Of course Apple still matters..

quote:

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Originally posted by foo fighter
Slowing economy aside, I think one reason why PC�s aren�t selling is because consumers don�t want them anymore! They seem to have lost interest.

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Registered: Oct 2000
Location: Aberdeen, SD
Posts: 2531

Re: Re: Of course Apple still matters..

quote:

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Originally posted by mensachicken
Not sit inside and stare at a lifeless screen for hours on end.

mc

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-Joshua
Abortion: Darwinism at its finest.

Registered: Oct 1999
Location: I'm not sure, but I see lots of lights everywhere.
Posts: 1287

Re: Re: Of course Apple still matters..

quote:

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Originally posted by mensachicken
What I don't understand, Foo, is why you care if other people have lost interest. I find it utterly baffling why you continue to pose this statement as if it's a bad thing.

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