Yeah. They don't. Recently, I watched a documentary called "MacHeads", which documented the community of Apple users from 1984 to 2007 (when it was filmed). Despite the blatant fanboy perspective that the documentary took, the film was interesting, showcasing the "culture" around Mac users and the fierce loyalty to the company, even when it basically died. What I found really interesting was the attitude of the MacHeads upon the resurgence of Apple with the iPod and iPhone lines. The hardcore Mac users loved the new desktop and laptop lines, but didn't like the others as much due to the complete lack of community. Previously, user groups had in person meet ups where they shared ideas and software, and it was something that Apple itself loved and even fostered. But what the MacHeads now see is a complete lack of association with the user groups. The change, which hasn't effected sales, did annoy many users.
Ultimately, what Apple users have failed to learn is what Molly Wood of CNET says best: "He doesn't love you back". And today, Apple has shown that they really don't have a big opinion of the intelligence of it's users. In response to the antenna issues of the iPhone 4, Apple released a statement. The statement says essentially that the issue is a software problem, one that causes the iPhone to erroneously display 2 more bars than it should show. And this problem goes back to the iPhone 3G. So you know those areas where you get 4 bars? It's probably only 2. Well fantastic, Steve, but what does that have to do with holding it in my left hand? The answer (and I quote):
Users observing a drop of several bars when they grip their iPhone in a certain way are most likely in an area with very weak signal strength, but they don't know it because we are erroneously displaying 4 or 5 bars. Their big drop in bars is because their high bars were never real in the first place.
....WHAT? How dumb do you think people are? Unless this software also fixes the physical properties of the iPhone 4 or it changes the laws of electromagnetism, this doesn't actually fix the issue! You will still lose signal when you bridge the two antennae. All this fix does is stop lying about how much signal you don't have. It gets better:
We are also making bars 1, 2 and 3 a bit taller so they will be easier to see.
Oh, thanks. Now, instead of lying to users, you'll allow them to fool themselves into thinking their coverage is fine by making it look the few bars they have are better. You might as well make the color of the bars you do have darker. Or better yet, don't even bother displaying them, let users be completely in the dark.
But seriously, what the hell is Apple thinking here? How dumb do you think people are? The obvious joke here is "Very, I mean people buy Apple products in the first place". But being completely serious, I truly can't tell what the angle here is. When you add this press release to the leaked customer service memo that said that they won't be issuing free bumpers (which completely circumvent the issue and cost $1 max to make) to disgruntled customers. Previously, I've heard that Apple users love how good their customer service has been, but I just can't see it now. It all comes back to what I've said many times. Apple is making the exact same mistakes it made 10 years ago, mistakes that led them to being all but irrelevant.
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