Opinion: I don't like Mondays, by Nic Healey

by Nic Healey | Monday 8 November 2010

The only thing Nic Healey hates more than a Monday is a wilfully ignorant consumer

“The iPhone is the smartphone for people who don’t want to have to think about what they’re buying.”

On the surface this might seem like a fairly standard bit of Apple bashing – maybe even not too far removed from something I might have said myself. Say what you like about Apple (and I have, often) it’s done an incredible job of offering a total package to its hordes of mindless fans, although I suppose “consumers” is the polite term.

Apple stores are kitted out like a 1980s director’s idea of Heaven: it’s white, it’s spacious, it’s got lots of glass and I’m reasonably sure I saw Warren Beatty in one. So when you walk into an Apple store’s womb-like interior (assuming your experiences with a womb involved a Neo-Bauhaus design aesthetic) it’s instantly comforting, relaxing, non-threatening. You don’t need to worry about purchasing choices because there’s a nice chap with a blue shirt who can help you with that. They might even have an App for it. Or so I’ve been told – I’ve never been in one of the Apple stores.

Surprisingly, this wasn’t actually meant to be a column dedicated to Apple-baiting, even if it is one of my favourite pastimes. It’s actually more about my current frustration with people displaying what can only be described as wilful ignorance when it comes to purchasing decisions. Yes, we currently exist in a time where we are frighteningly spoiled for choice but there’s also a lot of information out there to help us make decisions based on thorough research. It’s not even that hard to find thanks to a little thing called Google.

My colleague Zara Baxter is notable for many reasons but the one I want to highlight now is her decision to carry no less than 8 smartphones around with her at any given time. It’s a commitment that goes above and beyond anything I’ve managed to come up with. It means that Zara gets a lot of questions about what the phones are like to use. I understand this: people are asking her to give a personal value judgement based on her experiences. It’s a good thing. But every time somebody asks me what the difference is between an HTC phone and an Android phone I want to physically slap them with the Let Me Google That For You website.

Like many of us, I’m often called in for family tech support – how do I scan photos, how do I print this, why won’t the DVD play – and I don’t mind doing it. It’s family. But when people who I know are fairly techno-savvy make astounding claims such as suggesting that Apple have the only Tablet available on the market (true story apparently) or that you can only buy Android phones from Google because they own them (I’m not making this up) I’m forced to wonder if they’ve lost both arms in a tragic accident and can’t type into a search box anymore.

I know that the signal to noise ratio is a little low when it comes to the internet – there’s an astounding amount of bunk out there, even on otherwise trustworthy web sites. (Obviously not this one – we’re proudly bunk-, hokum- and cozenage-free.) But if spending 20 minutes doing a little research prevents you spending a year complaining that the only thing you actually like about the product you bought is the Apple logo on the back, surely that’s a good thing?

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mattj 8 November 2010	Thankyou! Apple is great at what they do, and all companies need to quickly catch up to their marketing and design strategies; which I hope would force all the mindless zombies to wake up and realise they actually have viable options to choose from. Comment made about the PC Authority article: Opinion: I don't like Mondays, by Nic Healey? The only thing Nic Healey hates more than a Monday is a wilfully ignorant consumer What do you think? Join the discussion.
Reggie 8 November 2010	@Nic Hmm, I'll just google the PC-Authority A-List. iPhone, still the one to beat.... @mattj "Apple is great at what they do" - they build computers and phones?
oztabletpc 8 November 2010	Well said Nick Healey! I bought an iPhone because it had the simplest exchange integration for its time. It was great then, but many current products leave it for dead in that department... I'm embarrassed by the logo on the back and am looking forward to ditching it! It would be so nice to be able to differentiate myself from the iSheep...
DJ... 8 November 2010	It's a pity that Apple products are so easy to use that any "Tom, Dick or Harry" can walk into a store to buy some modern technology and walk out with it already working. I know that this insults two types of people, those who make a living out of technology being complicated and needing support for anything but the simplest of tasks, and those whose ego gets dented every time they see a non-techno using modern technology without a University Degree. Smart consumers don't want to consult PC Magazines, or do a TAFE course just to select a new phone or computer. They talk with other users, find out what is easy and what is not, and then in many many cases go and buy an Apple product. This doesn't make them "mindless fans". If it suits their needs, why should we get our noses out of joint. Sounds like useless Apple bashing to me. Must be Monday at PC Authority. :-)
killa78 9 November 2010	So Nic...as a journo,it's hard to take you seriously...weren't smart enough for a real career!?
killa78 9 November 2010	As an owner of an iphone 4 who originally ditched his iphone 3 for a htc desire,you have no idea!The desire was very ordinary and crashed alot.The iphone isn't perfect but it does everything I want without drama's,and by the way,I own a PC,not a MAC. It's never hard to pick a journo,an overpaid scumbag who finds it hard to move away from the mirror!! Edited by killa78: 9/11/2010 12:04:46 PM
Slatts 9 November 2010	elsewhere, rubaiyat wrote: Some journalists do all the work for their critics. Given a slow Monday and nobody apparently wanted to go to the pub with him, Nic Healey has done an "opinion piece". Opinion pieces for the uninitiated are what journalists do when they are too lazy to even Google, and not having been to the pub have nothing to copy from other journalists who got a scoop on the way to the pub. In this game, that usually means someone sent them a Press Release. With a cheque, "for your troubles". Nic opines on Apple, because people are actually interested in Apple, not Nic's opinions. If you read the following opus, you can see why. What promised to be a good old bigotted rant is a damp squib. It's the equivalent of Shirl in Accounts telling you all about her kids because they seem to still have a life, only because they haven't left school yet to join her in Accounts. I'm a fast reader so at least I didn't waste too much time on it, but being in the same position as Nic, staring out the window at grey skies and with nothing much new in the Technoverse, I thought I'd brighten his day and pretend some interest in what he thinks. First of all you could take every mention of Apple and replace it with Microsoft and publish it in Macworld. You'd have to drop the descriptions of slick Apple Stores and products because that would sound totally implausible coming from Microsoft. But you could stick with the vaguely "don't like them because I never have". Apparently Nic especially doesn't like that Apple has nicely designed stores with attentive sales staff. That really gets up the nose of PC users who get all their gear from down the cracks of their pizza stained sofas and prefer a cheery "What do you want?" from their vendors after a considerable wait for their precious time. He apparently thinks Apple has a monopoly on fools for customers. Hardly, but given the dirty flood of PC switchers we are starting to appreciate the Abbott argument for high security detention camps for the "Boot People". Just because things are so shitty in Windowstan is no excuse to invade us and ruin our civilised patch with your great unwashed. Heck we've put up with 2 and half decades of clueless fanaticism from your grey conformists, too cheap to pay for quality. Now you are wandering around our pleasantly leafy suburbs resentfully implying that it got so neat and tidy by some underhand con by those smart arse Town Planners and Architects that we waste our money on. I do support, mainly for newbie switchers because it takes next to no time to get the hang of the Mac. Unless of course you are determined to use your new impact drill to remove earwax, and complain that it gives you a headache. Will you please take back your refugees who don't know where the file went to, what "selection" means, nor why their choice of not-using Windows somehow doesn't work just like Windows doesn't. Down to there being no incredibly difficult "solutions" to everything. Nor incredibly stupid "wizards" to help you do those "solutions". Nor long dull tomes to help you with the "wizards". Will you please pass around the hat and see if you can help Nic find some real news to write about. If you have one, toss in a clue as well. He doesn't seem to have one. Let's try to keep it tidy..
Zara_Baxter 10 November 2010	Hi slatts, thanks for bringing that comment over. The only bit I'm going to comment on is this bit: "Opinion pieces for the uninitiated are what journalists do when they are too lazy to even Google, and not having been to the pub have nothing to copy from other journalists who got a scoop on the way to the pub. In this game, that usually means someone sent them a Press Release. With a cheque, "for your troubles"." At PC Authority, Opinion pieces are ways to use our expertise to talk about things that may not get an airing otherwise. They generate robust discussion! grin To my knowledge, nobody at PC Authority (or any other media outlet I've written for) has ever received money with a press release, and we have full editorial control over what we write about and how we write about it. Where anyone on the team does receive some kind of vendor assistance (such as being flown to an event), we state it on the article we write, so that readers can judge for themselves how to interpret the story, with full information. But we do not accept trips to interstate or overseas events except under the proviso that we determine whether we write about it, and how we cover it. Sometimes, there's no story to be had. That's the way the cookie crumbles. Now, on with the fracas!
dr_nic 10 November 2010	Obviously, I've hit a wee bit of nerve here. Intriguingly, I wasn't actually deliberately trying to Apple bash - I was just annoyed at the sheer amount of people I know who do absolutely no research before making a purchase - hence my example of people somehow ignorant of Android in the current clime. Oh well - live and learn: Apple fanboys will find something to be upset about no matter what.
rubaiyat 10 November 2010	Zara and Nic My apologies for having tarred you with the "Paid for Comments Brush". We all know this is a myth and never happens in this industry. ;) Nic No nerve hit. I treat this much like the sports rivalry at the pub. With the qualification that PC fanboys never get it, because they have the balanced viewpoint. Right down to the accusations that Apple is "too" good. Hmmm do I know any PC users who have never even tried a Mac despite they can walk into any Apple Store or Apple Centre and go for it unmolested? Reminds me of a Web Press consultancy I did. They were totally gobsmacked at what the Mac did and how easily compared with their previous PCs. I got the job because I had set up a weekly full color Real Estate publication, that they printed, in a couple of weeks. From scratch. When I asked why they had gone with PCs, they said their previous consultants (who was milking them for heaps) said Macs didn't do DTP. Typically where the previous consultants had milked this cow dry over several years propping up their Windows publishing system, I made myself redundant. I should have recommended more PCs and I'd be still happily sinking my fangs in their juicy necks today.
killa78 10 November 2010	Nic,your not listening(ignorant!?).I DID DO my research on android.Supposed to be the "ducks nuts",probably,if you only use it for review purposes.Own one,it crashes A LOT!!Piece of open source shit IMO.Someone actually pays you to talk garbage-WOW,you are so clever,next stop,Canberra.
dr_nic 10 November 2010	@killa78 I do actually own Android for my personal phone - have done so for three phones now and just got off the phone to Vodafone ordering my Desire HD. No crashes on my side, but I'll assume this is just a case of YMMV. And if you did all your research and prefer an iPhone then you're certainly not wilfully ignorant and definitely not one of the people I'm having a mild go at.
dr_nic 10 November 2010	@rubaiyat Most of the publishing houses I've worked at have used Mac for design and layout purposes and I'm quite happy to admit that Apple have done a stellar job in that department.
rubaiyat 10 November 2010	Yeah, like Office software, email, web browsing is beyond them. But like I pointed out installing an easy to use, extremely secure and low maintenance system is not a great I.T. career move. As I observed in a few departments I served time in, "Failure keeps you guys busy", and employed. It doesn't just benefit the I.T. manager, as Dogbert says, by keeping the workers non-productive the pointy headed managers get to have more of them and build their empires.
Slatts 10 November 2010	Just to clarify, rubaiyat originally tried to post the post that I quoted above in this thread but, due to a glitch, it got posted in a new thread. That was the only way that I could move it across to the correct thread. I PMed him when I did it to let him know. Edit: I assume I've got the gender correct..:oops: Edited by Slatts: 10/11/2010 08:34:38 PM
techguru 13 November 2010	that's the way, fight you bastards i hate peace. :-) people are individuals and what works for one doesn't necessarily work for someone else. personally i am still using a Palm Treo 650. it syncs with my diary and contact management application, it has word, excel, pdf, email, web. it all works flawlessly. and to add fuel to the fire IMO the iphones are not a good business tool, great toys though.
rubaiyat 13 November 2010	I think Palm Treos are poo poo. There. My "Review" Seriously, I'd like to see more inclusions in the comparisons of PDAs eg Aboriginal Message Sticks and Incan knotted strings. Because: "what works for one doesn't necessarily work for someone else." and one of the major discoveries of the 21st century: "People are not identical."
.:Cyb3rGlitch:. 14 November 2010	I'd like them to include unreasonable unnecessary defensive fanboy opinions, but it appears they've already got that covered on the forum. Thanks rubaiyat!
rubaiyat 14 November 2010	Don't think you quite got that. It wasn't fanboyism since I don't have any of these gadgets. One thing though is certain, I am no fanboy of the "Everything is a matter of opinion" and offering actual reasons for conclusions is "So 90's". Which is not going to make me too popular with Gen Y, or the simply mentally lazy.
ikke 14 November 2010	Although a lot has been written down here over the past few days, not much has been said that is actually based on proven facts. That been said I do wish to thank you all for giving your personal opinions, it is always very entertaining (and even educational) reading them. (no joke)