Comments on: Who Can Lead Apple?

By: cpawl

cpawl — Tue, 13 Jan 2009 01:00:17 +0000

Another great Microsoft branding effort…

http://uk.youtube.com/watch?v=3oGFogwcx-E

…exactly.

By: cpawl

cpawl — Sat, 10 Jan 2009 04:47:40 +0000

“As a user, I know what I can and cannot click on, what’s a button, what’s a slider, what will drag and what will not.”

Haha… okay man. I am done here.

By: Matt

Matt — Fri, 09 Jan 2009 16:07:48 +0000

For the record, URL structure has nothing to do with branding. Microsoft markets to many different locales, industries, and levels of consumers. If Apple organized their URLs in this way, they would have:

http://hardware.apple.com/en/enterprise/virtualization/xserve.jsp

Keep in mind that Microsoft doesn’t only cater to the personal-computing consumers like Apple does (I say that in a general sense: Apple doesn’t market to enterprises or governments). Microsoft makes everything from VoIP solutions to email servers.

Also, following a common idea is NOT something that Apple products share. Go ahead and tell me that Garage Band looks ANYTHING like iMovie. The interface isn’t even remotely similar. Even the controls across programs are different. Up until Leopard, even the shells weren’t cohesive across apps (brushed metal, smooth metal, plastic…). At least Microsoft apps have a set of common styling guidelines that lay out how things should look. As a user, I know what I can and cannot click on, what’s a button, what’s a slider, what will drag and what will not. On OS X, there is no common custom control library (as with Windows Form Controls) and consequently, developers end up writing their own bits and pieces, leading to a mish-mash of inconsistent interfaces.

By: cpawl

cpawl — Fri, 09 Jan 2009 00:07:42 +0000

The branding at Apple is a philosophy. Every product from the OS, the hardware, the software, ..etc. follow a common idea.

They are not:

http://www.microsoft.com/products/info/default.aspx?View=22

and then

http://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/tce/default.aspx

and then

http://www.microsoft.com/windows/windows-vista/default.aspx

They are:

http://www.apple.com/

and

http://www.apple.com/finalcutstudio/

and

http://www.apple.com/findouthow/mac/

They know as a company who they are, what they offer, and where they are going. Apple is NOT Steve Jobs. Fanboys and ironically Apple haters think so but in reality they are an extremely well branded machine. Without a doubt there is plans for life after Steve. Since the branding is so strong they can and will survive without him.

By: Mike Jozaitis

Mike Jozaitis — Thu, 08 Jan 2009 18:12:49 +0000

The biggest thing that scares me about Apple right now (as a branding-machine) is if they can keep momentum going - both on the consumer side and the investor side.

At least Gates named a successor, and he has been visible. It\’s time for Mr. Jobs to get his planning place so Apple can have a wonderful pearly-white-touch-screen-future!

By: Aaron Hagenbüch

Aaron Hagenbüch — Thu, 08 Jan 2009 13:37:58 +0000

I hardly see how the statement, “these people” would be construed as ignorance? After all, wasn’t it Apple that started the whole “I am a Mac” campaign in order to help distinguish their users as self-proclaimed tech connoisseurs? I just didn’t want to offend the community by putting them on the same level as an undeserving PC user - like myself.

After all, I have used Macs all throughout high school and college, so I know firsthand that they are overpriced toys.

By: cpawl

cpawl — Thu, 08 Jan 2009 01:43:18 +0000

“These people”

I love post like this… please keep them coming. It’s like my grandfather talking about nationalities and foreign cars…

Ignorance is bliss and everything I don’t know sucks.