From Hatred To Preferred: The Apple Misconception

[metllicamilitia]

I want to start out with the question of whether or not anyone has a similar story as this. Going from hatred to love for a company, products, show, book, whatever it may be. I think these are interesting stories to hear, and different than the ever present why I left x phone for y phone threads floating about. Now for my story,

Why do some people hate companies and their products? And why do so many of those people not give that company or their products a fair chance? I was one of those people and I still don?t know the answer to those questions. I use to absolutely loathe Apple, the name brought a bitter taste to my mouth. Why? Because I couldn?t right click on a Mac. Yep, it was that simple. I loathed Apple and all their products because I couldn?t right click on a Mac.

I was raised on Microsoft from the good old days of MSDOS and Doom. I remember those days fondly. Still to this day I use a Windows laptop thought I plan on getting a MacBook Pro soon. The first time I used a Mac was in high school, I was taking a graphic design class and we used Mac?s for the class. As someone who grew up on Windows I was intimate with the ability to right click to bring up options. This is not present on Mac?s, though it is a simple keyboard button away. Despite overall liking the layout and being able to play with the icon dock, that right click disappearance fostered a long time hatred of all things Apple. Ridiculous.

Then one day Steve Jobs passed away. I knew the name, I knew his company, he was being heralded as one of the greatest innovators of our time and the iPhone was the phone to have. As a person who has always claimed to love technology and mobile technology in particular, I felt I owed it to the late Steve Jobs to at least try an iPhone. I?d played a little with some at cell provider stores, I loved the keyboard, and it was the be all end all of phones, the social status icon of phones. I found an 8GB iPhone 4 on Craigslist for a cheap price, brand new in box.

I couldn?t believe I finally paid for a product and contributed to a company I had so long loathed. But there it was, in my hand, and it felt spectacular. It felt like quality, the screen was amazingly responsive, and my typing errors drastically reduced. I loved it. I didn?t want to admit it, one of my coworkers always had to rub it in my face that the iPhone was awesome. He knew I loved it, but I couldn?t admit it. Though not long after my love of Android and BlackBerry kicked in and I had to buy one of each and play with all three devices. The iPhone won in the contest of which phone would be my platform of choice.

The iPhone was everything I felt I wanted in a phone, minus a few things I liked about the competition, but it was the closest I would ever get to an ideal phone. I was always on it, always doing something, it was a powerhouse in my current regimen. There was never anything I wanted to be able to do that I couldn?t do with it. It went even farther than that when I bought the iPhone 5 on release day. The iPhone 5 is the record holder for the longest time period I?ve ever owned a phone, at a whopping thirteen months. I had never owned a single phone for than six months at a time prior to the iPhone 5. This is a testament to how much I enjoy the platform, how much I do with it, and how relevant it is ever a year after release.

I have since taken it even a step further into the previously shadowland of Apple products. I recently purchased an iPad Mini. And now I only use my laptop for a couple work documents and writing, and writing only because I haven?t gotten keyboard for my iPad yet. The work documents need to be done on Windows because of the code difference between the documents on Excel versus Numbers, otherwise I would do it all from my iPhone or iPad. Now for me the next logical step is to get a MacBook Pro and fully integrate myself into the Apple ecosystem. I will probably still have my Windows laptop for the work documents, but other than that I will be using Apple products. I have chosen to go for the MacBook Pro over the Air simply because I want to learn to write iOS apps. I?ve spent a good part of my life despising a company and set of products that turned out to be exactly what I was looking for the whole time. Which is what prompts my original questions, why would do some people hate companies and products and not give them a proper chance? It?s simply beyond ridiculous.

 

[Tre Lawrence]

Can't say I ever mocked a platform or company. Well, maybe Kia and Daewoo back in the day.

I never understood the original iPhone, and roundly mocked it. In retrospect, I don't think it was the best device out at the time, but it was the most interesting. Since then, my respect for the platform has grown. I don't think iOS is the best platform for me at this time, but I do appreciate what Apple is doing.

Currently, I can honestly say I love every platform... enough to mix and match. Love using them, and learning about them. I was late to iOS, but am enjoying an older iPhone as a side device.

 

[Fausty82]

Yes, indeed. I posted my story in this thread over 2 years ago... from hater to fanboy in a matter of months... but you have to taste the kool-aid before you can learn to drink it freely.

http://forums.imore.com/ipad-2/213356-ive-officially-been-converted-apple.html#post1723935

 

[BBGary]

Nice writing OP. Made the switch from BBRY for the phone, Android for the tablet and Windows for a only computing platform to 5S as a phone and recently purchased MBP. My advise, go for MBP without any doubts. The latest OSX is much more usable then Win7 that I was using and the hardware is amazing. A few apps like Pages however need more work. Me too had to learn more than just how to do a right click, but it is understandable and even brings joy of learning something new. As I mentioned already I was "multi platform" guy and I still am but with more dedication to Apple side.


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[Algus]

I always liked Mac OS and OS X but I used to be kind of bitter because Macs really were out of my price range. When the Mini first came out a few years ago, I was interested but it wasn't getting very good reviews and I didn't really need it at the time (I had a PC with an acceptable level of gaming performance, so I was fine.)

Within the past couple of weeks I've gone practically all in. Grabbed an iPod Touch and was suitably impressed by it, enough that I finally got around to getting that Mac Mini. I've really come to appreciate Apple for delivering a complete package. I've used plenty of devices where I liked the build quality or the hardware or the functionality but Apple is the only company that delivers on all counts. My Note 3 was close but even there I had to spend a lot of time downloading 3rd party software to get it just right. The iPod I'm particularly impressed by. It just feels good holding it. I find myself reaching for it for Facebook and tapatalk even when I have a much more usable Nexus 7 and Note 3 for that kind of thing. I unpaired my N7 from its speaker and gave the speaker to the iPod...so much nicer controlling my speaker with a handheld gadget than a big old tablet.

There are still some things I don't like about Apple (I definitely prefer Android to iOS, yes you all may tar and feather me now lol) but after spending time with both devices (the Mac Mini especially), I've really come to appreciate how there aren't as many hidden costs with Apple. I don't have to follow up my purchase with expensive software packages or spending a lot of time downloading and installing 3rd party apps. It was ready to go out of the gate pretty much. I was also impressed by how responsive the OS was. It's not quite as snappy as my Chromebook but boot times are minimal enough to not annoy me. Familiarity with Unix CLI via some Linux dabbling made me feel right at home as well.

I used to be pretty down on Apple for the high cost vs. specs on their machines but Chrome OS really taught me that you can't compare specs between different OSes that easily. My Mini is lower specced than my custom-built Windows PC but runs better and that pretty much settles the case for which machine I prefer to use (hint: my Windows PC is unplugged and collecting dust)

 

[BlackBerry Guy]

A lot of it comes from ignorance. I've been building and using Windows PCs since I as a teen, and primarily a Palm and BlackBerry user on the mobile side for the last 10 or so years. You hear and read things about Apple products and all of their perceived limitations. I would never buy an overpriced Mac when I can get a "better" PC for 3/4 of the price, I told myself. Likewise I would never consider this iPhone thing that can't even do cut and paste and didn't have a hardware keyboard. Apps? Who needs them.

Then a funny thing happened. I was a little disappointed in my BlackBerry's media capabilities about 4-5 years ago, so I picked up a iPod touch. And I ended up liking it for what i could do and was impressed by the quality of the apps available. A while later, I also picked up an iPad because I was pretty choked at the half baked tablet that was the PlayBook...and I ended up liking that too. In fact, the iPad has become one of my favourite devices. I wasn't suppose to like it, I mean the thing can't even handle flash and didn't do "true" multitasking, so apparently it was just a toy and not a "real" mobile device. But you know what? Despite that, it didn't affect my use or enjoyment of the device. It caused me to start looking at things with a more open mind, the focus became more of what I could do with it, as oppose to what I couldn't do. Same on the computer side. I had started shopping for a new PC, scouting out parts etc back in the summer when my wife picked up a MacBook Air. I ended up spending some time on it and became familiar with OSX. Again, being a Windows guy, Mac wasn't suppose to be appealing to me. But for some reason the integration and simple elegance of the hardware and software was so great to use, I ended up picking up an Air as well. Within a span of 5 years, I went from never even considering an Apple product due to my own misconceptions, to owning an iPod touch, iPad, Apple TV, and MacBook.

Like Tre, I really love and enjoy every single platform I use - Windows, Mac, BlackBerry 10, iOS and Android. I appreciate them all for their unique strengths and personalities. I love interacting with the various communities, and learning new things. It's so much better to be an open minded fan of mobile in general, as opposed to being a closed minded platform fanboy

 

[metllicamilitia]

Can't say I ever mocked a platform or company. Well, maybe Kia and Daewoo back in the day.

I never understood the original iPhone, and roundly mocked it. In retrospect, I don't think it was the best device out at the time, but it was the most interesting. Since then, my respect for the platform has grown. I don't think iOS is the best platform for me at this time, but I do appreciate what Apple is doing.

Currently, I can honestly say I love every platform... enough to mix and match. Love using them, and learning about them. I was late to iOS, but am enjoying an older iPhone as a side device.

I love all the platforms too, I haven't had a Windows Phone yet to play with, but I have played with a Windows 8 laptop which is essentially the same thing.

Yes, indeed. I posted my story in this thread over 2 years ago... from hater to fanboy in a matter of months... but you have to taste the kool-aid before you can learn to drink it freely.

http://forums.imore.com/ipad-2/213356-ive-officially-been-converted-apple.html#post1723935

Thanks for that link, nice to bring back some old posts from time to time. And I agree, it was only recently that I decided I wanted to get a MacBook.

Nice writing OP. Made the switch from BBRY for the phone, Android for the tablet and Windows for a only computing platform to 5S as a phone and recently purchased MBP. My advise, go for MBP without any doubts. The latest OSX is much more usable then Win7 that I was using and the hardware is amazing. A few apps like Pages however need more work. Me too had to learn more than just how to do a right click, but it is understandable and even brings joy of learning something new. As I mentioned already I was "multi platform" guy and I still am but with more dedication to Apple side.


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Thanks, and the MBP is still an obvious choice, if not just for the power for iOS app development. I will have to learn everything for it, so the power of the MBP will be nearly essential.

I always liked Mac OS and OS X but I used to be kind of bitter because Macs really were out of my price range. When the Mini first came out a few years ago, I was interested but it wasn't getting very good reviews and I didn't really need it at the time (I had a PC with an acceptable level of gaming performance, so I was fine.)

Within the past couple of weeks I've gone practically all in. Grabbed an iPod Touch and was suitably impressed by it, enough that I finally got around to getting that Mac Mini. I've really come to appreciate Apple for delivering a complete package. I've used plenty of devices where I liked the build quality or the hardware or the functionality but Apple is the only company that delivers on all counts. My Note 3 was close but even there I had to spend a lot of time downloading 3rd party software to get it just right. The iPod I'm particularly impressed by. It just feels good holding it. I find myself reaching for it for Facebook and tapatalk even when I have a much more usable Nexus 7 and Note 3 for that kind of thing. I unpaired my N7 from its speaker and gave the speaker to the iPod...so much nicer controlling my speaker with a handheld gadget than a big old tablet.

There are still some things I don't like about Apple (I definitely prefer Android to iOS, yes you all may tar and feather me now lol) but after spending time with both devices (the Mac Mini especially), I've really come to appreciate how there aren't as many hidden costs with Apple. I don't have to follow up my purchase with expensive software packages or spending a lot of time downloading and installing 3rd party apps. It was ready to go out of the gate pretty much. I was also impressed by how responsive the OS was. It's not quite as snappy as my Chromebook but boot times are minimal enough to not annoy me. Familiarity with Unix CLI via some Linux dabbling made me feel right at home as well.

I used to be pretty down on Apple for the high cost vs. specs on their machines but Chrome OS really taught me that you can't compare specs between different OSes that easily. My Mini is lower specced than my custom-built Windows PC but runs better and that pretty much settles the case for which machine I prefer to use (hint: my Windows PC is unplugged and collecting dust)

It really is interesting to see the routes that brought people into the Apple spectrum. And I understand the out of range prices, I still have to save up for even a MacBook Air. I even financed my iPhone 5, courtesy of Apple.

A lot of it comes from ignorance. I've been building and using Windows PCs since I as a teen, and primarily a Palm and BlackBerry user on the mobile side for the last 10 or so years. You hear and read things about Apple products and all of their perceived limitations. I would never buy an overpriced Mac when I can get a "better" PC for 3/4 of the price, I told myself. Likewise I would never consider this iPhone thing that can't even do cut and paste and didn't have a hardware keyboard. Apps? Who needs them.

Then a funny thing happened. I was a little disappointed in my BlackBerry's media capabilities about 4-5 years ago, so I picked up a iPod touch. And I ended up liking it for what i could do and was impressed by the quality of the apps available. A while later, I also picked up an iPad because I was pretty choked at the half baked tablet that was the PlayBook...and I ended up liking that too. In fact, the iPad has become one of my favourite devices. I wasn't suppose to like it, I mean the thing can't even handle flash and didn't do "true" multitasking, so apparently it was just a toy and not a "real" mobile device. But you know what? Despite that, it didn't affect my use or enjoyment of the device. It caused me to start looking at things with a more open mind, the focus became more of what I could do with it, as oppose to what I couldn't do. Same on the computer side. I had started shopping for a new PC, scouting out parts etc back in the summer when my wife picked up a MacBook Air. I ended up spending some time on it and became familiar with OSX. Again, being a Windows guy, Mac wasn't suppose to be appealing to me. But for some reason the integration and simple elegance of the hardware and software was so great to use, I ended up picking up an Air as well. Within a span of 5 years, I went from never even considering an Apple product due to my own misconceptions, to owning an iPod touch, iPad, Apple TV, and MacBook.

Like Tre, I really love and enjoy every single platform I use - Windows, Mac, BlackBerry 10, iOS and Android. I appreciate them all for their unique strengths and personalities. I love interacting with the various communities, and learning new things. It's so much better to be an open minded fan of mobile in general, as opposed to being a closed minded platform fanboy

That it does, that was a main point of a friend of mine brought up too. The ignorance of it, and also the change. Change scares people, everyone actually. That's where brand loyalty comes in, people become afraid to try something new when what they use still works fine for them. I'm happy I took the chance at change though.





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[pkcable]

We are sort of seeing the exact opposite at Blackberry! Going from loved to hated.

 

[BBGary]

We are sort of seeing the exact opposite at Blackberry! Going from loved to hated.

Still "loved" for me though. I just love to have alternatives.

 

[Tre Lawrence]

When it comes to brand loyalty, I tend to think Apple has the most stubborn enthusiasts out there... and I don't think that is necessarily a negative.

 

[metllicamilitia]

When it comes to brand loyalty, I tend to think Apple has the most stubborn enthusiasts out there... and I don't think that is necessarily a negative.

I wouldn't say quite that. Apple makes great products, the fans will defend that. But I think brand loyalty comes more from the fear of change than the products themselves.


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[TiredOfPhoneWar]

I know much people who hated apple iphone and defending samsung but once they got money they bought iphone

 

[EauRouge]

Im glad that you opened up your mind. Hatred causes blindness. And in reality we should all be agnostic about brands, and pick the best device for our needs rather than brand loyalty. What works for some does not work for others, and you have found something that works for you

 

[Just_Me_D]

In regard to Apple, I never "hated" its products, I just enjoyed using Blackberry devices more at the time. I was a fanboy, but not the blind "loyal" type. Blackberry devices simply served my needs better than any other available device. The same with Computers with Windows on them. I started with an Atari, then went to the Commodore 64 and from there, to a Packard Bell with Windows 3.1 on it. I knew DOS like the back of my hand. Through the years, I dabbled into every Linux distribution I could get my hands on and I did the same with Android. As it stands right now, Apple devices serve my needs better than any other device at this time. Am I loyal to Apple? No, but I am an extremely satisfied Apple customer.......I don't go around bashing others who prefer non-Apple products. Heck, I could care less what they use because it's their money and their choice.

 

[Tre Lawrence]

Im glad that you opened up your mind. Hatred causes blindness. And in reality we should all be agnostic about brands, and pick the best device for our needs rather than brand loyalty. What works for some does not work for others, and you have found something that works for you

Great words to live by. Choice is such a wonderful thing.

 

[metllicamilitia]

Im glad that you opened up your mind. Hatred causes blindness. And in reality we should all be agnostic about brands, and pick the best device for our needs rather than brand loyalty. What works for some does not work for others, and you have found something that works for you

In regard to Apple, I never "hated" its products, I just enjoyed using Blackberry devices more at the time. I was a fanboy, but not the blind "loyal" type. Blackberry devices simply served my needs better than any other available device. The same with Computers with Windows on them. I started with an Atari, then went to the Commodore 64 and from there, to a Packard Bell with Windows 3.1 on it. I knew DOS like the back of my hand. Through the years, I dabbled into every Linux distribution I could get my hands on and I did the same with Android. As it stands right now, Apple devices serves my needs better than any other devices at this time. Am I loyal to Apple? No, but I am an extremely satisfied Apple customer.......I don't go around bashing others who prefer non-Apple products. Heck, I could care less what they use because it's their money and their choice.

Exactly, brand agnostic and choice. Given that ideology and a love for all the mobile technology, I have a hard time understanding the actions of "fanboys." It's ridiculous, but people need to feel superior to others, be it by putting others down or by being "the bigger person" and ignoring things, it comes down to the psychology of superiority. That being said, it's what makes the world the world, everyone has opinions and I feel everyone should be able to express them.


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[sting7k]

The only company I hate is Comcast.

I don't get the hatred really. If you don't like Apple or Google that's fine. But I don't see why someone has to cut down my own purchase choices to some how make themselves feel better about their own. It's my money and I'll buy what I want.

I never had anything against Apple. I've always loved my iPods. I knew the iPhone was "the one" the instant Steve Jobs held it up on stage. I'm just a Windows guy. Maybe I always felt Macs were over priced and I could get a PC with the same or better specs for less. But in the end, I just like Windows. I do not feel compelled to just run out and buy stuff for the sake of buying. Both my Windows computers are working just fine. When my laptop or desktop die maybe I'll check out Macs as well in my search.

I don't hate Sony either. I've just never liked the Playstation controller. Hence, I play Xbox and used to play Nintendo.

 

[Fausty82]

I don't get the hatred really. If you don't like Apple or Google that's fine. But I don't see why someone has to cut down my own purchase choices to some how make themselves feel better about their own. It's my money and I'll buy what I want.

I have to agree. The way I see it, it’s really simple. It’s my money. I’ll spend it as I see fit. You don’t like how I spend it? So what? Spend your own money and leave my choices to me. I am also secure enough in my ability to make sound decisions and to purchase what works best for me... so I could care less what you think of my choices...

 

[Eileen89]

Before I bought the iPhone 3GS several years ago I was a Blackberry fan girl who swore up and down that BB was the best and I said I would never get a iPhone. I can remember posting things like "Once you go Black you never go back".... Lol, until the day I first got the 3GS that is. It was love at first boot up. Even though the 3GS didn't have a retina display, it was 100X better than that of the BB Bold that I had. Next came the iPad 1 and I fell in love with Apple even more. I have owned every iPhone and iPad since the 3GS and Apple products just keep getting better and better.... I can absolutely relate to your story.

 

[BBGary]

I am loyal to my needs. My needs can be translated to apps and features first, and then to OS. When deciding about device hardware is the last in my criteria list. When iOS 7 came up and I checked it on my iPhone 4S, I decided to go to 5S but not because of the hardware. Because features of iOS 7 could and serve me better than Blackberry 10.2. When Blackberry 11.0 will arrive I will check it out.


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