2 posts tagged “mac”

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Mac Developer Hype

Nov 12, 2008
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The applications in the AppStore are continuing to impress me. The apps we've all used over time are getting better. New apps are appearing constantly, and there are some pretty amazing ones coming out.

I'm still puzzled by the people who complained about the "CrapStore". Everyone knows launch titles aren't as good as things that come afterwards, and it made it worse that Apple was so secretive with their SDK for so long.

And it has to be said -- the "delicious generation" sure loves talking big and incorporating young flashy designers, but where are their solid, shipping, important apps? I haven't found them yet.

Look, everyone loves starting a new project, filling a sketchbook with ideas, prototyping out some fun new features. But anyone that's shipped software has experienced the lack of enthusiasm that comes in the long slog before actually shipping. Your project can turn from muse to burden, your cool features have been scaled back for v1, and you're struggling to stem the neverending tide of bugs.

This is the point at which a real developer puts his head down and fixes the bugs. This is the point where the "delicious generation" gives a talk about hype, twitters all day, explains why their app is going to take over the world, and then ... nothing.

The delicious generation doesn't know how to ship an app on a schedule. And when the world-changing app finally does ship, it's lickably pretty, buggy, well-hyped, and typically a failure.

So I'm happy with the quality of applications in the AppStore. Every day brings new stuff, and each release is showcasing higher quality and better ideas. Just don't look to the delicious generation to lead the charge. They're too busy marketing themselves as the saviors of software to actually roll up their sleeves and get dirty in the real work of crafting software.

The Customer Doesn't Care

Sep 3, 2006
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Both Apple and Dell are currently undergoing battery recalls because they both use the same supplier. Some blogger wrote a story comparing the response time of the two companies, since he had both an Apple and a Dell laptop. Apparently the Apple replacement came in 3 days, but he's still waiting on the Dell battery.

I was surprised by the negative reaction the blog post got, although I shouldn't have been. A surprising number of people complained about the post, most of them pointing out that Dell has about 4 times the batteries that Apple has to recall. Then it hit me: the customer doesn't care.

Let's say you test drive two cars. One is zippy and cheap, the other seems sluggish and is more expensive. Would you care if some car expert came over and explained that the first car has an unfair advantage because they weren't able to get the V6 engine on the second car due to riots in China, but the revised model that comes out next February will, like, "totally blow the first one away"? No. The first one is zippy and cheap, and you like it more. Full stop.

So, yeah, the geeks (yet again) can cling their pedantic technically-accurate but irrelevent point. Dell does have a tougher job than Apple because they sell more. But as a user, all I know is I want my battery in 3 days. Or that I have never once gotten a virus in Mac OS X. Tell me all you want about how the virus writers don't even bother considering the Mac, and I'll tell you again: I have never gotten a virus in Mac OS X, and I simply don't care why.

2 posts tagged “mac”

Mac Developer Hype

The Customer Doesn't Care

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