It gets under my skin because it is a pompous, privileged, insulting, and myopic viewpoint which reeks of class warfare — and it is indicative of a growing sentiment I see amongst people in the tech community.
And… it’s a shitty way to think about other people.
YES YES YES!
I’ve been trying my damndest to write a post this week entitled, “In Defense of John Gruber” and I just can’t finish it. The premise is that John hasn’t changed and he’s always defended and represented Apple because Apple is just better than everyone else and he makes an easy target when you’re looking to call someone a fanboy or use someone as an example of how insane Apple users are. I feel bad for John, and MG but not as much.
However, recently I get very very angry when I read Daring Fireball. I respectually and lovingly use Windows and Macintosh products each and every day and I use this blog to convey my love and hate of those products in a fair and very honest way. John and MG don’t do that. At least MG’s defense is that he used to be a die hard Windows user and now he’s not but that’s not a very good excuse.
Moving on, every single word of Josh’s post was spot on. I don’t think less of John or MG but I kindly say to myself every day that they need to calm down on loving Apple. This isn’t some marathon to love Apple more than everyone else.
I think this all started when Android began sucking less. Every single Apple blogger who fought tooth and nail (myself included) from 1999 to 2007 for people to give a crap about our beloved company enjoyed a solid 4 years of “Apple is the best” echoed not just by our peers and other Apple loving bloggers but by analysts, mainstream media sources and even our Windows loving friends who keep switching to Apple hardware. It was a great time..then Android started getting better and we went into crisis mode.
We started with these points on why Android was losing to iOS and then over time, the points we had just started getting more and more far-fetched:
- We say daily that all Android did was copy the iPhone
- We show comparisons of how Android evolved over time to look just like the iPhone
- We show that Apple had to sue Samsung because they were being copied so badly
- We make fun of all of the hardware companies who just can’t copy the iOS devices
- We laugh at Microsoft’s attempts to do somthing great
- We say, “We’re the #1 selling smartphone”
- Then, “We’re the #1 selling regular phone (when you include the 3GS)”
- Then, “We are still the #1 platform if you include iPod touch and iPad versus Android”
- Then, “We have the most profit margins per handset sold so we no longer care about market share” after Android took the lead
- Then, “Oh, well fragmentation of android! They suck cause there’s so much fragmentation!”
- Then, “Apple has a great and synergy filled environment. No one can compete with that.”
- Then, “Apple only has iPhone, Android has hundreds so we’re losing cause there are so many of them!!!!!”
These days, we just say “Screw Android because their users are stupid and poor and have no taste.” and then we hit “publish” on our blog posts because Apple bloggers as we approach 2012 are very very defensive of their precious Apple and won’t admit that Android is winning in so many ways just like Microsoft in the 90s and IBM in the 80s and maybe Microsoft again in the next decade.
I suggest we revert back to our 90s style of commentary. Yes, we know Apple rocks, yes their design is great but no, not everyone cares about Apple and no, not everyone must own an Apple product and no, we are not allowed to call these people stupid and ignorant with no taste if they choose to buy something that is not covered in Apple logos.
Freedom of platform is the key here and I’m seriously tired of the Tweets and blog posts from people I call friends who are getting harsher and more angry toward anyone that bests Apple in any way.
“Let’s play 1 out of 2”
“Checkmate”
“Okay, 3 out of 5”
That’s the game Apple lovers are playing now with competitors and I’m sick of it. Josh is right. Let’s stop this now.
and I STILL have problems with my antenna on the iPhone 4S…big issues and I’m STILL upset that no one cares about this issue anymore.