Are Apple Gadgets Actually Better In Design?

In the modern world, the term 'design' is almost synonymous with one brand - 'Apple'. People say that Apple's great at designing the products. I'm not sure if that indeed is true, so here's a discussion to seek an opinion from all our CEans whether they think Apple's products are actually better in design?

Design. Ehm. Honestly, the physical design of apple gadgets don't appeal me. But yes, their software part and quality are quite awesome.

But things like that are dependent on individuals' tastes. I am afraid we can't say one design is better than the other.

There is one basic rule in products
a) Either you make it feature reach and unavoidable ( Google )
or
b) You make it really intuitive and attractive ( Apple, Facebook) and let people use what they don't need.

See I used a "what you call a tablet now" back in 2003 which used to be called PDA with windows CE. That was an awesome device that Microsoft could not market. But Mr. Jobs has always been a stylish , as individual and by taste. So Apple has a concept. Make things stylish, work on design, dump features, keep price high and people chase you. Use a Google Nexus and iPad Mini to see it yourself.

In my opinion Apple products DOES WHAT IT SAY NEITHER MORE NOR LESS. They say it and they prove it. Other than that their products looks are more simple IMO

I can't say much here because i already nerd-raged here www.crazyengineers.com/community/threads/new-apple-imac-2012-price-in-india-is-rs-85900.60146/

But I will surely point something, I am obsessed to Linux,yeah ; so anything that is not free & not "do-it-yourself", I oppose it ! I hate "censorship" so I hate Mac OS.I hate overcostly gadget so I hate Apple ...
I always find Apple gadgets something you can stare on like megan foxx, freaking hot & pants dropping. 4 years back when Macbook air was released, I was like "damn can any laptop gets slimmer & sexier than this ? Nope!" But even if I buy Mac Air you will find it running on Fedora or Mint.

Now that's Double Standards !

I totally agree. I find them really attractive. The amount of work they put into is really huge. Just see the design/manufacturing videos. But problem is they are costly. And come with irritating restrictions.

Also not all designs are something they created, most of them are inspired from some very old designs.

Problem is no other manufacturer seems to worry about design. Though recent models in HTC & Sony are really really good. [but samsung sucks anyways]

In software perspective also Apple is really good [but, hey, restrictions]. My iPhone 4 never hangs or never slows down. Also it is really to do coding on Mac OS.

PS : I own iPhone 4, iPad, iPod & use Lion [Mac OS X 10.7] on a Dell Laptop 😛
PS2 : I love coding on Ubuntu also. Thing is I have triple booted my laptop with Ubuntu, Win7 & Lion. Best of all worlds 😛

I have a feeling that only those people use Apple devices who either have nothing else to do and/or are just fascinated by Shah Rukh Khan Steve Jobs. 😛

as far as i have seen apple products... there is an important time of the year (i think 2010) where there was a widespread research and marketing done by other companies like samsung and sony for what was then called as "IPHONE KILLERS"... there was a time when iphone 3 was gettingdelayed and that time every mobile manufacturer launched these iphone killer phones..
Accroding to me Iphone just waited for the market to be of iphone killers and then it entered the market to kill them ... ha ha ha...😏😏
An engineered product always gets praised when the competitors try to attack it directly on the market.

mayurpathak

I have a feeling that only those people use Apple devices who either have nothing else to do and/or are just fascinated by Shah Rukh Khan Steve Jobs. 😛

If I am not wrong, even our mod Big_K uses it.

avii

If I am not wrong, even our mod Big_K uses it.

So that leaves us with 2 options. Either he has nothing to do, which is not the case I know. Or he is in love with SRK/SJ 😛

mayurpathak

I have a feeling that only those people use Apple devices who either have nothing else to do and/or are just fascinated by Shah Rukh Khan Steve Jobs. 😛

avii

If I am not wrong, even our mod Big_K uses it.

This post comes from iMac. I used to be an avid Windows lover and then turned into an Apple lover. Not that I have began hating Windows, but what I found out was -

• OSX (Mac) lets me focus important things. I don't have to decide which drive I should install the application / software on. Let's face it - OSX is meant for ease of use. There's no clutter anywhere.
• I love the hardware more than anything else in the world. The wireless keyboard is perfect, the screen resolution makes my virtual world looks pretty. Plus the machines are beautiful to look at when you spend considerable amount of time on it every day.
• I no longer hack into my machines. I used to do that when I was in college. I have toyed with Windows, Linux and other operating systems. There were days, when I'd troubleshoot issues with my computer for several days straight.
• 99% of my time is spent in browser - and I've everything that I need on the Mac. I don't miss anything on Windows. Was never a PC gamer.
• You begin appreciating OSX when you use it at least for 2-3 weeks. When I first used Mac, I hated it like anything.

Apple focuses on 'simplicity'. When you spend less time elsewhere, you get more productive. Plus I like having everything accessible in the dock 😀

Apple devices I found were much less user friendly when I tried using them. But I agree it has got to do with getting used to what one is doing.

As far as hardware is concerned, my Toshiba has not given me 1 problem in last 1.5 years of use. Even after my son emptied a bottle of water on its key board and gave it a suicidal push from tables and sofas quite a few times 😀

But The_Big_K you didn't responded to the below question 😉

mayurpathak

I have a feeling that only those people use Apple devices who either have nothing else to do and/or are just fascinated by Shah Rukh Khan Steve Jobs. 😛

mayurpathak

So that leaves us with 2 options. Either he has nothing to do, which is not the case I know. Or he is in love with SRK/SJ 😛

So Biggie, Shah rukh khan or Steve Jobs ?? 😛

Troll_So_Hard

But The_Big_K you didn't responded to the below question 😉
So Biggie, Shah rukh khan or Steve Jobs ?? 😛

My iMac leaves me no time to think about SRK or Steve Jobs. I love myself more than both of them.

mayurpathak

Apple devices I found were much less user friendly when I tried using them. But I agree it has got to do with getting used to what one is doing.

As far as hardware is concerned, my Toshiba has not given me 1 problem in last 1.5 years of use. Even after my son emptied a bottle of water on its key board and gave it a suicidal push from tables and sofas quite a few times 😀

I don't believe you can compare Toshiba with APPLE??? 😲
Let me make you familiar with some facts :

1. Apple's hardware is THE BEST as compared to ANY other company on EARTH! That includes designing of products which is done in CA.

2. The fact can be proved on the basis of their fixed star prices irrespective of country's market.

Few days ago, I happened to get hands on my uncle's Mac book air and really stunned by the design , couldn't believe that a fully featured laptop can be squeezed in such compact design.
But here is thing, its always price vs usability and moreover what is your need.

As per comparing hardware, definitely apple hardware are good and if you want to compare with any other company's hardware compare with their corporate editions. Its either Dell, Hp,lenovo or whatever, you will find they are also so sturdy and responsive like apple.

Thing is apple doesn't compromise with hardware and charge the customer for the same.Its debatable Apple is charging more or less.
While if you go to dell if you have Dell Latitude it is also equipped with awesome hardware and dell charges for it. but if you are getting Dell inspiron or low end laptop in cheap prices it will look like poorest hardware against Latitude series.

@sksaxena- I found Toshiba hardware quality better than most laptops I have seen or used. But then when I bought it I didnt compare it with Apple product as I was not looking for a Mac anyway. Besides I guess Japanese designs are better than American designs.

mayurpathak

@sksaxena- I found Toshiba hardware quality better than most laptops I have seen or used. But then when I bought it I didnt compare it with Apple product as I was not looking for a Mac anyway. Besides I guess Japanese designs are better than American designs.

Ok..You didn't compare it with Apple, then it is fine. I haven't seen people buying Toshiba notebooks much but yes there 'Portege' series are really good.

sksaxena

Ok..You didn't compare it with Apple, then it is fine. I haven't seen people buying Toshiba notebooks much but yes there 'Portege' series are really good.

People are fools. They trust Dell more than Toshiba. In India Toshiba wasn't able to make a mark due to poor service. Otherwise I found Dell to be the worst in terms of hardware quality.

mayurpathak

Otherwise I found Dell to be the worst in terms of hardware quality.

I hope you are not kidding. LOL

I won't comment on people's mentality but yes Public in India(home users atleast) don't know how to spend money in electronics industry. They just get attracted by TV Ads, publicity etc. Unfortunately, they aren't aware of the factors to be considered while making an electronics device purchase.
Dell is definitely not good in terms of both service and hardware. Even their stores are typical to locate.

Regarding Toshiba, it's not a total failure which usually most people think of. Actually, Toshiba is more directed towards commercial market rather than home user market. In MNCs, employees are often provided with Toshiba notebooks. (Like Infosys, iGATE and many more). Similar is the case with their sister concern i.e. Carrier. Carrier air conditioning is majorly in commercial sector. Hardly any home user picks up Carrier ACs for bedroom!

I've personally had a great experience with Dell's service. They showed up on time, shipped products on time and didn't leave me a chance to complain. I've seen Toshiba laptops and they 'look' good, haven't used any yet.

I'd agree that Dell's hardware may need some serious improvements. I've used XPS m1210 which was an uber-cool machine. But the Inspiron 15 was a disaster and a battery eater.

Regarding Apple's product : the hardware is impressive. Now I'm not saying that it's better in terms of specifications; but the fact is that it just works out of the box. Note that these companies make hardware and software for the masses and not just geeks.

My opinion is that Apple's hardware is good and their design is focused on simplicity. If 'simple is better' then Apple surely offers an edge over others.

Exactly...Dell's Inspiron series has created a real bad impression of company on me and looks like many others. Even their new Ultrabooks aren't value for money.

When I chose my Toshiba (I have a Satellite L640 TP), I just went for the specifications it offered. I wanted a laptop that was not too big or too small. Plus I wanted higher processing power. Battery was also of paramount importance.

L640 offered me a perfect package. It runs nearly 6-8 hours without having to charge. It has a core i5 second generation processor and ATI radeon graphic card. 3 Gb RAM and 320 Gb HDD. It is tamper proof and water resistant. (My son emptied a bottle of water on the key board. All I did was to keep it under the sun for 2 hrs. 😀 He has also toppled it over the sofa few times). Nothing ever broke down or hanged in 1 year and 7 months.

How many here even use 50% of the processing power your laptop has? Most people do 90% of their tasks in browsers, which I believe won't need much computing power.

If you regularly run graphic intensive programs, do some high-class data analysis and computing; then you *may* need the power of i5 and i7 from Intel. Else most of it goes waste.

I personally love Apple's notebook because it lasts longer than most of its rivals in the industry. 😀

The_Big_K

How many here even use 50% of the processing power your laptop has? Most people do 90% of their tasks in browsers, which I believe won't need much computing power.

If you regularly run graphic intensive programs, do some high-class data analysis and computing; then you *may* need the power of i5 and i7 from Intel. Else most of it goes waste.

Exactly... It's depends on need what we are doing with computing resources.
That's the reason I switched back to desktop from laptop.

. In MNCs, employees are often provided with Toshiba notebooks. (Like Infosys, iGATE and many more).

Earlier Infy and 2-3 other companies I know, was dealing with Toshiba but now they with either dell or HP.
In my organization we have Lenovo. I personally don't have doubt on quality of corporate machine. They are all provide very good machines as I said earlier.while price does varies.
What I have experience with low end laptops (<50K) of HP & Dell (mine and friends zone), laptops worked 2 year very well but, all of them tear down in next years.They total ran 2.5 year with full capacity but got problem after that.
For dell xps series , Its very good for sure . But in recent days I am facing trouble with dell customer care.

Desktops are in a different league than laptops. Understand that most of the laptops are manufactured in the same factory but with different colours and styles.

When it comes to Desktops, I've used Dell and HP and I can't tell which is better quality.

When I worked with a software company, I used the same machine for about 3.5 years without any upgrade and it ran just well. It was an HP machine and I liked it. Never had a single hardware failure.

That's correct... there is huge difference in corporate edition and home edition machines either laptop or desktop.

Well I did use my laptop's computing power because whole of my website used to run from my laptop. Designing was also a part of my activities. And of course there was Fifa'12 and NFS Carbon 😛

mayurpathak

Well I did use my laptop's computing power because whole of my website used to run from my laptop. Designing was also a part of my activities. And of course there was Fifa'12 and NFS Carbon 😛

Are you kidding me? You used your laptop as a server?

The_Big_K

Are you kidding me? You used your laptop as a server?

Initially yes 😀

mayurpathak

Initially yes 😀

How did you manage the bandwidth in those days and how did you ensure 24x7 connectivity? Else you were not loading your machine at all!

I just see Apple products as overpriced. Though they probably aren't too concerned with competitors that have cheaper and more powerful offerings seeing the strong brand loyalty they got.

Yeah - they announced their quarterly results beating all the expectations. 47 million iPhones sold and $54.5 billion in revenues! 😲😲

Apple sold more than 10 iDevices per second in the last quarter. 😐

Revenu results - high revenu results and marrket share is part of their sales and marketing strategy.
Most number of sold devices are on contract which doesn't burdon consumer who geys a great quality and more then that a amzing customer service.

Regarding quality...not sure abour OS and gadgets as they also face many defect post delivery. However apple apps have better quality as they are tested at 3 different level before being live at app store. Many a times few defect forced a change in design that makes them very robust.

-CB