We’ll admit it: We love Apple. Love our iPods. Love our iPhones. Love our iPads. Love our iTunes accounts and all the songs we’ve got stored away in our library thanks to Apple and their good old CEO Steve Jobs (pictured above). We’ll even go as far as to say that we probably couldn’t live the lives we wanted to without Apple (scary thought, right?). After all, the company controls our music choices, our movie options, our Twitter accounts, our Facebook updates, our work, our play, our…well, you get the point.
At the same time, we hate Apple. We hate the way the company just gets us. Gets that we appreciate the convenience of knowing that all of our technological needs are met through a single device. Gets that we like to have our voices heard when it comes to making improvements. Gets that we want to do more with our Apple products and gets that we want it to be done now. Not now, but right now.
Not that that’s necessarily a bad thing. But Apple actually gets us so well that the company (and, in particular, Jobs) have a certain swagger about them. A certain we’ll-worry-about-what-works-and-what-doesn’t-work-you-just-worry-about-using-our-products swagger. It disgusts us a little bit—but we’ll be damned if every time we swear Apple off, they don’t come out with another product that we just need to have in our lives. Kinda shameful, actually.
Case in point: The recent debate over the iPhone 4′s reception. After realizing that the iPhone 4 got terrible reception when it was held a certain way (and by “certain,” we actually mean “the correct way to hold a phone”), an Apple aficionado emailed Steve Jobs about it and got the following response: “Just avoid holding it in that way.”
Um…huh?! Are you kidding us, Steve? After all the dough we’ve thrown down on iPod Nanos and iPod Shuffles and iPod Touches and $1.29 iTunes singles, that’s the mother-whattin’ thanks we get?! (Dr. Dre voice) That’s where the hate comes out. We’re outraged. We wish they’d get us a little better. We want an apology. We hate them.
But then, Apple puts out a press release just before the Fourth of July holiday weekend that basically says, “Oh yeah, we F’d up! We actually do have a problem. The software on the iPhone 4 actually says that you have better reception at times than you actually do—which is why all of you are so mad! We’ll put out an update in a few weeks and everything will be back to normal!”
And we’re all satisfied. Except when you consider that Apple isn’t actually fixing the problem you thought you had with your phone. They’re simply fixing another problem that’s semi-related to the problem you’re having and will make your problem seem like less of a problem. When in reality, there still is a problem.
Listen, like I said earlier, there’s a big part of us that loves Apple. They make great products that last a long time (shout-out to my 80 gig ‘Pod that’s still going strong four years after I bought it) and they clearly have the market in a stranglehold. They’re running the game right now. But can’t we stop with the games, guys?
Can’t you just come out and say when you make a mistake? Can’t you talk to us like you care about us as customers? Can’t you do more than just take our money and make us feel like we’re being held hostage to the company with the best products?
One day, the iPod might not be the best MP3 player on the planet. Hell, there might not even be MP3s anymore. They’ll be some other format of music that we’ll want. And Apple might not be able to handle it. The iPhone might get overtaken by the Droid. The iPad might flourish for awhile—before some other company out there figures out how to do tablets better. And then what?
We love you, Apple. You’re great. But sometimes, you make us hate you, too. And I don’t think we’re alone, either. Are we?
