Anybody following tech media in the past few years would instantly recognize the Thorne. He’s a fanboy. That is, the kind of crazily obsessed tech enthusiast who appears to have become unhinged somewhere between peeling off his smartphone’s screen protector and making his 457th comment on Android Central. He seems to love – as in, romantically love – his phone. He explodes with rage when somebody says anything less than glowingly positive about it.
I’ve been dealing with fanboys for as long as I’m an OSAlert editor – made worse by the fact that I don’t really have a strong allegiance to any platform, and therefore, tend to criticise and praise each of them at the same time, on a weekly basis. This means I have to deal with all manner of fanboys, and while it sometimes can be quite tiring, it’s just kind of adorable most of the time.
The other side of the coin is being accused of being biased for or against something. I used to maintain a list of all the companies and products I was accused of being biased for or against. Interestingly enough, all of the companies and products mentioned appeared in both the biased for and biased against column. In other words, I was biased for and against every single company and product mentioned on OSAlert at the same time.
In the meantime, out in the real world, I try to use as many different products from as many different companies as (financially) possible, so that I gather as much as real-world experience as I can. So, in the past 18-24 months, I’ve bought a Nexus 7, HTC 8X Windows Phone, Surface RT, iMac, Find 5 (Android), a self-built Windows 8 PC, Nokia E7 (Symbian), iPhone 5S, Jolla, and only last week I added a Nokia N9 to my collection. On top of that, I’ve used a whole bunch of other classic devices to further expand my horizon. I love technology, regardless of brand or platform.
So yes, I’ve probably had more experience with fanboys than just about anyone here on OSAlert. However, the things I’ve had to deal with are minute compared to the things people like Joshua Topolsky from The Verge has had to deal with.
The gist of this somewhat random collection of words: be happy OSAlert is a relatively small, niche site. Sure, we get into our (in the grand scheme of things, pointless) debates, but at least virtually every regular commenter here displays a reasonable amount of intelligence and restraint. We could do a whole lot worse.
I was schizophrenic, now we are healed…
Kochise
Schizophrenia != multiple personalities.
Grammar fanboy !
Kochise
They do make the world go ’round, those fanboys. Since I have written for a few tech sites including OSAlert, DistroWatch, Linux.com and BSDMag, I feel Thom’s pain. Hardly a week goes by without someone saying I’m obviously biased for/against something, being paid off by someone, in league with some company…. Most of the time it’s so silly it’s kind of, well if not cute, then perhaps slightly sad. I really wonder what sort of mindset it takes for someone to be that out of touch with reality, to be that paranoid, to feel the need to strike out against someone for favouring (or criticising) a piece of software. I’ve even received some threatening messages from people who want to do me physical harm, which seems weird when, again, it’s just one person’s observations on a piece of software.
That being said, I get a lot more positive messages than ill-tempered ones. The appreciation and praise that comes from the community as a whole far outweights the fevered complaints of fanboys (or fangirls). I’ve had people mail me gifts, create custom wallpapers for me, offer to pray for me during times of sickness and invite me out for beers. Really, the motivation to keep writing largely comes from the “thank you” letters that arrive in my inbox on a regular basis, they let me know there is an audience out there who feels what I do is worth while.
I noticed when the new game consoles came out, and people were leaving 1 star reviews because one console or another was DOA out of the box, it wasn’t unusual to see a few angry responses from people who claimed they must be a fanboy of the other console. Whether it be phones, game consoles, or whatever, it’s just so sad and pathetic to see people passionately evangelizing products made by companies who don’t give a damn about them. And that goes double for the game consoles – grown men getting all butt hurt because somebody bought a different one than they did. They’re goddamn TOYS, for Christ’s sake.
BTW: The layout/formatting of the linked article is f’ing horrible. Whoever designed it needs to be fired IMMEDIATELY.
Hellelujah on the layout; the sliding cover trend really needs to DiaF.
I would burn the the rest of the Bloat-Verge along with it.
With how you regularly write “techtards” it makes you look kinda like a typical online fanboy of sorts… :p
You know creating content on the Internet for larger audiences will get you critique no matter what.
It seems to be a fact of life. It isn’t pretty, but that is what happens.
Based on what some of the people that make YouTube videos for a living say… I think the problem is much, much worse for women in videos.
I could be wrong, but sounds to me like writing about technology is like a walk in the park in comparison.
Some women do both. They talk about technology in vidoes. Now, these women have to be really confident.
I think the fanboy card is drawn far too quick ‘n’ easy.
Sure, some are, but most people that are called fanboy aren’t. Not only are they called something they aren’t, it’s not just the name it’s the entire list of properties that gets attached to someone. It’s over the top generalizing.
Just look no further than this site where people give a motivated opinion and get everything dismissed, because they are a fanboy according to someone.
I doubt that there are many people visiting this site because they like only one brand or operating system, more likely they are interested in a wide range of topics.
For one I am interested in Apple/OS X/iOS, Microsoft/Windows, Linux, *BSD, alternative OS’es, historic stuff, Palm/Psion, Commodore/Amiga, 8 bit retro systems, etc… If it was just Apple I’d be on an Apple fan site, which I’m not.
Please note, that what is being dismissed is the unreasonable logic being applied to personal observations that stems from being a fanboy.
Like saying – “I see mostly X brand devices out in the wild, therefore they have to be more popular than the other brand”.
It is reasonable to dismiss the conclusion based on observation bias of a passionate supporter/user(aka fanboy).
That is why there is the segment of deluded fanboys, that even when faced with contradicting statements from the same organisation will hold true only positive statements and dismiss any negative.
Being interested in other tech and being a fanboy do not cancel each other out. Just makes you either a hypocritical fanboy or an informed fanboy.
Edited 2014-01-22 12:45 UTC
So… you aren’t on any? ;p
Well, I comment on none and I don’t have any in my RSS list.
All the Apple sites articles I read come to me via Zite and Weaver.
I do follow TUAW on Twitter.
They don’t hold a candle to the rabid Microsoft fanboys out there…of course, they may not be fanboys at all…an awful lot of them are PAID to be so loyal! (see recent news)
I am awfully tired of hearing that I am stupid because I can’t “figure out” Windows 8, or that I haven’t given it a fair shake (or just haven’t used it at all, even though I have and I do).
No, all our opinions are just WRONG to these people.
But he’s right that the words “fanboy” “shill” and “troll” are used almost universally now as codewords for “I do not agree with you” or “you are not following groupthink”.
I mean running a little PC shop I often have a little more exp than most with hardware and software and have found what seems to be reliable more often than not, little tips and tricks, as well as seeing the not so hot, especially in hardware as I have to keep a closer eye on that as a bad batch of products by a company that doesn’t stand up for their offerings? Could seriously hurt me yet if I point any of these out? Why if its positive I MUST be a fanboy or a shill, and if its negative against a product that isn’t universally reviled (like Win 8) I MUST be a troll (or in the case of Win 8 an idiot for not “embracing the innovation” of bolting bike handlebars on a pickup truck).
So far I’ve been accused of being a fanboy/shill for, in no particular order…AMD, Intel*, Comodo, Microsoft, Apple*, Sandisk, Asus, Acer, and oh yeah, ecigs for daring to point out on a forum that after 30 years I had finally managed to put down the coffin nails thanks to the “ego style” of ecigs.
I’ve been accused of being a “troll” against Linux (because I dared to point out how often driver issues arise with the current driver model), Apple (*-because i don’t like walled gardens), Google (think all the tracking and G+ trying to tie into my YouTube is stalkerish) and ARM (because I pointed out that ARM doesn’t scale well and starts losing its power advantages with increased clocks) and Intel (*-because i think bribing OEMs, rigging compilers, and using its position to drive Nvidia out of the chipset business is worthy of antitrust sanctions).
In every case I was stating my opinion based on my exp with the product but you simply aren’t allowed to HAVE an opinion anymore, one that doesn’t follow lockstep with the groupthink anyway.
I was like this as a kid. I had Atari computers, and they were THE BEST. I^aEURTMm not sure which was a greater contributing factor, but I suspect two things. One, I was a kid. The other is that I was brought up in a Christian Fundamentalist home with this idea that there was ^aEURoeone true way.^aEUR This sort of thinking may have bled into other domains, giving me the idea that (a) there exists a best choice, and (b) I had made that choice.
I grew out of this, but unfortunately, not everyone does.
Awesome, I have an Atari 800XL on my desk right now, and I recently wrote an assembly language program for it. It’s just a routine for compressing and decompressing data, that was going to be part of a larger program.
It’s still fun to go back to your roots and program. There are hobbyist hardware makers that make a video card for the 800XL – such that I have it hooked up to a VGA monitor (via an RGB – VGA scan doubler) – and it has NES level graphics now
Plus – an SD card (essentially acting as a hard drive of 16MB in size). 16MB being big enough to house every Atari 800XL program ever made
You can only do this on an Atari – anyone who bought a Commodore is a fool, who lost their entire investment (just kidding, they have similar hardware for the Commodore 64).
ATARI RULES!
Edited 2014-01-21 20:34 UTC
I’ve noticed it is easier to just hate on everything. And really, most of the time I actually think it is justified because smartphones suck, the new consoles suck, Apple and Microsoft and Google all suck and most of you expressing oppinions suck. And yes, I suck too.
But even though almost everything sucks, there are times when that tiny percentage of unsuckiness happen, when someone actually did something really nice. It could be this tiny little feature that stands out in an otherwise pile of horseshit or that seldom clever comment from one of you readers that makes my eyebrow go up for half a second in enjoyment. When that happens I really don’t care who made it. If it’s good it’s good. Those are the days I enjoy technology the most…
Out of your current collection of gadgets, computers and gizmos what are your favourite ones and why?
(the question arises from a mild but nagging jealousy that you have so much kit I would love to play with)
Additional question – have you ever had any experience with a Hackintosh?
Uhm, no idea. I’d say the N9 but that would only be because I’ve wanted it for so long and now finally have it, so that’s distorted. The Jolla and Sailfish are right up there – such a joy to use that going back to iOS or Android feels like taking several steps back in time.
In the ‘classic’ department, definitely a tie between my iPaq (Windows Mobile) and Palm Tungsten E2. The former because Windows Mobile was amazingly powerful and versatile – and got more flak than it really deserved; the latter because PalmOS is the basis from which all popular mobile hardware and mobile software stems – and because it was, and is, such a joy to use, since no other mobile system is as fast, effortless, and focused as PalmOS.
Came across this web site, thought you might like the design
http://eggfreckles.net
Don’t bother with Thom, because the ultimate classic device is:
The Psion 3a
And the ‘a’ is important, because it means it’s not a Psion 3.
The Psion 3a was a true palm computer. The builtin applications were great. It had 2 slots for memory cards.
Sadly what came after the Psion 3a, not including upgraded models, like the Revo and Psion 5 weren’t as cool. Just like the Palm Pilots that came after the first generation we’re better, on paper, but never felt like a true improvement.
I guess simplicity can be seen as a feature and adding bells ‘n’ whistles takes away that feature which might be the feature why you like something so much.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Psion_Series_3
I actually have a Series 3a. Terrible, terrible keyboard.
Try changing your fingers, mine works just nice!
You must be a fanboy of whatever-is-the-opposite-of-a-Palm!
You surprise me, I loved the keyboard on the 3mx, Siena, Revo, and Series 5, I thought they were all excellent.
“Nexus 7, HTC 8X Windows Phone, Surface RT, iMac, Find 5 (Android), a self-built Windows 8 PC, Nokia E7 (Symbian), iPhone 5S, Jolla, and only last week I added a Nokia N9 to my collection.”
Nice, Boo, Boo, Excellent, Nice, Boo, Hiss, Awesome, OK, and OK.
I’ll admit it, sometimes I do get too infatuated with technology from time to time, but In my small defense, I’m not beholden to a single company.
I just like it when it works well together. At various times, I have been enamored with Microsoft, IBM, Delphi, Apple, BeOS, Palm, Google, Linux, *BSD and related sub projects. I guess I just hate ugly hacks of systems thrown together with out care. Or conversely, millions of ways for different parts of a system to work together, without a standard best practice emerging.
I work with .NET and JavaScript and Web tech most of the day. Which means I work a lot with Windows and mainly in Microsoft shops.
I don’t understand a lot of criticisms because at the end of the day, I work with it all the time or much more oppressive measures from other companies that make Microsoft look like Angels.
I think who is considered the Angels and Who are the Demons a lot is based purely on your own experience with them.
Edited 2014-01-21 20:59 UTC
It’s mostly a holdover from when Microsoft was much more powerful than today, and pretty clearly was holding personal computing back in pursuit of its business goals. A lot of techies from my era (I’m in my early 40s) have a lot of lingering resentment. But at this point, there’s no real rationality to it.
Truth is, since the release of Windows 7, most of Microsoft’s major products are pretty good (including the mostly-excellent .NET ecosystem). All of us old-time Microsoft-haters get a nice dose of schadenfreude whenever a big new MS initiative like Bing or Windows Phone fails to catch on, just like you might get a jolt of self-satisfaction seeing your old middle school bully working in some low-status profession.
Well, that. I think I also hold a grudge for the success of their failures like vb 6, ie 6, .net forms, Outlook’s HTML rendering, win xp, access, frontpage. Things that were used way too long and in places they never should have been. That and the .net architect insanity of Microsoft specific alphabet soup.
Well… Microsoft’s business strategies have not improved as the time went by.
If you are a developer or a sales related partner – they are great.
When you are a valued customer – they are great.
When you are not in one of those groups – you get shafted.(but then again, most places are like that. Microsoft, like Oracle, gets a bit carried away when they get you locked down and they don’t need you. Speaking from personal experience in many different countries.)
Edited 2014-01-22 13:07 UTC
As if it plays a role who is doing the product. Just try to blend that out and try to judge the product, not the producer. Win7 is great, Win8 sucks compared to Win7. That’s an opinion you find wide-spread and it shows that, at least some, are well able to differ between product and producer. Just look at Tom’s recent article about HP going back to Win7. Point is there is a problem with Win8 and it wasn’t there in Win7. And yet some commentors argue it must be driven by an Anti-Microsoft agenda. Allllright.
Edited 2014-01-22 13:59 UTC
I just can’t stop mining it. I don’t think I’ve played any games for the past two weeks, for fear of missing out on mining.
I’ve neglected steam friends, but who care, Ill send them some letters from the Moon!
People say this is the year of wearable computers? Poppycock! Tis the year of the CryptoCoin.
Edited 2014-01-21 22:23 UTC
The article doesn’t mention that the loudness of the fanboys of a specific thing is inversesly proposal to the marketshare of said thing.
You know that an OS has a real community when it has low marketshare but the community isn’t full of loud fanboys bashing people for anything they post.
Nailed. And we know who and what you refer too
I had to make sure not to hold the cattle prod on the wrong end.
I don’t mind fanboys in the traditional sense of the word. I think it’s great if someone is really enthusiastic about something. However, I can’t stand people who constantly feel the need to shit on “the other”. These are more haters than fanboys.
That’s an important distinction. I’d define “fanboy” as someone whose appreciation is so intense as to be unaffected by rational, objective criticism. And their resistance to criticism is so ardent that they reflexively spring to their beloved’s defense at the slightest provocation.
When that fandom tips over into the dark side of preemptively trashing any and all competitors, it’s become something else.
When I was a teenager we didn’t have any form of computers at home. We did have rivalry but with different technologies.
You had :-
The BSA owners
The Triumph Fans
The Norton Commando’s
and the occassional
Honda freak and Scooter Fanboi wearing a parka with an RAF roundel on the back.
We competed with burn ups along the North Circular Road from the ‘Ace Cafe’ to various destinations. There was also no speed limit as far as we were concerned.
Needless to say quite a few Cafe Racers didn’t make it but that was all part of the thrill.
By contrast this modern Fanboi battles are rather tame.
Smartphones at Dawn anyone?
I still have my first bike, a 1969 Triumph Bonnievile. I bought it on my 16th Birthday and have never looked back. I borrowed a BSA Bantam to pass my driving test a week later. how many Smartphones will stil be going 45 years later eh?
The fanboys were wrong, it was even known at the time, hence all the Tritons, Tribsas, Rickmans etc still why weren’t Z1s and H1s put in featherbeds?
It stopped people seeing soon enough the Jap stuff was better – or at least had more potential, lack of criticism might be one reason why the manufactures didn’t get their acts together an died (that and a base of loyal but dwindling consumers, that will buy the rubbish). The Norton Commando wtf – you have an out of date, push-rod twin with a built up crank, in the best frame on a production motorcycle and what do you do? Throw away the frame and keep the Engine, the fact that that the Commando wasn’t rubbish was a miracle.
Oh, I’m a bit of a Norton Fan and my Dominator is looking good after its rebuild.
Edited 2014-01-22 08:54 UTC
The problem is that classic British bikes rarely worked even when they were new. My brother’s Triumph Trident has spent most of the last 35 years in pieces.
Title says it all!
I wouldn’t say I was a fanboy and I don’t think the platform attracted the real nutjob fanboys but I and many others loved and clung to BeOS for *far* too long.
I miss that, I used to love the Amiga too but nowadays I really don’t care what OS I work on they all get the job done.
By far the worst fanboys are Rolex owners. They literally worship their woefully inaccurate, massively overpriced and somewhat unreliable mass-produced (a million a year) mechanical watches.
wrst = wrIst or wOrst ?
Kochise
verge writes an article about how kids are idiots. news.
someone unfollows someone on twitter. the verge writes about it as “news”.
I would say that people claim that you’re biased and a ‘fanboy’ because when you do take a position on a argument, you behave like one. Everything is black and white, there’s no nuances at all, everyone else on the other side is a ‘hypocrite’ or a ‘shill’, every news that is agrees with you is reported while every news that doesn’t is not. It all is, essentially, reduced to a childish logic and therefore a ‘fanboy’. (And god forbid to admit that you were wrong on something. Maybe it has already happened but i didn’t noticed it. )
Edited 2014-01-22 11:47 UTC
I’d love some examples.
Yes, I am very strict and unmovable about a number of things, such as software patent abuse.
However, over the years, I have regularly admitted that I was wrong, or changed my opinion. I was very excited about Windows 8 in its early days, for instance. Now that Microsoft is mismanaging it, I no longer am. Same applies to Windows Phone. Since I rarely make actual predictions, there’s not a whole lot to admit on that front.
As for no nuances – that’s a bunch of bullcrap, to say the least. See how I treat Apple, for instance. I dislike Apple as a company, and specifically its corporate behaviour and patent lawsuits, but I praise their products all the time. The iMac is the best desktop computer, the iPhone is among the best smartphones in the world (and perhaps the best for many people), and the iPad is utterly unconstested. Apple’s laptops are still the benchmark.
See the nuance? The problem is that people tend to only remember the things they disagree with, not the things they agree with. When you see me write about how Apple laptops are the best, and you already believe that to be so, you see it as a mere confirmation and forget about it. When I however, attack Apple’s patent abuse, but you think said behaviour is justified, you’ll remember it.
The same applies to many other companies. For instance, while I strongly side with Samsung in the Apple vs. Samsung debate, I had no problem posting this:
http://www.osnews.com/story/25479/Samsung_Releases_Galaxy_3GS_Or_So…
It’s just one example out of many.
We call this cognitive dissonance. From your comment, it’s clear you have a certain opinion of me. When I post items or comments that challange said assertion, your brain can do two things: (1) change the assertion on the grounds of the new evidence, or (2) dismiss the new evidence and retain the original assertion. Sadly, (1) requires more mental energy than (2), and hence, people generally opt for (2).
I see this all the time on OSAlert. You’ll hear people say “you are biased against Xyz!” – after which I remind them of the countless articles and comments challanging that claim. At this point, the OP usually leaves the conversation, only to post the exact same false claim 10 stories later.
It’s cute.
Edited 2014-01-22 12:05 UTC
So you’ve never dismissed a person’s opinion because fanboy?
Of course I have.
Then again, if the same five or so people keep repeating day in, day out, that you’re anti-Apple, despite overwhelming evidence to the contrary, with a complete and utter unwillingness to even remotely consider that their me-being-anti-claims are bullcrap – well, yeah, then even I can sometimes get a tad bit annoyed and frustrated.
I’m good*, but I’m not perfect.
* that was sarcasm.
Well, beating your wife and buying flowers for her doesn’t really prove you don’t hate your wife.
What I notice is a lot of jabs at Apple, even if Apple isn’t the subject.
Some people mind that and I don’t just think because it’s Apple, but because it’s Apple again and again.
I know this site is about the future and we love the past too, but I think (guessing here) most would prefer non-meanstream news. Big stories about Apple, Microsoft, Google or any other big player gets to us via a number of media.
What didn’t get to me was the new release of Linux and FreeBSD. All the other sites I follow didn’t mention it. This is the added value of OSAlert, OS news that you’re not likely to see in on the big well known sites. They won’t mention Haiku, Visopsys, FreeDOS, OpenBSD, etc…
Who sues who or what Woz thinks of a movie is stuff that’s (a not really OS related and (b to be found on x sites anyway.
Without mainstream news – which we’ve always done, since day one – OSAlert would maybe have two or three items per week. It’d die out.
This has been discussed a million times on here, but the old alternative operating systems scene is dead, and no matter how many times people want me to post news *that simply does not exist*, it’s not coming back. Shit happens in mobile now, and I’m trying my best – with limited funds – to cover as much as possible.
Sadly, there is no alternative mobile operating systems scene, so there’s that.
The Internet is a big place. If we^A'd go hunting with a bag full of patience and some extra underwear I^A'm sure we could dig up some interesting stuff.
Stuff that may be alive this day or once was. No doubt there are a number of operating systems that started with (not so) great ideas, but failed to grow and got killed.
Also I think amongst us we have a number ancient retro devices and operating systems. I^A'd find it cool to read reviews about them written in this modern age. See what they did right then, what we mis now, how it compares to modern stuff, etc… or just a trip down memory lane.
One of these days I^A'm going to buy this device, made by a hobbyist, that emulates a Commodore disk drive. Insert a memory card with disk images and access them on your C64/128 like you just inserted the real disk.
This is a clever project, merging the past and the present.
You don’t count Jolla and Firefox OS as alternative mobile OS?
And Thom, aren’t you a BeOS/Haiku fanboy?
Funny. Several people here claim the exact same thing… About Microsoft.
We notice what we want to notice, I for example have noticed nothing of the sort.
Edited 2014-01-22 19:03 UTC
“Yes, I am very strict and unmovable about a number of things, such as software patent abuse.”
No, you are unmovable about software patent and you consider anyone suing for a software patent an abuser. Which is clearly a bias.
What I find cute myself are people who are self-proclaimed unbiased.
Yup, and proud of it. Software patent abuse is the lowest of the low, and those doing it are immoral scumbags.
A bias I’m glad to have. Cheers buddy!
Interesting for a supposedly unbiased person.
I have no problem with biased people as long as they do not pretend to be unbiased.
I cannot recall that I claimed to be unbiased. In fact:
http://www.osnews.com/story/25257/A_Note_on_Bias
Edited 2014-01-22 13:35 UTC
Interestingly enough, OP ignored my above comment. A few weeks from now, I will most likely be accused of claiming to be unbiased.
Cognitive dissonance at work. Such a beautifully elegant theory
.
There was never an article posted when Apple prevailed at the damages retrial and got most of their original damages.
I was waiting for the armchair lawyers to eat crow with that one.
Edited 2014-01-22 13:10 UTC
I think you’re mistaken. The last thing I know, the damages were lessened quite extensively in that retrial, and Wikipedia seems to agree with me.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Apple_Inc._v._Samsung_Electronics_Co.,…
Apple got 290M of the 379M to be added to the awarded 640M for a total of 929M.
Original amount was $1B pre-retrial. Samsung got completely destroyed.
Also today Samsung was found to infringe on another patent and had one of their own patents ruled invalid.
I guess that’s where my confusion stems from. I remember the judge slashing the damages in half, so I probably took this as a mere confirmation of that. This trial grew complex quickly.
Edited 2014-01-22 13:44 UTC
Its easy to get lost in, but it underscores an important point. All too often conclusions are drawn from procedural happenings and used to gin up the anti patent fervor here. The article where Apple had their damages halved was all wrong in tone and posted without context.
I added it to the article in the comments:
The article needed a huge asterisk and is an example of bias negatively impacting reporting.
In retiral, Apple asked $380M, Samsung proposed $50M, Jury decided to grant Apple $290M.
And you obviously need to add the $600M which where granted without Samsung appealing the decision and thus is not part of the retrial.
So the $1B initial amount became $890M and Samsung get $0 for its counter suit.
I don’t know how one can consider this judgment as a fail for Apple and/or a win for Samsung, even with a lot of imagination
This is however an example of a bias: if we weren’t talking about Apple, the conclusion would be quite different, isn’t it?
Samsung still sells its products, makes money doing so, is on top. So, however you turn it around Apple’s “nuclear war” wasn’t that much of a success yet when looking at Android vs iOS market share. Apple’s mission to beat Android out of business failed. You not agree?
If Apple succeeds in an anti cloning provision for Samsung it could make it a lot harder for Samsung to provide users with a great experience which will definitely hurt Samsung.
Samsung doesn’t really have as much to fear from Apple as it does to fear from the onslaught on cheap Chinese vendors as the market for smartphones matures.
What will happen here is that they will get squeezed in a pincer move by the low end, and by Apple in the high end which has a much more loyal following.
After the growth stops in the high end, they will almost assuredly be no match for Apple’s extremely premium brand recognition and consumer loyalty.
This is analogous to the PC market where Apple is posting strong high end growth while other OEMs struggle to fight them at that price point.
I think this will be a bad year for Samsung as the only remaining high growth markets are chewed up by regional white box players.
Well, Samsung has been working really hard on its brand appeal, and Samsung now ranks higher in consumer satisfaction reports than Apple – which is a huge deal. I don’t really understand why, since I don’t particularly like Samsung’s slimey plastic crap, but there you have it.
In other words, I don’t think Samsung’s supposed fall will be all that big or huge – but then again, the consumer market is ridiculously difficult to gauge.
I saw one report where Apple had better marks, but Samsung came out on top because… it was cheaper.
Personally I don^A't think that should matter. It^A's like saying a cheap Volkswagen is more fun to drive than a Porsche, even though the Porsche is more fun to drive, but more expensive.
You’re referring to the JD Power thing. I’m looking at these:
http://www.forbes.com/sites/roberthof/2013/07/31/samsung-smartphone…
And only a few days ago:
http://www.electronista.com/articles/14/01/21/amazon.leads.pack/
One is about dealing with the companies in general and the other one is a pre-iPhone 5S one.
I guess the good thing is that multiple systems now have high scores.
That’s the one I saw around Nov. Cost was Samsung biggest edge, but that’s something that they will increasingly have difficulties with, and not because of Apple.
Apple is just better at software in my opinion, Samsung is a component supplier turned OEM. Its not in their DNA.
Don’t even begin to get me started on the service I got when 3 out of the batch of 6 Samsung 1TB HDD’s that I bought went belly up with a week of each other.
I got the ‘you are using them wrong’ excuse all round.
I bought some Hitachi ones and once everything was copied over I took a sledgehammer to the remaining disks. Scant reward but pleasurable though.
As a result, the Samsung brand is not on my shopping list. Personally, no company even comes close to Apple on customer service. Other people and their experiences may vary but that is my personal experiences.
The nuclear war thing was a quote from Steve in his bio.
He probably said it or at least was quite upset over Google/Android that he said things to that extend.
We don^A't know what happened after he counted to 10.
We do know that he had a number of strange ideas, bordering insannity sometimes, that his people talked him out of.
He wanted to spend every cent on fighting Android. I doubt his team would all agree that this would be a good idea and clever long term strategy. Steve would have been fired long before the last cent was spend. It was not his money to spend anyway.
Also Steve is no more and I don^A't think Tim is the type to go on a holy mission in name of his former master. He^A's much more down to earth than Steve was.
The fights Apple is putting up and the tactics it^A's using is just how business is done these days and doesn^A't involve the will of Steve.
In football (soccer), all teams have supporters. They are most of the time nice people, sometimes childish, often biased (but come on, everybody is somehow). I don’t have problem with supporters (even if I don’t like football myself).
You also have hooligans. Some supporters are hooligans, but most are not. Many hooligans are supporters but some are not, they are just interested in fighting with others.
Then you have the mass who doesn’t care that much about football teams even if they like to watch football on TV.
And finally, you have sport journalist who are always totally unbiased of course because they are professional and know a lot about everything football.
In tech, supporters are called fanboys. Problem is that many consider that fanboys are hooligans (haters? bashers?) while they are a very different group of people.
I guess I am myself an Apple fanboy, but I am not an Android hater or whatever hater. Too bad many cannot see the difference. Too bad soo many “articles” are written about fanboys while nobody seems to care about tech-hooligans who are the real problem IMO.
Thom is clearly a tech-journalist: totally unbiased.
I think a fanboy is a possitive thing. What^A's wrong with someone being passionate about something?
Much more annoying are the haters and when they spot a fanboy they think that gives them a free pass to go all-in on them. A rain of insults follows.
Agree.
A forum full of Apple and Google fanboys (but not haters) trying to convince each other with logic and rational arguments would be quite an interesting place
Edited 2014-01-22 14:00 UTC
There used to be these C64 vs ZX Spectrum “holy wars” on Usenet.
The insults were humorous. The funnier the better.
These holy wars often started with a major troll. I remember one, which was very simple and yet spawned an enormous amount of posts:
“The C64 sucks. Discuss.”
But apart from the humor there was also a lot of technical discussion. Technical details on why some chip was better than the other or more clever. Listings of pure Assembler to demonstrate stuff and how CPUs worked.
C64 users love their computers just as ZX Specrum owners do, but in general they respect the other. Me personally I love the C64 and I have a ZX Spectrum+, which is quite a cool machine too. Although the C64 is obviously way cooler.
These days any discussion is killed at once with replies like “You^A're a fanboy” followed by some insult.
People today don^A't want to discuss it seems. They want to insult and kill any sensible exchange of words as quickly as possible.
The OS, it’s BeOS!
Came here to say that. Praise BeOS.. The only OS i loved after AmigaOS. Still stings like motherfucker thinking what could have been.. :'(
I have followed both OSAlert and Distrowatch for at least five years (probably more) and can say with certainty that neither of these sites favor anything, ever. I spread the news of both sites whenever I can.
To Jessie and Thom continue the fight and ignore the trash.
Thanks, that was very nice of you. Cheers!
It’s possible to be a supporter of a technology, even passionate it, without being a fanboy. There is a distinction between advocates and fanboys: the opinions of advocates are colored & informed by things like reason, practical personal experience, and the ability to grasp reasoned arguments made by others.
Fanboys, on the other hand, are nothing more than garden variety partisans – except they give their unconditional loyalty to a computing platform/technology company rather than a political party. I still remember the first few times I read the term “fanboy,” it was in reference to overly-fanatical comic book & sci-fi nerds, and “Professional Wrestling” fans – so I tend to associate “fanboism” with the most obnoxious traits of those groups. That is, blind, purely-emotional attachment to something – combined with hair-trigger over-sensitivity to any criticism of such.
In the wild, there are two easy ways to distinguish an advocate from a fanboy. One: do they show up in the comments to defend their favorite company/technology every there’s any negative coverage of said company/technology? Two: do they show up in the comments on any article about the “Other Side” to crap on them and/or find a pretense to praise their side? (Bonus points if they defend their side & criticize the other side for doing the exact same thing) If “yes,” then you’re in the presence of a fanboy.