“Thousands of new gadgets released every year all using the same-old crappy unfriendly, unintuitive, unattractive software,” christhebrain writes. “It’s no wonder so many are flocking to Apple when we can just pickup one of their simplistic products, start taping and swiping our fingers, and lo and behold… it just does what we want it to do. Of course, it isn’t easy, or cheap, to make software this user friendly, which is why everyone is having such a hard time keeping up.”
“Sony is, in my opinion, the worst offender. In the past decade, I have seen Sony release cutting-edge gadgets to the market before anyone else,” christhebrain writes. “The PSP was an amazing gadget when it came out, in theory. It played music, videos, viewed photos, surfed the web, and of course, played games. The problem was that, excluding the last feature, it didn’t do any of them well. In fact, all the claimed features were so hard to use that almost no one could figure it out. Then, even more idiotically, Sony received reports that users were not using the extra features and stopped improving them! Sony could have been the what the iPod touch is today, but lost the chance with bad software.”
“But I don’t just write this to rant, I write this as a warning to other business owners and entrepreneurs out there,” christhebrain writes. “Developing software and technology is one thing, but making it user friendly is another. In fact, usability can consume up to 80% of a project’s time and resources.”
Full article – recommended – here.
MacDailyNews Take: There’s no substitute for insanely great and incredibly demanding leadership.
Can’t wait for iPhone HD/4G/4 or whatever they are going to call it. I’ll be in line for it. My 3G has served me well for the last year, good thing i got it out of contract.
You know why Windows have such name?
Because it gives you a tip what you should to do with it…
Usability? BAH!!! I want FEATURE LISTS!!!!
You gotta add RIM to the list. My work-supplied BB 8820 is can’t handle HTML mail. And how long have they been making these things?
Buy AAPL stocks people!!!!!!!
It’s going towards $300 this year:-)
we know Apple is great and the last few years more new Mac heads.
It is only begining!!!!!!!!!
Peace.
I’m working on implementing a $130M system for my company. The GUI is absolutely atrocious and unusable. A good portion of it is completely non-functional. When I ask the vendor engineers how to get something done if the GUI can’t be made to do it they say, “GUI? We never use that. We do everything through the back door.” And it’s true. They do everything by writing SQL queries and writing snippets of C code. Since they do everything that way, they never question the fact that the GUI is unusable for the end consumer, my operators. My operators don’t have the expertise to use the backdoor methods, nor am I going to give them that kind of access. The GUI has to work for them.
I think this is the mindset behind Windows and most of the Dell, HP, and Sony hardware in the world. Apple’s success is due 100% to their willingness and ability to depart from that model and put themselves in the end user’s position and mindset.
It’s almost like I wrote that article
It’s because of the Microsoft monopoly that is allowed to continue that these PC centric companies continue to exist and profit. Take away that monopoly and 80% of these Windows monopoly depending companies will go bye bye!
…which is why I would like to see Apple produce a Digital Camera!
I agree with christhebrain 100%. What Sony did w PSP was a great example. All those features would have been great, but they were horrible to use. Getting on the Internet was ridiculous. The keyboard was retarded. My psp gathers dust, my iPhone is the best gadget besides my ipad.
@Tt
Ditto. Me too. I’ve been thinking that for years. I hate using my Sony cd jukebox and pioneer DVD jukebox . The controls and buttons make no sense..
iTennis writes, “Buy AAPL stocks people!!!!!!! It’s going towards $300 this year:-)” Considering the tear it’s been on in recent weeks, it’s not beyond the realm of possibility. I picked up a few more shares two years ago at $120, more last year at $90. Still, having experienced the 2000 dot com bubble, I try to be a bit more restrained in my anticipation.
Apple strives for Excellence. They are willing to compete against themselves in that pursuit. They operate under the assumption that if they invest in the pursuit of excellence that the market will take care of the rest. They look to the future and are willing to give up backward compatibility for a better future.
The others strive for Mediocrity. They operate under the assumption that low cost ok products will sell well. In general, they have been right because people have also been striving for mediocrity. These Companies try to maximize profits by minimizing costs associated with R&D;and Design Expenses. They try to milk every dollar out of a product by maximizing product cycles and compatibility with outdated or compromised technology.
Much to my surprise, the people, at least a lot of them, are starting to look forward, and can see the value in the pursuit of excellence.
Everyone rises to the top.. but they always come back down. Apple is living proof… Before the iPod, Apple was in the red and almost done. Microsoft had to help them out!
So today they are doing well… but things could change in 5 yrs…
Back in the early 80’s people said the same about DECs and IBMs:
IBM protects the computer from the user, but DEC protects the user from the computer.
That’s almost exactly what Apple does.
@ Marco,
Microsoft has never helped any company out. Microsoft settled a lawsuit Apple had against Microsoft for stealing Apple’s IP.
The lawsuit was settled when Steve Jobs took over Apple the second time.
The timing was coincidental, it just looked like Microsoft helped Apple.
@Hm…
Back in the 80’s, DEC had a superior OS but lost out to the mediocrity of DOS on IBM, because of a very smart move by a young BG.
@ET
Mediocrity = Walmart. Now the largest retailer in the US and possibly the world and all they offer is low cost mediocre product for sale. It’s laughable, but you can certainly grow and become large peddling junk. It’s been proven again and again. Ditto GE appliances. Ditto Microshaft and Dell.
The wife purchased reading glasses from Walmart, made in China of course, and every set broke within 2 weeks of use. I am so tired of this cheap crap, but it is hard to find quality because the overwhelming majority of people choose mediocre lower cost crap. Made her take them back to Walmart just so they have to pay people to handle the return and pay the refuse hauler to take them away.
@Gigi
They did. In fact one of the first commericially available.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Apple_QuickTake
At least this author gets it. Everyone who does product reviews based on specs, not usability, obviously does not get it. A “feature” is something that the the user can actually use. Apple products have many great features. A “specification” is not a feature, if the user never uses that capability. A non-Apple tablet will be wasting a huge part of its RAM, storage, and CPU/GPU specifications just to boot Windows 7, before doing anything that is actually useful for the user.
I know I may sound childish, but my iPhone is the closest thing to a Tricorder that I’ve seen. It’s just amazing.
I look forward to a Flash workaround so I can use the iPad.
Not at all Geddy–I couldn’t agree more.
But flash sucks in it’s current form.
” width=”19″ height=”19″ alt=”tongue laugh” style=”border:0;” />
@Geddy
there is a tricorder app or two in the app store
@Big Als MBP
Microsoft’s investment was only 5% of Apple stock (imagine if they’d kept it!) but it was an important show of confidence in the then beleaguered company. Plus there was the guarantee to continue making MS software for Mac for five years.
All these things kept Apple on life support, so yes, MS did help “save” Apple. Billy Boy probably regrets it now, but Apple was lucky it coincided with MS’s antitrust woes or it might not have cared so much.
Unfortunately there’s still a perception among many that MS “owns” Apple.
I think he meant simple, not simplistic.
Sorry, it’s just a pet peeve of mine
” width=”19″ height=”19″ alt=”grin” style=”border:0;” />