Why Apple is so despised

“In some circles, Apple is roundly despised,” John Martellaro writes for TheStreet. “Is it because the company makes poor products? Clearly that’s not so. Is it because some people don’t personally like Apple’s executives? It’s really hard to dislike someone you’ve never met.”

“Is it because some people don’t like Tim Cook’s execution and vision? Apple’s performance and financials are excellent and there’s a growing list of successful products he’s shepherded to market,” Martellaro writes. “Actually, there’s more to the despise thing than meets the eye. I can explain.”

“When it comes to creating products that other people use, complexity has its benefits for the creator and for others in its ecosphere. Complexity bestows power, control and financial opportunity,” Martellaro writes. “Apple removes complexity, and that creates havoc in certain circles. For example, think about IRS support forms with their unfathomable logic and tedious calculations. The difficult logic can obscure inconvenient truths about tax law. Fear of mistakes, perhaps an audit, is created. Books and applications spring up that make a profit explaining to you what you couldn’t figure out before.”

Much more in the full article – recommended – here.

MacDailyNews Take: Going further: A giant industry exists that is devoted to helping people “do their taxes” – for a fee, of course. These people and companies band together to form “interest groups” which, of course, contribute to those politicians who promise to perpetuate the status quo, i.e. not derail their gravy train. More complexity is encouraged.

They’re just like mom and pop “PC repair” shops, corporate IT departments, and the anti-virus industry. No wonder these leeches hate the Mac, OS X, iOS, iPad, and iPhone. Microsoft’s incompetence is their lifeblood.

Now, whenever somebody with common sense comes along and starts talking about simplifying taxes in some way – just as Apple simplifies computing, content acquisition, and so much more – then the threat must be destroyed by whatever means possible.

Most tech journalists despise Apple. In their minds, Apple makes products for the mainstream at the expense of the geeks, and so the geeks (and by extension tech journalists) mostly see Apple as an enemy threatening their way of life. It’s why they cling to [a] geekier platform like Android, no matter how junky or far behind it might be. – Bill Palmer, January 6, 2014

Of course, as with Apple and so many other things, we also can never overlook the pernicious effects of Stockholm Syndrome and cognitive dissonance.