“Why Apple?”

I can't recall anyone ever asking me that question. I remember asking Perri Nejib back in Junior High School why she loved her Apple II when I was busy Z-80ing it with a TRS-80.

Point being, no one ever asked me. Oh, they tell me why, or quietly assume why (which chaps my ass even more), but never do they ask because they “already know”. Well, someone else answered it, and I'm certain he speaks for quite a few (perhaps in the millions).

This from Stephen Fry in his first column for The Guardian, a UK publication:

So you can guess that I certainly do think design is important. But it doesn’t have to come from Apple. In fact, I wish to goodness it came from everywhere. I hope you’ll believe I’m not an unthinking slave to Cupertino. Apple gets plenty of small things wrong, but one big thing it gets right: when you use a device every day, you cannot help, as a human being, but have an emotional relationship with it. It’s true of cars and cookers, and it’s true of computers. It’s true of office blocks and houses, and it’s true of mobiles and satnavs. A grey box is not good enough, clunky and ugly is not good enough. Sick building syndrome exists, and so does sick hand-held device syndrome. Fiddly buttons, blocky icons, sickeningly stupid nested menus — these are the enemy.

I couldn't have described my own point of view better. (Nod to Daring Fireball for the reference.)

It's interesting that the idea of “Apple fan” went to “Apple cultist” to a supposedly redundant “Apple elitist” all the way back to a sexist and ageist “Apple fanboi”. The names changed through the years but the meaning behind them didn't. Ironically, since the world seems to have landed on “Apple fanboi”, the word has stayed but the meaning has changed when it comes to so-called crow eaters Switchers, where an “Apple fanboi” == “anyone who championed a Mac before I bought one”.

Egotism leads to reason; I love it

Technorati Tags: daring fireball, apple, user experience, user interface, design, perri nejib, Switcher, Macintosh, The Guardian, Apple fanboi, god of biscuits, Stephen Fry