Chances are you or at least a member of your family owns some kind of Apple product. People all over the world own Apple computers, laptops, tablets, phones, music players and sometimes several of those products.
Apple’s stock today is valued at about $450. They have a pretty clear monopoly on the business. It makes me question if they really deserve all the spotlight. People plunge their money into Apple and yet frequently, the company hangs the customer out to dry.
Practically every year a new iPhone is released with a few things that the previous year’s model lacked. They also change up their iPods every now and then. However, I think that Apple holds back on releasing certain features, so that they can guarantee people buying new stuff every year. That way, when they can’t think of anything really important to add, they can just throw another camera somewhere on a product or two, and they’ll still haul in tons of money.
For example, the iPod nanos have come in a variety of colors for years. Finally, last year they started offering the iPod touch in multiple colors. I’m sure plenty of people went out and bought a new iPod because they could choose the color. Making the little metal backing a color other than silver isn’t exactly rocket science, but it still took them five years to do it. When they finally offer the iPhone in something other than white or black, they’ll have another group of people tossing out year-old phones, just to have the latest thing.
The update issue is kind of annoying, but even worse is that Apple is rather sneaky about aspects of what they’re selling. Apple lets the customer choose how much storage on iPods and iPhones they would like, ranging from 2 gigabytes to 160. However after all the formatting, the actual storage is less. Plus, they stick you with apps that you may never use, like stocks, gamecenter and voice notes, and those take up space as well.
Another thing that bothers me is how some of the products are overpriced. The cheapest iPod is the shuffle, at $49, which doesn’t even feature a screen or way for you to pick certain songs. There are lots of mp3 players that are relatively low cost and do feature a screen, so you’re basically paying for the Apple label.
Apple has some good ideas and nice products, but over the years they’ve stopped putting the customer first. As of now, they’re a little overrated. Maybe if they offered rebates, or special sales, or perks for loyal customers, they would earn their good reputation. If they develop more interest in the people they serve, they could be even more successful than they are now.
