My opinion of Apple is softening.
I still don’t like them, and believe they are a bad company, but I have to admit that reality is starting to return to the view of most people.
Some of the recent good moves that Apple has made:
1. Dividends. Apple has done a tremendous job of separating people from their money, jacking up a stock price to astronomical levels, arguable becoming the most valuable company in the world. To what end? Well, at last, there is an end.
2. Charitable donations: This also falls under the category of giving back, but bears notable mention here. A few years ago Apple famously refused to donate to any causes, but is now offering to match donations its employees make to some causes.
3. Apologies: Remember the terrible antenna in the iPhone 4? Remember how it came out that it always had terrible antennas, and that the software was reporting stronger signal than it actually had? Remember the independent studies showing that it was not the network, but in fact the design architecture of the iPhones that resulted in so many dropped calls on the AT&T network? Remember the press conference with the non-apology, accusing the press of picking on Apple? But recently they did apologize for forcing maps, which so many have complained about.
It used to be that when Apple did something bad, it was okay because they were Apple, and I always hated that. Now, they don’t have a free pass anymore. Now they are under the same scrutiny as all of the other techs, more so than many now, and are no longer the perfect company that they never were.
They still do things I don’t like, such as denying customers features that they can roll out, but choose not to in order to improve the attractiveness of the next version. The original iPhone shipped with a 2G antenna, even thought many phones were already 3G. Their slow speeds were blamed on the network, but Apple really needed a good selling point for the next year.
One thing that I must credit them is creating a platform with a very accessible interface that has generated a vast swath of apps to help those with autism.
Which is why, on Black, er, Thursday, I will be standing in line at Target to get my son an iPad. Don’t tell him, it’s his Christmas present.
