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Apple’s Failures Do Not Sway Fans And Critics

Posted on: Friday, 29 August 2008, 14:20 CDT

Apple Inc has had to face many pitfalls that would typically threaten to cripple any company, but critics and fans are still willing to give the Cupertino, Calif-based firm the benefit of the doubt.

Online forums full of angry owners of the recently-released iPhone 3G continue to grow, but Apple’s reputation remains intact.

"The objective reality is that Apple does plenty of wrong," said Peter Fader, a marketing professor at the Wharton School of the University of Pennsylvania. However, Fader said, the company's loyal fans, and even casual users, have come to identify so strongly with Apple's high-end, individualistic vibe that they're willing to look the other way.

"Very few companies have this kind of iconic status where anything they do, even if it is mediocre, will automatically have a halo around it," he said.

Kern Bruce, a 25-year-old Web designer in Boston, waited in line for 13 hours to buy an original iPhone. He regrets selling it to upgrade to the 3G in July.

"There was no going back at that point, but after I sold it, I quickly started to regret it," he said. Bruce's complaints echo countless Web forum posts: The device gets uncomfortably warm. Programs crash. And it so seldom connects to AT&T's speedier third-generation, or 3G, data network that Bruce carries the iPhone around with 3G turned off.

"They're skimping on materials, on testing things to gain market share, but they're kind of pushing away people who have been with the brand even when (it was) struggling," he said.

But Bruce said he wouldn’t abandon Apple, because its products are still a better “a lot better than the alternative, in terms of stability, viruses, being able to do high-end graphics work."

With the iPhone 3G, Apple opened the door to software programmers to create their own applications and sell them on iTunes.

However, these developers aren’t fully sold on the new opportunity due to Apple's secrecy and limits on the kind of programs they can design.

One unusually restrictive agreement they must sign keeps them from comparing notes even with fellow programmers.

Apple has kept developers in the dark as to why some applications are rejected or, in rare cases, removed from the iTunes store without warning or explanation.

One such program let people use the iPhone's cell service to connect a computer to the Internet. Its developer, a company called Nullriver, did not respond to a message seeking comment, but wrote of its consternation on its blog.

DoApp, a small mobile-software company in Minneapolis, said it took two months for Apple to review and ultimately reject its 99-cent whoopie cushion application. Wade Beavers, DoApp's vice president of strategy, said Apple had never hinted that a program that mimics bodily functions would be considered inappropriate.

"Sometimes you feel like you're in line with the 'Soup Nazi,'" Beavers said, referring to a "Seinfeld" episode in which a soup vendor capriciously banished patrons. "It's a really good deal to be part of the Apple thing, and you don't want to say anything to rock the boat. No soup for you! Your apps are gone!"

Baba Shiv, a professor of marketing at the Stanford Graduate School of Business, compares Apple's fan base to Harley-Davidson motorcycle riders who pass over arguably higher-quality Japanese bikes.

The critical move that changed Apple's relationship with users was the launch of the iPod, Shiv said. Apple went from being a private luxury - a maker of niche products - to a mainstream one, and wormed its way deeper into customers' psyche.

"In the public domain, the coolness factor matters," he said. Indeed, an iPod "halo effect" is thought to be one big reason why Macs have boosted their share of the U.S. personal-computer market to nearly 8 percent.

Photo Courtesy Apple

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Source: redOrbit Staff & Wire Reports

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