Apple’s Rise to the Top

I am just starting to consider forgiving Apple for the worst nightmare I ever experienced in 20 years of working on computers. Having had a terrible experience with an iBook in 2004, I swore that I would never use one again. Since then a lot has changed and a recent visit to the Apple store greatly impressed me.

Back in 2003, I was using a G3 iBook with an 800MHz processor and 768MBs of RAM. It certainly looked incredible, and people would drool over its looks on a regular basis. The visual aesthetics have always been and still are one of the most luring features of Apple’s products - allowing them to charge premium prices. When running OS 9, the whole system was very spritely and it was a pleasure to use. Unfortunately, running OS X was a different experience; the mouse pointer would frequently change to a spinning coloured wheel which after a few months of daily use eventually ground me down. When it comes to your work computer, a good looking machine is nice in the short term, but ease of use is the thing that really counts in the end.

Despite the £1600 price tag, it was a tad slow loading web pages in Firefox. Using the same exact same internet connection, I timed it against a 1997 Compaq Presario laptop. Despite being 7 years younger, the PC running XP was actually quite a lot quicker than the iBook which typically would need a second or two to display a page.

If that wasn’t annoying enough the graphics hardware broke down on three separate occasions. Each time I had to endure the torture known as the Apple customer support service. Waiting for 3 hours on hold sounds like an exaggeration, I wish it was, but that is actually how long before you could speak to technical support. Then the machine had to be sent off to Holland, taking 3 weeks, and when it got back it went wrong again.

It was the largest amount of money I have ever wasted, and I was furious. I wrote a letter to Steve Jobs, but never even received a reply – they just didn’t seem to care. I haven’t touched them since not because I think the same might happen, but more out of protest. Today I am using an ultra portable laptop, the IBM X31, and if Apple were to create a laptop of equal size, weight, battery life, and power, I might just have to get one.