July 1, 2009

apple’s hater fans

love hate
As you might imagine, I know a lot of people that own iPhones – and Macs. What’s struck me recently is the number of these people that display real passion for the products and hatred of the brand at the same time. It didn’t use to be this way. I remember when Apple fans would not say a bad word about them.

It seems as though in the last few years a strange thing has happened. I won’t get dragged into the economics and business decisions they’ve made – not really my thing. What I will say is that Apple has become quite an anomaly in that it seemingly has an army of ‘hater fans’.

[I tried really hard to think of a catchier name - new suggestions welcome]

They are seduced by the products – and the product experiences – but simultaneously rant about how evil and rubbish Apple is.

I can’t think of any other brand that has this dynamic. You could argue that some people have a love/hate relationship with cigarettes. But it’s not the brand they hate. If anything, the brand is an ally – the best of a bad bunch – their pal who’s a bad influence on them. Petrol? We don’t really love petrol. We love driving. And all petrol is the same to us.

The closest example I can think of is fashion. When I was in my early twenties I had a sort of love-hate thing with Diesel. I liked some of their clothes but hated the brand. So I would only buy items that didn’t have the logo or name clearly on them. Although I didn’t ‘love’ them. I wasn’t a ‘fan’. It was more of a like/hate. (Now it’s a dislike/meh)

Am I missing anything? Can you think of another brand that has this

Anyway, I’m fascinated to see how long Apple can continue to win over these hater fans with premium products. I’m already seeing people crack. Can seduction win over resentment long-term? I doubt it. It feels as though a breaking point is coming.

apple explode

Update:
I forgot to say. The reason this post even came to mind was because Tom, our tech director has his iPhone signature saying: “sent from my cash sucking shiny thing”. I think that sums it up perfectly.

11 comments tagged: , ,
  • http://www.deathtotheflippers.com flipper01

    Andy has asked me to post my email I sent to him about this, apparently I’m “ranting”, so read with caution, here may be dragons:

    I pretty much agree. A mate of mine has an iPhone and loves it, but hates apple. I’ve had a few iPods, and liked them, but got smashed down by apple customer support horrors. I cut my teeth on macs in college and my first few years of employment. Apple make good, simple, easy to use products – but that’s not for everyone. I personally like to have a bit more control how my stuff looks and works, but I don’t have a problem with people who prefer a more simplified way to work, each to their own. The whole mac fan boy thing is a whole other issue, it’s just plain weird how it’s set itself up as a this cult that’s ‘cool’ to be a part of, and to love, but in actually they are just another company trying to sell you stuff, that’s (arguably) a lot more expensive, less feature rich, and very similar to the other 2 versions of whatever the product is they bought out last year that you probably already own.

    I don’t think its something that’s unique to apple though, people know brands like Nike and nestle are pretty nasty corporations, but the vast majority just buy their products because they’re either fashionable or cheap. Only a few core people give enough of a shit to avoid their products because they don’t agree with the corporation behind the brand.

    Apple are just masters at whipping people up into a frenzy over a new product by just simple saying it exists, and i think this is mainly because at the heart of the corporation is a designer (Mr Jobs), who understands image better than whatever nameless business heads up another trendy brand.

    But as I’ve said many times – each to their own. If only mac fan boys would say the same ;-)

  • http://www.deathtotheflippers.com flipper02

    I just bought some Raybans. I hate Raybans. But I just bought some Raybans.

  • http://www.migrantroo.com Nilesh Ashra

    Yeah, what’s been going on with Apple since the iPhone is fascinating.

    I’m a hater fan too.

    One of the things I hate about Apple is the walled-garden they create around their products and services. Everything is billed as some shiney ‘premium’ service that you should apparently be happy to pay for, at the expense of your wallet and freedom. Apple are becoming notorious for trying pen users and developers into their way of doing things – and extremely arrogant and dangerous tactic.

    The fiasco over the iPhone NDA, and App Store is a good example of this actually – they’re seriously pissing off the very developers they rely on to make these Apps. Those very developers have taken the (imho) big risk in learning and targeting a closed-source, non-free licensed platform, only for Apple to treat them like shit in a lot of cases.

    These days, being open is favoured by users and developers alike. The freedom to take what’s rightfully yours (be it data or services) and move it where you want. Android, HTML5, OpenID, OpenSocial and the like are all efforts to standardise the core bits of important technology so that the user doesn’t end up being locked into one platform or company.

    Another thing I’ve noticed is that Apple don’t care what kind of experiences you want to have with their products. They’re more interested in the experience that THEY want you to have – pushing their lifestyle/ethos upon users, instead of listening to what they want. It’s a subtle distinction, but it’s something that is unique to Apple. Within weeks of the iPhone launch and since there have been websites where people have petitioned in their thousands for Apple to add features like MMS, Copy/Paste, modem tethering, etc to the iPhone. Why?! It’s fascinating that those people don’t ridicule Apple for not putting in those features in the first place (like they would if it was Nokia, Motorola, etc would released a mobile with a host of missing features), wash their hands of Apple, walk away, and buy another phone.

    Many Apple consumers don’t seem to be willing to give up the sexy products in light of missing features of obvious problems. Instead, they plead with them to fix them, wait on tenterhooks for 18 months for the new product, wait in line for 12 hours to get it on launch day and then announce that Apple are the best technology company in the world and “OMG AWESOME MY PHONE CAN COPY AND PASTE NOW TAKE THAT MICRO$OFT!1″

    Weird.

  • http://www.deathtotheflippers.com flipper02

    excellent comments Nilesh. I agree completely with your views and observations. What annoys me is you simply can not debate these views amongst the Apple community. You’re instantly shouted down as some kind of hater. It’s akin to walking into St Paul’s and saying “I think God is a superstition, what do you think?”. I’ve given up trying. I can’t handle the bullying. http://www.macheadsthemovie.com/

  • andy

    My argument though Jason, is that there’s a new breed of Apple consumer that you can argue this stuff with. Nilesh admits he’s one of them.

  • http://www.deathtotheflippers.com flipper01

    Should Nilesh have to “admit he’s one of them”? Whats wrong being a consumer who can still see the flaws in some of the products they buy? Are you not “one of them” Andy?

  • http://www.deathtotheflippers.com flipper02

    Yes Andy, sorry if I was getting off topic there. I’d say that type of hater/fan is there, but it’s a very small niche. Surely a hater/fan is just somebody that’s made a mistake? Why would you buy something if you knew you were going to hate it? It’s like a vegetarian ordering a roast chicken meal because he like the vegetables it comes with. Historically, the hater/fans had little choice when it comes to mp3 players and smart phones. But there’s options now. Be interesting to see what happens during the year.

  • andy

    @flipper01: I think we have crossed wires. No one *has* to do anything. I’m simply observing a dynamic that I find interesting. Am I a member of this group? Kind of. Although I lack the passion to either love or hate Apple. I don’t consider myself a ‘fan’ of anything. Except Pixar ;)

    @flipper02: It’s not about hating something you thought you’d love. I’m arguing that the love is there for the product, but the hate is for the brand. The torment would not be there if it was simply a mistake purchase. The torment exists because pleasure is still gained but with a constant discomfort with all that comes with it. A bit like a drug.

  • http://www.igorclark.net/ Igor Clark

    I’ve been saying for years (and that means a lot longer than e.g. http://theocacao.com/document.page/236) that Apple are a fairly evil company who just happen to make better products, and whose actions are often at least as monopolistic and murky as (e.g.) Microsoft’s, but they don’t get the same levels of shit, firstly because of the army of fanboys, and secondly because of their considerably smaller market share.

    I don’t think that the situation, or the army of fanboys, has changed much; what has changed is the market share and the diversification into different markets, hence the wider exposure of their practices, and the responses to those practices by a greater number of thinking consumers. The problem is, they still make better products. They just do. By which I mean more polished, more integrated, better designed, yadda yadda, and sure, more expensive, but for the market, it’s just better. Consumers, creative pros, etc, and they manage to keep the developers on side with the space-age APIs, toolkits, 64-bit, UNIX, blah, blah blah. How many other companies do that? The strapline should be something like “Apple: we’re evil, but we’re goood”. (I should be in marketing. Gor’s Truth Marketing Agency.)

    Also, this freedom and openness business is really a lot more about developers and hippies. Not only do developers come back in their droves even if they do get pissed off about NDAs and so on, because ultimately they know it’s a good platform with good tools, good support and good infrastructure – and the channel to market for their product is astounding – but frankly, most consumer users couldn’t give a shit. They just want it smooth, integrated, working out of the box, looking nice. Why pander to a minority if your bottom line’s the issue?

  • Mike Pearson

    Bit late to this post Andy, but there is one brand that I can think of that’s similar, at least to some degree. And that’s Alfa-Romeo.

    Lots of motoring enthusiasts really rate them as driver’s cars, for the feel , the looks and the sound, to the point where some say you can’t be a real “petrol-head” until you’ve owned one.

    However, they have a history of unreliability, poor build quality and after-sales support that even people who work for them say is woeful.

    But people still buy them. There’s just something about them as a product that keeps people hoping above expectation that the overall experience will be good, rather than an exercise in masochism.

    What I don’t know is if people buy more than one, and that’s certainly something Apple appear to have no problems with.

    I suspect that the love/hate response to Apple is complex and mutli-faceted. Some won’t like them because in some markets they’ve shifted from plucky underdog to major player, some other people might have a “I liked them before they were famous,” thing going on, others just might set the hype bar so high they can’t fail to be disappointed by a firm that ultimately exists to make money for its shareholders.

  • Tom Hostler

    How about hatevocates to juxtapose against advocates for your catchy little name? Do I get a biscuit?