I used to complain at length about Apple products—especially the PC software they’ve made. iTunes should die in a fire, and I refused to download quicktime for a while since they were sneakily bundling iTunes with it (and it messes with your startup stuff without asking).
Well, there are complaints about “Apple premiums” on pricing, but if those actually exist they’re most likely largely the result of the fact that the company can “exploit” its devoted fanbase...
I think Apple is a good choice, though. I’d also point to Prius or hybrid vehicles in general or other items of objectively-good quality which turn into status signals of various sorts… and then you see criticisms aimed at the signalers and not the underlying goods or their functionality. Or the criticisms are aimed at the fact that the fans overstate the value of their choice objects, which doesn’t exactly impinge the actual value.
Apple.
“Not commonly criticized”? Are we on the same Internet?
Seems to me the main object of criticism is the presence of fans. I haven’t heard many people complain about Apple products (or marketing) first.
I used to complain at length about Apple products—especially the PC software they’ve made. iTunes should die in a fire, and I refused to download quicktime for a while since they were sneakily bundling iTunes with it (and it messes with your startup stuff without asking).
Well, there are complaints about “Apple premiums” on pricing, but if those actually exist they’re most likely largely the result of the fact that the company can “exploit” its devoted fanbase...
I think Apple is a good choice, though. I’d also point to Prius or hybrid vehicles in general or other items of objectively-good quality which turn into status signals of various sorts… and then you see criticisms aimed at the signalers and not the underlying goods or their functionality. Or the criticisms are aimed at the fact that the fans overstate the value of their choice objects, which doesn’t exactly impinge the actual value.