Why Is It That The Moment You Blog About Apple, People Lose Their Minds?

I don't know what it is about Apple, but anytime a blogger writes anything negative about Apple, or does not agree with what Apple says, many readers bring their emotions into the conversation. What is it about Apple that drives so many people to lose their minds? The moment someone does not agree with something Apple is doing and blogs about it, many readers treat it as if you just said insulted their mom.

Because of the anonymity that the web offers, many times, you really don't know the reason behind someone's comments. Maybe they have stock in Apple, maybe they work for the company or maybe their business relies on Apple's content ecosystem. While it's really hard to know, one thing is clear. Many people can't have a real discussion about Apple, and the facts and points at hand, without getting emotional.

In my post from earlier today entitled "Steve Jobs Blogs On Why He Hates Flash, But Can't Get His Facts Straight", of the 150+ comments on three different blogs about my post (one, two, three) you can't find anyone who's arguing against my counter-point to Jobs when he said, "iPhone, iPod and iPad users aren’t missing much video." If you don't go to sites that have video, then you are minority of all web users today. The vast majority of web users all visit sites each day and consume video on a daily basis. So why is no one arguing with me that about that? Why is no one arguing with me that some major websites like Hulu.com, NFL.com, Amazon.com, Zappos.com and others don't have videos that work on the iPad? The simple reason is because you can't argue with facts. Now of course that does not stop some people and one person commented that unless the info I am presenting comes from a "third party", then we should believe Apple.

How sad. If you take an iPad, or go to the Apple store and use one and type in NFL.com, you will see there right there on the home page the phrase, "To see this content please go to Adobe.com to download the latest version of the Flash Player." Do you really need a third party company to tell this you? Do you not trust your own eyes?

While many want to think I'm crazy to disagree with Apple, clearly I am not the only one who thinks this way and if after reading these posts below, if others still want to call all of us crazy for disagreeing with Apple, then I consider myself to be in good company:

• Jobs on Flash: Hypocrisy So Thick You Could Cut it with a Knife
• Steve Jobs doesn't like Adobe Flash
• Steve Jobs on Flash: Correcting the Lies
• First Draft of Steve Job’s Open Letter to Adobe
• Steve Jobs Speaks Up On Flash
• Steve Jobs thoughts on not supporting flash – they just aren’t justification!

I also find it absolutely hilarious that so many people commenting don't even own an iPad and have never used one because if they did, they would see that videos on my blog are in H.264, and NOT Flash. Yet, many are quick to leave comments saying my blog is outdated or built using a proprietary video platform. 

I get the sense that many want to dry and drown out anyone that does not agree with Apple by inundating them with so many comments, name calling and personal attacks that the blogger will just give up. Sorry to tell some of you this, but that won't make me stop and it won't drive me away. If anything, it will only make me blog about it more.

Note: If all you want to do is curse me out, any posts with curse words will be removed. I don't allow that language on my blog.

Comments

[Nadene]

Thanks, I'm not trying to be argumentative, I'm trying to find good statistics on what people do in a *typical day*.

Those stats are all per month and you cannot divide uniques per month down by the number of days to get average uniques per day. For example, Facebook may have 100 million uniques per month *and* 100 million uniques per day.

You could change your original post statement to say:

"The vast majority of web users all visit sites each month and consume video on a monthly basis. So why is no one arguing with me that about that?"

This would be consistent with the research you point to.

[Peter Forman]

Dan,
 
Thank you for your “courageous” posts questioning Steve Jobs' veracity. Who knew that to suggest that Steve might have business motives for keeping Flash off of his mobile platforms, and that he might not want to be honest about those motives could inspire such anger. I am a firm believer in the power of the cult of personality surrounding Mr. Jobs - and so is he. He knew that his loyalists would treat his words as gospel.
 
I think that your posts are more right than not. While, at the margin, there may be some truth to the technology arguments against Flash for mobile devices, I don't believe for a second that Steve would allow Flash on iPhone or iPad even if it were the most efficient, battery-saving media technology on the planet. And there's no question that controlling the flow of media to the platform is the reason, just as you called it. I think it’s called free enterprise.
 
The bad news for iPhone/iPad (iPhad) users (myself among them) is that there will continue to be a lot of great, free, live and on-demand video content on the web that will be unavailable to us on our mobile devices. Kulabyte encoders streamed the Masters tournament two weeks ago and while there was an iPhone stream available, the whole of the amazingly rich media experience that IBM Interactive created at Masters.com was completely unavailable on my iPad. If we’re willing to put up with a device that has those limitations (and Mr. Jobs is gambling that we will be), then he’s created a huge revenue opportunity for Apple by making us pay to see a lot of content that others get for free. Think of it as one of the costs of iPhad ownership.
 
On the other side of the equation; 1) iPhads are less than 15% of the smart mobile device market, 2) there are already as many Flash-capable mobile devices on the market as iPhads, and 3) Flash capable mobile market share will continue to be 50 – 60% of the market over the next three to five years. So Flash and HTML5 are both going to be vital to the mobile media market for at least that long and probably for longer than that. Despite what “open standards” folks have to say about the brave new media world that HTML5 will bring, there is tremendous value built up around the Flash platform that will continue to make it relevant to online and mobile media distribution for years to come.
 
Peter Forman
CEO, Kulabyte

[Dennis]

We all forget, things are not what they are, but what we believe!

[BMD]

Apple has become the phenomenon in the world of IT and products along with entertainment with their music player and the mobile phone. More and more people are buying the Apple products each day and they have already overtaken the Microsoft in terms of the company's share values which is a great sign and shows the trust of customers in company's products.

[PP]

Interesting post. Many people love Apple products, and when people are really passionate about something they often bring their emotions to the surface, whether positive or negative.