This is Signal vs. Noise, a weblog by 37signals about design, business, experience, simplicity, the web, culture, and more. Established 1999 in Chicago. Follow us on Twitter for more information on our products.

Many companies put a computer out and its not what the customer really wants, so they have to add this and that (wireless, video camera). The customer winds up having to jump through many hoops before they finally get something that they think they want and it, unfortunately, doesn’t really work that well, then. We don’t do that.”

Funny, my iMac came with both a camera and wireless…

Yes, Apple is all about giving the customer all they want. That’s why when I buy music on iTunes, in order to get it to play on my MP3 player, I do the following steps:

1. Download music in Apple’s proprietary format 2. Burn onto CD 3. Eject my CD and reinsert. 4. Windows Media Player recognizes it and asks if I want to add to my library. 5. Add music to my library. 6. Connect MP3 player to computer. 7. Add newly purchased music to my MP3 player.

Thanks, Apple, for not making me jump thru any hoops!

@Jason G: My interpretation of the Apple quote is that other computer manufacturers put out a basic model, to which the customer then needs to add his various “must haves” (wireless, video camera, and so forth).

With a Mac, it’s all included as standard (as was the case with your iMac), so the customer doesn’t need to faff about adding optional extra in order to get the machine he wants.

I second Mike

@Mike: If Apple is making you jump through all those hoops, why use iTunes? Who is forcing you to do that? Just curious.

Apple is giving the customer what they want. A song which they can play on their computer and their ipod or on their CD player. That’s what the customer wants. The idea that the customer wants to move their music to like 5 different devices and all that jazz is just edge case lunacy. People want music on their Mac and their iPod and Apple gives them the easiest possible way to get that done.

That article on the branding design of Idiocracy, coupled with Kottke’s 4/5 rating caused me to move it to the top of my Netflix queue.

BIG MISTAKE !

One of the WORST films I have seen in a LONG time. Horrendous, seriously HORRENDOUS !

Obviously the apple model works, but so far it hasn’t worked with some, e.g. myself, because we do like choice and like avoiding vendor locking. Now with laptops it’s different, since getting an integrated piece of kit is somewhat useful (less things to carry). What makes things work for them is product design and the fact that while they lock you in, they do it in style :).

I still don’t own any apple products!!!

Deepak, I hope you don’t own any MS products either. Talk about lock-in!

Mike : just curious, if those hoops are too much for you to jump through, why not buy it somewhere else? Emusic…amazon, or take a walk to a cd store?

Mike:

The DRM hoop isn’t Apple’s. Blame the RIAA for that.

In the meantime, spend your money at eMusic instead.

“Obviously the apple model works, but so far it hasn’t worked with some, e.g. myself”

Right. That’s kind of the point. Apple is targeting a demographic unlike some other computer manufacturers who attempt to target everyone. That rarely works.

AC

The only MS software I use (on my non-work machine) is the OS, since most of the software I need to record music isn’t available on Linux. Otherwise, the latter is all I would use.

Don’t get me wrong, I think OSX rocks, and the iPod is the mp3 player I would like to have, and the macbook pro my wife has is much much better than the laptop I use. But I do think Apple’s policies, historically, have been one of “our way or the highway” and I’ve chosen the highway so far.

Darrel … never said their marketing strategy was a bad one :). Just not one that works with some (and with the move to Intel chips and parallels, it’s getting hard to resist).

Apple is giving the customer all they want, but sometimes they also decide what the customer want. They seem to outdate floppies and PC card a bit too fast for my taste.

As to the Web 2.0 bubble: quick thought experiment. If it burst tomorrow, and every little W2.0 co was suddenly out of business, what difference would it really make? (Let’s leave Google out of it for the moment…)

I can’t think of anyone I know who owns stock in a “Web 2.0” company. Last time, tons of people had their whole investments wrapped up in nonsense like Razorknish or Suckient or whatever. So when those popped, people’s actual money was gone. This time, sure you might be unhappy if your Amazon stock or Google stock dipped, but mostly it’s just VCs who’d be hurt by it.

If the Web2.0 bubble popped I’d be scurrying to get all my data I have scattered around the Web. I’d be really screwed if I lost my 20+ projects in basecamp or my invoices in Blinksale, images in Flickr, bookmarks on del.icio.us, and so on.

Although I would sure as hell not miss Twitter or Dodgeball.

Although I would sure as hell not miss Twitter or Dodgeball.

Amen!

Re: the ‘bedouins’ – I love new labels for old ways.

I wonder if I still counted as a ‘bedouin’ when I went to a pub after a gig to write up a review in pencil before going to a ‘phone box to call a copytaker, or sat in the post office waiting room listening to a promo tape on my Walkman before going to a corner shop to fax in a review of the album five minutes before the deadline. (All that seems much more nomadic – and more fun! – than plonking yourself down in a caff with all the tools of the web at your disposal.)

I agree with Jason. Its scary to think of how much stuff is just scattered all over the place. I bet I’ve got information floating around in services that I’ve long forgotten about.

it’s interesting how this blog uses title information as a substitute for categories or tags. if you want to find all the posts on a given topic (sunspots, product launches, product previews, getting real stuff, etc etc) you can just google for it (with a helpful interface provided in the navigation on the right).

google has already indexed this post! (remember when it used to take months? now it apparently happens within days.)

to clarify what i said: the use of title prefixes as a substitute for keywords works because the authors use it consistently and thoroughly. posts with the same kind of content usually have very similar titles. “sunpots: the (whatever) edition” or “LAUNCH: (some product)” or “LAUNCH: (something about features) (mention of product name)”, etc.

Offtopic, but you guys should configure your 404 to be more verbose. I just got served a 404 by 37signals.com/svn and it had some gibbrish about changing the error message. Same with the file not found errors – http://www.37signals.com/svn/foo

Re: bedouin

You guys should should take a look at what we’re building with the coworking community. We’re going beyond cafes and setting up actual spaces for independents all across the world.

The end game is to create a global network of interlinked spaces that provide community, resources and productive, cafe-like environment to get things done.

About half of my new record is being put together in a coffee shop. Every chance I have to not be sitting in my bedroom studio and be a part of “life” I try to take.

“Many companies put a computer out and its not what the customer really wants, so they have to add this and that (wireless, video camera). The customer winds up having to jump through many hoops before they finally get something that they think they want and it, unfortunately, doesn’t really work that well”

Like the $2500 MacPros we just bought that didn’t come with Bluetooth or AirPort, and that required a $100+ adaptor (that’s the size of a laptop) to connect our (5-year-old Apple ADC ) monitors?

Interesting site. Very useful informations to me. Thanks.