This May Ruffle a few Feathers!

Something has been bugging me lately, I’ve been reading a lot of opinions about Apple being just a fashion company.

As a tech enthusiast and someone that uses multiple platforms on a daily basis, I decided to share my thoughts on this.

Before we get any further, I just wanted to say that I don’t class myself as any form of a fanboy when it comes to tech, I’m more of a fan of good products or products that I enjoy using.

The smartphone I use on a daily basis is the Google Pixel 7 Pro, My tablet of choice is the 11-inch iPad Pro (which I class as my main device) and I use both Windows and Linux on a daily basis. 

I do this to be fair to all brands and products.

But without any further ado, here’s what I think about the statement “Apple is a fashion company”…

Tech Doesn’t Have to Be Complicated!

I wanted to start this article by saying that tech doesn’t have to be complicated. I know that there are many people out there who want all the features and customisation options you get with Android devices.

If that’s something that makes you happy, then that’s great! But not everybody wants that. I used to be a massive fan of customisation a few years ago and I absolutely loved Buzz Launcher on Android devices. The number of customisation options it had was unreal!

These days I still like to be able to customise my phone and my tablet, but I don’t tend to customise them to make them look pretty, I customise them to be more practical for my needs. I think I’m starting to show my age here.

But in all seriousness, I’m not too bothered about customising my phone too much and I’m not bothered about features that I’m probably not going to make much use of.

Where Do Apple Devices Fit in?

One of my favourite things about Apple is its approach to minimalism and design. Apple manufactures some incredibly good-looking devices and software.

Whilst it may not be everyone’s cup of tea, it certainly doesn’t mean it’s bad. One of the main things I miss from the iPhone as a Pixel 7 Pro user, is the apps. 

Software and Apps

In my opinion, the apps that are available on iOS and macOS look more pleasing to the eye and they seem to function better than their versions for other platforms. 

But in all fairness, that is dependent on the individual app, as there are some apps that I believe function better on Android. 

I like the minimalist approach app vendors use with Apple products, I find that some apps feel different on Windows and Android Apps, not sure what it is.

Let us move on to software on the Macs, for a very long time, Apple has been including quite an extensive suite of software to allow people to not only organise their lives but also to help people become more productive. iMovie is a great example of that, but there are many other useful applications which look stunning and function well, such as the Calendar app.

If we compare that to Windows, Windows Movie Maker has always been a very questionable piece of software that crashed constantly and after trying its replacement ClipChamp, I’m not too convinced.

But it’s not only that, many software vendors choose to only support Apple devices, and they have some brilliant software for both productivity and creativity, that simply isn’t available on other platforms.

Hardware

It’s not just the software, their devices truly look stunning! I mean I remember the first time I saw a modern slim iMac in my local PC World store. As someone who has built several custom computers, I was amazed by the style and how thin it was!

It’s not only their computers, their accessories such as AirPods have become an icon and rightly so as they actually sound pretty decent. Put it this way, Apple’s wired earbuds are probably one of my favourite sets of wired earbuds.

I am fully aware that there is an argument that AirPods are fashion accessories, but I don’t look at them this way for the simple reason that they integrate with the Apple ecosystem incredibly well and they sound decent. 

To be truthfully honest, Apple devices can deliver a lot of serious performance and whilst they aren’t gaming PCs, it doesn’t mean that they perform badly. We’ve got to remember that not everybody needs or wants a gaming PC.

When it comes to hardware, I do have a few complaints, the first one being that there is no option to upgrade some of the Mac devices as everything is built-in. 

However, we don’t have to look too far to see this being reflected by other manufacturers such as Dell, Huawei and many more.

Unfortunately, as a society, we want lighter, thinner and more portable laptops, which results in everything needing to be slimmed down and it’s why we are seeing more and more manufacturers integrate memory and storage into the motherboards.

My second complaint is linked to the upgradability and it’s the cost of adding more memory or storage space, it’s incredibly high! I was and still am thinking about replacing the ageing computer I build a few years ago with a Mac Mini, but I don’t know how I can justify adding an extra £200 on top of it for the memory.

Put it this way, I recently refurbished an ex-Business computer to turn into a Proxmox server for my home lab, and I purchased a stick of 16GB of memory for just above £30, that’s so cheap! 

So, is Apple a Fashion Company?

To summarise my thoughts, I still don’t see Apple as a fashion company. Here’s why…

Apple is huge, they manufacture a lot of tech products aimed at different people and industries. Take the new Mac Pro as an example, I definitely don’t see that as a fashion accessory and the same can be said for many of their other products.

But here’s the thing, Technically speaking a watch is a fashion accessory and Apple manufactures some incredibly good watches, but so does Samsung, Google, Mobvoi and hundreds if not thousands of other smaller tech companies.

Apple takes technology and mixes it in with a minimalist style and I think it works really well together. Put it this way, there are many other companies who are following this approach!

Do you think Apple is a tech or fashion company? Let us know your thoughts in the comments!