While I don’t always agree with the way Apple conducts
business, there are alot of things the Windows PC industry can learn from them.
I often help people pick a new PC, and there are things I bump into every time
that make the process of picking, buying and setting up a new PC unnecessarily
cumbersome. Here are five things I think HP, Acer, Asus and all the others
could learn from the way Apple does things.
1.
Just the OS please
Unless you build your own PC from
parts, or have someone do that, chances are your PC comes with Windows
pre-installed. That’s prefectly fine, except that manufacturers tend to add
tons of useless “crapware”. There’s usually a trial version of the very worst
antivirus you can think of, plus all sorts of other utilities you’ll never
need. And most of them will at some point prompt you to buy a license, or
upgrade to a pro version. Ugh.
My Asus laptop came with a program
to change the look of the volume bar. It now looks like a pie chart of sorts.
It’s slow and ugly, and I can’t seem to get rid of it without losing keyboard
volume shortcuts altogether. Thanks Asus. I didn’t want that. I wanted Windows
7. Bundling Microsoft’s own Security Essentials might be a good idea. It’s
free, and very good. Other than that, please take note of how Cupertino does
things. Without crapware, Windows 7 actually offers a very decent user
experience.
2.
Restrict model variations
Apple currently sells eight Macbook
model (1 Macbook, 5 Pros and 2 Airs). Asus has over
300. Madness. Even if you manage to keep track of all those product
series, there are still all sorts of hardware variations within that line of
products. It’s just simply impossible to choose from so many models. And once
you do, you’ll have to find a store that carries that specific model. Good
luck. In my experience, this is one of the reasons people start looking at
Macs. Clarity.
3.
Offer a great unboxing experience
PCs usually come in unsightly boxes
that list all the machine’s components. Typically, they’re hard to open, and
usually the first things you’ll see are wires, bundled seemingly randomly into
small plastic bags. Only when you’ve removed absolutely everything else will
you see your new computer.
Once you do get the actual product
out of the cheap styrofoam padding, it’s bound to be covered in stickers
informing you, once again, of it’s specifications. I can only assume those
stickers are there in case the product begins life as a demo unit in a store.
Regadless, I don’t want to have to spend the first couple of minutes after
unboxing removing stickers, and then removing the glue residue.
Apple tends to package their product
as if it’s jewelry. The whole package is designed to make you feel good your
purchase. Well done, Apple.
4.
In product design, less is more
I recently helped someone in my
office get onto the wifi. Her brand new HP laptop had a wifi indicator light
that was orange, and needed to be blue. The HP Wireless Assistant (see 1) was
no help, nor were Windows’s own settings. At some point, I pointed at the
aforementioned light, and accidentally hit it. It turned blue. It turned out to
be touch-sensitive.
To me this is poor product design.
Sure, it’s probably in the manual somewhere, but hardware design should be
intuitive. Buttons should look like buttons. And it should be simple. Recently,
both HP (with their Envy line of laptops) and LG have released near-identical copies of Apple’s
Macbook line, boasting the same, clean, design. I’m convinced there are ways to
design great, clean-looking, easy to use computers without stealing. And it
needs to happen.
5.
Offer a decent support website
Have you ever tried finding anything
on HP.com? It’s a mess. And the same goes for every other manufacturer’s
support website I’ve had to deal with. And even if you manage to find the right
product, chances are the information will be outdated, or apply to the US
version of that product, which has different components. Ugh. This of course
relates directly to my second point. Less, again, is more.
So there you go. Five points that I
think the PC industry needs to compete better with Apple. Do you have any
additions? PLease feel free to leave them in the comments.
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