Apple Haters: Listen up!

Since Apple has announced that they are going to release their next version of Mac OS X in the summer, version 10.8 a.k.a. Mountain Lion, the technophile part of our world speaks of nothing else. Of course this announcement has encouraged the anti-Apple community to start bashing on Macs, iPhones, iPads, iOS and everything else containing a small letter with a dot, followed by a capital consonant.

Now before your read on any further, you should know that I am an Apple fanboy. I like their products, enjoy using them and as a student of the economic field, I admire the success of the company, especially their special way of handling marketing and public relations. So if you are an Apple-basher, I suggest you stop reading, before your entire spectrum of the world, stretching from MS-DOS to the piece of software they call Windows 8, collapses.

So what they are bashing on right now, especially in Germany, is the fact that Apple will release Mac OS X 10.8. just a few weeks prior to the planned release date of Windows 8. They keep posting: “Is this a silly coincidence?” Of course it isn’t, it is a strategically planned move. I really do not expect the majority to know anything about running a successful business at all, but I expect people who write about topics they think they are experts on, to know a thing or two about competition.

Since the IT industry is one of the most competitive fields worldwide, where a few patents can rule an entire segment of a market, I am hugely surprised that people even question the fact, that Apple plans to bring out a product about the same time as Microsoft releases Windows 8. Companies do this all the time, so stop acting like Apple Inc. is supposed to be a welfare organization.

I am also sick and tired of people claiming Apple products are overpriced machines that look good and include inferior hardware in comparison to a brand new PC or the latest smartphones. Yes, they are more expensive than an average PC or an Android smartphone. Yes, they might not have the strongest processor that is currently out on the market. But what they always forget is the fact that this does not matter that much to customers who trust in Apple products.

It is the simplicity of Mac OS and iOS, the optics and design of the products, as well as the reliability. We do not need the latest NVIDIA or ATI graphics chip to play the latest games, we like to use our Macs for work, to design things, or for recreational purposes. Still, I am not going to be another user, trying to list all the advantages of using a Mac and the disadvantages of using a PC, since it always depends on the individual user and what he or she needs a computer for.

Of course there are people who like to brag with their iPhones and their Macs, but these people did not buy a Mac or an iPhone for the same reason that Apple fans bought them for. And please do not tell me that a teenage boy, whose parents bought their son a Dell Alienware gaming laptop, is not going to brag about it.

I am also really fed up of people who have a grudge on Apple users, just because they feel sorry for themselves due to not being able to afford an Apple device. It is not the fault of Apple customers that they don’t have the cash. Some people have the money to buy a sports car every week, others have to fight for a grain of rice every single day! Life is not fair and we all know it. I also had to work next to studying to be able to afford a Mac, to be able to afford to travel a bit and to buy things I consider to be of high quality and worth the money.

I do not want everyone to buy Mac, I honestly don’t. I can only tell people about the advantages of Apple devices that suit my individual needs. An accounting company in southern Africa would be stupid to buy Macs for every single work desk in their office, since the job they need a computer for will also be down with a cheap PC. A graphics design studio in Paris, France, on the other hand might buy Macs for the fact that they look stylish and want customers to have the impression: “Ok, this seems to be a professional studio; they care about the interior fitting – c’est bon.” But most importantly, they want to use a computer that was designed for creative people, who don’t want a huge assortment of software, but a simple-to-use computer which suits their needs.

So instead of bashing on a company and it’s products, try to encourage people to compare different brands and find the one(s) that suit their needs the most. Start thinking outside of your small town box and try different stuff once for a while. And even if Apple names each version of Mac OS X after a ferocious cat of prey, I promise they won’t bite 😉

Finally: President Christian Wulff steps down

German president Christian Wulff has finally resigned, after countless scandals were unveiled by the German press. The majority of Germans consider this move to be overdue.

In case you haven’t heard anything about his scandals prior to his resignation, let me enlighten you.

The affairs started in early December, when German newspapers discovered certain questionable and unfair advantages, that Christian Wulff may have had profited from personally. They unveiled, that Wulff supposedly received a home loan with conditions, that no other private person would ever be offered by a bank. The rate of interest was much lower than normally charged by any bank in Germany.

This particular story started, when Wulff had received a private loan of 500.000 € from the wife of a wealthy business man in October 2008, in order to buy a house. At that time, Wulff was prime minister of Lower Saxony. In February 2010, he replied to an oral enquiry in state parliament of Lower Saxony, that he has not had any business relations to entrepreneur Egon Geerkens, whose wife had granted the home loan to Wulff, in the last 10 years.

By the beginning of December 2011, German tabloid newspaper “Bild” wanted to publish a story on Wulff’s private loan. On December 12th, Wulff left a message on the mail box of editor-in-chief Kai Diekmann, that he does not want the story to be published and at least wants the release of the report to be postponed. Apparently, he also threatened Diekmann and spoke of a “final breach” and “war” with publisher Axel Springer AG, if the story were to be released.

But fortunately, Diekmann was not intimidated and released the first report on Wulff’s loan the following day. This was around the time, I started to follow the story and boy, we were all in for an endless list of scandals.

Wulff later regretted in a written statement, to have denied business relations to the Geerkens family in front of state parliament of Lower Saxony. On December 22nd, he openly apologized for any misunderstandings caused on his side. Simultaneously, he fired his spokesman Olaf Glaeseker, who was later accused of corruption and bribery. On January 19th, Glaeseker’s private and official premises were searched on order of the department of public prosecution of Hannover.

I honestly think that you can judge a person’s character by looking at the people he keeps closest to himself. Most people in Germany already considered Wulff to be a liar at that point in time.

On January 4th, Wulff did something many people consider to be incredibly stupid. He gave an interview on public television in order to clear things up and openly apologize for attacking and threatening the press, which is a violation of Germany’s fifth constitutional law. Wulff announced in the interview, that he will answer all questions the press has on the matter of his private loan and that he wants transparency in this matter.

What he did the next day, was the exact opposite. Wulff let his attorney publicize a rather short summary of the affair, which lacked his aforementioned transparency in all aspects. By that time, the entire series of scandals involving the president of the Federal Republic of Germany made other politicians, even of the same party, doubt Wulff’s credibility and honesty. Unfortunately, chancellor Merkel did not want to make any statement about the affair at that time.

The affair surrounding the private loan with the Geerkens family, which was later transformed into a home loan at BW Bank with questionable interest rates as well, was the main story behind Wulff’s string of scandals. He also profited from private vacations, free of charge for Wulff and his family – and paid for by wealthy businesspeople, allegedly “friends” of Wulff. Apparently, this was already the considered standard when Wulff was prime minister of Lower Saxony.

Personally, I could not care less if he took advantage of gratis vacations, these are peanuts in my eyes. But I honestly cannot support a president who owed a private person 500.000 € only a few years ago – this can indicate bias on his part. I don’t even want to think of how much Wulff has damaged the office of presidency in Germany. I am sure he also damaged Germany’s reputation in association  with the term corruption. There are certain cultures on our planet who do judge a people by their honesty and decide whether or not they should do business with them.

Unfortunately, we can’t measure the financial damage Wulff has and will cause by having dragged the office of presidency through a series of scandals, not comparable with any previous German politician.

As I said before, most Germans considered his resignation overdue. Wulff clung on the office of presidency like a dog would on a bone. Politicians are supposed to know when to let go of their jobs before causing irreparable damage. In a certain way, one could compare Wulff to president Assad of Syria, minus the violence.

So what made Wulff finally let go of his job? What scared him so much, that he finally loosened his grip on the office? On February 16th,  the department of public prosecution of Hannover filed for the abrogation of Wulff’s legal immunity as president of the Federal Republic of Germany, in order to be able to begin with investigations of corruption! I think that is enough said at this point to let people decide for themselves, what kind of person the former German president is; I will monitor the outcome of the investigation closely.

What makes me sad, is the fact that it took this long for such a disgraceful person to step down as president. It really bothers me, that there was no pressure from chancellor Angela Merkel to make Wulff step down. Because nowadays we all know, once the credibility of a politician and most of all, a president of a nation that is responsible for an entire continent in a political and financial point of view, is in doubt, chances of a recovery are infinitesimal – 2011 was a great example of that.