I thought that I would set out the reasons why I avoid Apple products and any products like them.
Apple is one of the most profitable companies in the world with huge profit margins. That effectively means the consumer is paying more than they really need to for their products. Great for Apple but not so good for the consumer.
Apple eliminates competitors by making sure that all Apps and related software are controlled by them so that they can control competitors and thereby their profit margins. Apple products only integrate with other Apple products which once again enables them to expand sales of their other over-priced products.
The consumer is trapped in their universe of well-designed but over-priced products.
When running my business I work hard to reduce any other businesses control over my business.
For example, if your main traffic source is SEO traffic then you are dependent on Google or Bing for your traffic. They change their algorithm and you can be out of business overnight. Same goes for platforms like Facebook.
It is OK to use these platforms but always be sure to have a back-up service in place and reduce your business risk by diversifying.
That’s why I use a self-hosted solution for my websites – it’s more expensive but I have more control over my ultimate destiny. I don’t have complete control because a hacker could take me down so I mitigate the risk by backing up my websites.
You need to think through your business decisions properly.
Let me give you another example. My son is running my 10 year old Saab and was wondering if he should scrap the car or pay a £500 repair bill to keep it on the road. This is the email that I sent him:
Hi James,
I have been thinking about the cost of the car repairs and I think you need to get real about this.
Just to illustrate.
A 2015 BMW 1 series with 25,000 miles on the clock would cost around £17,000. If you financed that you would have to pay a £1,700 deposit and £250 per month (or £3,000 p.a.) for 4 years and have a residual payment of £7,000. On top of that you have tax and insurance and servicing costs. The main cost is in fact depreciation of the car as interest costs are no more than £500 p.a.)
In my opinion, you should budget £100 per month to cover repairs for the Saab plus the cost of MOT & service (£250), insurance (£400 incl breakdown) and tax (£270) i.e. £76 p.m. + £100 = total £176 p.m.. That gives you a contingency of £1,200 p.a. to cover running repairs for the car to keep it on the road as long as possible – hopefully you will not require anything like this figure.
You have to compare that £100 per month with the monthly outlay of £250 and the huge capital outlay for the deposit and final payment for the BMW to see that keeping the Saab on the road is financially the right thing to do. On the other hand, I understand that it is not cool to be running around in an old car but if you look after it and polish it it is still a good looking car with a lot of power under the hood.
I suppose reliability is a big factor but sometimes new cars have problems too!
Hope this helps you to get things in some sort of perspective
Love Dad
In financial terms, the decision to pay the repair bill is easy but the desire to run a new car to look and feel good i.e. ego – gets in the way of making a rational decision.
The same is true of Apple products – they are well designed fashion items that people desire in order to look cool and sophisticated.
Personally, I think most people are ‘chumps’ when they let ego get in the way of making a rational decision. They are surprised when they end up with nothing at the end of their life.
I thought that I would write this article to demonstrate why running with the crowd is not advisable. Think for yourself and take responsibility.
If you are reliant on Google’s SEO traffic in your business and you lose your traffic overnight then you alone are to blame for making your business dependent on a traffic source that is outside your control.
I hope you can see why I avoid Apple products (or perhaps you think I belong to the ‘basket of deplorables’!)