MICROSOFT AND AT&T: The special needs children of Corporate America High School, and Apple, the student voted Most Likely to Succeed.

Before we even get into this article, realize that this is all MY OPINION.  The facts are facts, but as for my infinite hatred for the two companies I spit on in this article, that is all personal, and opinion.  If you are a fan of either company that I badmouth, feel free to talk crap about me in the comments 🙂

Anyone that knows me knows how much I hate both AT&T and Microsoft.  If you don’t, I hate these two companies so much that if I had a genie that would grant me one wish, I would wish for AT&T and Microsoft to literally become humans and then mate and have a baby, and then I would stab that baby in the heart in front of them as a sacrifice to all things good in technology and then perform an open heart surgery on them both with my teeth.  Too dark?  When it comes to these two companies and my hatred for their evil ways, I say not dark enough.

AT&T wouldn’t even be around anymore if Verizon and Sprint had the intelligence to invest in the iPhone when Apple first shopped it to them both, but they didn’t want to meet the needs of APPLE “one of the reasons I love Apple so much in the first place.”

See, Apple wanted FULL CONTROL over their buyer/seller relationship.  Why?  Well, the bottom line is Apple thrives on two things, and you will see how it is these two things that have defined their company, and made them the company we know today, versus the general school of thought on both AT&T and Microsoft.

So why so much hatred for AT&T?  Well, this is a company that was literally filing for bankruptcy when Apple saved their @$$, and yet, they have the nerve to have hidden charges in their plans, screw over their customers, provide the worst rated customer service in the world, and hire nothing but staff with world class stupidity.  AND they have the nerve to complain that customers eat up too much of their bandwidth and therefore they will charge more for iPHONE users!?!?!? WTF AT&T?!?!?

And as for Microsoft.  Here’s a company that thinks it’s just good business to sell broken products to their user base, thus forcing everyone that buys into their crap to have to come back and purchase patches, fixes, and more.  This dumbass mindset bleeds into everything that they do, right down to gaming.  Yes, When the XBOX360 first rolled out, it had a literal malfunction rate of %77

…this means, on Christmas day the year of the X360 release, %77 of you turned on your new gaming system, and received what is now infamously refferred to as the “three rings of death”.  Meaning your system was #$%^%&# dead on arrival.  Ridiculous.

I want to note that I plan on writing a similar article focusing on Mircosoft in the gaming arena, and why it blows chunks next to both Nintendo and Sony, and even further, why Sony is lagging behind Nintendo, and even more importantly, why at the end of the day, it very well might be Nintendo, and Apple, on the top of the gaming community, but I digress…

Myself along with a million other T-Mobile customers at the beginning of 2010 also experienced something unforgivable.  Our 2009 Sidekick models ALL LOST THEIR INFORMATION!!!!  Our notes, phonebooks, friend lists, contacts, emails, texts…ALL GONE.  I couldn’t believe this, because you all also know how much I LOVE T-Mobile, rated #1 “sometimes 2” in customer service only losing first place every now and again to Apple.  So I was shocked when this happened.  I called T-Mobile and naturally, being the awesome company that they are, they said I am free to switch to a new blackberry for free, or get a free pass on a few months worth of phone bills.

This was great and all, but I still wanted to get to the bottom of what in the hell happened to our phones.  So I called and simply said, “umm, can I just ask a question…how the hell did this happen?”  To which the lady on the other end audibly became upset herself as she muttered “those idiots at Microsoft…”  WHAT?!?!?!?  “What do they have to do with it?” I screamed.  To which she replied, “Unfortunately, they are the ones who designed and run the virtual cloud that handles all of Sidekick’s information”.  Yes.  Microsoft and their love of selling broken products, even sold a broken virtual memory bank to T-Mobile.  Shame on T-Mobile for partnering with the devil in the first place, but I place blame squarely where it belongs in this case, on the back of that apparently flame retardant company, MICROSOFT.

The average consumers getting viruses on their OS have no idea what to do, and companies are afraid to switch OS’s because Microsoft is the only thing most businesses “entertainment withstanding” know, and Mircosoft knows this, and so their terrible business model will never change.  They even make people buy different versions of their stupid broken plague of an OS.  Windows student, work, home, college, highschool, professional, premium, ultimate, and platinum editions “you’d be wrong to call this more than a slight alteration of the truth”…all broken in one way or another, forcing you to go spend a couple more hundred dollars when you realize the version you bought can’t f#$%^%$ read or type in Mandarin, Japanese, or any other language not automatically included in the language pack in every package.

“But doesn’t every OS offer variations to fit the consumers needs?”.  No, they don’t, and why the hell would they.  Why wouldn’t you just make ONE OS that offers every consumer, what every consumer needs?  Well, there is one company with this mindset, and you guessed it, that company is Apple.  Apple’s Mac OSX Snow Leopard is hands down the most intricate, advanced, and simple user interface, on the planet.  I can speak in whatever the f!@# language I want, and I don’t have to go through menu after menu to do it.  I don’t have to install any language packs, and I don’t have to buy a new keyboard.  I click on the language flag at the top that I want, and I start typing.  If there is something I never thought of that I need, I just try to do it, and the system already knows what I was trying to do.  Apple is very meticulous in this sense.  They create their products with surgeon like precision, and the ONLY thing that matters in the end, is end user satisfaction.  Their goal is always to make innovative products that just work.

PC open source fanboys will argue that Apple controlling everything is taking the innovation out of the game, and that forcing us how to use our products takes away our freedoms.  We bought the product, so why shouldn’t we have the right to do with it whatever we want to?

Stupid sh!t like this is what causes smart, educated folks like myself to lose there sh!t and go bat sh!t crazy just by hearing someone mention this abortion of a company, Microsoft.  And don’t get me wrong.  I’m a techie myself, and realize the necessity of an open source OS that allows you to do whatever you want in it.  I only own two Pc’s, and I built them both from the ground up.  As a techie, it’s the ONLY way I would ever buy a PC, because I know how to make it work properly, and for around $700 less than the general public would pay for a PC of equal power “both physically, and virtually”.  On top of that, you won’t find Windows running them.  No way.  Only Unix.

Back in 1969, AT&T owned Bell Labs, in partnership with M.I.T. and General Electric “GE” researched and created what would ultimately become UNIX.  These guys 41 years ago, developed the OS system Unix.  The vision for the OS was brilliant, but the follow through was bad.  Can you guess where the sore spot came from?  Yap, AT&T, whom promptly gave up due to the complexities of the sytem.

 

The guys at MIT and GE soley developed the program from their own funds up into the 70’s.  Up until this point there had been no financial backing from Bell Labs “read, AT&T”.  Once all the dirty work was done, AT&T wanted back in and promtly started talking about wanting to turn UNIX “still buggy” into a product, but due to the contracts with the guys that actually did all the work, they couldn’t do it.

But then, in 1983 the U.S. Department of Justice settled its 2nd antitrust case against AT&T and broke up the system.  This sad day in history relieved AT&T from the 1956 decree that was preventing them from turning Unix into a product.  AT&T naturally being the money hungry idiots they are, rushed the broken product to the market commercializing Unix System V, and selling user licenses for it.  A move that almost killed Unix.  Fortunately, the guys whom actually did all the work, finished developing their system, and fully realized it as a developing platform.  This version of Unix is the version that we know and love today.

So, I guess it comes down to what you want out of your product.  Something that is open and allows you to do anything you want, usually meaning installing broken products and programs that don’t comply with the rest of the system, thus leading to broken systems that slow down to a crawl, easily obtain viruses, and in general, just break?  Or a product that allows you to do whatever you want within the confines of what it says it will do, and then does exactly what it says it will do, and nothing more, only focusing on doing what it says it will do, better than anyone else in the game?

On another note, this is a very reflected business practice of Microsoft as well, whom since their conception, have had broken products mainly because they buy out and kill small companies, taking their technologies and business models, and selling them as unfinished products, thus eliminating any competition, and forcing consumers into a “hey, it’s better than nothing” mentality, but I digress…

Their are two ironies here.  the first is that Microsoft and it’s stupid broken OS is based on the AT&T version of Unix, and APPLE’s very own amazing OS, Mac OSX is based on the fully developed version of the system.  The other five computers I own by the way, are all Macs, and I wouldn’t have it any other way.

Underdeveloped open source shared systems like Windows are a problem because Mircrosoft had to develop drivers that cater for a million different vendors in a trillion different combinations.  This is why Windows is always so f#$$%^$ buggy, not doing what it’s told, and so easily susceptible to viruses of all kinds.  Hell, it’s so easy for Windows based Pc’s to get viruses, I wouldn’t be surprised if your PC contracted AIDS.

And the funny thing about this…the real icing on this dirty old cake, is that if Microsoft and AT&T had customer service that treated their customers like royalty, provided free fixes, and walked their customers through their issues, I wouldn’t turn my back on them the way that I do.  But don’t sell me a f@#$%$g mule and claim it to be a prize winning race horse.  They are always cutting corners and trying to make an extra buck at the expense of their user base, and this is something I just cannot forgive.

More to the point is that these companies just don’t give a sh!t about the consumers that feed them.  And the average consumer is too uneducated in tech to realize it.  Think about it.  If your PC broke down right now, “more than it already is”, do you know how to contact Mircosoft?  Do you know how to bypass automated robot response teams to speak to an actual human?  Do you know what number to call?  Is this process of getting to customer service even free?

Here’s some more irony for you.  Your AT&T driven iphone, only has one major flaw, and it is AT&T.  The product is so good, that if you literally break it, using a program called JAILBREAK, so that it opens up, you can put it on a T-Mobile plan and it acutally works better. Let me rephrase that for you…A broken iphone works better on T-Mobiles system than a brand new one on AT&T’s.  Hmmm…

As you can clearly see, AT&T, Microsoft, and Apple have quite an intertwined history together.  So how did Apple come out of this thing the clear future of headache free computing?

It really comes down to philosophy.  The head of Apple, Steve jobs, retains to one very simply idea; make the best product, and make it do what it promises to do.  Period.  And the only opinion that matters, “and this is where these companies really differ”, is the customers.  Nowhere on earth will you find a more loyal and consistent customer than in that of an Apple Mac owner.  You can’t convince me otherwise on an mp3 player that isn’t an iPod touch.  You can’t convince me otherwise on a netbook that isn’t an iPad.  You can’t convince me otherwise on a laptop that isn’t a Macbook, and you damn sure can’t convince me otherwise on a tower that isn’t a MacPro.  %100 company loyalty.  Why?  Because Apple subsrcibes to %100 customer loyalty.

Ironically, this bleeds into facets of daily life that the general populus isn’t even aware of.  For instance, Dreamworks animation, Sony animation, and in general, every other animation company in the world, “Ghibli films of Japan withstanding”, is trying to do what PIXAR does.  Pixar as a film company, has, without question, the most successful track record in the history of film.  They are the only film company in the world that has NEVER made an unprofitable, critically panned film.  Ever.  They have only made world class successes in their history, and sit firmly at the top.  The only film company to match their success is Japan’s own Studio Ghibli.  The irony here is that the two company are rabid fans of one another and their Presidents and CEO’s are all friends.  They have even used eachothers characters in eachother’s films.  Ghibli’s character Totoro, shows up in an amusing and fulfilling cameo in Pixar’s latest smash hit, Toy Story 3, on the left in the image below:

Both studios are as successful as they are because they describe to one ideology and one ideology only.  Story comes first, and it better be full of wonder, heart, and soul.  You have never seen a film from either company that isn’t.

But why do I bring up Pixar, the undisputed king of animation and film alike?  Well, what you may not know, like the majority of the population, is that Pixar, is an APPLE company.  That’s right, Steve Jobs, the head and creative force whom is the beating heart of Apple, is also, one of the three founders and heads of Pixar.  Even back when Steve didn’t have millions to invest in anything, he used what few million he had to financeand develop alongside the company alongside his friends whom wanted to do what Steve was doing, but for animation.

The point here, and what I would like to wrap up with, is that mindset, ideology, and philosophy, does not only apply to one’s life, but these three things are the building blocks to anyone and everything that has been successful, and more importantly, has kept their success, and most importantly, has kept that success, BECAUSE OF THEIR USERBASE.

Whatever it is you choose to do in life, you must do so with passion, with heart and soul, and with a drive to be the best that you can be, for yourself, for those around you, and if you are a business, equally important, FOR YOUR CUSTOMER.

Apple will always strive because of this.  And as for Microsoft and AT&T, they will always have their place in the arena, because like everything else in the world, there is always a need for balance.  And so I respect these two evils for what they are.

On the other hand, wouldn’t it be something, if they decided to instead of stealing other peoples ideas and products, they instead stole some heart and soul?

Yeah, that would be something.