Green Apple
November 25, 2008 · Filed Under Apple stuff
If you're new here, you may want to subscribe to my RSS feed. Thanks for visiting!
Interesting to see Apple touting their “green” creds. Just a shame they cannot focus a little more on their quality control (he said speaking from experience!).
Pushing my recent bad Apple experiences aside, is green a real driver for a buyer? I’m not so sure it is going to be challenging features like OSX, the new construction and design. It maybe a factor for items like cleaning products, (Method being a good example), but for laptops? What do you think?
Related posts:
- Apple, not quite so cool after all
- New Quicktime exports to Apple TV!
- Hull flickr Photowalk 2
- Apple vs NY City
- Apple admit whine?
Comments
5 Responses to “Green Apple”
Leave a Reply
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
BBC News- You may like to read this...
-
Warning: Attempt to assign property of non-object in /var/www/vhosts/theappleofmyi.com/httpdocs/blog/wp-includes/rss.php on line 449
Hi Jon, so looks like Apple are also jumping on the "green" band wagon? Far too many companies doing it that I wonder if it really gives you an edge nowadays and how ahead of the competition Apple prods are compared to the competition with regard to "green" issues. However, for a keen customer, say, into organic products or sustainable use of resources could play a role if they do or committ to use, e.g., recycled parts etc…
At this point I wonder whether instead of just focusing on just the green aspect (that everybody seem to do anyway) maybe they should get involved into "ethical/fair trade" kind of approach to production (so looking at the "Made in ….." bits) which I do not think need to apply only to toys and bananas. Some people look at the ethical score of some companies before buying their products so this could be something to be looked into. In addition, as you pointed out, more focus on quality control (i had myself my own troubles with my macs) will help (also using stats about reliability of HW in their promotional material?). But all of this cost money… so if your current strategy is to mass market your products (albeit making it believe it is just for acool "elite") it may be a bit tricky. Hope it makes sense and doesn't look like jibberish…?
Kind of related topic, Apple adverts issues… http://www.techdigest.tv/2008/11/apple_forced_to….
best
salvo
Salvo, great to see you here on the blog
and thanks for posting!
I think you have a great point - Apple COULD do something really different in the “green marketing” area. Perhaps they are already looking at?
From my personal perspective, they need to look at their quality control and production first and foremost as it is shockingly bad at present.
It’s an interesting debate…
Clearly buying environmentally clean is one thing (http://www.apple.com/environment/resources/faq.html), but the behaviour of consumers when it comes to energy usage, maintenance of owned items (for example the impact upon fuel economy of correctly inflated tyres on a car) and the ethical choices made on a daily basis (those Albanians in my garage stripping the asbestos from the roof… a snip at £20!) have a dramatic impact upon the environment too!
For Apple I agree, their operating system and QA habits are far more likely to impact my buying behaviour than their ISO14001 compliance… inherently though I imagine that many more Macs survive for longer in the world.
Certainly I can say that mine are passed down through family and friends or resold. I’m always on the hunt for preloved Macs as I’ve a steady stream of aspiring Mac owners that can’t afford a new machine and welcome a second-user computer.
So considering how very quickly a Windows-based PC can become “obsolete” I continue to marvel in how even the first 12″ G4 PowerBook can run the current version of OS X quite capably, and an earlier G4 or even G3 can be happy with Tiger or Panther running on it and perfectly useable for light computing work. Surely this is a greater demonstration of how an Apple can provide years of great service, and in doing so require less frequent replacement than a “lesser” computer… and in a wiggly way end up being a greener machine
Of course without basic manufacturing integrity and quality control at the beginning of life this argument falls down entirely, and the recent experience of Jon (6 lemons) certainly undermine the posturing of Apple… they had to manufacture 7 laptops in order to provide him with one functional one (albeit still with imperfections). Shocking indeed, and Jon is certainly right to feel aggrieved by this. Come on Apple!!!
Example… http://www.lowendmac.com/ed/hatchett/08jh/new-economy.html
/ic
Hi Ian,
Great point about the longevity of the Apple machines - our G4 iMac is still going strong in the kitchen and gets used every single day. Ok, Tiger only, but works fine
I am guessing my first gen MBP will be going strong, and the MacPro is still a hugely capable machine 2 years down the line.
Personally, QC comes first before anything else. They must ship cosmetically perfect machines. Nothing is more important in my eyes.