Comments on: Love Isn’t Annoying

By: Steve McFerrin

Steve McFerrin — Wed, 28 Jan 2009 02:06:43 +0000

I have to agree that the American and Delta airlines are both annoying.. You want to see smart marketing watch this!! http://www.virginatlanticstillredhot.com/popup/tv-ad.html
Now thats an airline I like.. I actually fly them on a regular basis to Europe, they get it! They get the entire customer experience right up to the curb with a limo to pick you up. We Americans could learn a few things from them!
Just my 2 cents.. but the add rocks!

By: Chris Hong

Chris Hong — Fri, 23 Jan 2009 16:41:49 +0000

Dan, I agree with your “captive love” assertion. I’ve seen this in real life across different cultures, geography, and product lines/service offerings. If the product or service is truly “insanely great”, customers tolerate the provider’s “eccentricity” (to put it mildly).

By: John N

John N — Mon, 19 Jan 2009 20:15:26 +0000

@Seth:

I’ll live with the mouse button preference having to be turned on when I first get my Mac. It is less annoying than losing a days worth of work even with the latest anti-virus signatures. (Thanks to the Windows Registry). It’s been 6 years since my switch back to Mac and the only down time I have had was due to a HD crash. It took an hour to get OS X and the 3 apps needed to complete my work for the day (Textmate, Firefox, SmartSVN).

By: Craig McGill

Craig McGill — Sun, 18 Jan 2009 23:21:03 +0000

I think the problem here is that it all comes down to personal taste: one person’s love is another person’s annoying and it’s always going to be hard for marketeers to sort that out, which is one reason companies rarely go out on a limb with a product as they don’t want to alienate anyone.

By: Daniel Jalkut

Daniel Jalkut — Sun, 18 Jan 2009 22:41:42 +0000

Seth: thanks for commenting. By no means would I say Apple’s products are without their annoyances. But the reason I love them so much more than the competition is because they are less annoying.

Everything I love seems to annoy me at least in some ways. Possibly more infuriating than with the things I don’t love, because I can more clearly envision how perfect they might be.

By: Seth Godin

Seth Godin — Sun, 18 Jan 2009 22:19:38 +0000

I beta tested the first Mac in 1983. For the last 25 years, every mac, every iphone, every ipod has been annoying. A closed system, or no hard drive or where’s that extra button on the mouse? And on and on.

That’s okay. I love it all. But don’t say it’s not annoying.

By: Jeff

Jeff — Sun, 18 Jan 2009 19:22:46 +0000

I’d say my love of Apple products is less a lack of annoyances than an appreciation for their ease-of-use. I’m biased, clearly, but I’ve never found Window-based machines intuitive.