DEAR APPLE: I'm Leaving You
Ed Conway, Contributor Nov. 1, 2012 Business Insider
Ed Conway (@edconwaysky) is the economics editor for Sky News and the author of The Real Economy. He recently wrote a letter to Apple CEO Tim Cook explaining why he was done with the company. Ed gave us permission to reprint his letter via an email from his new Samsung.
Dear Tim,
There's no easy way to put this so I'll just come right out with it. I'm leaving you. It's been great (mostly) but it's over.
I figured the least I could do is to explain my decision in full - I like to think it might help protect you from nasty break-ups like this in the future.
I've been with you, with Apple I mean, for 13 years now - ever since
1999. Perhaps you've forgotten: I was a spotty teenager; I bought one of your cute little translucent iBooks. Slowly but surely I painted most parts of my technological life a bright shade of Apple. Let's see: I've owned two iMacs, a number of iBooks, countless Macbooks (I've currently got two on the go, for some unknown reason), an iPhone for almost five years, an iPad since the very beginning; iPods, iPod touches, iPod nanos - I've had 'em all. I even invested in an Apple TV and, wait for it, a G4 Power Mac Cube (yes, that was me!).I'll admit I became dependent on you - clingy, even. When I went to the States a couple of years back I shelled out hundreds of dollars to ensure I wouldn't be without an iPhone - even though I was back at college and wasn't exactly rolling in it. And like so many of those who fall in love with you, soon enough I found myself working part-time as your best PR spokesman: I spent hours persuading all my friends to buy your stuff. I even wrote a blog about what made Apple such a dynamic, innovative and successful company.
Like millions of others, I really believed the hype.
I never thought I would utter these words, but here goes: I'm leaving you. I have already traded in my iPhone for a Samsung.
Now, this is the point where I know I'm expected to say: "it's not you, it's me," but I can't, because the truth is: "it's not me, it's you". Now, I know you don't like lists (at least I presume that's why you avoided including a task application in Mac OS and iOS for so many years) but it's only right that I run through the issues:
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