I just finished reading the great September cover story "He Sold His Soul to Wal-Mart." Today, when I got home, there was a UPS package on my doorstep, shipped next-day air from a suburb of St. Louis, Missouri, from my mortgage holder. My heart raced: Did I pay last month's mortgage? Is my house about to be repossessed for some minor unpaid fees or taxes? Did I pay my property taxes? No, it was nothing so serious. Instead, having flown on an airplane and traveled by truck from Missouri, a single sheet of paper was inside: a flyer letting me know that if I ever wanted to refinance, my bank would match the price or I'd get a $100 gift card.
I drive a nonhybrid car. I still occasionally drink bottled water (though less often). I've even tossed an aluminum can in the trash instead of the recycling bin once or twice. So I'm not a tree hugger by any stretch. But I am stunned that my bank would waste the time, money, and fuel to overnight me a sales pitch when other companies are trying to save fuel and resources. Has it never heard of email?
Sure, I opened the package--but I'm so disappointed in it that I would never consider refinancing with that institution. So the ad had the exact opposite effect. I was so angry, I called and left a message for the senior vice president. After only my first issue as a new subscriber, your article had an impact on me and my way of looking at the junk mail that arrives on my doorstep via overnight delivery.
Jay Hoffman
Germantown, Maryland
I was sorry to read Elizabeth Spiers's column (Not So Fast, October)--not about her love of Apple's designs, because I am smitten by them as well, but about her challenges with malfunctioning Apple products. I too have used Apple's computers and products since day one and, fortunately, have not had those items break down as Spiers has. Apple CEO Steve Jobs's ways of the world are as seductive as his Apple's products, from the way he dresses to his self-confidence to how he carries himself. It all resonates with the intelligence and simplicity that rule Apple designs and its operating system. Those only keep me wanting to own one of everything he makes.
Gail Sideman
Milwaukee, Wisconsin
As a longtime user of Apple products, I can assure you and other readers of FAST COMPANY, Apple computers are not prone to falling apart or crashing in a "spectacular yet horrifying fashion." I am writing this on my fifth Apple laptop computer; I've subjected each one to a minimum of two years of use and thousands of miles of travel around the United States. While I have on occasion had minor problems--which were quickly fixed at the Genius Bar in an Apple store--I have never had anything fall apart. In addition to Apple laptops, we use Apple desktops in our office, and I travel with an iPod--my second. That iPod has been my constant traveling companion for the past several years.
While design is an important part of Apple's sales success, the functionality and reliability of the company's products are far more important and valuable to users such as myself.
George Whalin
Carlsbad, California
If there is one company that embodies the fast track in American product design and function--and business--Apple is it. History has amply proven that Apple without Jobs is rudderless. The typical conservative corporate mentality that even to this day has failed to respond to Asian (and European) ingenuity would do well to look at what Steve Jobs has done in competing with both the American and Asian tech worlds: He has made Dell, IBM, Microsoft, Sony, Toshiba, etc., look like dinosaurs when it comes to both function and form.
Although my design-studio desktop is up to date, at home I am still using a seven-year-old Apple 22-inch CinemaScreen LCD monitor that looks and functions like new, hooked up to a souped-up G4 Cube that is dead silent--and with 1.5 GB of RAM, plus a new 160-GB hard drive and Superdrive DVD burner, is eminently functional. And with OSX installed, it is still remarkably fast.
If the rest of the U.S. manufacturing world were as creatively solid and innovative as Apple--particularly the automotive industry--the American economy would be booming.
Michael Yankaus
Santa Rosa, California
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