The Reverse of the Halo Effect

With Apple no longer making displays and wireless routers, we have to look elsewhere for these things. And when we start looking elsewhere, we customers who have been in the habit of just buying the Apple thing get in the habit of looking outside Apple for things.

I can’t help but think that it’s a kind of an anti-halo effect. I can’t help but think that once we start looking elsewhere, we’ll look elsewhere more and more. We’ll get used to it. We’ll find out that other companies make things that work and are, in some cases, delightful.

Here’s a case: my wife bought a Fitbit when I bought my Apple watch. I envy her iPhone app which is so much cooler than Apple’s fitness software; I envy her not having to charge her device every night; I envy her not having to wear a heavy thing on her wrist.

And her Fitbit does sleep tracking, which I’d like to do — but my Apple watch is charging while I sleep, and there’s no way I’d be comfortable sleeping with that bulky thing on my wrist anyway.

Another case: one of my side projects is a Mac app, and clearly that means I’m going to be running a Mac. But I have another project that’s a web thing (Ruby/Sinatra). What if all I did was web apps, and I wanted a powerful desktop development machine? If I’m already in the habit of looking outside Apple for my stuff, I might very well consider a Linux machine.

The decision to pull out of displays and routers — and Applescript and automation? — may make sense from a point of view that can be expressed in a spreadsheet, but it may not make sense from a psychological point of view.

Maybe — I say “maybe” because I don’t know — maybe shopping elsewhere leads to more shopping elsewhere.