The spread of the Apple cult
Yesterday, in a room full of Realtors, someone said that they felt slighted because they moved to Apple products to be in a bug-free environment yet software products required to run a real estate business aren’t compliant, nor are they bug free. There was a great ruckus at the assertion that Apple is superior, but for the people who agreed, there was a solidarity that those on the outside simply couldn’t understand.
The joke was made about the cult of Apple and that the cult “works,” and the room moved on, but it is perhaps this cult joke isn’t really a joke. There is no joke in owning reliable products that people are willing to pay more for, and the cult mentality has gone mainstream (thus making it no longer a cult, rather a corporate culture). Because Apple has gone mainstream, their profits are soaring.
Apple rising in Fortune 500 rankings
Fortune has just released their annual “Fortune 500” rankings of America’s largest companies according to revenue with Apple quickly rising in the ranks and is now in the top 50.
Details of Apple’s standings:
- Apple jumped up 21 spots this year to #35.
- Revenue for 2010 exceeded $65 billion.
- Apple’s profits were $14 billion in 2010.
- Apple rose 18 stops to be the 8th most profitable company in 2010.
- Apple is still second place for revenue but has surpassed Dell.
- With 12,600 employees added to the company in 2010, it is the seventh largest hirer.
We may make jokes of the Mac vs. Android debate, but Apple is experiencing a meteoric rise that has surpassed the buzz and the cult of users that camp out weeks before a product release. They’re mainstream, profits and revenue are rocking and Apple is here for a fight for their marketshare.
Roland Estrada
May 6, 2011 at 1:07 pm
I love using Apple computer products. I enjoyed being the trendy geek when I switched over in 2006. I new I had made the right choice. I remember some snotty know-it-all agent in my office told me he couldn't believe I had bought a computer with obsolete operating system. The week I bought my iPad last year, that same agent smugly asked how I like my new "toy". He finally caught on because he was sitting right up front when I taught an iPad for real estate class at our office earlier this year.
I like my Macs because the get out of the way and let me just take care of business. Thankfully, the real estate software vendors have started to come around. They were quite a stumbling block in the early years of switching over. I have to say, I idd, and still do take some guilty pleasure in hammering them over the years about getting with times.
Jill Kipnis
May 6, 2011 at 2:26 pm
Roland, which apps do you find most useful on your iPad? Realtor.com released its free app last week, which is a great tool to use with your clients when you're on the go looking at properties.
Roland Estrada
May 9, 2011 at 1:28 pm
Jill, I don't use the Realtor.com app mostly because I don't trust the info to be up to date. I tend to use the MLS on the iPad and iPhone. Our SoCalMLS provider is Tempo/Marketlinx. I have been beta testing a mobile product for SoCalMLS called Kurio (web based). I like it. The information in terms of active listings is accurate and it has a GPS component to show you listings relative to your location and that seems to be pretty accurate as well. They also gave me another one to test called MLS-Touch (iOS app). It works will but not as robust as Kurio in terms of features.
To show I like to use iAnnotate. I work on a Mac but have to use Internet Explorer for the MLS. The workflow I use is as follows: Once I have the properties I need to show as Agent Full Reports, I set them up to print to PDF (I use CutePDF for this on Windows. Before do this however, I select Print Preview from the dropdown in IE. I then select the Page View to 12 and use the Shrink To Fit dropdown so that all the info for each listing fits on one page. Now I print to PDF. I put them into a folder called Showing in Dropbox. I then rearrange the pages in the order of showing. On a Mac this is really easy using Preview. In Window you need to buy a program to rearrange pages – NitroPDF or Foxit Phantom. I prefer Foxit Phantom. You can get trail versions of both and choose the one that fits best for you.
On my iPad, I open the file using Dropbox, then I choose Open In and open in iAnnotate. The great thing about iAnnotate is that you can make notes on each individual listing as you are walking through the home with you clients. Also, iAnnotate supports tabs you have the previous set of showing open in a separate tab or floorplans… whatever you need.
Other apps I like are:
Goodreader
Simplenote
SignMyPad
GeeTasksPro – Task manager for syncing tasks using you Google Calendar
eKey – Lock Box Key for Supra
YouMail
Daylite – Mac CRM
TextExpander
LogMeIn Ignition
Box.net
TomTom USA
Loan Calc
Docusign
BusyToDo – Task manager for syncing iCal tasks on you Mac using MobileMe