I bought my first Mac (a MacBook) in late October/early November and it arrived on the 20th November. As soon as it arrived I started downloading trial versions of all the software I felt I would need; think Coda, Pixelmator, Inkscape, iWork, Adobe Illustrator et cetera. As the trials started to expire I started purchasing the apps.

First Pixelmator. I really didn’t want to buy Photoshop (it was the reason I switched to Mac; the indie developers) so I was glad when I got my hands on this beautiful app. Then came Coda. Again an amazing app that is always running. I love Coda and don’t think I’ll ever be able to go back to Dreamweaver without feeling like I’m missing some great experience. I ditched Inkscape because it wasn’t working out (which is when I actually got the Illustrator trial) and considered purchasing Illustrator. Which I did, along with InDesign and Photoshop (it was a special Creative Design Suite which had a price I could not deny...even if it was slightly higher than just buying Illustator.) And finally came iWork ‘08, which had long expired but I hadn’t needed to use for a couple of weeks.

I asked to borrow my parents’ credit card and hopped onto Apple’s website. I was excited to purchase software from Apple because I believed the Indie developers based the experience on that which Apple offered (and the experience from the Indies were awesome.) Alas, I was mistaken. Apple was behind the curve and the experience was pretty sad.

After my dad’s credit card failed (because it had expired) I was logged out. I logged in again, went to check out and tried with my mum’s credit card. It went through.

I got an email after a few minutes. “Thank you for shopping at the Apple Store. We’re processing your order now.” O…

This was followed by another email, “Order Acknowledgment” containing “Thank you for shopping the Apple Online Store. We are processing your order now.” Wow, thanks - again.

I searched through those emails trying to find a serial number. Come on, anything that looked like a serial number. It must be there...Come on, all the Indie guys had them in their first email! Annoying.

What makes it worse is Apple sells their computers with iWork ‘08 Trial Version on it! It’s not something I need a DVD for, and you can download the trial anyway. Why make me wait 3-4 business days before I can get my serial and use the application when I can have it instantly.

I’m really disappointed in the company who’s business model is commonly referred to as a “distribution” model. Not just music either, tv shows, podcasts, movies and even iPod games. Come on, iTunes Activation for the iPhone should have helped them improve my experience! Why not let me activate iWork from iTunes? I want my application running now!

By doing something so simple as to include the serial number in the email (either “Thank you for shopping the Apple Online Store. We are processing your order now.” one would work,) the experience of buying software from Apple Inc, could have been so much more enjoyable, but alas, it was frustrating.

Note: If they do give you the serial somewhere then forgive me. Still, it shouldn’t be that hard to find.