Do Macs exist?

by Chris Howard Aug 09, 2005

If a Mac article falls in a forest of Windows articles, does it make a sound?

I continually read how well Macs are doing, halo affect and all. But I hang around Apple news sites, like MDN, MacNewsWorld, MacMinute, MacRumors, iPodLounge, Apple etc. Get the picture?  And even though those sites are sometimes quoting from Windows related sites, I’m getting a distorted view of the world - to me every second article in the world seems to be trumpeting the success of the Mac. Yet I doubt that the Windows sites are talking that much about Macs.

So I can’t help but wonder: “Do Macs exist at all in the minds of most people?” If Apple stopped making Macs tomorrow, who would notice? What non-Mac owners would notice? I suspect that 95% of the population wouldn’t notice - or even care. Especially those in the corporate world who probably account for 75% of Microsoft’s marketshare.

If you went to a non-Mac, non-techie person tomorrow and said “Hey, did you hear Apple are getting out of the computer business?” What do you think they’d say? Probably “Whatever” Although they’d probably hasten to add “But are they still going to make iPods?”. Why don’t you try it. See how many non-Mac, non-techie people you can find who’d care whether Apple keep making computers. But try telling them that from tomorrow they won’t be able to get Windows anymore. That would get a reaction.

You and I - and even the media and Windows techies - know how important Apple has been and continues to be to the computer industry. But to the rest of the population, I suspect Macs are largely invisible.

The Media - King Maker
The media made Linux - and continues to. They continually talk it up despite the fact for many years it has not been average-user-ready. As far as Macs go though, the PC press occassionally writes some nice patronizing story about how Macs are better - but do they ever tell you to buy one? Really tell you. I mean really tell you.

Case-in-point. A shootout of multimedia laptops in an PC Authority, an Australian PC magazine. They included the token Apple in their review - in this case, a 17” Powerbook. To summarize their conclusion, they said that although the Powerbook was a fantastic machine, you would have to weigh that up against the price tag and whether you needed a Windows machine. See, a couple of backhanders in there to discourage you. And “price tag”!! The winner of this shootout was $200AUD dearer than the Powerbook, and the only other recommended buy, some $700AUD dearer!! As I say, they don’t really mean it when they suggest you buy a Mac.

The PC media are not very politically correct. To them, it appears a PC is a personal computer running an x86 processor - and mostly Windows at that. It will be interesting to see if next year they finally welcome Macs into the fold.

Certainly the Macintel announcement has stireed up a little dust, with PC Authority devoting a WHOLE page to it in their news section. They also provided a small OS X vs Win XP compro - which they concluded was a draw. Further on they have a “pullout” on the Intel announcement in an article on BIOSes.

If I only hung around the PC media, the Mac appears to be a quaint footnote. There are articles about the Mac’s success but they’re buried in there, lost in the forest of articles about Windows - where they can’t be heard.

Are Macs really surfing a wave that’s gunna wipe out Windows? Or are they just paddling along in their own little pond?

Are we in the Mac world, getting a distorted view of reality? Are we believing our own publicity?

Comments

  • Finally, I’m happy to hear you have the user-friendly Mac. Now you’re a user, start being friendly.

    If I may, once again, point out your absurd hypocrisy in this reproach by going back to your very first post in this thread:

    Please don’t switch. I would feel unhappy in a world where every Breebleboxer was using a Mac.

    And then there was this: Bubblebotox, you did it again. Jumping to conclusions from your narrow-minded platform. which was in response to the stinging and horribly over-the-top post in which I said: “you’re a professional writer?”  Oh, the humanity!

    As you can see, I’m being as friendly to you as you were to me.  I’m certainly not going to play by a nicer set of rules than you do, where you get to make baseless accusations and insult me while criticizing ME for not being “friendly”.

    If that’s the way you want it, you can go mesmerize your co-workers with more of your wonderous skillz with computers.  Show them how those little buttons on the keyboard form words on the screen.  It’s a miracle!  And it works for both Macs and PC’s!

    I help them out on utterly trivial things, but I can’t help thinking that it is actually the platform itself that renders them helpless.

    The “collate” check box is in the FIRST dialogue window after you hit the print button, which is the exact same place it is on the Mac.  If that renders them helpless, then there’s not much on either platform that’s going to help them.

    And while I question why they didn’t know how to collate with a computer printer, I really question why it took you so long to figure it out where it was.  Seriously, it’s in the FIRST dialogue box.  I’m not sure how Windows could make it any simpler.

    Beeblebrox had this to say on Aug 12, 2005 Posts: 2220
  • I love macs, used them for years, did a degree in ergonmics which further cemented my belief in what a lot of the things that Apple strive to do. BUT - the the issue about market share and whether it’s 3%, 5%, 25%, 50% is more about human nature and the joy certains groups of people derive from actually being in a minority. let’s face it, life would be far more boring and corporate and all the things that mac users love to hate about micro$oft if Apple had the market share that a lot of mac users wish it would have.

    For a start, you can bet that Apple wouldn’t give two fingers as to whether you had a one button mouse or not compared to corporate decisions about how to increase it’s OS penetration from 48.9 to 50.01 percent and how it’s web version of spotlight was drawing 0.3% market share from Google etc. etc. etc.

    Fact is, it’s the low market share combined with disproportionate amount of media attention (cos believe me Apple punches well above it’s weight) that Apple gets that makes us mac users feel special the position we’re in. If Apple were to approach anything near the market share that Microsoft has I can bet you issues that we take such joy in such as superiority of interface design, gorgeousness of form factor etc will get drowned under the sea of all the Wall St analysts bagning on endlessly about all the things that most Mac users despise and revolt against.

    Oh - and I was in the Apple Store Regent St (London) a few days ago, in the queue for my copy of tiger and the woman in front of me was on her mobile saying, “Hi, Yeah I’m in that iPod Shop in Oxford Street,  c u soon…” Go extrapolate wat you will from that…

    Oh and one more thing - I’m pissed as a fart after 1.5 bottles of wine so scuze the speeling mistakes…...

    Tel had this to say on Aug 12, 2005 Posts: 1
  • Yet I doubt that the Windows sites are talking that much about Macs.

    There is an entire ecosystem that revolves around the Windows platform, including hardware, software and services. Some of these products rely on weaknesses in Windows, such as anti-virus and anti-spyware software.

    Windows media sites make their money selling ads that target users and companies who are apart of this ecosystem. Why would they suggest people buy a Mac when it would alienate them from 90% of the products their advertisers sell?

    Scott had this to say on Aug 13, 2005 Posts: 144
  • Believe it or not (IAAID [I am an interaction designer]) the “Collate” option is just that - an option.

    Each and every application developer whether Mac OS or Windows can put it any damn where they want to.

    Apple or MS didn’t make it easier or harder for anyone, only the craptastic or intelligent designer did.

    Move on from your petty, ininformed arguments.

    Nathan had this to say on Aug 15, 2005 Posts: 219
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