To Steve Jobs Apple Fans are Just Another Snack Cake

Snack cakes are, most dieticians would likely aver, a nutrition free food. Sure they might taste okay and they are nice to have around but they aren’t something most of us are particularly loyal too. If Little Debbie threatened to take away Fudge Rounds the reaction would be nearly silent. Yes, people may ostensibly enjoy snack cakes but the confections inspire no true love so the first time a snack cake maker makes the tiniest demand of the consumer that snack cake purveyor will be history. In short, the consumer/snack cake relationship is a one way deal: it is all about what the snack cake can do for you. Unfortunately, Apple’s relationship with long time Mac users bears more than a passing resemblance to the consumer/snack cake relationship. Apple knows their long time customers will never abandon them so the only question considered pertinent by the Execs at Apple seems to be: “How can we squeeze the faithful for a little more cash?”

At this point it is important to remember that Apple is a luxury brand. To assure ourselves of this fact let us recall the comparison of Mac and BMW market share by Steve Jobs. Now let us further remember that a luxury brand rewards loyalty. Mercedes, to cite one example, will send you a mileage badge should your Mercedes run for 155,000 miles. Apple used to reward long time users by rolling out the newest stuff for Mac users only. Want the first iPod? Gotta have a Mac. Want to buy a song from iTunes? It was a Mac only proposition in the beginning. It is Apple saying we have a great product, a product we intend to sell a lot of but, for now, you are going to get the first shot at the iPod because you have been loyal to Apple. This pattern of introductions reinforced a Mac fanatic’s decision to say with Apple. It was akin getting a sneak peek at what the wider computer world would be doing in a few months. That is a feeling true Apple connoisseurs are used to and one of the rewards of being loyal to Apple computer. Those rewards are now just a sweet memory. Instead of giving long time Mac fans a glimpse of the future Apple is acting like a drug dealer who knows there is a certified addict at his door and believes the addict has a bulging wallet. 

Of course, the above is an easy charge to make and thus it positively begs for supporting evidence. Let us begin with Apple’s latest iPod and the iPod nano. The nano is simply breathtaking to see in person and the new iPod is getting rave reviews. But both these products lack something that should be present if Apple is concerned about their rabidly loyal user base: FireWire support. Apple told the faithful since the introduction of the B&W G3 (1999) about the inherent superiority of FireWire. When USB 2.0 came out Apple reiterated the benefits of FireWire. Apple’s disdain for USB 2.0 was so deep that USB 2.0 wasn’t included with any Mac until the first G5s shipped in 2003. Currently if you want a new iPod and you are a Mac user either your computer must be fairly recent or you should bone up on methods to install a USB card (or just wait, USB 1 works, albeit very slowly). Some will argue that only makes sense, catering to the largest market segment available is what businesses should do. That argument rings hollow particularly when considering the newest iPod. There is undoubtedly space inside the black or white enclosure for the necessary FireWire components.

One example does not constitute a trend. Let us reach back in Apple history to see if we can find another germane example. Here we find he interesting case of SOS Apple. Apple, in an effort to sell more computers, had promised lifetime telephone technical support to people who bought certain Macintoshes. Obviously, it wasn’t the most brilliant marketing scheme devised as it cost a ton to administer. Still it was a promise made by Apple to their customers. Steve Jobs inherited that promise when he returned to Apple and quickly broke it. The temptation is to think that the program was a cash drain, Apple didn’t have much of the green stuff in the late nineties, and hence the decision was painful but necessary. That notion is generous. Rather than a stomach churning unavoidable move the decision was reportedly cemented when an Apple employee pointed out that Apple was contractually obligated to give the support to consumers. Steve Jobs responded by chirping “Just f*** ‘em.” Not exactly a reply that fosters the feeling that Apple cares about the loyal core.

Perhaps those examples are aberrations? A hopeful thought, but they seem to be norm. Raise your hand if you remember iTools. If you arm is still by your side don’t feel bad, iTools wasn’t around very long. iTools was a bonus for buying OS 9, the program gave OS 9 users a .mac email address and a little bit of web space on Apple’s servers to call their own. Clearly, iTools wasn’t going to lure anyone over from the Windows side. The program was obviously a perk designed to induce Mac users into moving to OS 9. Investing in 9 meant, more or less, that you were planning to stick with Apple and were a loyal Mac consumer. Well, probably using the same vulgarity as mentionned above, someone at Apple decided that instead of honoring their commitment it would be better to rename iTools .mac and charge people a hundy per annum for the service. The experience would be better Apple argued. As Cool Hand Luke once said: “Wish you’d stop bein’ so good to me, Cap’n.”

We have two (in computer terms) ancient examples but only one modern day example. That distribution might lead us to suspect that things are getting better. Not so fast. Got a new iMac with the built in iSight? That thing seems optimized to be a great platform for hobbiest use of Final Cut Pro. Well it probably is if you have the latest release of Final Cut Pro. If not the new iMac might as well be a brick for the majority of FCP users. That’s because if you’re half a release out of date you’re completely out of luck. Final Cut Pro 4.5 doesn’t support the video card in the new iMacs and (if you followed the link) there is no patch forthcoming. We all expect old software to be no longer updated after a time but FCP 4.5 was released in April of 2004. Add to that dope slap that the upgrade price for FCP is a whopping $400 and you can see why the built in iSight doesn’t do much to ease the sting.

None of this would be a very big deal, more of a minor annoyance for long time Mac fans, if the Intel switch wasn’t coming. Apple says they envision PPC support to last long into the future and it likely will. Third party programmers would be foolish to toss away the million of customers using Gx based Macs out there. Apple on the other hand wants to sell new boxes, not cater to your computer using yesterday’s technology. So where is their incentive to keep iMovie going for both platforms? Truth is Apple doesn’t have one and lacking a good reason to do something (read good as “cash incentive” not as “it is the right thing to do") you can expect Steve to drop his favorite f-bomb followed by the “‘em” as quickly as possible once Apple goes all Intel. And that will be yet another cheap shot to the groin of the Mac faithful. At least with Hannibal Lecter there was the occasional smidgen of “Quid Pro Quo.”