Posted on 01/26/2005 5:22:19 PM PST by Vermonter
Limbaugh could sell new Mac
This week, Apple Computer is launching a campaign to sell a new product, the $499 Mac Mini, that portends to transform the world in a way the original Mac didn’t. But Republicans will be needed for the campaign to succeed.
To put this in context, you need to read Revolution in the Valley, Andy Hertzfeld’s new book about the making of the original Mac in the 1980s. Hertzfeld points out that the initial target price for the first Mac was $500. But by the time it was launched in 1984, the price had ballooned to $2,495.
Many of the Mac’s creators felt betrayed. All initial design goals had centered on Everyman, but instead of a computer that changed the world, the Mac became a niche machine mainly for artisans and limousine liberals who could afford one. The rest of us bought commodity PCs. Fewer than one in 20 computers sold or used today to cruise the Internet is a Mac.
The Mac Mini could rectify this. But will it? Will a low price tag and terrific design alone entice a mass market to buy this new product? I’m not so sure. Apple’s image may still be an impediment to Mac sales.
To research this column, I read lots of discussion boards all across the Internet, and it’s evident that politics still play a role in computer purchases. Just as there are red states and blue states, there are also Mac Democrats and PC Republicans. These battles were especially nasty after Apple went public with its politics and added Al Gore to its board of directors.
Apple’s leader, Steve Jobs, seems to have sensed last year that his company was getting too “political.” He backed off some of his campaigning for John Kerry and cryptically signaled to The Wall Street Journal’s Walt Mossberg in an interview that he understands the problem.
“People have said that I shouldn’t get involved politically because probably half our customers are Republicans — maybe a little less ... [but] I do point out that there are more Democrats than Mac users so I’m going to just stay away from all that political stuff because that was just a personal thing,” Jobs said.
There are, in fact, devoted Republican Macintosh users, but that is not the perception. So Apple desperately needs to introduce a replacement image to achieve the original Mac’s vision. There would be no better way to do this than to add a Republican or two to Apple’s board of directors. Mac users such as Karl Rove or Arnold Schwarzenegger adviser Mike Murphy would be possibilities, but Rush Limbaugh is the most obvious choice. Rush is an ardent Mac evangelist and knows a thing or two about marketing. Even if Limbaugh is not put on Apple’s board, the company should market through his daily radio program, paying Rush to tout his favorite computer the same way he builds mattress sales for Select Comfort.
Hertzfeld’s book says the team that created the original Mac had a spirit of “urgency, ambition, passion for excellence, artistic pride, and irreverent humor.” That sounds just like Rush Limbaugh to me. I know that if Rush had been a board member in 1984, he’d have had the guts to back the famous Big Brother Super Bowl ad that Apple’s then-timorous board abandoned.
Apple marketers also need to understand that restoration of their brand’s image in conservative and Republican circles can resonate with various factions of the party. I have already read favorable gun-owner comments about the Mac Mini on the discussion boards of Ted Nugent’s populist United Sportsmen of America website. James Dobson and his Focus on the Family might be intrigued by a computer that is affordable for young families and not subject to porno pop-up ads. And business Republicans will be impressed by the seamless integration of the Mac’s OS X operating system with corporate networks.
The Republican Party is a big tent. Apple should come on in.
The computer is running IExplorer 5 right now, which lets in popups...it has another browser, Safari, installed that I can switch to?
Thanks. Sorry for the ignorance, am used to Windows.
And bigger, hotter running, and a tad more expensive.
If you are running OSX.1 or above, you have a version of Apple's Safari Browser that has that as an option under the Safari Menu... just select "Block Pop-Up Windows" and you are done.
Hehehe.... We have been hearing the gloom-and-doom death-of-Apple forecasts for some 15+ years. The fact that Apple is turning a very nice profit must be a bad indicator too....???? Let's not even mention the major rise in Apple stock prices in the last coupel of years....
No kidding. I've been using Macs since the Mac II, and it's all I've heard the whole time! I use Windows, too - I'm an equal-opportunity computer user, they're just tools. I know Dvorak runs out an "Apple is doomed" column whenever things are slow, it's always an easy filler topic, but the predictions never quite come true. "No-one will buy $3K Powerbooks!" They're all over, and pop up as must have objects of drool in PC magazines. "No-one will buy a $500 MP3 player!" iPods are THE hot product this year, they're selling mountains of them.
I make a pretty nice living using Macs, I see no reason to switch full time to Windows, mostly because of the time invested in learning the Mac OS, and my considerable investment in Mac software - nor do I see any need to run around telling Windows users that their machines "suck" and using one makes them a "fag". I've never gotten a straight, reasonable answer why someone using a Windows machine gives them license to be rude and obnoxious whenever they see a Mac or a Mac user - the comments about "arrogant Mac users" mystifies me, most Mac users are terrified of admitting they have one, because of the abuse and generally rude behavior they get when they do. I've watched as adults walk by the Mac section at Fry's or CompUSA, and blurt out "Macs Suck!" - is there really any need for that?
There was a time when Apple probably was close to being sold, back in the 7.6 days, under Skulley, right before Jobs came back. Their machines were slow, buggy and expensive, the OS was buggy and completely unstable, and sales were way down. Macs truly did suck then. That's all been fixed, thankfully. Don't get me wrong, there's a lot I really like about Windows, too - and a lot I'd like to see improved on the Mac, but the doom and gloomers may be surprised by Apple's performance in the near future!
Uh, Joe, I've heard him say a LOT more than that about his Macs... on one show he waxed eloquent for about 20 minutes on the superior nature of the Mac.
For the price of a typical Mac you'd think they could afford to add a second mouse button, maybe even a wheel...
Uh, Joe, I set up several businesses networks utilizing Mac IIsis with standard VGA multisync monitors and that adaptor... worked just fine. I have a charity that is now going on ELEVEN YEARS using three of them with VGA monitors (The IIsis have gone through at least three monitors apiece!) in those eleven years.
http://www.fireinthevalley.com/
A lot of great historical information there. It documents how Steve Jobs took what Xerox accomplished, and how he built on that technology and greatly improved it - only to give it away to Bill Gates. Apple later sued Microsoft because Windows "stole" GUI concepts from Apple. True in the sense that many concepts were conceived by Apple and not Xerox. But the book shows that Steve Jobs instructed his people to give free access to Bill Gates for the Macintosh GUI software code.
Libs, Plug a USB keyboard and ANY monitor into a Mac and it will work... same with USB mouses... don't even need drivers.
The Mac IS superior to the PC.( and more FUN too)
I bought my original Mac 6 years ago ( a display model ) that is still chugging along with nothing but a sound card in over 6 years. I added some memory as she aged, and a few months ago an external hard drive to hold some of my files ... but she is still a very functional G3. I never worried about a virus or worm, I have not had to reconfigure her or uninstall and reinstall anything
She still works well , abet slow for todays software soooooooooo
I just went to a G5 IMac and fully expect to get 6 year out of her, and her older sister sits there waiting for a monitor so my grandkids can use her when they come over
In the meantime in that 6 years my husband is on his third PC with many services done on them .
Mac is a user friendly tank .... just turn the key and it just keeps going .
and Bill Gates is not having to push it to get it started
Double-click on the 'Macintosh HD' icon (upper right) then Double-click on 'Applications' and if you have Safari it should show up there. Then you just click and hold the Safari icon, drag it into the desktop 'Dock' and that's your Shortcut (or 'Alias' in Mac-speak)
If you don't already have Safari there's an easy way to get it: Go to 'System Preferences' (in the Dock), select 'Software Update' then select 'Update Now' and (assuming your on the Web) you'll get a list of software updates you can download straight from Apple for free.
Hope this helps...
A little bigger yes, a little hotter running yes... more expensive NO...
~Limbaugh could sell new Mac~
Yes. He could.
Thanks much, folks.
And it doesn't need one. The monitor will be your High Definition Flat screen television.
You want one? Buy one... it will work without loading any drivers.
Wow! (you probably don't want to heat this ..) We paid $1700 for the metal frame, the box frame and the deluxe tempurpedic (Queen size) mattress. I love it. Its fabulous.
I have a Macally iOptinet USB laser-mouse. It has a left and right button and a wheel, and you can customize it however you choose. Actually one button is all you need the way the Mac-OS is set-up, but, I agree, I'm used to the two-button mouse so I got one...
"~Limbaugh could sell new Mac~
Yes. He could."
Yep... he might even increase the percentage of Macs sold by 50% to a whopping 3% worldwide !
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