Posted on 02/23/2002 12:55:47 PM PST by Ernest_at_the_Beach
Cult of the Mac - Why So Many Mac Fanatics?
Fri Feb 22, 1:38 PM ET
Robyn Weisman, www.NewsFactor.com
Why do people love their Macs?
The love and devotion lavished by Mac fans on Apple (Nasdaq: AAPL) computers and operating systems is a phenomenon that still confounds many of the 95 percent of users who run Windows-based PCs.
The emotions involved can make even the most rational folks flame others in newsgroups, online message boards and chat rooms. Even Ross Scott Rubin, a vice president at research firm Jupiter Media Metrix, admitted to NewsFactor that, in his younger days, he used to boast on message boards about the superiority of the Mac.
Meanwhile, Web sites abound with names like MacinTouch, MacMinute, Macinstein and Apple Lust.
In fact, so many of these sites exist that no one would fault an uninformed observer for concluding that Apple owns 95 percent of U.S. computer market share, rather than 5 percent.
While some refer to this phenomenon as the Cult of the Mac, others call it nothing more than common sense.
So, what is it about the Mac that commands such loyalty? An even better question might be, what is Apple doing right?
User Loyalty
Jupiter analyst Rubin told NewsFactor that for a consumer technology, Apple has the broadest user base -- far broader than that of Palm or Linux.
"Desktop computers are more likely to breed this kind of loyalty since they are a tool with which there is such direct and tactile interaction," Rubin said. "It's almost like a partnership."
The One You Want
Rob Enderle, vice president and research fellow at Giga Information Group, told NewsFactor that unlike such companies as Microsoft and IBM, Apple "speaks to its user and continues to speak to its user throughout [the Macintosh's] lifecycle."
Most PC vendors "gave you the product, and you had to learn to live with it," Enderle said. "The Mac was and is distinctive. The PC was the machine you had to have, while the Mac was the one you wanted."
Ian Schray, product manager at VersionTracker.com, a Web site that posts software updates and shareware and that is especially popular with Mac users, told NewsFactor that Apple offers not only a viable alternative to Microsoft Windows, but also a computer that one can love and truly enjoy using.
"Even Excel is more fun on a Mac," Schray said.
Equipment Standard
Mac lovers also are more rational than garden-variety fanatics. After all, they have what they regard as valid reasons for preferring their computer and OS.
Adam C. Engst, publisher of the venerable Internet newsletter TidBits, listed several concrete reasons why he loves the Mac.
"Real plug-and-play hardware, unlike the excuse that passes for it in the PC world; excellent integration with the Internet via services like iTools and programs like iPhoto; few worries about viruses, [because] the likelihood of getting a real virus on the Mac is pretty low; and the Macintosh development community, which is so cool the individual people got together to have their own conference for programmers (MacHack)," Engst told NewsFactor.
In addition, he said, "Apple pushes the envelope of what is considered standard equipment, making it so that things like mice, CD-ROMs, Ethernet, USB and FireWire became ubiquitous sooner than if the PC world had been allowed to dither forever."
Today's iMacs come standard not only with items like Firewire and Ethernet ports, but also with proprietary software, such as iMovie and iPhoto.
Although Apple has a reputation for premium price points, its latest offerings are arguably more attractive and offer better value than a PC equipped with comparable features, Giga analyst Enderle noted.
Standards of Beauty
Alan Promisel, portable PC analyst at research firm IDC, told NewsFactor that people continue to gravitate to the Macintosh because Apple's industrial designs are hands-down the coolest available on the market.
"They have cornered the coolness market and set the standard by which other vendors try to achieve 'coolness,'" Promisel said.
And Rik Myslewski, editor-in-chief of MacAddict magazine, told NewsFactor that his attachment to the 17 Macs he has owned over the years is primarily aesthetic.
"Good design is an invigorating, smile-inducing blessing -- and both the Mac OS and (more recently) the Mac itself have always had it in spades," Myslewski said.
Myslewski admitted he has used Wintel machines over the years. Unlike many Mac evangelists, he said he finds the Mac OS only marginally easier to use than Windows.
However, "the real difference is that the Mac's aesthetic lifts my spirits and enhances my creativity," Myslewski said. "The Wintel boxes I've used have been at best aesthetically neutral and at worst aesthetically numbing."
Click here: tech_index
Not enough UFO sightings?
I think that Macs are cute, especially the last one (this whith semispherical body and flat screen on the neck. When they will be completely compatible with Linux and will be able to run Windows programs on it I might join this cult.
I had a second hand PC (A hand me down from my son ..Pentium I) It was fine..My other sons windows XL is fine..But my Mac IS the computer I wanted ..and I do love my Mac.
pssssss can not wait to buy a G4 with OS X shhhhhhhhhhhhhhh it comes out of the kids estate :>)
Just remember the goal for us grandparents is to die with no money for the kids to fight over!
What that? I've never seen that on my Windows box.
If Apple ever ported the Mac OS to the PC, I think they'd take over the world.
You're gonna LOVE it!
Baywatch. Mercedes.
Second, a computer is worthless without software and the vast majority of PC software is written for windows based platforms
And how much of that software will you actually run? There are almost no areas where Macs don't have software comparable to PCs.
Might have been true with earlier versions of the OS and particular applicactions (Netscape was particularly horrible), but not for me in several years.
Just for grins, how many times do you Windows users reinstall your OS each year?
I've never had to reinstall a Mac OS other than for an upgrade, and once when a hard disk died.
Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.