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Tuesday, January 29, 2002
18:02 - The Problems with Mac Zealotry
http://www.osopinion.com/perl/story/16059.html

(top) link
Good osOpinion.com article underlining the reasons why Apple could really do without the brainwashed zealots waving flags for them, when what they really need is mainstream acceptance.

A couple of years ago, the only Mac people in my workplace were "Mac people." They were identified by their sad eyes and the lack of spring in their step.

These days -- and I'm talking about a Fortune 500 company -- the "Mac people" are managers and highflyers telling their colleagues about their digital movies and DVD burning. These people are the decision makers. They aren't zealots -- they just recognize good technology.

Well put. Though I must mention that in the Dark Days of 1995-97, the former probably did more to keep the company alive than Apple will want to admit-- because there weren't very many of the latter.

These days, they can get away with spurning outright zealotry and focusing on the mainstream users, because we're talking about scale of revenue here. For every zealot who buys one of whatever they announce each Macworld, there are a hundred silent technology users who will quietly buy and use the products that Apple is aiming at them. Since the iSoftware Renaissance, that hundred people represent a number that's swelled significantly from four years ago; in 1997, Apple was a name that (unless you were a zealot) you spoke with a smirk, or as part of a joke ("The Apple of the auto industry"). Nowadays, Apple is a respected name that you can mention in polite techie conversation and not get scandalized looks from your friends.

I've mentioned before how zealots for any particular platform often do more harm than good-- hey, just look at what happened to Amiga (they demanded that Netscape produce bug-free software for the Amiga and give it away, and they sent scathing hate-mail to Netscape when they didn't get it to "market" in time-- for which Netscape dropped them like a shoe covered with ants). Apple can always use pundits; press, especially legitimate press, is a good thing. But the shrieking, wild-eyed ascetics don't do nobody no good, nohow.

Hey, don't look at me like that. My eyes aren't that wild.

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© Brian Tiemann