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Monday, October 21, 2002
09:30 - Stop me before I blog again
http://www.denbeste.nu/cd_log_entries/2002/10/Acompulsiontorevisionism.shtml

 (top) link
I really should let Den Beste have the last word in this; but I can't bring myself to do it. I don't have the willpower. Sorry about that.

It turns out that Apple has been lagging PCs in hard disk technology, too, but I've already gone into this enough. It's exactly the same story. The reality is that on the hardware level, Apple has been a follower in nearly every regard, adopting many technologies only after they're considered obsolescent in the PC world. Apple has been between one and three generations behind in RAM, in graphics chips, and in hard disk interfaces for years now, and it still is.

So tell me, what brand of 802.11 cards were the computer manufacturers putting into their laptops in 1999? Oh wait, sorry-- only Apple was doing that, weren't they? Okay, how about flat-panel monitors? What superior supplier fueled everybody else's push toward an all-LCD lineup in 2000? Oh wait, never mind-- seems Apple's monitors still keep winning top marks from the reviewers even today. USB? Who was using USB before the iMac popularized it? Lemme get back to you.

Remember when Apple was criticized for continuing to use SCSI disks, when everybody else had gone to the cheaper and crappier IDE? Now they're "behind the curve". Great.

The technology that Apple adopts early in the curve is the technology that creates new capabilities. If it's something completely new, they're right in the forefront. Whereas technologies that just make existing tasks faster (RAM, disks, video)-- yes, they stagnate, because making existing capabilities faster isn't what Apple's about. It isn't where they've chosen to stack their chips.

I want to see an ad campaign that goes: Still using a Mac? Get with the program! Buy a PC! Free yourself from those DVD burners with their one-click operation. Trash those FireWire-driven music players and video editors. Break the cycle of creativity! Succumb to the siren song of the Registry! Throw your built-in wireless Ethernet and widescreen displays out the window; you won't need those anymore, because your computer will be faster!


Oh, and note that not a single one of the "Switch" ads says a word about the Mac being faster at anything.

I despise Jobs for lying like this, for doing so repeatedly and shamelessly. And I find myself revisiting the subject time after time because I'm astounded that otherwise rational people can drink the kool-aid and not realize that they're being conned.

...And yet, somehow, the stunts Microsoft pulls are just peachy-keen.

Somehow I get the feeling that if the two debators on this topic want opposite futures for Apple and its market share, then it's sort of pointless to debate the finer points of how the company's marketing works.

I've been treating as axiomatic the "Apple is a force of good in the industry" line; I've used that as the basis for both my cheerleading and my criticism of Apple here. (If they do something that I find worrisome or disagreeable, I point it out, in the hopes that they'll fix it, in the interest of being a better and more successful company.) But if we can't agree on that-- if we can't agree that having Apple around is good for technology as a whole-- then there's very little common ground to be reached.
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© Brian Tiemann