Apple Cult: Drinking the Kool-Aid?
If you talk to a Macintosh user he or will eventually try to sell you a Mac. They will tell you how superior the Macintosh is over the PC. The cool kids own a Mac and the mindless followers of “Corporate America†own an IBM PC or clone. We are smart you are dumb.
There is little doubt that Apple has brilliantly marketed their Macintosh computer and in the past five years their iPod product. Apple generally leads the way in innovation and always has. The biggest problem with Apple is with their management failing to gain momentum when they have success.
In my opinion, most hard core Apple users are “Kool-Aid†drinkers. They are fanatical about their cherished Apple computer or iPod. The average Apple computer cult member believes that they are smarter and more sophisticated than the average Neanderthal that uses an “IBM†style PC. The general message Apple users’ project is that Apple is for the little guy and PCs powered by Microsoft software are evil. Stick it to Microsoft/IBM and buy a Mac!
The perception that Microsoft and IBM are Corporate America and Apple Inc. is “the good guy†fighting Corporate America is silly, but successful marketing on Apple’s part. In 2006, Microsoft’s revenue was just over $51 billions while Apple’s revenue was just over $19 billion. They are both multi-billion dollar corporations and besides corporate culture there is little difference between them. Again, the real difference is Apple’s failure to sustain success in any product except the iPod.
Somewhere down the road, companies like Netscape, Linux, Apple and other competitors of Microsoft convinced the average American that they were the good guy and Microsoft was the big bad monopoly that needed to be taken down. The truth is that Apple, Netscape and other corporations where actually the monopoly or leader in their market and Microsoft and other competitors beat them through better management and cheaper products. Apple owned the computer market before IBM entered; Netscape owned the browser market (and charged for it!) before Microsoft entered it (giving it away for free!), and so on.
Here is a history lesson on Apple Inc and their success/failure. After its founding in 1976, Apple Inc quickly became a market leader competing with Tandy Corporation and Commodore. Apple had some great success with their Apple I and II computers, but stumbled with their Apple III. The designers of the Apple III (led by Steve Jobs’) omitted the cooling fan that ultimately resulted in thousands of recalled units due to overheating. An updated version, the Apple III+, was introduced in 1983, but it was also a failure due to bad press and wary buyers. The Apple brand was wounded and competitors pounced. This left an opening for IBM and Microsoft, and by 1991 IBM and IMB clones destroyed Apples market share with Microsoft and makers of IMB style computers winning the “PC War.â€
Apple lost the PC War for two main reasons. First, IBM made a cheaper computer and Bill Gates wrote software that people wanted to use. Second, Apple’s management was at war with each other and made foolish decisions like leaving a cooling fan out of a computer (doh!). There was no evil conspiracy or illegal tactics involved just bad management.
Apple reinvented itself in the mid-90s and eventually did great with their Macintosh computer and iPod media player that continues today. This did not come easy as Apple Inc tried and failed to enter the camera market and game console market before finally finding success with the iPod and sustaining a small piece of the computer market.
The Apple Pippin is a fine example of Apple’s failure to enter a market. The Apple Pippin was Apple’s failed attempt to get into the gaming industry in 1995. Apple failed miserably selling only 5,000 consoles. It was so bad that in May 2006, the Apple Pippin was selected as one of the “25 Worst Tech Products of all Time” by PC World Magazine. In 2001, Microsoft successfully entered the gaming market with its launch of the Xbox and is now closing in on 10 million subscribers to its Xbox live internet platform. Again, where Apple’s management failed Microsoft’s management succeeded.
The big media buzz today where Microsoft and Apple are competing is with the hugely successful iPod and Microsoft’s Zune player. Apple has sold 100 million iPods and Microsoft just announced 1.2 million units sold. Apple cult followers immediately pounced on Microsoft’s success with vicious attacks on the Zune player and article after article of Zune’s inevitable failure. If I were a betting man I would say the Zune is here to stay and Apple cult followers are scared and angry that Microsoft is again entering their market. Microsoft has a proven track record of success and Apple’s management has a mixed track record with failure after failure after initial successes.
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Wow, really well thought out. Maybe some Apple fanboys should try reading past the first paragraph…assuming they know how to read.
Wow, written by a M$ fanboy!
I’ve never owned a Mac or anything Apple, actually I’ve always had custom built PCs and Windows, but after seeing and using OS X for some time, it’s very clear that it’s 10x better than Windows. Apple’s greatest advantage is the software (OS), and their greatest disadvantage is the lack of it (applications & drivers). The only thing I really dislike about Apple is their policy of not selling OS X for use on classic PCs. I have no interest in overpaying their hardware, but would sure as hell like to dump Windows today and legally run OS X!
I have to say that having also used PC’s all my life I bought a Mac after having to reinstall windows for the 3rd time and losing a load of data. If I sound like a fanboy then frankly if that is the price I pay then I dont care because moving systems has genuinely transformed my experience of working with computers as well as my productivity. I am absolutely convinced that whether Apple is good at marketing or not they simply do make a better product.
Never owned an iPod. Do own the original, collectible Pink Zune #2. And run Windows on my Mac via Parallels Desktop for the Mac. This bashing of Apple or Microsoft business is so infantile. Grow up.
How do you sleep at night, “mike”? Did you think you’d be a real writer someday?
Too bad this is the best you can do, you even missed a few talking points from your list.
Fine work. “Mike”.
-c
I sleep just fine. I wrote an article, I didn’t break the law or murder someone. I find it funny that you think I work for Microsoft. I am a military guy that owns a Zune and runs a blog. Weird, huh?
the fact that this seems to be written by copywriter employed by zune and blatantly appears on the Zune corporate site is laughable. it’s not even a real blog! in case you think there’s any credence to the worth of this corporate press release, do this: go to www.apple.com and search for anything on its corporate site that so blatantly blasts the competition. you won’t. apple talks about its own products and its own brand — without having to resort to blasting other branded products — because it knows its products are superior.
let’s see if my post gets posted in its entirety.
Posted in its entirety.
Why can’t Apple fans realize that people that use Microsoft products might actually like it? I am an Air Force guy that owns a Zune and runs a Zune blog. Sorry to break your paradigm, but since Microsoft has 2.5 times the revenue of Apple there are more of us than you. :)
What does more have to do with anything? Their are more cockroaches on this planet than they are humans. Do you now want to be a cockroach?
And there are LESS Zune owners than their are iPod owners.
Not that I own either.
Yeah, I love my iPod. Haven’t tried a Zune. Maybe it’s good, but my experience with Microsoft, especially tech support, makes me not interested. Why should I be interested in switching when iPod is so excellent? Love the interface with iTunes.
I did pay a little more for my Mac laptop than if I’d bought another brand, but it was worth it. I gave my Dell away to the handyman, after having sent it back 3 times in 2 years for service. Mac OS is easier to use, doesn’t crash, no viruses, adware, spyware.
Internet Explorer was forced down everybody’s throat by Microsoft’s monopoly. It totally sucks. I don’t like Netscape either, but Firefox, Safari and others are head and shoulders over IE.
Well this was certainly stupid. For the record, it’s PiPiN, not Pippon. And another thing Mike, Apple generates a great deal of profits through their Mac lines, a substantial amount at that. To say that the iPod is their only success is just flat out wrong.
It is actually Pippin, so we were both off by a letter.
Read the entire article and I said:
“There is little doubt that Apple has brilliantly marketed their Macintosh computer and in the past five years their iPod product. Apple generally leads the way in innovation and always has. The biggest problem with Apple is with their management failing to gain momentum when they have success.”
“Apple reinvented itself in the mid-90s and eventually did great with their Macintosh computer and iPod media player that continues today. This did not come easy as Apple Inc tried and failed to enter the camera market and game console market before finally finding success with the iPod and sustaining a small piece of the computer market.”
So, I never said iPod was their only sucess. I get credit to their Mac as a successful product. Is it not true that Macs are a small piece of the computer market?
Warden, you must have been living under a rock for the past 3 years because Apple certainly does go around “blasting other branded products.” Apparently you have never seen an Apple ad on television.
The point of this article is clear, the Zune is here to stay and the whole Apple brand is only as good as its followers.
[…] few weeks back I wrote an article titles, Apple Cult: Drinking the Cool-Aid?. I got a lot of support from Zune users and a lot of negative comments from iPod users (some I could […]
[…] looks like my “Apple Cult: Drinking the Kool-Aid?” and “Apple Cult: Drinking the Kool-Aid? Part 2” articles have angered the iPod […]
@Warden: This is no “corporate” site, it’s a community site that has no affiliation whatsoever with Microsoft. And, maybe you should take a look at Apple’s event videos and Steve Job’s keynote speaches, I’d be amazingly surprised if they didn’t associate Microsoft with bad, copiers, uncool, or inferior.
@Connor: Well said!
@Rob: What you’re also saying is that Zune is a success. Zune and Macs share a relative market share.
Yep, if Warden read the bottom of the site he would have realized this site is just a community of Zune users. But actually trying a Zune before bad mouthing it or realizing that Microsoft users are not all uncool, fat guys with classes is beyond Warden and other bashers.
for the longest time my mouth watered as i looked at ipod after ipod but i got luck picked up my zune cheap and fell in love with it. someone once called it the pc users ipod well i’m a pc lover i build and yes i like zune way better then the ipod. I hope it’s here to stay Viva la Zune!
[…] Apple Cult: Drinking the Kool-Aid I just don’t think I’m like the Mac user the guy describes. Maybe you are? […]
If Apple’s success were based strictly on the iPod, the writer might have some valid points. What he fails to mention, however, is that Apple is also selling record numbers of computers, and is now in the top five of computer shippers in the U. S. In other words, Apple is in fact gaining market share, with more and more people switching. There’s no doubt that the iPod has something to do with that, but people aren’t buying Macs because they have an iPod; they’re buying Macs because it has a better operating system, and they’re tired of viruses and spyware and bloatware, which, in fact again, OS X users don’t worry about. As to the allegation that Apple users are scared of the Zune, that is just plain silly. Apple wasn’t the first portable music player on the market by far, but they succeeded because they made it easy to use, just as they’re succeeding with the iPhone, which is also bringing people in to buy Macs.
You make some good points, but read my article again. I never said Apple was only success with the iPod. Apple was the market leader in computers and let it slip away. They have a history of doing this and the iPod may go the same route as the Apple III. If Apple does not keep up with the improvements that Microsoft and other competitors are adding to the MP3 player, Apple will lose market share. It is no different than Microsoft trying to maintain their lead with the OS. If they slip up just once they can get crushed as there are so many competitors.
this article is pure BS
get over it man yo ugly just canot rival with the iPod
nor can the ubber slow, resource-demanding, 15GB, driverless, lame and unsecure Vista can ever compete with Mac OS X.
Oh yeh it’s hard to be a MS fanboy sometimes: when you don’t have anything good to say about them: vainly try to criticize the other…vainly
Thanks for proving my point. Kool-Aid drinkers are so helpful.
Here is a website that may help you:
http://www.theenglishtutor.com/about.html
No thanks needed.
Mike
LOL, nice try Muke, the only people listening to you are kool-aid drinkers - who let you out of that locker?