“Pundits often refer to them as ‘zealots’ or ‘fanboys.’ The more polite references include ‘Mac loyalists.’ I am, of course, talking about Apple’s more vocal customers, those who will defend the company and its products in any debate going on around them. What is it that drives their passion for most things Apple? Is it a deluded mind, warped by the Reality Distortion Field that Steve Jobs so successfully wraps every new product in? In short, the answer is no,” Aric Winton writes for Blackfriars’ Marketing.
Winton writes, “The truth behind the scenes is not that Apple has a large group of customers that are too dedicated and passionate about their products, or the company as a whole. The reality is far more simple and obvious: Apple simply has a large group of very satisfied customers — and that’s the secret ingredient left out of nearly every analysis or op-ed piece that mentions these ‘zealots.'”
“The obvious side to Apple’s customer satisfaction lies in their attention to detail in every facet of product development. All their products are designed, at every stage, with the customer clearly in mind and each product is tailored to make it as easy to use as possible for the customer, regardless of how technically savvy or not they may be,” Winton writes.
Winton writes, “The less obvious side involves two keywords: freedom and choice.”
Full article – highly recommended – in which Winton explains that “too much choice” in both hardware and software “leads to less satisfaction” and that Apple understands that idea very well, here.
[Thanks to MacDailyNews Reader “MacUser” for the heads up.]
Related articles:
Apple again leads Consumer Reports’ survey for notebook, desktop computer tech support, value, more – October 16, 2006
Apple Mac desktops, notebooks top PC Magazine’s Annual Reader Satisfaction survey – again – August 22, 2006
Apple far outscores all other PC makers in Consumer Reports Computer Tech Support Survey – May 05, 2006
Apple Mac desktops, portables top PC Magazine’s 2005 Reader Satisfaction survey – August 24, 2005
Apple Computer products top PC Magazine’s annual ‘Best of the Year’ survey – December 16, 2004
Apple Macs top PC Magazine’s ’17th Annual Reader Satisfaction Survey’ – August 10, 2004
Apple leads PC Magazine’s 16th annual Service and Reliability Survey – July 10, 2003
Winton gets it!
I agree, he does get it…Interesting how something so simple can be so effective. Although I suppose it could be considered a risky strategy ( before it proves itself), and not everyone could pull it off.
It’s so obvious. Apple’s “zealots” and “fanboys” exist because Apple makes great products. Apple doesn’t pay us to be “loyalists.” The only company that can afford to pay people to be fake fans is Microsoft.
Dam right. I’m a happy, vocal Apple fanboi!
Although I can be extremely tough on Apple sometimes, it comes from just over 20 years of expecting the very best computing experience possible and demading even more perfection.
By the way, BlueRay is kicking HD-DVD’s a$$$
Make sure you download the PDF and see the chart, HD-DVD is nearly dead.
http://www.dailytech.com/Sony+Releases+Report+on+Bluray+vs+HD+DVD/article6841.htm
http://www.thedigitalbits.com/files/sonyhdreport031807.zip
Great read. Many a company can learn from Apple, Inc.’s outstanding marketing.
Great article. I think a lot of us have been saying this. This mainstream recognition is something to behold, though. In a year or two, things may be even better. Hard to imagine, but I can’t wait.
Wiseguy, I mean… Peterson… um, I mean…
C’mere, gimme a hug.
That was indeed a great article.
But do you know why Apple’s competition has to offer “more choices” than Apple. That’s the only way they can distinguish themselves from Apple. “We have inferior products, but we offer more freedom for the customer than Apple.”
Remember when Apple used to offer a few dozen Mac models called Performa, Centris, and Quadra, followed by a 3 or 4 digit number. Then Steve Jobs returned and chopped it down to the four quadrants (with one initially missing). What was left… Power Mac (in two body types), PowerBook, and iMac (iBook came later).
It’s not Apple that understood this philosophy. It’s Jobs.
the tyranny of choice has operational impacts as well….we support windows at work and the “tyranny of choices” when configuring and operating a windows box compared to the macs just leaves me shaking my head. i don’t see how any casual user can deal with it or needs to deal with it. apple hides the choices – go to the command line if you really need it.
There are two things going on in this article. The first is a discussion of Apple “fanatics” and the second is the “paradox of choice”. Let me just address the first issue.
It always annoys me when I hear analysts and others say something like: “Well, I don’t know if there are enough Apple Fanatics to make the (Apple TV, iPhone, whatever) successful. In fact, I heard a soccer dad say that very thing about the iphone today.
This argument attempts to make Apple’s incredibly loyal customer base a liability rather than an asset. Yes, they concede, these mentally deficient worshipers of Apple will buy anthing Apple. But what about “the rest of us”.
Consuers do not buy products because they are made by Apple. They buy Apple products becasue Apple makes them with the consumer in mind. Instead of viewing Apples loyal customer base as some kind of liability, analysts shoud be asking: “Just how good are Apples products that they can count on a million people buying them sight unseen?”
“…large group of customers…”
Huh?????
An estimated 22 MILLION Macs in use and we’re described as a large “group”?
Awwww, c’mon – that’s more than one Mac for every person in the entire state of TEXAS.
Couldn’t he do better than “group”?
@ken1w said: “But do you know why Apple’s competition has to offer “more choices” than Apple. That’s the only way they can distinguish themselves from Apple. “We have inferior products, but we offer more freedom for the customer than Apple.” “
Falkirk: I disagree with you but only in degree, not in principal. I think you can easily document the fact that many of Apple’s ipod competitors had “more choices” before the ipod existed and before the ipod became dominant. And analyalys continue to skewer the ipod for not having a laundry list of features (like a radio). Those criticims have been muted becasue of the market dominance of the ipod, but if you want to see the analysts true colors, read the reviews of the Apple TV. Much of these reviews talk about what the Apple neglected to add – DVR, DVD playback, etc.
I will agree with ken1w on two things. The Ipods competitors are really stuck on the horns of a dilema. The ipod is so strong in the core functions that the competitors are left scrambling for fringe features to distinguish their products (like “squirting”).
Also, I agree with you that it is Jobs – not Apple – that is responsible for this fanatical devotion to simplicity. I read a book on the ipod (“shuffle”) that talked about Jobs fanatical insistance that the original Ipod only have 4 buttons. They said it was all they could do to force him to accept the fifth button that is now in the middle of the Ipod “wheel”.
I mean, c’mon! The thing doesn’t even have an on off switch (which received criticism). Amazing.
‘Apple’s secret ingredient? A large group of very satisfied customers’
Yep, just like dollar night down there at the Sonic. Bunch of damn happy folks, there was….
Well, Microsoft has Zune Tang…
The problem is not with choice per se, or even with numbers: as the article so clearly demonstrate, it is only better to have fewer “choices” as long as there are sufficient opportiunities to >customize<. When choice is clear and simple, even if plentiful, there is both freedom >and< satisfaction. In fact (and despite the story of Henry Ford’s “any color as long as it’s black”), the thought of increasing satisfaction by limiting choice is like Orwell’s “War is Peace.” It’s not the choices that are wrong, but the way they are presented: clearly or confusingly.
There are many individual models of iMac, for instance, in addition to screen size, but those secondary choices do not distract from the iMac “family name” – the customer is helped rather than confused, and the company’s reputation for customer-focus is enhanced.
lwbrown:
I love how iPod still comes in iPod, Nano, and Shuffle. Sure, there are more detailed descriptions (3G) but those are mainly used for support purposes. When you want an iPod, you want the latest iPod. That’s it.
I’m a reasonably informed computer user and darned if I know just what Sansa people are buying nowadays.
I wasn’t aware there was a “secret”.
I’m a LaCie fan as well. They make good products too.
To each their own. Some people are happy buying crap from the dollar store.
Now THIS is an article I will give hits to. Fantastic explanation!
Attention to detail? Yes! even on stuff that you think wouldn’t matter. Like the box the t-shirt comes in when you are early enough at an Apple Store opening. Never mind that it is in a box instead of just a bunch of shirts in a bag. The box is a one piece seamless origami type shirt holder. No glue, no staples, no nothing. It just opens up like some sort of cardboard lotus blossum. If they sweat the details on the little stuff that shouldn’t matter, especially on a giveaway item, then that tells me that the odds are good that they sweat the details on the things that do!
There is great video online that goes into this topic of choice, and how too much choice makes people less happy.
http://www.ted.com/tedtalks/tedtalksplayer.cfm?key=b_schwartz
This is part of the TEDtalks podcast, an excellent and thought provoking series. This is not even one of the best videos in the series, but it’s a good video one none-the-less and takes on this topic in a very clear and articulate way.
Apple products are such a no-brainer. They are well conceived. practical, easy to use and last. Why is this such a difficult concept for the masses to understand? Maybe its because the lemings can only see as far as the axxhole in front of them.
Great article. I like the last sentence best:
“Apple’s “loyalists” are no more than very happy, deeply satisfied customers, and their competitors should learn from that.”
I just hope that it will take a little longer for the competitors to realize that fact.
To anyone that has not succumbed to the Apple magic, it must seem weird that there is a bunch of people out there who are so fanatical about a company and its products.
I am sure most of us would say to anyone who DOESN’T like the Mac, “Go and try it, you will like it.” with the expectation that they will. After 2 years of using a Mac I would never contemplate moving back to Windows…
However, my first experience with all things Apple was in the days of OS 9, 8 and earlier, when Macs were used in business occasionally, but crashed frequently and reliable support people (who shaved, wore shoes and worked daylight hours) were hard to find.
My first experiences with things Apple persuaded me that Apple afficianados were just the sort of people who would, today, by anything other than an iPod just because they didn’t want to go with the crowd.
So I would like to hear from those long-term Apple fans who were using Apple in the days when they did fall over far too frequently and it was hard to find people who knew enough to sort them out. Why did you stick with Apple then?
@Gurry said: This is part of the TEDtalks podcast, an excellent and thought provoking series.
Falkirk: Thanks for the tip. I signed up of the podcasts. I’ll give them a try.
Why did I stick with Mac since System 7.1? Well, I learned my way through extensions, control panels, MacsBug(sp?) and all sort of memory managing problems, and found out that it was still MUCH easier than configuring a Win95 shitbox.
Had one or two viruses, but Disinfectant was all I ever need.
That’s why.
MW: standard. Yup, Mac sets the standard in easy configuring since early on.
Sydney Stephen:
My first Mac was a 6100/66 with a 350 MB HD bought in 1994. Up to that point I had had an Amstrad 8512 then a 9512. Apple didn’t mean that much to me, but after investigating the choices it seemed a wise buy.
Five Macs later and being forced to compare them with the HP rubbish at work, I know exactly the reasons why I will remain an Apple customer as long as they retain their current outlook on manufacturing and design.
My then wife used my 6100 as her first computer and took it for granted. She then got a job in Glasgow City Council and was forced to use Wintel machines. She would come home raging many nights, as she was now exposed to the unexplained crashes, the loss of work, the many hour wait whilst the IT support staff got round to her problem.
No computer platform is perfect, but the effort Apple seem to put in to making the user experience pleasant and the brilliance of their continuing product line makes it easy for me to choose them over all others.
I’ve worked with Macs since 1991 when I was using a Classic with 256Kb RAM running System 6.05 and continued through the ranks of LC and so on.
I moved on to laptops with a model I can’t even remember until the Black PowerBook G3 came out and then on to the Titanium G4 and so until my current 17″ MacBook Pro.
Macs aren’t perfect and they sometimes crash. I’m having loads of problems with my Dual 2.0GHz G5 at the moment, but compared to Windoze… Give me a break.
I had the horrible experience of setting up a new HP with Windows Vista Home for a client yesterday. The Wow does start now. Like Wow this is crap, or wow can they seriously think this is well designed software. Talking about convoluted and slow to navigate around. I support every flavour of Windows and Windows Server as well as Macs and believe me I’ll always choose a Mac for myself.
Macs Just Work!!! and that is one big reason we love them so much. We plug cameras or printers in and they just work.
If I had Windows box with XP and upgraded (lol) it to Vista, it’d be slowed down enormously, whereas when I upgrade my Core 2 Duo MacBook Pro to Leopard soon, it’ll get a huge speed bump.
Mac zealots are simply people who are prepared to see the obvious truth in the face of a massive delusional force field from Redmond that Windows is best.
I had a really good read on this, very detail, and very useful information.
Thanks.
http://www.avi-converter.net
kevinoliver99,
Keep your fscking SPAM off of this site! Please, nobody click on the a$$hole’s link.
Sorry, but, i’m in that kind of disposition tonite.
WiseGuy you’re a TOOL.
And so my thoughts repeat … ad nauseam.
MDN magic word “think” … and i did, but not much.
Wow, Sony, the manufacturer of Blu-ray devices, says Blu-ray is far outpacing HD-DVD in sales? Incredible!
Microsoft said Zune already has 10% market share or something like that, and they make the Zune.
I find it odd that corporations never state that the product they make or sell is selling poorly. I wonder why that is.
Way to stay on top of it, WiseGuy. Keep posting!
Apple is the only company for which I have been a salesman without salary or commission. Every person I have ‘sold’ to has become the same. My motivation has nothing to do with building a customer base ensuring that a company I have invested in stays around longer, well not directly. I have used and still use Windows in situations where I have to. When I became a switcher in 1997, I still remember OS 8.0 booting up for the first time on my G3, it took me all of three weeks to see why the people who ‘switched’ me were so passionate about Apple. I felt as if I had been empowered. Nearly everything was drag-n-drop, the more I got used to the interface, the more I ‘got it.’ With the exception of the ‘Chooser’ (remember that) everything was easier, more enjoyable and ran longer without problems than my PC. Installing new hardware and software didn’t require hours of troubleshooting as my PC sometimes did, especially hardware. The last time I tried to use my PC, I installed software to connect to the internet and lost the ability to use my keyboard. Then I got a job were I was forced to use Windows (2000 pro). I made a two year campaign to get a Mac. It worked when I told them they paid me almost $1300 in that period rebooting my machine. Not counting the number of times IT had to come and troubleshoot. So they’d buy me a new one because that one clearly had issues (yeah it’s called Windows). So I got a new Dell, it did get better. But rather than restarting my machine 3 times a day (yes I kept a log to come up with the downtime they were paying me for) I had to restart it about 8 times a week. Then we got a new IT director, he was a little more open minded. I told him about my situation and he said if you get a Mac we won’t support it. How perfect was that, can you believe he set himself up like that? So when I told him I wouldn’t need IT’s support, he shrugged his shoulders and left the room to put the order in. Since then, there have been that followed and became a ‘sales person.’ And the only time we need them is when they change settings for email.
Apple’s customers love their machines and wants to reward Apple with more customers. At least I do.
There are a few other companies that realize that too much choice can be bad. They aren’t in the tech industry though. Have you ever thought about the choices at McDonalds? I wonder what percentage of orders are value meal vs. those that build their own meal. Yet somehow I never hear anyone complain about the combo meals at McDonalds, Wendy’s Burger King, etc… Why do other companies never get told they have the wrong idea but Apple does? The bias against Apple is incredible but what is more amazing is that so few can see it.
Of all articles, this articulates Mac Zealotry perfectly. This is a defining article. I forwarded it to all my Mac Fans (friends who have macs) and to one who wants one.
Highly recommended. Thanks, MDN!
My first experience with Apple products was at university using Apple II’s for assembler programming. Very cool considering the punch card alternative. I was hooked than and when the Lisa and finally the Mac came out I was a lifer.
I’ve used Apple products ever since, always at home, but rarely did i have the luxury of using them at work. I had to endure the steaming pile of Windoze boxes and software everyday, until I ran home to experience my Mac and the warm beautiful feelings it produced deep inside of me.
I’ve used about every Mac model ever manufactured, some great, some not so great, but none worse than the best PC. To me the Mac and OSX is a religious experience that I can’t stop myself from sharing with others who have not been as fortunate as I have been in coming into the light early in life and basking in its radiant glory, soothing my soul, and inspiring me to greater and greater heights.
I’ve lived through all of the ups and downs of Apple Computer and now Apple Inc. Even the toughest times did not make me waver because I had faith that superior hardware and software design will always triumph in the end. Today is a good day for Apple and for all those who seek a better life on the road less traveled.
What turns Mac users into these ‘fanboys’ is the opposition they face from PC weenies who know nothing about the platform..
It only follows that if someone criticizes you for your platform choice, you have no recourse but to defend it especially when the person throwing stones has never even tried it.
If PC weenies weren’t so anti-Mac, there would be no reason to be overzealous in the defense of the Mac.
” “too much choice” in both hardware and software “leads to less satisfaction” and that Apple understands that idea very well”
The choice is a myth. Bottom line is PC box makers have NOTHING unique to differentiate themselves on. Nothing.
Place 10 PCs from 10 different manufacturers behind a wall hooked to 10 generic monitors and likely you cannot distinguish one from the other.
No matter what PC you use, you are handcuffed to Windows.
Where’s the choice?
Too much choice in any situation leaves people confused and stressed. That’s the whole point of that book “The Paradox of Choice.”
Darth wrote:
“Many a company can learn from Apple, Inc.’s outstanding marketing.”
The point isn’t their marketing, although they do have great marketing. The point of the article is that people are fanatical about Apple’s products because they are good not because the marketing convinces them so.
Apple pays attention to details unlike most companies, and people who use their products see that manifested in benefits they get from those products.
Want to talk about vocal? Check this out!
http://phobos.apple.com/WebObjects/MZStore.woa/wa/viewPodcast?id=174777460
Good post. Good debate. And good learning too (thanks Gurry for the URL to TED).
At its root, Apple has a purpose that connects with the human spirit and need for progress, innovation and excellence.
Based on this purpose is the offering: the complete widget – OS and hardware, seamlessly welded together with style and finesse.
More to the point, an advanced modern operating system (MacOSX) designed with a basic toolset (Finder, Safari, Mail, iCal, iTunes, iPhoto) that can be extended and enhanced in two differing (but NOT mutually exclusive) directions by iLife and iWork to appeal to the left or/and right brain…
All rendered through a limited number of very well designed and cross-integrated platforms: iPod, MacMini, AppleTV, iMac, Mac Pro, MacBook, MacBook Pro, Xserve and the soon to arrive iPhone. Most available in a range of sizes (like the MacBook at 13.3″ and the MacBook Pro in 15″ and 17″) and each further configurable in detail from RAM size to hard drive size.
Just like BMW and their nine basic product platforms, each is configurable to fit taste, lifestyle and budget. Just take a look at the simple clean product range offered by BMW at:
http://www.bmw.com/com/en/index_highend.html
Notice how the M series stands aside as an option applicable to all the other products. And how they don’t make trucks, taxis and buses like most of the others. They focus on their core business of performance cars. As does Apple. Only difference is that wile BMW is idolised by one and all, Apple is constantly at the receiving end of industry generated FUD that is amplified by ‘analysts’ and other commentators who have questionable credentials and motives. I think it falls somewhere between envy and ‘tall poppy syndrome’.
The future looks better than before and Apple is going from strength to strength. Given the Goldman Sachs report featured elsewhere on MDN today, I suggest Apple beef up iWork (at least add a decent spreadsheet and get rid of that ageing AppleWorks) and address all matters that would ease the platform’s integration back into the work environment.
There’s a tipping point coming soon… and it will be Apple’s inflection point ready for the taking. The question is, will Apple be ready to do so?
@Plug
Is that a plug for BMW?
Handsome fanboy seeks gorgeous fangirl ….
Apple’s secret ingredient? A large group of very satisfied customers
Well, true
Microsoft’s secret ingredient? A more than a large group of faithful (for whatever reasons) customers that won’t change their mind (for whatever reasons)
Sydney Stephen;
I gave been a Mac user since 1987 when I got my first Mac – a Macintosh SE with a (gasp) 20 MB hard drive! I spent $400 to upgrade to (WOW) 4 MB of RAM, and man, did she scream! Nobody else in town had that much RAM.
I am a desktop support professional, and that first Mac led me directly to this profession. I have supported Macs and Windows PCs both since, and the fact that I have NEVER owned a Windows box may give you a clue.
With a Mac, it’s relatively easy to learn how to troubleshoot issues and it always has been. With Windows boxes, when the issue gets beyond something simple, our fix is simple – re-image the box! Faster than hand reloading, but in the end, it’s the same thing.
When one office I worked for switched from Macs to PCs (for software purposes), we had 150 people to start with, and one part-time tech supporter (me). After the switch, we had to expand that to three full time techs, a team leader and a secretary for admin support for the team.
Need I say more?
MW: miss, as in I miss supporting Macs.
So after 20+ years there are still those that want to believe that a monirity of users are basing their continued product loyalty on blind faith? That product quality and positioning had absolutely nothing to do with real end user satisfaction?
I appreciate the truth of the article, what amazes me is that the article has to be written at all, by this time. Just goes to show how close to the dark ages we were getting.
But the rubber has yet to meet the road – Armed with a good reality check, are non Apple users going to choose to broaden their horizons? Hmmm?
@SydneyStephen
Nope! Just ‘Plug’. A name I picked from the ‘Bash Street Kids’ in the Beano – a comic from the UK.
But since I’m back posting again, here’s another take based on Seth Godin’s Purple Cow. In essence, you have a purple cow when
> the product itself has high utility (substance)
> the way it is presented is excellent (form) and
> the way it is delivered is great (form again).
Here’s my tuppence worth over and above Mr Godin Purple Cow: Apple as a company has evolved itself into a purple company as reflected in its stock price, comments from Goldman Sachs and quite simply, its run of hits over the last five years. Think about it:
purple product, purple delivery and a purple company
There’s no way any other OS producer or box shifter can compete with such a combination. The really astute bit is that in this way Apple has shifted the basis of competition well beyond its competitors to the point where it can even dare venture into an area it has never been in before and deliver a seismic shock to an entire industry based on a mere presentation back on 9 Jan 2007. The way Apple is going, there will soon come a day when all it has to do is sneeze and some industry or sector is gonna catch cold!
Now that’s a Plug for Apple!
PS MDN magic word is ‘present’. I’d love a BMW M5 as a present!
“Common sense is not that common after all”
1. Build simple-to-use products with excellent quality, focused on consumer satisfaction.
2. Provide customers with straightforward and clearly-differentiated product offerings/choices.
3. Make the experience using these products as fun, easy and exhilirating (almost religious) as possible.
4. Make your customers the best marketeers for your products.
5. Differentiate your products by solving the problems and frustrations experienced by consumers (using other products).
And finally, DO NOT follow Microsoft’s business practices.
Simple enough to understand. If anyone could build a more beautiful, elegant machine than an iMac then I’d probably buy it. But no one can.
Happy consumer=loyal fan. Mystery solved.
Microsoft backers are more interested in perpetuating the Microsoft Economy than actually owning a nice machine. Cheap and generic, that’s what butters their bread, and that’s all well and good for the office bean-counters.
The problem has always been that the office bean-counting IT staff convinced us all that the machines at home should be the same as the ones at work. Why did we believe this? It’s like being told to drive a Caterpillar D9 to the beach on Sunday. Work machines need to fulfill a completely different set of criteria than those we use at home. People are finally starting to realize this, that you don’t need a noisy ugly beige tower howling away in your front room all day.
We bought into this economy because it was cheap, familiar, and ‘good enough’. But people want more from their systems now, and they don’t want to hire and IT staff to be able to manage it. The tide is indeed turning, and right now the hinge is bolted to personal media. Guess who’s going to win.
-c
MW: ‘kept’ (the faith)
What turns Mac users into these ‘fanboys’ is the opposition they face from PC weenies who know nothing about the platform..
It only follows that if someone criticizes you for your platform choice, you have no recourse but to defend it especially when the person throwing stones has never even tried it.
If PC weenies weren’t so anti-Mac, there would be no reason to be overzealous in the defense of the Mac.
Exactly. People STILL quote nonsense from 1995 as if it applied to Apple today. It’s those people, especially the ones claiming to be experts, that I love to laugh at upon them telling me they had a virus or malware steal their info.
I don’t consider myself a zealot. I’ll gladly advise you to buy a Windows PC if you’ll keep paying me over and over and over to clean your system. It’s not MY fault you’re unaware of FREE a/v software for Windows…
@SydneyStephen
Just read your earlier post. So here’s my story:
I’ve been a MacUser since 1984 when Apple released the Macintosh and have stayed with it since. In 1996/7, I was asked to lead a project team tasked with taking a large consulting firm (over 1,300 staff) off the Mac (System 7) and old peecees (running a number of versions of DOS as well as Windows 2 & 3) onto new peecees running WinDOS 95. At the same time, ‘wire’ this firm up so everyone got email, access to servers, new printers, remote dial-in access, SecureIDs and many other things. And to also ensure everyone was trained to use their new kit for client work…
As a consultant (at work) I’d use a Toshiba Satellite Pro with Windows 95 that was later replaced with an ultra thin Compaq M300. While at home I had an old Power Macintosh 6100/60 (with DOS card which I never used) as well as a PowerBook 170 and a 165c.
I could have switched to peecees but the cost trade-off was quite simply down to one thing: I knew my way round almost all aspects of Systems 7 & 8 even hacking it a bit with ResEdit. I could support myself very well on any Mac. I just could not handle the Blue Screen of Death that I had to contend with on an almost daily basis at work on those peecees. In other words, while I had ready access to an IT Department to sort out the Blue Screens at work, I did not have that luxury at home. So it was a no-brainer: stick with the whole widget or buy into the fragmented world of Microsoft and the PC makers then pay for it through increased support costs which is really just a cleverly cloaked form of ‘bait and switch’ except it is legal since it’s a tactic deployed by an entire industry built around Microsoft.
I thought the move to Mac OSX would have caused me further problems but it’s been a dream. I have lost just two and a half working days since moving to Mac OSX back in 2002. Half a day due to the ‘little black wire’ problem in an iBook I had and the rest in dealing with an ‘extant overlap’ problem that I had to eventually overcome by erasing and reinstalling Mac OSX. In all this, no data was ever lost. Macs just work. Plug an iPod in and it just shows up then kicks up iTunes. Plug in a printer and it works too, as does a digital camera, PalmPilot, data projector, external hard drive. Without any fuss in most cases.
I have my own consulting firm now and remain Mac based by choice. My clients are Windows based but they all assume we’re on that platform until the first time they notice the glowing Apple logo on my MacBook Pro during a presentation… that glowing logo in itself was a really neat bit of innovation on the part of Apple and would not have worked had they retained the old rainbow style logo. The latest variant on that being the way they dropped the word ‘computer’ from the name of the company.
So does all this make me a ‘fanboy’, ‘zealot’, ‘loyalists’ or even a cool-aid addict? Have I been ‘warped by the Reality Distortion Field that Steve Jobs so successfully wraps every new product in?’ Nope. I am quite simply a very satisfied customer who appreciates Apple’s ‘attention to detail in every facet of every product it produces’. Yes, I’ll even go so far as to say a good word about the 2100, the last of the Newtons produced as it had actually come together as a very usable PDA (I’ve got really scruffy hand-writing thanks to over two decades of using computer keyboards) and it went on to spawn a new genre (I understand Jonathan Ive CBE, was involved in the industrial design…) I reckon the Newton may even have ultimately evolved into an iPhone had it survived Steve’s axe which he had to swing given Apple’s financial state and mediocre strategy positioning at the time.
As I said earlier, Apple has shifted the basis of competition well beyond its competitors to the point where it can now set the tune leaving others to merely mimic in a half-baked clumsy manner. Afterall, the originator of an idea being more passionate about it will always render a better result than one who stole it and tried to copy.
Missing ingredient: the threat of marginalization in the past.
Nothing like a threat to rally the tribe and get the testosterone flowing. But yes, we have satisfaction to protect.
I keep on thinking about Steve’s keynote speech where he talks about the research that they did about mobile phones. What do his potential customers really want and need in a mobile phone? What is it that the present phone manufacturers are doing wrong with their phones? What features would you like, and not like?
Then you get your designers and engineers to come up with some solutions using the latest technology that is out there. You show the results to your research groups and see how they react, back to the drawing board, tweak it a little bit more, until you get it right.
Then you announce it with all sorts of fanfare, being sure to give people a little time to get out of their old mobile phone contracts. This taking care of your customers is what we Mac Heads really love about Apple. It’s as simple as that.
@Wiseguy,
Blu-Ray is not kicking anything. The best selling blu-ray movie has only sold 800,000 copies. The iTunes Pre-Order of ‘Cars’ sold more than that in a week.
On top of that, the number 10 best selling Blu-Ray of all time has only sold <900 copies. Really more people live in my apartment complex than bought that movie.
check out the Consumerist, http://consumerist.com/consumer/format-war/format-war-top-10-selling-blu+ray-disc-sells-880-copies-250728.php, for a more detailed look.
A mac fanboy writing about mac fanboys and all the mac fanboys love it.
Low customer service issues help the bottom line. Customer service is the most expensive part of the software/computer business.
This shows that Apple is being smart and putting the majority of the work into the design of their products and not relying on post-purchase product support.
Just my $0.02
Awww. Ya big lug.
Apple’s secret ingredient?
A mind-altering substance embedded in the product cases. Worked on me.
Just thank everything holy that it’s not the secret Jack Sauce from Jack In The Box. The world’s first porno burger franchise.
Thanks guys for the great stories. The Mac user base is expanding quite rapidly now and the Apple history is diluted by those, like me, who joined later and don’t know the history. And how quickly we forget the NT blue screen of death…
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Sydney Stephen;
Thanks for the walk down memory lane!
Apple Rocks!
MW: show, as in “Let the show begin!”
well written article
“Apple’s secret ingredient? A large group of very satisfied customers”
Too bad he goes wrong with his title already. The group isn’t ‘large’. A ‘large’ group would be users of Windows and/or Dell PCs.
In realistic terms Apple users are a fringe group. Some of whom shout very very loud so that the group can be heard.
Don’t count iPod users as Apple-users by the way. 90% (possibly more) of all people who own an iPod own a Windows pc, too…
@Lies
Windows Troll! Windows Troll!
Apple customers include all customers of Apple.
If they own an iPod they are an Apple customer – and undoubtedly a very happy one.
How many million ipods have Apple shipped now?
That is a LARGE group of customers.
And I bet this LARGE group of happy Apple customers aren’t nearly so happy with Microsoft or Dell…
Too bad that this LARGE group of customers didn’t know how great Apple were before they bought a Windows PC…
But I bet a LARGE chunk of them don’t make that mistake the next time around….
Go throw a chair…