Like Stephen Van Esch and many other Apple aficionados I'm sure, I
was quite surprised to see the
radical new "Real People" campaign on the Apple website a few days
ago. Finally, I thought, the kid gloves are off.
While "Think Different" perfectly defined the rebel, counterculture
niche Apple firmly dug itself into over the years, it's also brought
its fair share of snide jokes and criticism from the Wintel and Linux
fraternity. One button mouse? No expansion slots? Twice as expensive?
See-thru blue? That's thinking differently for ya!
And so on.
1984 may have not been like "1984," thanks to the original Macintosh, but
2002 and the years up to now certainly have been. 
Four years of Steve Jobs and Thinking
Different(ly) may have saved Apple from certain death, but for all the
innovation and amazed gasps from each new product launch, Apple's
market share is still barely a blip in an ocean of the Big Blue (and
Red, Yellow, and Green, as the case is now).
For a manufacturer, 5% probably isn't too bad, but for an entire
computing platform, the Macintosh is still gripping onto life with only
one hand.
While products like the iMac make everyone sit up and take notice,
the message isn't getting through. So the lads and lasses at Cupertino
are finally playing hardball, making sure the rest of the world knows
what we've known all along about the virtues of Macintoshing.
Undoing Years of Mac Evangelism?
Will pushing the "Computing for the rest of us" banter harder,
as Stephen Van Esch suggests, cause
PC evangelists to label us as the dunces of the computing world?
Does it matter if it does?
Hell no.
Why not? Because I don't want to work my computer; I just want to
work. And so does everyone else who's "made the switch" from beige to
snow white (or titanium or graphite), I'd guess.
As much as I enjoy fiddling around with my ever-increasing
collection of Mac antiquities, ultimately - as a designer-for-hire - I
make my living creating websites, authoring Flash movies, designing
brochures, and so on. It's the same for everyone else, I'll bet, that's
portrayed in the new campaign.
These "Real People" may or may not adore the sleek lines of their
new iBook, yet it's not about looks. It's about being able to send
email. It's about being able to surf the Web. It's about being able to
write documents, create images, listen to MP3s, and print out photos
from your digital camera.
And, as Steve Jobs keeps telling us, the best computer to do all
that is a Macintosh. Just as we've all suspected for years.
In truth, it's a matter of transparency. I consider myself to be a
fairly knowledgeable computer user, but most people aren't, and why
should they have to be? These "Real People" want to send an email, not
develop a deep understanding of POP3/SMTP networking protocols.
Printing or scanning a document should be as simple as plugging
in the device, maybe installing a driver from the CD, and selecting
"Print" or "Scan".
The computer itself is merely a tool to allow the user to create.
Any platform that imposes itself into the workflow is simply getting in
the way.
Macs aren't perfect, of course, but countless studies have proved
their users to be more productive than the other offerings. I use both
Macs and PCs, and despite my Macs being technically outdated in
comparison to my Windows box (8500/200, IIfx, and SE/30 vs. Pentium II/350), they
remain stable longer, can be rebuilt (both physically and in term of
OS) in less time, network with less fuss, and get the job done quicker
with minimal profanity and desk thumping.
And that's the core of Apple's new campaign: People who are sick of
swearing and thumping their desks. They've discovered there is an
alternative, and it's a better one.
Welcome to Macintosh.
The mentality of non-Mac users who subscribe to the notion that Macs
are for the mentally inept who can't handle a "real" computer are
simply missing the point. It goes without saying though that most of
the anti-Mac establishment are IT Supervisors, Sys Admins, and others
whose careers revolve around a world of sick, unstable PCs and Unix
boxes so cryptic their doctorates and white coats are justifiable.
When I was first presented with the concept that most anti-Mac
System Admins were simply trying to protect their jobs - as one of the
main Mac selling points is ease-of-maintenance, thus rendering them
more or less redundant - I baulked at the idea that someone could be so
petty. But the more I think about the people who have tried to remove
"that different box" from my desk in the past, the more it makes
sense.
So let the geeks have their incompatible hardware that plugs and
prays, their IRQ conflicts, their recompiling kernels, and XP's
constant nagging for all your personal secrets. It makes them happy, so
why spoil it for them?
But Real People have Real Work to do.
Share your perspective on the Mac by emailing with "My Turn" as your subject.
