The cult of mac (post #1)

Lets talk about the mac for a minute. I myself am a mac fanatic. I love all apple products. They have an appeal to me that winpc’s do not. I have never really been able toput my finger on why I enjoy Apple products so much. Infact, I have spent many a night wondering what it is about these alustrious machines that keeps me coming back. And it seems I’m not teh only one either. Over 25 million people use macs and the number is growing everyday. People that use macs dont seem to be just casual computer users. They become fans. It seems people develope a passion for there Mac, which according to some, can become an obsession. Macs fans loyalty is cliche. We are referred to as “Apple Faithful”, “Mac  Zealots”, “Mac Addicts”, “Maccies”, and “Macolytes”.  People even go as far as comparing teh Macworld Expo close to a religious experience, with Steve Jbs being the cult leader.We are teh bigggest subculture in teh computing industry. Macs users are more loyal, more dedicated, than users of any other platform, even Linux. Linux users are switching to Mac thanks to OS X being Unix based. You tell me what other computer brand inspires people to get tattoos. So lets get back to the origonal question. What makes us mac users so loyal? It kinda depends on who you talking to. People in marketing say its the brand name people love. Doctors say its the social relationship within the community. The closesness of the group. And Apple loyalists say its the merits of the machine. Ease of user and simplicity.But a few things are common. Community, something besides Microsoft, and the brand, which promotes creativeness and culture. We are not merely a threw together group of people who happen to use the same computer. We represent a subculture with rituals, traditions and mindset. If you look at somebody in a Mall in some mid west town and they are carrying a mac, or see them wearing an Apple t-shirt, you have an instant buddy of sorts. So portraying Mac people as Zealots is only a way to minimize the fact that the Mac is a more advanced system,. Looking at the software and hardware, one sees that people are dedicated to the Mac because it just works like Apple says it does. But f you ask advertisers wy the Mac users are so loyal they will all tell you it Apples brand. Steve Jobs spent $100 million in advertising for the iMac. and they continue to spend lots of money to advertise. Apple has even been given brand of the year in 2001. Some believe its brand is its key to survival. Brands have developed deep lasting bonds with customers. Not just Apple. In the early 60’s, when street racing was at its height, fist fights were common if something as small as a brand of muffler was disrespected. So this loyalty is clearly not only happening with Apple. Apple projects a humanistic approach to coperate culture and also has a strong corperate ethic, characterized by vounteerism, support of goodcauses, and involvement in the community. And Apple has built trust with its customers. And its not windows.The most common subject brung up among Mac users is the pure hate of the windows platform. And we will discuss all this in future blogs. This is only my first one and I think I can keep up with this a lot better than my ustream, which i will post the specific times i will be ustreaming here in my blog.  Anyway, Is Apple selling a brand or a product? to me, it’s both. You cant have one without the other. Thats whats makes Apple so great. We have a relationship not only with there brand but with there products.  Apple represents freedom and creativity. Microsoft represents Comformity and monogomy. Also, we have Mr. Steve Jobs. Jobs is the charismatic face behind Apple. He has sex appeal for his age and is a master showman. There is no one in American Business that can hold an audience like Jobs. He’s said to be a visionary. Which I believe he is. He can see what people want or don’t need, even if they don’t know it yet. Back in the day there was a huge debate about the iMac lacking a floppy drive, which was then standard equipment on pc’s.  Jobs right away saw that floppy drives were anachronistic. gates can not capture the public eye like Jobs either. Whatever the reason. We will continue to wonder. Do you have any good reason why we mac users are so loyal?