Computing shouldn't be a commodity
Jul 27 '01
The Bottom Line Apple is the last computer company that cares that users make the most of their computers after they take it home. They care that you can do amazing stuff easily.
Many of the pro-mac and pro-PC opinions here squabble endlessly about processor performance and specifications, but very few of them strike at the heart of why I believe Macintosh is a unique and wonderful platform as well as a great computing solution. People can talk all they want about Megahertz and megabytes and how one computer is faster than another, but to the majority of computer users and potential computer users, specifications like Mhz, MB, GB, and others are meaningless. They are just a bunch of esoteric computer-geek terms that, for all the wrong reasons, sell computers.
A lot of people come to me and ask me why I support Macs, computers that *seem* to be less of a machine in terms of Megahertz and price on paper. What I believe makes the Mac very special and appealing goes way beyond the technical specifications of the machines. You can’t capture the Mac’s usefulness and sprit, for lack of a better word, in Megabytes and megahertz ratings. I hope that in this Epinion, I give all that read this an idea of the spirit of Apple and the many solutions that can enhance everyday life that the Macintosh represents.
Solutions
The great difference in Apple’s computing philosophy and those of other PC makers like Dell, Gateway, and Compaq is that Apple’s competitors have succeeded in recent years of turning the computer into a commodity, but Apple has refused to do so. I’ll explain what I mean.
Though there is an elite group of well-educated, highly skilled computer users out there, the average computer user has limited knowledge about computing, and the new or prospective new user probably has no knowledge to begin with. The big PC makers such as Dell have the uninformed lining up like lemmings to buy their machines mindlessly. Dell, Compaq, and Gateway do not focus on what you actually do with the computer. All they really need to do is emphasize specifications and price and people will buy it because everyone else is buying IBM compatible and they want in. Computers are nothing more than a commodity to Dell. They sell the machine to people and they make a buck and that’s where it ends for them.
So what is the result? Even if the sales representative did a good job of explaining the significance of Megahertz, Gigahertz, and Gigabytes, the buyer is still probably clueless about what the machine actually does. New buyers take home machines and they don’t have a clue what half of the functionality of it is. They have a hard time setting up the machines, getting them to work, and eventually using the machines. When they do get the machines up and running, they almost never make the most out of them; this is why Solitaire is the #1 Windows productivity (hah!) application run today.
Apple takes a much different approach than any of the other PC makers out there, and their approach makes all of the other PC makers look the same. Apple does not have the option of simply listing the specifications of their new machines and their rock bottom prices and expecting them to sell. Instead, Apple must sell their computers as solutions. For example: iMovie. iMovie allows the Mac to make great movies from your own footage. Another Apple solution, iDVD, lets you make and burn your own DVDs from those movies. And last but not least, iTunes, Apple’s music solution, lets you manage your own music collection and burn your own custom audio CDs.
To understand the Mac as a solutions computer and Apple’s commitment to solutions, we have to break down the parts of a solution:
1) Hardware-
Firewire ports, necessary to import video, are stanard on every Mac. CD-RW, necessary to burn your own audio CDs, are also standard on virtually every Mac. The Superdrive (DVD-R) is on the Mac as well.
On PCs, this hardware is spotty. Firewire ports, though they’re growing in number, are still scarce among PCs. CD-RWs are on most machines but not all. DVD-R is still very rare on PCs. On PCs, however, if the hardware is missing, the user can add the hardware themselves, but for a new user, adding new hardware, especially internally, is a scary task.
2) Software
On the Mac, the software you’d need to make movies, manage your music, and make DVDs (iMovie, iTunes, and iDVD, respectively) are all installed on the machines. Not only are they standard, but all three of them are heavily acclaimed by the press for their ease of use and power. Everyone from CNET.com, to the New York Times, to the Houston Chronicle have praised Apple on iMovie, iTunes, and iDVD. The consensus among the computing press and users has been that those three apps are the best consumer applications for those tasks. Apple designed all of the “i” software with the average person in mind instead of the hardcore computer geek. Apple’s software skill lies in its ability to integrate powerful features like the intricacies of editing video and making DVD menus into fun, easy to use applications.
On the PC side, again, the software is a spotty issue. Many PCs lack software that can be used to complete the solution and take advantage of the hardware (if it’s there, of course). If it does come with software, they rarely ever match the ease and power found in Apple’s. Once again, if the necessary software isn’t installed on the PC, it can be added later by the user, but, as I’ll explain, the user may never get that far.
3) Marketing
Finally, the MOST important part of the solution is marketing. What good is the hardware and the software if the user does not even know that his computer is capable of doing these great things?
Apple markets the solution almost more than it markets the actual machines. Their television commercials are a testament to this. Their iMovie ads show real iMovies made by a real person of their family. Their iTunes commercial, titled “Rip, Mix, Burn” shows an average kid chatting with famous musicians on stage about a CD he wants to compile. The point being how its easy to make your own custom audio CDs on a Mac. In “Elope,” Apple’s iDVD commercial, a guy sends a big surprise to his parents with a DVD that he made on his Mac of his impromptu wedding.
In addition, the element of marketing extends right to the display and demo machines at your local computer store. When you walk into the Apple section, you will see a digital camcorder hooked up to a Mac running iMovie, showing the customer the ability to edit movies. The signs on the display don’t just advertise the speed of the machine and the rest of the specifications; they advertise iTunes and the ability to make audio CDs. They advertise iDVD and the ability to make DVDs.
Apple has recently opened their own line of retail stores across the country, and they differ from most computer stores and the failing Gateway Country stores in one important way. Apple doesn’t use the entire store just to showcase their products. Instead, they show their products connected to digital camcorders, digital cameras, and burning audio CDs and DVDs. A full half of the Apple stores are devoted to solutions instead of just computers on display. Apple goes to great efforts to make sure that everyone who walks in knows about the cool stuff the Mac can do.
What about PCs? Very few of them market their machines at all in the areas of digital solutions that Apple does, and no one does it as well as Apple does. Like I said before, it is more cost effective for these computer companies to treat their computers as a commodity and just sell them on the merit of the numbers. Dell, Compaq, and Gateway will have huge market shares even if consumers don’t understand the first thing about their computers and are completely unaware of some of its features. I’ve talked to many new users who’ve had their PCs for months and haven’t figured out how to use the CD-RW or why they spent the extra money on that feature. They simply weren’t informed when they bought the computer what uses the computers could be put to.
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So how does Apple do altogether? Every aspect of creating a solution is dealt with under Apple’s management. Hardware, Software, and Marketing are all handled by Apple. They are the last vertically oriented computer maker on the market, and this puts Apple in a powerful position. They have the power to make sure everything works with everything else and works well. Because they create the entire widget, they create a complete, thorough, and good user experience.
On the PC, as you can see, its not as clean. More than a half dozen different companies create the components and software required to complete the task of burning a DVD, lets say on a PC, but to none of those companies is your specific task a priority. In addition, most of those components and software just sit there doing nothing anyway because none of these PC makers come close to marketing as Apple does.
Can it still be done on a PC?
The solutions that I talk about… making custom audio CDs, making movies, and making DVDs… can they still be done on a PC? Of course! Let me make this clear. All of those solutions do exist on the PC side as well. It is just as possible to do all of those things on a PC as well as a Mac, and for users of intermediate to high skill levels, setting up your current machine to do things like that is not a challenge. However, we are in an age where the average Joe wants to join the revolution, and when you start talking about the technical aspect of it all, the average Joe is easily frustrated and confused.
Lets take Compaq as an example. Compaq also sells the exact same Superdrive (DVD-R/CD-RW) as Apple does in a few of their Presarios. However, did Compaq design the motherboard that goes into that machine? No. Did Compaq create the Operating System that runs on that machine? No. That is Microsoft branded. What about the all-important software that makes it possible to author DVDs? Compaq did not write that either. In fact, all Compaq really did was design a case (a really ugly one to boot) and bring together components from a half dozen other companies. 6 different companies create the components and software required to complete the task of burning a DVD on a PC, but to none of those companies is your specific task a priority. The result: there are many hassles along the way and ease of use is sacrificed just so the whole hodgepodge can work together.
On a Mac, the task is easier. Apple designed the computer you are working on from the ground up. Apple wrote the operating system that you boot up to, and most importantly, they wrote the easy to use software, iDVD, that allows you to compile a DVD. On a Mac, it just integrates cleaner.
Conclusion
Everyone knows that Macs are more expensive to buy than the equivalent PC. It’s almost always been that way. In fact, the time when many Macs were actually cheaper than the equivalent PC was when I was really scared for Apple and thought they were closest to actually going out of business. During those dark times in the mid 90s, Apple lost its fundamental vision for a while and became just another PC maker. However, Apple has regained its vision and has once again become unique. They focus now on solutions that enriches our lives and finding technologies that will make those solutions possible.
Apple has just a measly 5% market share, but then again, in the Automobile industry, BMW and Mercedes-Benz combined have less than 5% of the auto market. Beemers and Benzes are priced higher than other cars, just like how Macs are priced higher than PCs. BMW and Mercedes-Benz put an enormous amount of craftsmanship into their machines, all to create a better driving experience. In the same way, Apple puts an enormous amount of craftsmanship into their Macs, and their software all to create a more complete and worthwhile user experience. That is where the premium for buying Mac goes.
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Epinions.com ID:
iBen
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Location: Marlborough, MA
Reviews written: 19
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