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The fact that Apple is out of trouble is really, really old
news. The profits have been rolling in fairly consistently and have
put Apple solidly in the black and on the road to long-term
financial stability.
The problem now, as always, is maintaining and increasing market
share. Apple has made a valiant effort in this area, mining the
Apple difference with their "Think Different" campaign. Apple and
Mac users have always been different, and Apple's marketing
strategy reflects this.
The problem is that in the new technological world, Apple's
differences are slowly being blurred and, in some cases eliminated.
The Mac OS is becoming just another operating system alongside
Windows and Unix.
The great equalizer, the Internet, has a lot to do with this. As
with roads, as long as your car doesn't exceed the lane width set
by the standards authority and meets various government
regulations, you're good to go.
Microsoft has also helped the cause by releasing Office suites
that allow Windows Office users to deal with Mac Office users
without even being aware of the difference. Compatibility is much
less of an issue than it was some years ago. This, in turn, has
alleviated some of the fears of new users.
All of this interoperability has made the OS and platform a much
less important part of modern computing. Use what you want;
everyone can more or less get along.
Because of this, the Mac is less special than it once was. Is
this a good thing? There's no doubt that being singled out for
special treatment in the media is both a good and bad thing. Apple
had plenty of the bad before Job's return - and plenty of good
after that.
Now, though, Apple seems to be blending into the landscape a
little more. I'm not sure some hard core Mac fans can take the
"ordinariness" that is creeping up on the Mac platform. The recent
anger regarding the lack of a new technology or machines expressed
at Macworld is likely a manifestation of this. Without new and
fantastic looking products to prove they are different, some Mac
lovers are at risk of losing a unique computing identity. This
thought probably disturbs them.
Others, however, may look at the newfound "ordinariness" of the
Mac as a blessing, if only because Mac users will no longer be
treated like second-class computer users.
Of course, there is plenty more work to be done. While Macs may
be integrating more and more into the mainstream, they still don't
register on the radar of most computer users out there. Mac users
are still treated like second-class citizens in many places (though
that will no doubt change as OS X earns more users).
Eventually, though, a very real piece of a Mac lover's identity,
their "unique" computing platform, will become less and less
unique. How you handle this is up to you.
Stephen Van
Esch is the founder and president of
the
E-learning Foundry, an online training
resource for Mac users. Steve loves the Mac and is doubly bilingual,
since he's also fluent in Windows and French.
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