Things Macintosh

Does Motorola Even Give a Damn?

2001.01.30 - Rodney O. Lain

I didn't want to hurt the man. I thought he was a very nice gentleman. Soft-spoken. I though so right up to the moment I cut his throat.
- Murderer Perry Smith, quoted by Truman Capote in In Cold Blood

Low End Mac Reader Specials

Memory To Go Special: New 2008 iMac 2GB $42 / iMac Intel Core2 DUO & MacBook Pro 2GB $36 - 1GB $20. MacPro 8 Core Memory 4GB kit $154 / 2GB kit $94 -- Free shipping available.

Download Typestyler, still the Ultimate Styling Tool for Internet, Print and Video Graphics. Works great in Classic with a Native OS X Version on the way. Free Tryout: www.typestyler.com

LA Computer Company: Specials on AppleCare, iMac's, Apple Batteries and Apple A/C Adapters. Also Great prices on Used Apple Computers. Call 1-800-941-7654 Click Here.

OWC: Mercury Elite FW800/FW400/USB2/eSATA up to 2.0TB TOP-RATED Solutions offer High Performance, Reliable storage for all your data storage needs. 500GB $159.99, 750GB $199.99, 1.0TB from $299.99

Mac users can finally play Party Poker for Mac. Not only that, they can also learn how to play PokerStars for Mac.

Laptop Hardware Provided by TechRestore - Overnight Mac & iPod Repairs.

Compare products like desktop computers, laptops, and LCD TVs side by side! All the information and reviews to make the best purchasing decision for a new cell phone GPS products or MP3 players. The Ciao network makes searching products easy for you.

New MacPro Memory 800Mhz With Apple Spec Heat Sink 2GB $88 / 4GB $138 / 8GB $274 - Click to Maximize your Macs...

I overheard an interesting conversation this weekend.

While browsing a Minneapolis computer store, I passed two young men carrying on a mildly heated exchange about Apple Computer. The first guy was one of the store's salespeople; the other was a dyed-in-the-wool Mac user. You can guess which side of the discussion was laden with more emotion.

Salesperson: "Apple does have the best computer designs on the market."

Mac user: "Are you crazy? Apple is doing great! They aren't caught up in that Megahertz mentality that has gripped the rest of the PC market. Apple is all about making great computers. Great looking computers."

As they talked over these points, I eased towards them. After talking for a while, the salesperson noticed me listening to them and asked me to thrown in my two cents. So I did.

"Don't get me wrong; I'm a big Mac user, too," I said, "but I think that Apple should give more concern to that 'Megahertz mentality' to which you alluded. After all, Apple has cared about Megahertz in the past - when it benefited them. Remember the 'Snails' commercial?"

After saying my piece, I left the Mac user standing there, wondering about what I'd just said.

You see, Apple does a marvelous job of creating lust-inducing computers, but it is falling short in the area where the company has very little control - PowerPC production.

That is Motorola's territory. You know, the guys who are probably solely responsible for Apple's repeated failure to deliver computers to market within promised time frames. By now, we've all gotten used to the fact that Apple delivers the goods; it's just that Apple is always tardy making deliveries - like the U.S. Post Office.

That is the supreme insult.

Conventional wisdom says that Motorola can't produce G4 processors in high enough quantities to meet demand (or Motorola still hasn't gotten over getting "Steved" during the short-lived Mac-clone period). Meanwhile, Intel and AMD are cranking out their respective computer chips like the proverbial pancakes.

There is a simple solution to Apple's dilemma: advertise.

Apple needs to market and advertise its line of computers as never before. The "Think Different" campaign is a good rallying cry, but the next phase (which I argue hasn't even begun yet) should have commenced long ago. To date, there have been little or no advertisements spelling out why and how a Macintosh is better than PC alternatives. Everything has been subjective at best. (Steve's kids are cute, but not that cute.)

I say this, "knowing" that Apple has a good reason for not producing more "hard-hitting" ads and marketing campaigns: OS X hasn't shipped yet. Apple has slowly metamorphosed its whole product line. Shipping computers with OS X preinstalled is the last piece in the company's comeback puzzle.

Mark my words. When Apple computers are shipping with OS X preinstalled, expect an advertising blitz like none the company has done before.

It makes all the sense in the world. The Macintosh line still has a "legacy" operating system that isn't attractive to the enterprise sector. More specifically, the Macintosh still doesn't have a OS around which to market the hardware.

Mark my words. That is why Apple hasn't proactively sought to grow market share. Mark my words. OS X is the fulcrum, the lynchpin, the final piece of the puzzle.

This summer is when Apple begins advertising in earnest. Subsequently, market share will grow. Only then will Motorola have stronger dollar-and-sense incentive to put more manpower behind PowerPC production and development.

Lord knows Apple needs it.

Until Apple has OS X equipped computers to market with smart-and-edgy advertising (sorry, Jeff Goldblum, but you don't move me), Motorola will continue to give less than a damn about the Mac market and whether or not the PowerPC fares well against the Intels and AMDs of the world. LEM

Rodney O. Lain called himself a fashion victim: He liked wearing socks with his sandals. When he wasn't dispensing fashion advice, Rodney wrote for Low End Mac, The Mac Observer, Applelinks, and many other websites. Rodney lived in Minnesota. His site was iBrotha.com, and we have collected as much of his writing that has disappeared from the Web as possible in The Rodney O. Lain Archive.

The most widely read Things Macintosh columns

  1. Apple is a company, 10/4/1999
  2. The main difference between Steve Jobs and Bill Gates, 1/17/2000
  3. The $600 iMac, 12/24/1999
  4. Apple will rule the computer world, 11/17/1999
  5. I'm not paying $20 for my OS X upgrade, 2001.07.25.
  6. A Mac is like Prozac, 10/13/1999
  7. I'm a drop the funk bomb on ya: Milking the Macintosh for all it's worth, 2001.03.20.
  8. More links and links to memorial articles in the Things Macintosh index.

Recent Content on Low End Mac

Latest Deals on Low End Mac

About LEM | Support | Usage | Privacy | Contacts

Entire Low End Mac website copyright ©1997-2008 by Cobweb Publishing, Inc., unless otherwise noted. All rights reserved. Advice presented in good faith, but what works for one may not work for all. Please report errors to .
  LINKS: We allow and encourage links to any public page as long as the linked page does not appear within a frame that prevents bookmarking it.
  Access our RSS news feed at http://lowendmac.com/feed.xml.
  Email may be published at our discretion; email addresses will not be published without permission, and we will encrypt them in hopes of avoiding spammers. If you prefer your message not be published, mark it "not for publication." Letters may be edited for length, context, and to match house style.
  PRIVACY: We don't collect personal information unless you explicitly provide it. For more details, see our Terms of Use.
  Low End Mac is an independent publication and has not been authorized, sponsored, or otherwise approved by Apple Inc. Apple, the Apple logo, Macintosh, iBook, iMac, eMac, iPod, PowerBook, MacBook, Mac Pro, Apple TV, and AirPort are registered trademarks of Apple Inc. Additional company and product names may be trademarks or registered trademarks and are hereby acknowledged.


Have a question?
Ask an expert!

Navigation

Used Mac Dealers
Apple History
Best Used Macs
Video Cards
Email Lists
InfoMac's Low
End Mac Forum

Favorite Sites

MacSurfer
MacMinute
MacInTouch
MyAppleMenu
InfoMac
Macs Only!
The Mac Observer
Accelerate Your Mac
RetroMacCast
PB Central
MacWindows
The Vintage Mac
   Museum
DealMac
DealsOnTheWeb
Mac2Sell
ramseeker
Mac Driver Museum
JAG's House
System 6 Heaven
System 7 Today
the pickle's Low-End
   Mac FAQ
Abandonware
   Petition
Mac vs. PC Info

Affiliates

The Apple Store
Mac Connection
MacMall
TechRestore
MacResQ
ExperCom
Crucial Memory
batteries.com

Advertise

All of our advertising is handled by BackBeat Media. For price quotes and advertising information, please contact at BackBeat Media (646-546-5194). This number is for advertising only.

Open Link

Problems viewing this page with Internet Explorer 5.5 or 6? It works fine in other browsers, including IE 7. We recommend Firefox for those using Windows, as it is standards based and more secure than IE 6 (and earlier). More LEM visitors use Firefox than any other browser.