Do Macs exist?

If a Mac article falls in a forest of Windows articles, does it make a sound?

I continually read how well Macs are doing, halo affect and all. But I hang around Apple news sites, like MDN, MacNewsWorld, MacMinute, MacRumors, iPodLounge, Apple etc. Get the picture?  And even though those sites are sometimes quoting from Windows related sites, I’m getting a distorted view of the world - to me every second article in the world seems to be trumpeting the success of the Mac. Yet I doubt that the Windows sites are talking that much about Macs.

So I can’t help but wonder: “Do Macs exist at all in the minds of most people?” If Apple stopped making Macs tomorrow, who would notice? What non-Mac owners would notice? I suspect that 95% of the population wouldn’t notice - or even care. Especially those in the corporate world who probably account for 75% of Microsoft’s marketshare.

If you went to a non-Mac, non-techie person tomorrow and said “Hey, did you hear Apple are getting out of the computer business?” What do you think they’d say? Probably “Whatever” Although they’d probably hasten to add “But are they still going to make iPods?”. Why don’t you try it. See how many non-Mac, non-techie people you can find who’d care whether Apple keep making computers. But try telling them that from tomorrow they won’t be able to get Windows anymore. That would get a reaction.

You and I - and even the media and Windows techies - know how important Apple has been and continues to be to the computer industry. But to the rest of the population, I suspect Macs are largely invisible.

The Media - King Maker
The media made Linux - and continues to. They continually talk it up despite the fact for many years it has not been average-user-ready. As far as Macs go though, the PC press occassionally writes some nice patronizing story about how Macs are better - but do they ever tell you to buy one? Really tell you. I mean really tell you.

Case-in-point. A shootout of multimedia laptops in an PC Authority, an Australian PC magazine. They included the token Apple in their review - in this case, a 17” Powerbook. To summarize their conclusion, they said that although the Powerbook was a fantastic machine, you would have to weigh that up against the price tag and whether you needed a Windows machine. See, a couple of backhanders in there to discourage you. And “price tag”!! The winner of this shootout was $200AUD dearer than the Powerbook, and the only other recommended buy, some $700AUD dearer!! As I say, they don’t really mean it when they suggest you buy a Mac.

The PC media are not very politically correct. To them, it appears a PC is a personal computer running an x86 processor - and mostly Windows at that. It will be interesting to see if next year they finally welcome Macs into the fold.

Certainly the Macintel announcement has stireed up a little dust, with PC Authority devoting a WHOLE page to it in their news section. They also provided a small OS X vs Win XP compro - which they concluded was a draw. Further on they have a “pullout” on the Intel announcement in an article on BIOSes.

If I only hung around the PC media, the Mac appears to be a quaint footnote. There are articles about the Mac’s success but they’re buried in there, lost in the forest of articles about Windows - where they can’t be heard.

Are Macs really surfing a wave that’s gunna wipe out Windows? Or are they just paddling along in their own little pond?

Are we in the Mac world, getting a distorted view of reality? Are we believing our own publicity?