More and more people switching ... can Apple see the trend ?
Well, Apple managed to sell more notebooks than in previous quarters - which is not such a great achievement since for the last 1-2 years Apple notebooks were quite pathetic (and so were the sales), 'culminating' with the end of 2005 when everybody knew the PowerPC Apple route was a dead end - so the only reason why somebody would buy an iBook or PowerBook was to just have a relict of some old times :)
Far more interesting is the "switching trend" - my feeling is that most of the buying was done by die-hard MacZealots or eventually newcomers dumb enough or rich enough to buy for the feel-good sentiment of being different / special - the same way some people feel special for buying a 5000$ Rolex "since their time is invaluable" ... but obviously forgetting that a 75$ solar GShock will be 100 times more accurate than the "Rolex Superlative Chronometer", last longer and survive far tougher conditions :)
Anyway, in spite of the huge effort Apple was doing to encourage switching platforms the most interesting (and important) defections were NOT towards OSX but instead the other way around - this year probably the first of the major ones was Mark Pilgrim, then Cory Doctorow and so far the latest seems to be Bryan O'Bryan - and the most interesting part is that following the links will provide some clues on the reasons behind those dramatic changes for people that in the past were so major disciples of the Apple monopoly !
It is not without merit to note that ALL those top-line defections were from OSX towards Linux - which is a very clear sign that the most important thing for those (rather experienced) people was now the OPENNESS (or lack thereof) of the platform (and of their own personal data) - just another confirmation that Apple would have been a far worse monopolist than M$ if they haven't failed so pathetic :) Next to that there were also the problems with the zealots and generally the fact that the entire platform is to be entirely controlled (especially any form of profits) by just one player - Apple itself!
Apple might still have a shot with their media monopoly - but that chance is getting smaller and smaller and my own feeling is that Apple is going the same route as Sony - more and more failures and a final survival based only on a very small group of rich zealots milked for their money in exchange for the pathetic "feeling different" reward ...
Far more interesting is the "switching trend" - my feeling is that most of the buying was done by die-hard MacZealots or eventually newcomers dumb enough or rich enough to buy for the feel-good sentiment of being different / special - the same way some people feel special for buying a 5000$ Rolex "since their time is invaluable" ... but obviously forgetting that a 75$ solar GShock will be 100 times more accurate than the "Rolex Superlative Chronometer", last longer and survive far tougher conditions :)
Anyway, in spite of the huge effort Apple was doing to encourage switching platforms the most interesting (and important) defections were NOT towards OSX but instead the other way around - this year probably the first of the major ones was Mark Pilgrim, then Cory Doctorow and so far the latest seems to be Bryan O'Bryan - and the most interesting part is that following the links will provide some clues on the reasons behind those dramatic changes for people that in the past were so major disciples of the Apple monopoly !
It is not without merit to note that ALL those top-line defections were from OSX towards Linux - which is a very clear sign that the most important thing for those (rather experienced) people was now the OPENNESS (or lack thereof) of the platform (and of their own personal data) - just another confirmation that Apple would have been a far worse monopolist than M$ if they haven't failed so pathetic :) Next to that there were also the problems with the zealots and generally the fact that the entire platform is to be entirely controlled (especially any form of profits) by just one player - Apple itself!
Apple might still have a shot with their media monopoly - but that chance is getting smaller and smaller and my own feeling is that Apple is going the same route as Sony - more and more failures and a final survival based only on a very small group of rich zealots milked for their money in exchange for the pathetic "feeling different" reward ...
posted by cool_stuff_or_not at 08:13
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