Can’t we all just get along here?

Steve Jobs and Bill Gates achieved a sort of truce seven years ago, with Microsoft agreeing to continue to support the Macintosh platform and even investing in Apple. If they can bury the hatchet someplace other than in each other’s backs, it probably is time for Windows and Macintosh users to stop sniping at each other.

Now, mind you I cannot claim to be blameless here. It does amuse me to tell Mac partisans: “hey it’s just a box, not a cult.” But, then, I’ve also had to listen to an Apple tech expert get entirely too much pleasure in working with me on network setup, “yeah, I suppose it can be hard – if you try to do it the way you do in Windows. However, if you use the Mac approach…”

With MacWorld having returned to Boston after a seven-year absence, I thought this summer might be an opportune time to renew acquaintances with the Macintosh. So with the help of Apple and a slew of software and accessory vendors, I recently took a look at the state of the art for the Mac. Some of what I found:
 

• It may be a Windows world, but the Mac fits into it deftly, and in a great many circumstances a Macintosh may be a good choice for you. To find out more, click here.

• When you are looking for software for a Mac, your starting point is with the same folks who made your computer, Apple.

• Apple aficionados may think of Microsoft as the evil empire, but Redmond is, in fact, a major contributor to the Mac’s continued viability. For more on that, click here.

• The fierce loyalty of Mac users is matched by the pride Mac vendors have in their wares. When I set out on this exploration, I reached out to a long list of companies seeking to test their products and almost all agreed to help. (And to all those PR people who want to know why they haven’t seen anything yet, it’s because I just now am catching up.)

• Equally enthusiastic are the independent Apple dealers, who have formed an alliance called “Apple Specialists” and eagerly promote the product – notwithstanding the fact that they have to compete against Apple’s own stores. The Apple Specialists were pretty much responsible for salvaging MacWorld Boston after Apple itself boycotted it.

• For the purposes of this project, I divided the software world into those products that are “Familiar Names” – prominent on both the Windows and Mac platform – and those that fall into the category of “Mac Think,” products that, while not necessarily unique to the Mac, reflect the unique sensibilities of Mac users.

• I also devoted some attention to Mac utilities and add-ons, plus software that fills a crucial gap in the Mac OS. Plus, I took note of how Apple, just like Microsoft, is not averse to swiping ideas from developers.

• There is useful hardware will complement the Mac-Windows experience; for a few examples, click here.

This is a crossroads time for Apple. Their latest financial results are good, reflecting the strength of the iPod and online music sales, segments in which they are the market leader, but also showing increased sales of Macintoshes. Certainly the rash of hacking attacks and other security woes afflicting Windows should be making consumers consider alternative technologies.

Plus, there is the great irony that, had we all known back in the ’90s when we decided that “IBM compatible” PCs were the way to go what computing would look like now, more of us might have gone down the Macintosh path. One of the decisive elements in the PC’s success was that it had the strongest set of business software – notably, the Lotus 1-2-3 spreadsheet, the WordPerfect word processor, and Harvard Graphics presentation software. Mac, meanwhile, was saddled with those also-ran apps – Microsoft Excel, Word, and PowerPoint. And now…

Moreover, the graphics and multimedia capabilities of the Mac –frivolous luxuries a decade ago – now are core computing functions. If you have a digital camera or digital video recorder or digital music player, you want a personal computer that works well with them.

The great Macintosh conundrum remains that because Apple, and only Apple, makes Macs, it can exert greater control over what goes inside the box, both in terms of hardware and software, thereby making for a more integrated platform than Windows. But because Apple, and only Apple, makes Macs, the supply of Macintosh computers always will be constrained.

The harsh fact is that the Mac’s market share of personal computing continues to hang below 5 percent, and that is a figure that can lead ultimately to irrelevance. Apple and its CEO Steve Jobs have a reputation for showmanship and salesmanship, but Macintosh sales and marketing still leaves something to be desired.

It is foolhardy to forecast the long-term future of any technology. For all we know, personal computing as it now
exists may be replaced by something completely different.
Short-term, Apple is making money on Macs so it will most
certainly keep making Macs. The Macintosh may have been reduced to a niche product, but niches can be profitable: BMW had a nice income stream from the U.S. market last year although its market share was only 1.6 percent.

So let’s focus for now on what a user can buy now, and that means Macintoshes as well Windows PCs. Accordingly, the object of these articles is to take a look at the Macintosh world from perspective of someone looking at alternatives to Windows.

All of the coverage here assumes an environment that involves a mix of Macs and Windows PC – at the very least a need to share documents with Windows users, but also working in a mixed platform network. In fact, a mix of Mac and Windows machines often can be a more productive setup than relying exclusively on one or the other.

So think of this as a guide as to why to get along with others, you don’t necessarily have to go along with the crowd.

(c) 2004 Al Gordon; Photos Courtesy of Apple Computer, Inc.

In addition to his computer interests, Al Gordon is a principal in the Boston-area strategic consulting firm, Mary Fifield Associates, www.maryfifieldassociates.com

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You can reach Al Gordon at:

al@tnpcnewsletter.com