Beneath the Mac

Apple adherents consider themselves to be hip, alternative and special. The reality is quite the reverse

In Apple’s series of web-based Mac advertisements, the PC is characterized by an unattractive, speccy, middle-aged accountant in a grey suit. Next to him stands the supposed anthropomorphic personification of the Mac: a post-grunge, attractive, twenty-something guy in designer jeans. The accountant talks about how PCs are good for business and spreadsheets; the Mac guy then talks about how cool Macs are, because they’re made for the home. And... well, they’re just cool, okay?

And this is the secret of Apple’s success: marketing the Mac to people who think that a different computer will make them appear more interesting to the opposite sex. Or the same sex. Thanks to this vapid yet somehow seductive way of tying of their product to an image, Apple has generated quite remarkable consumer loyalty.

Image dealt with, Apple propagates a series of myths about its computers that do not stand up to real-world experience.

Exhibit A: Apple says Macs never crash. This writer has discovered this claim to be untrue on at least three occasions. Macs lock up too, in much the same way as a PC. Apple’s India website now runs on Linux Redhat instead of Apple’s own operating system, thanks to incessant crashes.

Then, when you’ve rebooted your Mac, you discover that it is impossible to trace the source of the crash – unlike on a PC.

Then there’s the compatibility aspect. Despite the new generation of Mac/PC compatible software, anyone who’s tried editing PC-formatted Office files on a Mac will tell you that it’s never plain sailing. Besides which, getting a Mac in order to run a sub-standard version of PC software seems a thoroughly pointless exercise.

This links into another clever facet of Apple’s grand strategy: the tactic of enforced loyalty. A Mac, says Apple, comes with all the software you need to get started, like iLife, a multimedia platform. But iLife is, at best, an average piece of software. Apple users think they’re getting the best, and settle for it. After all, it comes with the machine, so why grumble?

But the reality is that PC users have a raft of more advanced software to choose from, which they can mix and match to their taste. Apple’s iLife resembles a quick fix: a consumer snare just good enough to engage a customer, and hike those sales figures skyward.  

Another of Apple’s claims is that its machine is perfectly attuned the internet. Once again, Apple seems happy to ignore the fact that even Windows has included automatic web compatibility for years. And as far as networks go, the Mac website clearly states that, “networking on a Mac is built on the same technologies used by PCs.” This is to say that Apple couldn’t come up with anything better, so it just used what PC developers built in the first place.

Then there is the hardware. On the Mac website, a series of rhetorical questions is asked of PC users. For example: “can you put the system to sleep just by closing the lid?”, and, “can your PC laptop automatically switch between Ethernet, dial-up and wireless connections on the fly?” Yes, and yes. Proceeding down the list of questions, one realizes that a PC laptop is easily capable of doing everything a Mac does – just without the hype.

It is hard to credit that Apple seems unaware of the capabilities of its competitors, but in many ways, this attitude encapsulates the Mac philosophy: If you believe it’s better than a PC, it must be. Oh, and by the way, it looks cute.

Then there’s the most negative argument of all: The Mac is not a PC! Consumers are asked to buy the product because of what it isn’t. After all, Microsoft is evil, isn’t it? You wouldn’t want to put money into the pocket of Bill Gates, the world’s biggest charity donor. If you buy Apple, you are instead putting money in the pocket of Steve Jobs. And according to the Giving USA Foundation and Indiana University’s Centre on Philanthropy, Jobs doesn’t even appear on the charitable contributions list, despite being worth $3.7 billion dollars - partly thanks to Disney’s recent takeover of Pixar, which Jobs founded.

Of course, Jobs might be giving to charity anonymously. But Gates has used his profile to further enhance public awareness of the charities he supports, effectively extending their reach and positive impact.

The truth is that anyone who buys Apple for ethical reasons is ignoring the fact that Apple is, like Microsoft, a nefarious megacorporation intent on one thing: maximizing shareholder value. And Apple’s share performance shows that, in this regard, the company has trounced Microsoft roundly. Shares in Apple have seen returns of more than 120 percent over a five year period, compared to returns of minus one percent for Microsoft. No corporation sees these sorts of returns without the most rapacious corporate strategy possible.

But to buy into the brand image, you’d think that Apple executives spend their time saving baby seals whenever they’re not snowboarding. The illusion that Apple has worked so hard to foster has proved a success. Apple users buy into that illusion, lock, stock and barrel, dutifully repeating everything they are told about their celebrated white box.

So look at those Mac ads once more, and you might find that the lardy PC fellow bears more than a passing resemblance to Steve Jobs. And if a Mac were to be personified truthfully, surely its human form would be that of a rebellious teenage girl: she wants to be different, but in reality she’s just fitting in. She claims to be rejecting consumer culture, but she’s modelled herself on what she’s seen on TV. Above all, she thinks she’s saying something new, when behind it all is a boardroom of executives who look like… the PC guy.