Which one looks more ready to do business? This water-cooled stainless steel design,
or this plastic colored monstrosity?
Posted on 01/26/2005 5:22:19 PM PST by Vermonter
Limbaugh could sell new Mac
This week, Apple Computer is launching a campaign to sell a new product, the $499 Mac Mini, that portends to transform the world in a way the original Mac didn’t. But Republicans will be needed for the campaign to succeed.
To put this in context, you need to read Revolution in the Valley, Andy Hertzfeld’s new book about the making of the original Mac in the 1980s. Hertzfeld points out that the initial target price for the first Mac was $500. But by the time it was launched in 1984, the price had ballooned to $2,495.
Many of the Mac’s creators felt betrayed. All initial design goals had centered on Everyman, but instead of a computer that changed the world, the Mac became a niche machine mainly for artisans and limousine liberals who could afford one. The rest of us bought commodity PCs. Fewer than one in 20 computers sold or used today to cruise the Internet is a Mac.
The Mac Mini could rectify this. But will it? Will a low price tag and terrific design alone entice a mass market to buy this new product? I’m not so sure. Apple’s image may still be an impediment to Mac sales.
To research this column, I read lots of discussion boards all across the Internet, and it’s evident that politics still play a role in computer purchases. Just as there are red states and blue states, there are also Mac Democrats and PC Republicans. These battles were especially nasty after Apple went public with its politics and added Al Gore to its board of directors.
Apple’s leader, Steve Jobs, seems to have sensed last year that his company was getting too “political.” He backed off some of his campaigning for John Kerry and cryptically signaled to The Wall Street Journal’s Walt Mossberg in an interview that he understands the problem.
“People have said that I shouldn’t get involved politically because probably half our customers are Republicans — maybe a little less ... [but] I do point out that there are more Democrats than Mac users so I’m going to just stay away from all that political stuff because that was just a personal thing,” Jobs said.
There are, in fact, devoted Republican Macintosh users, but that is not the perception. So Apple desperately needs to introduce a replacement image to achieve the original Mac’s vision. There would be no better way to do this than to add a Republican or two to Apple’s board of directors. Mac users such as Karl Rove or Arnold Schwarzenegger adviser Mike Murphy would be possibilities, but Rush Limbaugh is the most obvious choice. Rush is an ardent Mac evangelist and knows a thing or two about marketing. Even if Limbaugh is not put on Apple’s board, the company should market through his daily radio program, paying Rush to tout his favorite computer the same way he builds mattress sales for Select Comfort.
Hertzfeld’s book says the team that created the original Mac had a spirit of “urgency, ambition, passion for excellence, artistic pride, and irreverent humor.” That sounds just like Rush Limbaugh to me. I know that if Rush had been a board member in 1984, he’d have had the guts to back the famous Big Brother Super Bowl ad that Apple’s then-timorous board abandoned.
Apple marketers also need to understand that restoration of their brand’s image in conservative and Republican circles can resonate with various factions of the party. I have already read favorable gun-owner comments about the Mac Mini on the discussion boards of Ted Nugent’s populist United Sportsmen of America website. James Dobson and his Focus on the Family might be intrigued by a computer that is affordable for young families and not subject to porno pop-up ads. And business Republicans will be impressed by the seamless integration of the Mac’s OS X operating system with corporate networks.
The Republican Party is a big tent. Apple should come on in.
"I know, it's like learning to drive on a Mercedes, only to find you'll be driving a Kia in the real world. ."
Close analogy - when they are deprived of their government supplied Mercedes and have to be retrained when the companies only supply BMW's.
"You can do it,, but it won't be pleasant"
That's what I meant about them not being prepared for the real world ... kind of like when they used to teach Latin or Esperanto in schools
I didn't make it up out of nothing.
http://aroundcny.com/technofile/texts/tec081097.html
They will be. Using a Mercedes is close enough to using a Buick (I wouldn't go for BMW, but I'll give you more than Kia), that slipping into the other won't be hard. Sure, it handles poorly compared to the Mercedes, various buttons are in different places, it's not as safe to use, and you won't get there as fast, but it doesn't take long to be able to use it well.
The sad thing is GE really believes that if you use Linux youre a communist, better yet he believes an OS can have a political preferance.
Yea hand that money to gates so he can donate it to the UN eugenics err Population control fund..
I would buy a MAC if the price actually would come down to what PC's cost.
Depending on what you're looking for, it might even be cheaper for the features you'll get. What price range, and do you have an extra monitor and USB keyboard sitting around?
Shows what can happen when you get hooked on drugs - your whole life goes to shit.
Not necessarily, I just know for a fact you're supporting communism by given them free software. A "useful idiot", as pointed out by others than myself.
Which one looks more ready to do business? This water-cooled stainless steel design,
or this plastic colored monstrosity?
My interest in anything from Apple is somewhere between zero and none.
I'm betting it's the slim slot-load design Apple has been using in its Powerbooks for years.
I have this great cookie recipe that calls for apple sauce and orange juice...
Rush is a useful idiot? Damn, I thought he was smarter than that.
I'll trade you a half-interest in my cookie factory for one of each.
Drugs fry your brain. Go ahead and deny that as well.
Rush was using Macs long before he started abusing painkillers. He also switched his web server over to Linux after he kicked the habit. So, is Rush a useful idiot or a brain-dead druggie?
I would think that sleeping in one of those things could lead to atrophy of the muscles about the spine; how do you climb out of one? My grandmother had me on a feathertick as a kid and I "like to smothered."
Possibly, both, if he's now running Linux instead of making the choice to use products originating in the US.
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