When the Going Gets Tough, The Tough Get an Apple 20 comments
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I've been ruminating the past few days on why Apple (AAPL) is doing so well with it's pricey high-end products and services during a recession. The answer came as I was reading Wednesday's New York Times column by Thomas Friedman, whom I deeply admire and read anything and everything he puts out.
Friedman points out that the winners in today's fast-shifting U.S. job market are the ones demonstrating "entrepreneurship, innovation and creativity." He says, "They are the new untouchables," in contrast to other still highly educated but less creative types.
Friedman cites Harvard University labor expert Lawrence Katz, who explains in the column that the now disadvantaged are "those engineers and programmers working on more routine tasks and not actively engaged in developing new ideas or recombining existing technologies or thinking about what new customers want. ... They’ve been much more exposed to global competitors that make them easily substitutable.”
They are also more likely to be using personal computers with nine-year-old operating systems, with little choice but to take what their companies provide in terms of personal productivity IT. They are the 90 percent for whom good enough IT has made them as good as anyone anywhere.
In contrast, it's the "top half" of the labor pool, and more specifically the apparent 10 percent that are "entrepreneurship, innovation and creativity"-focused among them, that know to succeed and win they need the very best computer and associated services, even if it costs $500 more. Nowadays there's no better way to gain an advantage in business and life than to have the best technology.
The people who are succeeding are buying Macs, iPhones, iPod Touches and Apple's services and applications. A flight to quality is usually spurred by disruption and uncertainty. It's not about brand religion or pretty graphics. It's about survival and success when the going gets tough. It works for me, it has to.
A chef doesn't buy the cheapest knifes. A painter doesn't buy the cheapest brushes. A carpenter doesn't buy the cheapest hammer. And all the winners in the economy today -- those that have a say in what they use to do all the digital things so critical now to almost any knowledge- and services-based job -- need the best tools. And they will upgrade those tools just as fast as they can (hence the rapid adoption of Apple's Snow Leopard OS X upgrade in recent months).
So for all those millions of newly laid off workers who know that "entrepreneurship, innovation and creativity" is their only ticket to a new, fresh start -- those that no longer have an IT department to tell them what to do (at lowest cost) -- they seem to be making a new move to a Mac. I expect they won't soon go back, once they taste the fruits of heightened knowledge productivity.
Because when failure is not an option, you have to have the best tools, especially when the going gets tough. The sad part is that Apple does so well when so many are not.
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never saw it coming...
When you're right sir, you are right, as Jeremy might say.
Note to Nokia: How much legal time will $35,000,000,000 buy?
Buying a Mac is a long-term investment because it will last for as long as it is not replaced. Every product has bad apples and Macs have defective units too but overall, from personal and business experiences, Macs are reliable work horses. Once they are in use, they tend to run reliably until the hard disk gives out or until much better boxes force a replacement.
Buying a Mac also means getting the ability to run Windows, OS/X and UNIX. OS/X and UNIX are automatic, no extra work needed. Windows requires purchase and installation, also a no-brainer. We can have three operating systems co-existing on one piece of hardware. In a fast-evolving world, knowing all three is more important than foolishly being beholden to one.
Mac is the choice when consumers want an easy to manage, easy to administer and easy to use machine. Mac is for people who want to focus on their work and spend little time on system administration, maintenance and management. That gap is slowly narrowing as Microsoft finally awakens to consumer needs but for now, Mac is still the easiest to set up and get rolling right out of the box.
Consumers spending on a machine will look at these factors before deciding where to put the cash. I do not believe for one moment that creative people buy Mac or that Mac is somehow the choice of geniuses. The reasons are much more practical and realistic.
YES!! This is what Mac aficionados (NOT fanboys!) have been saying for years. It is gratifying to see that the message is sinking in!
Of course you are correct that a lot of successful people are using PCs an BBs. I don't think this article should be taken in the extreme - only to show that there is good reason behind Apple's success now. This success is a trend - not an absolute.
You are also right - to a degree - in asking for statistics. True, there are no stats I have ever heard of that directly address the issues discussed here. There are a couple of things however that should not be overlooked.
1- Apple just sold more Macs than in any other quarter. (Here is an undeniable stat.)
2- It is an almost universal feeling among people who have switched to Macs, that they find themselves being more productive because they are not fighting the computer all the time. (You see this repeatedly in comments to posts such as this.) This goes directly to the point of the article.
Best of luck to you in all your endeavors, whatever platform you prefer.
On Oct 22 01:06 PM Wireless Wiz wrote:
> Unless there is empirical evidence to back this up, this is just
> a fluff piece. While I agree with the notion I don't think it is
> quite so cut and dry. Many highly successful people use a PC or
> a Blackberry. I'm sure this will be picked up by all the zealot
> Apple fan sites like Macdailynews, etc. as gospel. (next: Apple
> fans will tell me how/why I'm wrong with choice language!)
On Oct 22 01:06 PM Wireless Wiz wrote:
> Unless there is empirical evidence to back this up, this is just
> a fluff piece. While I agree with the notion I don't think it is
> quite so cut and dry. Many highly successful people use a PC or
> a Blackberry. I'm sure this will be picked up by all the zealot
> Apple fan sites like Macdailynews, etc. as gospel. (next: Apple
> fans will tell me how/why I'm wrong with choice language!)
ago?
On Oct 22 12:11 PM rich168 wrote:
> NOK is suing AAPL for patent infingement...
> never saw it coming...
The ads also indicate that this is a personal decision. There are no Apple ads showing an IT guy buying 2,000 Macs for a company. This makes sense. If you set up some sort of a sea of cubicles filled with people doing something like tele-marketing where they run one application all day long then the cheapest computer possible is what you want. If you are investing in yourself then you may consider a higher quality device with more diverse applications and capabilities. Customers satisfaction (as mentioned in the ads) would be important to you.
And remember, there are reports coming out now that 80% of companies are running some Macs on their networks.
And we know what that widespread (but still small) number of users will lead to...
the point is that when it's an essential part of your job to be creative, it's easier on a Mac, like just about every other computer task.
but there's another point that is kind of overlooked in this good article. It's that a Mac isn't really all that expensive if you need a computer that will do everything and also keep up to date. Students get a good discount and freebies and the upgrades are often free or nearly so. You don't need to buy virus protection (or pay someone to clean your computer).
If you don't have a huge company, and don't want to pay IT people, then Macs are cheaper, especially if there's an Apple store in town. Classes and tech support are all first rate and free, as long as you have the warranty.
Even phone support is good (and understandable!).
the iTouch might seem like a pricy toy...but the apps are often free or very cheap, so even a young teen can afford to get them, after getting the iTouch for a gift. And they can surf the web all they want for free. For generations that seem to think nothing of paying between $4 & $7 for a fancy coffee every day, a 99 cent app is like a penny on the sidewalk...not much.
Yes, Apple does make some high end products, but they're capturing interest at the lower end...that was the point of the iPod Shuffle. You can still use an Apple product without breaking the bank. And once you get use to the intuitive, reliable nature of their products, you're pretty well going to do about anything to avoid having to use the stuff the other guys make!
By 'building' your own box, do you mean plugging a processor into the generic motherboard, picking a really ugly case, connecting the power supply, putting in memory and a disk? Wow, you must be a genius. Hey, come to think of it, that's all Dell or HP or any PC company (not including Apple) does, so why not start your own brand of generic PCs that can't run a decent OS? Then you could REALLY hate on Apple!
You know the ads are 100% true, don't hate them for speaking the truth. Now get back to hacking your registry and scanning for viruses...
And no, building a PC isn't rocket science, but that's something Mac fanboys wouldn't know anything about, as they're not allowed to do that sort of thing.
So ends my participation in this rapidly becoming juvenile style flame thread.
therefore the smart people dont buy Macs.
(I dont need to provide any proof , link , data.. because the standard set in this thread, is claim anything , prove nothing, just state it, and it is fact.)
On Oct 27 02:05 PM jack dee wrote:
> (I dont need to provide any proof , link , data.. because the standard
> set in this thread, is claim anything , prove nothing, just state
> it, and it is fact.)