There’s nothing like a little poor anti-Mac journalism…
As bloggers, journalists, and everything in between, we’ve all been guilty at one time or another for a blatantly bad post; whether we didn’t do enough research, forgot to link back to our source, or just plain flunked our own article, we’ve all been guilty. However, John Dvorak was guilty of a fairly inexcuseable discrepancy, and because it was directed at Mac, I think I will take time out of my generally accusation-less day to correct him in his error.
Though John Dvorak has on many occasions made generally poor anti-Mac articles, this gem from 2006 really is worth a read. First of all, the entire premise of the article is that Macs will inevitably switch over to running Windows.
Now that you’ve exhausted your hysterical laughter tank for the day, let me continue. The four reason Dvorak lists for why Mac would inevitably be a Windows-laden machine are as follows:
1. “The Apple ad campaign was over and nobody switched.”
2. “The iPod lost its Firewire connector because the PC world was the new target audience.”
3. “…the iPod was designed to get people to move to Mac, and this didn’t happen.”
4. “…Apple had switched to the Intel microprocessor.”
WELL THEN. There’s nothing like a good solid bit of evidence to really cement an argument, eh? Lets start from the beginning and see where we end up, shall we?
1. I hate to break the bad news to him, but at the time this article was written, which was over a year ago, the Apple ad campaign was not over. In fact, it is still going on.
Furthermore, unless he’s been asleep to business news, he must have realized by now that Apple’s campaign has worked; because everyone in the world doesn’t own an Apple doesn’t mean the campaign wasn’t effective. (We can save the discussion about Microsoft’s Vista campaign and how that’s panning out for a later date).
2. He’s not too terribly far off with his second point; the iPod connectivity was changed to appeal to more users. However, that’s what’s known in the business and academic worlds as “marketing.” What that means is, Apple really wanted to sell their iPods, so they made it more appealing to everyone. Business 101 is really a great class; I would recommend enrolling.
3. I don’t believe there is a keynote address anywhere in which Steve Jobs said, “We’re really aiming to take down the PC world with this iPod. We’re past searching for profit; if we don’t convert PC users to Mac with this little baby, we must consider the iPod a complete failure.”
4. I’m completely boggled by his last argument point. Apparently Apple making the smart move to a universally strong processor indicated the inevitable OS X surrender to Windows. It might be worth noting that as Apple adopted the Intel processor, they converted more users to Macs because consumers recognized the Intel name, and could reference the speed and performance of Macs to PCs. Just a thought.
Once the brunt of his argument was presented, he moved on to much less convincing points to sway his audience towards his cause, such as, “This may also explain the odd comment at the Macworld Expo by a Microsoft spokesperson that Microsoft Office will continue to be developed for the Mac for “five years.” What happens after that?”
Well, if that was really the case last year, I’m willing to bet Apple would love to be able to discontinue Microsoft Office for Mac in favor of broad adoption of iWork. I doubt very seriously Apple execs are staying up late at night, sleepless because they are counting down the days to when Office Mac is discontinued.
It is unclear whether he continues his argument with a presentation of stronger argumentative points or is simply providing foggy evidential claims; he argues that OS X will fail, just like Linux (?) because users will eventually be sick of incompatibilities between devices, programs, etc. on OS X.
I think at this point it is fair to say that he has never actually operated OS X. Furthermore, how is Linux’s failure demonstrative of Apple’s fall? I’m fairly sure Linux has a strong user base to this day, and Apple doesn’t seem to be in any sort of immediate threat, but perhaps I’m just an idealist.
He goes on to say that Apple could use Windows, and still keep that Apple “feel.” He references Apple GUI a couple times; I wonder how he feels now that Vista is out, and the “GUI” built in to Vista requires a top of the line PC to run? I’m fairly sure most Mac users would throw up a little in their mouths if they were forced to adopt Vista GUI.
The most comical remark of the entire article comes when he calls Steve Jobs “a master showman,” who will eventually be able to win the favor of Mac users to Windows. John, you must have also, no doubt, heard that Steve is a hermaphrodite who dines on on chipmunks and pine cones? No?
Many people complain that Mac users are haughty, stuck up, and unfriendly to PC users. John, honestly you are the reason why Mac users feel superior in any way, shape or form. Let me know when the earth will be solely powered by toe nail clippings; that will make for a great story!
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