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The Problem

I’ve been working on/with Apple computers for roughly 18 years, most of that time in the 90s when Apple were akin to overly ripe fruit of the computing world.

Despite these low days for Apple I still came across and worked with some die in the wool, Apple fanatics who even then thought Apple products were simply magical.

Magical to the extent that Apple products never crash, hang, or experience a hardware/software problem of any kind. I would even go so far as to suggest that the Apple Hardware have a shield against dust, dirt and debris. Apple fans feel about their computer the way someone usually feels about a car or motorcycle they built/customized. It’s their pride and joy. Windows users do not have this type of emotional/mythical connection to their hardware. Even if they have built the computer themselves.

Macs do crash with annoying frequency, but the end-users don’t seem to remember it happening. These thralls have never seen the “bomb” or “Spinning Beachball of Death”. Perhaps the Reality Distortion Field (RDF) affects a small portion of the population more then others. Here’s at least one victim of the aforementioned RDF effect.

Another big problem is that Apple tends to ignore the corporate world for the most part. Sure you can connect to Active Directory or even Deploy update via Remote Desktop (not to be confused with RDP), but beyond that there isn’t much help.

The Solution

It would be impossible to state that Apple hasn’t influenced the industry in a positive way. IT Managers can take the hype surrounding the iPhone with a grain of salt, but end-users are paying attention and so are Apple’s competitors, whether it’s Microsoft or Motorola. IT Managers probably also groan to themselves about the new security problems that will no doubt arise. Every executive or sales vice-president will buy and iPhone and have the IT department figure out the little details like e-mail and file syncing. Rumor has it that Apple has licensed Exchange ActiveSync and with any luck this means push mail to the iPhone. That said the current crop of Exchange clients (Entourage) for the Mac are shall we say, far from perfect. And by perfect I mean exactly like Outlook for Windows. Apple gets away with things no other company does. They sell more then computers or gadgets, they sell a style and way of life. Simple is easier, and an easier/prettier life is something most people want.

For the average user all anyone needs is a browser, e-mail, and a few office programs. Windows, OS X or even Linux can handle these tasks with ease and one really doesn’t do it better then the other. After that it’s all either completely personal or business as to what someone actually needs a computer for.. Business is the reason why 90% of the world runs Windows. It’s why you have the brisk competition of Bootcamp, Parallels, or VMware on the Mac OS X. Windows is the game worth playing when you need to get something in business done.

The basics of Apple’s Importance:

Pros:

• Design and sensibility.
• The human equation is the most important part of technology, and whether we IT managers are aware of it or not Apple makes a connection with people on a personal level that Microsoft and other’s can’t touch.

Cons:

• Very little corporate support. I always find this point monstrously perplexing.
• The Cult of Mac. The rabid mind-set that the computers are more then computers. It’s a religious artifact. It’s a big turn off for people who have serious work to get done and they don’t want a lot of hyperbole.

While we fight amongst ourselves and police the world India and China are poised to be the world powers in the next 10 to 25 years. It’s a lot closer then you think. Something that the United States has always excelled at beyond what other countries contribute to the world is ideas. And if one company comes up with ideas or the appearance of ideas. It’s Apple. Doubtless like any fashion person who does “it” for money. People want an iPod or a MacBook, or the latest craze the iPhone. This desire for fashionable products crosses: race, class, and religion.  With the recent release of OS X 10.5 (or the more sexy name “Leopard”) I’ve decided to give a run down of why Apple is important to the industry.

Some history

My personal history with Apple started, like most people, in college. I’d used my dad’s and my high school computers in the past much to my dissatisfaction. These were not the promise of computers that television and movies gave me in my youth.

I started off playing with a Macintosh Classic II, for hours at a time.  MacPaint and grayscale. Happy times, I assure you. I was quite captivated by the whole thing. But as my friend Chris stated to me once, drawing with a mouse is akin to drawing with a bar of soap.  This didn’t stop me from exploring the limits what I could do with it. The Mac Classic II wasn’t around long, before our school got Macs capable of color. Can you imagine 8 bit color? But this was right around time I began to see the cracks in Apple’s armor. Now it was like those old computers my father had let me use. They weren’t aspiring to be better.

As the 90s moved on, these cracks became more and more noticeable and by this time I was gainfully employed and not some college student, I had to work with Windows/DOS. Because businesses ran themselves on Windows/DOS and obviously still do. I initially thought I would stick with the Mac for home use, but then you notice the price difference between the Mac and the PC. Besides that I had become rather proficient in with Windows/DOS and realized, despite being more “work”, it had a lot more potential.  So I bought my first PC.

My job wasn’t completely PC-based, I still got to see the latest and greatest from Apple from one of the employees who insisted on working only with a Mac and was influential enough to get what she wished for. We’d even considered getting the Apple Newton as the first PDA device for the sales team. But ultimately didn’t implement the plan due to the Newton’s unfriendly cost and lack of corporate friendly applications.

The point here is even when the cracks of Apple’s product line are showing clearly, people (even business people) want to give Apple products a shot. The Newton was innovative at the time, but it didn’t do enough for people so it wasn’t a hit. The PDA market with sprung up around the same time, everyone from Sony to Microsoft were attempting to get something to stick for business users and USRobotics comes along with it’s Palm Pilot and the rest is history.

Obviously the beginning a very difficult times for Apple, Windows 95 effectively (arguably)  leapfrogged Apple’s aging System 7 OS. Introducing such concepts as preemptive multitasking and a revolutionary re-work in Windows interface design. The Key here though is that Apple influenced Microsoft to evolve their OS.

Apple’s second coming was the iMac. Not the first foray into the Monitor and Computer in one easy to digest pill, but certainly the most eye-catching one. It didn’t hurt that the “New” Volkswagen Beetle which was also similarly eye-catching, was helping set the agenda of consumer style with it’s memorable commercials. This was the future after all and it was made of candy.

The computer market soon flooded with concept PCs that emulated the iMacs simplicity and design. Computer manufacturers had received the message that consumers wanted candy, and candy they got.

Th iMac enjoyed some initial success while Apple fine-tuned the product and introduced their next generation operating system: OS X.

OS X was just a pretty face when it first came out, and had plenty of issues. The real victory of OS X is that it finally pushed the Mac platform into the future it had spend nearly 10 years avoiding.

This article continues in Part 2.