Mac rocks. period.

Apple of Our Eye: Macs Save Money
03.20.07 5:00 AM
quoted from: http://www.wired.com/gadgets/mac/commentary/cultofmac/2007/03/73005?currentPage=1

There's been a distinct sea change in the way people think about Apple in the last few weeks.
Recently, people have been saying the strangest things about Apple and the Mac. Everything is topsy-turvy. Pundits aren't trotting out the old conventional wisdoms any more. They're saying odd stuff, like Macs are good for business; Macs can save money; and that Apple's stock -- at $90 a share -- is a bargain.

In fact, there seems to be a widespread re-evaluation of Apple going on, a cultural shift that's changing the way people think about the company. It's been building for a while but it has reached a tipping point in the last couple of months. Here's what people are saying now.
Macs will save you money

Macs have always been derided as more expensive than PCs, but now Wilkes University in Pennsylvania is dumping its Windows machines for Macs -- to save money! A few years ago, universities like Dartmouth College, one of the biggest Mac-centric colleges, couldn't dump their Macs fast enough.

Macs are good for business
Macs in the workplace used to be just for the artsy types in the design department. But now they're appropriate for regular desk jockeys of every stripe. In Computerworld, consultant Seth Weintraub recommends Macs for the enterprise because they're easy to learn, easy to administer and not as prone to viruses and other nasties. Weintraub says IT managers who bought Macs for home use are increasingly looking to deploy them at work.
Less is more

At one time, loading on more features was the mantra. When the iPod came out, critics said it didn't match rival devices, which boasted FM radios and bigger hard drives. But users wanted fewer features, and better ease of use. "That's why the iPod succeeded where its predecessor products bombed," writes Chris Taylor, Business 2.0's senior editor, in a recent piece titled "The Trouble With Gee-Whiz Gadgets."

Closed is good
Apple's traditional closed system -- proprietary hardware, software and online services -- is now a selling point. A couple of years ago, many confidently predicted Apple would fail if it didn't open up the iPod/iTunes system to rivals, who would "hybridize" the platform with interoperable hardware and software from multiple companies. "It's absolutely clear now why five years from now, Apple will have 3 (percent) to 5 percent of the player market,'' Rob Glaser, CEO of Apple rival RealNetworks, told The New York Times in 2003. "The history of the world is that hybridization yields better results."

But consumers seem to want the opposite -- products and services from one company that are guaranteed to work well together. Look at Microsoft's attempt to copy the iPod's top-to-bottom integration with the Zune. And customers are embracing that "closed" system. "I just switched from a Dell to an Apple laptop and love the Mac lifestyle," student Priya Sanghvi told USA Today

Apple is the darling of Wall Street
Wall Street analysts, traditionally skeptical of Apple, are suddenly giddily bullish, releasing extremely positive forecasts on future performance. Piper Jaffray's Gene Munster says the Apple TV will give the company a big lead over Microsoft in the digital living room. (Target price: $124.) UBS Investment research analyst Benjamin Reitzes believes the iPhone is the beginning of a "mega platform" of touch-screen devices that will give Apple "open-ended growth." (Target price: $124.)

Jon Markman, a columnist for Microsoft Money, thinks Apple's shares will double by 2010. "If you have ever kicked yourself for not buying Apple four years ago when you bought your first iPod, you should go for it now during this market weakness," he writes. And The Street's Scott Moritz says that thanks to the iPhone, "Palm seems doomed." According to Zacks Investment Research, 14 of the 17 analysts following Apple rate the stock a "buy" or better. (There are three "holds" and no "sell" ratings.)

Macs can run more applications
I can't remember the last time I heard anyone say there's no software for the Mac, or that Macs are too expensive. People still acknowledge that Apple's products aren't the cheapest, but they seem happy to pay for better-designed, better-made products. As for software, the old argument against Macs is moot. New Intel Macs can run Windows software as well as any PC. I more often hear the opposite -- people complaining that software like Apple's iLife suite isn't available on Windows.

The change in perception seems to have been tipped by the iPhone. A lot of people thought Apple got lucky with the iPod: It was a one-hit wonder, a fluke not likely to be repeated. But the iPhone is already starting to look like another industry-changing smash hit, and it's shining a different light on the company.

The clearest example is the Apple TV, which is due to be released this week. Late last year, there wasn't much buzz about the Apple TV. Most people just shrugged. There didn't seem to be a need for a wireless box to stream content from your computer to your TV.

But lately, the buzz has been growing. I've seen a lot of blog posts and news reports predicting the Apple TV will fly off store shelves. Some analysts are even saying the Apple TV is a more important product than the iPhone.

There's been a shift here. In a few weeks, the Apple TV went from "who cares?" to must-have. The product didn't change, but what people were saying about it did. I think it's because Apple is very clearly looking like a serial innovator: a company that can successfully trot out one big product after another. This has been generally true since the iMac in 1998, but now the wider public is catching on.

What's changed is not Apple, but people's perceptions of the company.