I can’t tell you how many times I’ve been reading an article or op/ed or whatever, and someone makes a comparison or allusion to Apple. These people clearly aren’t Apple people, but they aren’t the all out Apple bashers who think anything other than Windows is a festering lump of crap. They just don’t get it. They have this fundamental misunderstanding about what Apple is. I get it today in a piece on Ubuntu 10.4 and its new UI design in the pages of TechRepublic. Jack Wallen says:

“But take a look at what the public is buying en mass – Apple. Why? Because they place an importance on aesthetics few other companies can match.”

Ignoring the fact that he starts a sentence with “but” and misspells en masse, he’s telling his readers that Apple’s sales are based on aesthetics. Really, truly and honestly? Maybe I shouldn’t take it personally. After all, he could just be writing poorly overall, and that alone could cause his point to be lost in the maelstrom of unedited copy. I’d like to think that were the case, but I have a feeling its not. Could it be that there are people out there who don’t understand that Apple is about utility?

I feel that a brief recap of what Apple is would not be wasted on those who don’t get it, and even for some who do. Apple is a hardware company. They make computers and consumer electronics. This is the exact same market companies like HP, Dell, Sony, Toshiba, and others play in. Unlike these other companies, though, Apple has long recognized that their customers don’t want to look like dorks lugging around a load of gear.

So, while the exterior of Apple products remains attractive and sexy, the inside is a very different animal. Apple works hard to prevent most users from having to install drivers and fiddle with loads of extra configurations. They also design the interface to get out of your way. In Mac OS X, when I click on an application icon in the Dock, I get that application. In Windows 7, I get a sub-list of windows thumbnails I can pick from, giving me an extra step and forcing me to take longer because I need to squint at them. Ymmv.

I’m going to wrap up my rant there, but I’ll end on the old saw about the so-called “Apple Premium” that a lot of people think you pay to get something from Apple. You don’t. Plain and simple. You will pay the same for an equivalent machine from Dell or HP. The point is that Apple doesn’t make cheap shit like Dell and HP do. So, as my daughter would say:

Take that, Thomas Jefferson!

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