Why do Bloggers prefer Macs?
As a guy who has worked in lots of different places in the technology industry, I always wonder what makes certain groups of people buy a certain type of technology.
Michael Feldman posted the picture above of bloggers at the recent BloggerCon that made it look like the overwhelming majority of bloggers use Macs. First I thought to myself "well, that might have been true at the BloggerCon, but I bet I'll be able to post quite a different blogger photo because the PDC will have more bloggers than the BloggerCon did."
But that photo wouldn't tell the truth either.
I'll be honest, I've been at quite a few blogger events lately and for some reason there are a ton of Macs at all these things. "Why is that?" I asked myself? Does that mean that if you use PC's you are less likely to blog? If so, why is that?
So, I've theorized a few reasons why BloggerCon attendees overwhelmingly were Mac users.
1. Corporate culture. (The early days at Apple and Microsoft and why it matters even today).
2. Attendees came from certain self-selected niches. (Press, creatives, academics).
3. The "think different" factor (Apple vs. Microsoft marketing).
4. Apple's "sharing" culture (donations to schools).
Corporate Culture. Apple was started by two high school students who belonged to a user group in Silicon Valley. Microsoft was started by two high school students who built a business in New Mexico.
Apple's first real product was the Apple II, a bleeding edge machine that brought innovative product design (the case and monitor are still among the best designed products I've ever seen) along with bleeding-edge technology like a color screen and a speaker. Remember, back in 1976, the personal computer industry was the Altair, a boxy looking thing with a row of switches and lights on it (if you ever visit Microsoft, our museum has both the Altair and the Apple II displayed in it -- how many companies display their competitor's products in their company museums?)
Microsoft started out building developer tools and didn't even want to do operating systems. Even after Microsoft got into operating systems, no one bought a "Microsoft computer." We called those things "IBM PCs."
Think that history doesn't matter? It does. I grew up two miles from Apple. I always cheered them on and evangelized them to my friends. Even today, even after I work for Microsoft, and have a Tablet PC that lets me use my computer in ways that Apple's customers are still dreaming of, I find myself jealous of the webloggers who have Macs. The brand identity among the Apple generation +is+ that strong.
That brand identity for many of us was born back in the late 70s and early 80s. Now, look at the picture again. What else do you notice? I notice a lot of gray hair. These are folks who've been using computers for a long time. Think that early corporate culture doesn't matter?
Self selecting from the niches.
I noticed a trend among BloggerCon attendees. They came from mostly these backgrounds: publishing and/or journalism, creative types, and academia. Those are huge Apple strongholds. Publishing and journalists (which I identify with) went to schools that had all Macs -- the journalism schools in California, for instance in 1992 were almost wholly Mac-based. So were all the leading newspapers (the Chronicle, Examiner, and San Jose Mercury News all use Macs today -- a reader of my blog works at Poynter Institute and he says almost all of their member newspapers are predominantly Mac). All you need to do is take a tour of San Francisco's various art and photo studios, or New York's advertising or magazine industries, and you'll see that those are overwhelmingly Mac. Finally, Academia is still pretty strongly Mac based, particularly among art, publishing, journalism, and other liberal arts-based departments.
I believe most of the BloggerCon attendees (if you discount all the .NET Webloggers or PDC bloggers) come from mostly those three backgrounds.
Certainly when I watched the videos and listened to the questions, I heard a bias in that direction.
The "think different" marketing exposed. Apple's ads used to tell you to "think different." Before that they told us how 1984 wouldn't be like 1984, because Macintosh users would "bring down the Orwellian machine."
I believe these are themes that particularly resonate among bloggers. Why? Bloggers see themselves as exploiting a new medium. They see themselves as new voices that previously were unheard. They believe they are the ones who are on the current vanguard of thought and intellectualism. We heard these themes over and over at BloggerCon "blogging will change the world." Translation: blogs are different than what came before.
Now, if you look at Microsoft marketing, what was that about? "Where do you want to go today?" Or, look at today's Microsoft ad campaign "your potential, our passion" Not quite the same as "being different."
Apple's culture of sharing vs. Microsoft's culture of owning markets.
What is my first memory of experiencing a computer? Sitting at Hyde Jr. High in 1977 as they unboxed two Apple II machines that were donated by Apple Computer to the school (it was a Cupertino school).
What is my first memory of IBM PC's? Apple's ad in the San Jose Mercury News welcoming IBM to the personal computer market.
That branding is still strong in my mind today -- about 20 years later.
Apple for me always stood for sharing and giving computers to schools. Even today after I know that Microsoft is the sixth-largest corporate giver in the US I still can't shake my early school experiences.
Bloggers are self-identified sharers. To be a blogger (particularly a successful one) you must enjoy sharing information and stories and links. Those are traits that I believe Apple has done well over the years to identify with. Certainly Microsoft has, in the past, done many anti-sharing things that you read about in the news every day.
So, why does this matter? Well, because bloggers have influence far beyond the numbers of people who read them. Just look at my blog. Only a few thousand read here every day. But, the readership here includes all sorts of journalists. Analysts. Executives. Etc.
How does Microsoft win the hearts and minds of the blogger market? Easy: innovative product. The Tablet PC at least gets looks from the Mac-heavy side of the fence. It hasn't gotten many to switch, but at least the Mac users are jealous whenever they try my Tablet out (although they'd almost never admit it on their blogs).
I'll be thinking more about this topic this weekend, since I'll be amongst the Mac-heavy crowd again. Oh, I hear Beth Goza is camping with us too! Cool, at least us Tablet freaks will be able to sit in the corner showing each other the cool tips we've learned.
[The Scobleizer Weblog]
