Mac: The Unibody spawns a new category

Earlier on this blog, I identified four categories of Mac users (re-posted below), and recently came across a fifth; a unique group of switchers. Weigh in if you belong to either. Brickbats, as usual, are welcome.

Using a Mac got me wondering why users embrace it with such passion given that 90% of enterprise is Windows. I identified four categories of Mac users.

The one who has not experienced the pitfalls of Windows belongs to the first. This category is pretty rare. He is ‘Born into Mac’ and as a result, his naiveté wards off criticism of Windows. He defends it even. For instance, with childlike curiosity, BIM taps the ‘Windows’ key and is startled by the pop up. In an un-patronizing way, he finds it ‘innovative’ or at the least strangely different and even harbors doubts about the authenticity of Tiger when Vista looks somewhat similar.

The second is ‘Born into Windows’ who stumbles on the history of Jobs and Gates. BIW conducts an independent read and identifies the trendsetter. He is psychologically affected but not at all surprised that the innovator brought into his brand a culture, if not a cult, while his counterpart trailed behind. History puts BIW in perspective. It bowls him over.

The third is a BIW who thinks it is hip, hop and everything else cool to own iPods. He walks into an Apple store to check out the little puppies and while at it, he looks left and right and sights the amazingly sexualized iMacs and MacBooks with all the attention around them. He heard about these beautiful machines and waltzes over to see what the fuss is all about. Briefed by a polite and demure Mac-girl, long held BIW myths are demolished, in particular Cost and Compatibility. In one sitting the sweet young thing, seemingly armed with information matching Jobs at a launch, proves that on a power-to-power comparison, both systems are more or less even and at high-end desktop levels, the MacPro for instance, cost even less than its Dell counterpart. On compatibility, BIW is shown that Macs maneuver into any nook and cranny Windows can. The Mac-girl bowls him over.

The fourth belongs to BIW sitting in front of his therapist because viruses have crashed his Windows machine once too many. He is suicidal and his therapist, a Mac user himself, prescribes the virus-free Mac. Lack of viruses bowled him over.

The fifth category. At an Apple store recently, I met a young couple brandishing Unibody MacBooks. With cultish pride, I said, “great choice bro” and to his other half, “girl, you’ve got taste, you're a Mac-girl now”

The happy young man switched on his shiny new machine to show off, but rather than Mac's OSX booting up with its trademark discretion, Vista Ultimate showed up instead, with the usual fanfare. I politely advised the man to default OSX on startup and boot Windows discreetly in Target mode, in the event he gets nostalgic and wishes to re-visit the ‘old school’.

Quite audibly the young man replied that they threw out the OSX altogether and their machines were running Windows exclusively and added that some of their friends who acquired Unibodys, have taken the similar route.

I almost puked. I asked him to keep his voice down and mentioned the existence of a Mac-cult, given that we were in an Apple store, and that they may assault him for desecrating a Mac in such fashion. I said you just don’t throw out the OSX just because your Mac has the ability to run Windows simultaneously.

After I slept on it, their position began to make sense.

Mac users who can’t let go of the ‘old school’ usually partition a little space for Windows, but this couple is different. They threw out the OSX because they are into the Unibody itself, not the operating system. Their machines were 100% Windows emulating Vista Ultimate perfectly running McAfee and all.

They were bowled over by the aluminum-glass arrangement of the Unibody MacBook, besides its top of the line is a tad cheaper than its Viao counterpart, hence, it did not make sense for them to settle for Viao’s cobbled construction with labels all over when they could have a label-free body, CNC machined from a single aluminum billet with individual holes cut out for each key, not to mention having the same Intel processor running native.

They likened their MacBook to a Ferrari outfitted with a Nissan interior and controls but running at Ferrari speeds. They are familiar with Nissans, so what’s the issue with the cult! Besides, rather than setting it aside, their arrangement underscores the power of the OSX. It’s ability to emulate Windows but not vice-versa and they showed in the Mac the ultimate compliment in Ultimating a Mac; pun intended.

The advent of the Unibody spawns a new category.

Cheers, Tommy