For all you Apple Fanboys and gals, here's the movie for you.

[alfredo]

http://www.macheadsthemovie.com/

A review:
http://crave.cnet.co.uk/desktops/0,39029426,49300443,00.htm

MacHeads is a superb film that will give Apple haters a few cheap laughs, and Apple fans a few cheap thrills. But it'll entertain both equally, while educating everybody else. It'll premiere this week at MacWorld -- the last ever Apple will appear at -- and you can order the movie later this year from macheadsthemovie.com, or at least check out the trailer below.

[Taverner]

1. Apple is not doing MacWorld anymore?

[alfredo]

2. It appears they no longer need the big flashy productions to launch new

products. The loss of secrecy surrounding new releases takes part of the fun out of those events. All we need to do is go to a vendor and see what they are making, or look at the source of their websites to see hints at upcoming products. Industrial espionage has outgrown Apple's ability to keep new products secret.

[Xithras]

3. Nope, they've "moved on"

They said that MacWorld was an outreach opportunity to attract new customers, but it no longer serves that purpose for them. MacWorlds today are the domain of fanbois and hangers-on looking for free stuff, and Apple now focuses on mass marketing instead of direct marketing.

The downside of Apple going mainstream is that they're starting to act like a mainstream company.

As for MacWorld, the organizers plan to continue on without Apple, but I figure they'll go the way of E3 within a couple of years.

[alfredo]

5. I enjoyed the tribal aspects of the Mac Community.

[Xithras]

6. It was interesting, but it's understandable why Apple is moving away from it.

Apple has spent the past several years doing mass marketing to convince people that the Mac is a good computer for "everyman", and not just artists or quirky computer geeks. Normal people don't care about tribalism...or even what kind of computer they actually have. They just want to get all the channels on the Internets and have plenty of storage for their "borrowed" cd collection. The ability to author cheesy DVD's that will be watched once before being permanently banished to a box in the closet is a major plus.

That's mainstream, and that's who Apple markets to now.

Once upon a time, the PC was an upstart platform supported by enthusiasts who wanted to break IBM's viselike grip on the computer market. It had fanboys and PC makers had lots of shows to market directly to enthusiasts as well. As Twain said, history doesn't repeat itself, but it rhymes a lot.

[alfredo]

7. Their think different campaign did appeal to the outsiders, and those

who think of themselves as outsiders.

[Xithras]

9. The "Think Different" campaign was abandoned 7 years ago.

They dumped it in 2002 when the Switch campaign was released. The Switch campaign, you may remember, profiled normal people who had switched from a PC to a Mac and signified the start of Apples attempt to attract a much wider customer base. Instead of Mac's being "different", Apple has spent the past several years trying to present Mac's as the "new normal". As in: There is no functional difference between a Mac and a PC, ours are just easier to use and crash less.

Apple has, for quite a few years now, quashed any attempt to define their computers as anything other than "high quality normal computers, for normal uses, for normal people". From a business standpoint it's an entirely understandable position. Most people don't care about being different, they just want something that's reliable and easy to use. Apple, like any other company, wants money. Most of the money resides in the wallets of normal people, so that's where the marketing goes today.

Apple marketed themselves to "outsiders" for a long time in an attempt to keep some sort of marketshare. It worked, and ultimately it saved them from ending up like Commodore, Tandy, and the other non-PC computer companies of the 80's. What they realized almost 10 years ago, however, is that growing as a company required them to move beyond "outsiders" and re-establish themselves in the mainstream. They've done a decent job at that since.

[alfredo]

10. they also needed to keep their cards close to the chest. Their competition

is very paranoid, and might have tried to crush them again once they got a AG in their pocket.

[Renew Deal]

4. Interesting trailers

Thanks!

[alfredo]

8. It was the fanboy that held

them together through the lean years.

I bought Apple Stock when they were $10 a share. Sold out when bush came to office. Made good money.