Re: The Mac Pro
Marco just put into words what I have always thought but could not verbalize. This is the exact difference between OSX and Vista. Microsoft looked at OSX and tried to copy what they thought made it such an appealing operating system, although they made the same mistake and took the eye candy part instead of the design part.
Apple has always had a grasp on user interface and design that no one in the computer industry does (sorry Tumblr you come extremely close but not quite apple). A perfect example of this is the iPhone, I am what one might call an “Apple Fan Boy” so most people were surprised when I scuffed off the iPhone for my Blackberry. I had seen smart phones before(in the past 2/3 years I have owned a Windows Mobile, Palm Treo, Nokia S60, and Blackberry smart-phone) and although it was apple I did not see anything special.
It was not until I used the iPhone for a day(teaching my father how to use his) that I really understood why apple has taken 60% of the market in less then a year. Apple has taken what it knows about how people interact with computers and applied it to a mobile device. You don’t have to learn the iPhone, you just interact with it how you would assume, and that is why it has the ability to have such deep market penetration. I even find my self trying to touch or swipe the screen on my blackberry(I need it for work) from time to time because it is such a natural motion.
That is why apple’s market share is growing, good design is something that appeals to people across the spectrum of computer knowledge. Weather you are an 80 year old grandmother receiving email pictures of your grand children, or a computer programmer utilizing the computer to its fullest. At the lowest level you need to interact with the operating system, and the easier and more intuitive that is the more satisfied you will be with your computer.
We don’t use Macs and Mac software because of the eye candy. We use them because of the design. Design and eye candy are very different — design is a combination of how it looks, what it does (and doesn’t do), and how it works.
