My Utopian View (Of Hardware) - Introduction

I'm going to take a big turn away from police monkeys for a little bit and share with you some of my serious thinkings.

Apple Computer occupies a fair portion of my computer related day dreaming. There's a lot about Apple to like. One of the things that fascinates me most about Apple is how a company that's so large and... corporate, can brand itself as such a stylish maverick in spite of itself. It's all a marketing ploy, and it's perfectly demonstrated by the Get a Mac campaign.

Whatever - it works is the point that I'm making here. Steve Jobs has his famous reality distortion field that extends out weeks ahead of any of the Mac World or WWDC events and, instead of people becoming conscious of the spin and resisting it, throngs have made the choice - in the face of clever phrases - to buy into the Apple experience. The experience factor is key here.

You see, nobody else sells an experience. Dell doesn't sell an "experience". The closest Dell ever got to having a corporate experience was the awful, "Dude, you're getting a Dell," campaign. HP does sell an experience, but the children must leave the room in order for us to speak of it. We don't use such language around tender ears.

(Based on zero science, let alone research, I present to you the websites of the top PC manufacturers, plus Apple. This begins the survey of how the experience differs between retailers. Apple Dell HP eMachines Gateway)

Anyway, I want to believe that a satisfying computer owning experience can exist, in a mainstream manufacturer, outside of Apple. I'm not saying that I want Apple to be replaced by anybody - I just don't want Apple to be the only company that makes a quality product that demands attention and desire in consumers.

(Note that I discount Alienware and FalconNW and the other "boutique" manufacturers here - sorry guys, but you'll have to admit you've positioned yourself out of the mainstream)

So what makes the Apple experience so Apple? I don't know for sure, but I have some thoughts. I'm going to share those thoughts over a few posts, after which I shall build to the big climax of it all - My Utopian View (Of Hardware).