March 2, 2005
Apple

“Bummer dude!”  When the world discovers your own little secret it sure takes the joy out of being “cutting edge”. 

Like the Apple I’s.  You know, I-Mac’s, I-books and I-Pods.  For years we Apple aficionados were members of a little cult hidden way over in the corner of a PC world.  Free from the worry about computer virus, talking in Applespeak (OSX, the Apple operating system is pronounced OS ten not OS ex), and adopting an attitude of smug superiority, we spent computer life looking down our collective noses at the Windows world. 

Not that our loyalty to all things Apple brought the corporation any great windfall of success.  Apple piddled along for years with a one or two percent share of the market.  Things got so bad the computer world’s answer to Darth Vader, Bill Gates invested one hundred fifty million bucks in Apple.  Not that Bill was an Apple fanatic, the suspicion was should Apple go toes up Mr. Gates was staring at an even greater onslaught of anti-trust lawsuits.  Better to keep his oh so minimal competitor alive. 

Apple was our private secret.  Their stuff looks better (the I-Mac is so cool just sitting on your desk highlighted by what Fortune magazine calls “jelly bean” colors), rarely crashes and is easier to operate. 

On my bike ride across the country a couple of years back, my I-book and I-pod were constant companions.  The I-Pod alone started two or three conversations a day, “What’s that thing?’”  And when people put my earphones on the response was, “That sound is killer, where’d you buy it? I want one.” 

An I-Pod made you the coolest guy going in the then all Walkman world.  Now?  Everybody has an I-Pod.  This Christmas alone Apple sold 4.6 million of the cute little music makers.  So much for being unique. 

Computer illiterate that I am it was always so easy to walk into an Apple store with a question and get the answer.  You’ve never been to an Apple store?  There are two in Denver.  Talk about being “the bomb”.  So modern, so functional it’s like Mies van der Rohe goes retail.  And in the back the folks who answer your questions are set up in a location called the “Genius” bar complete with a sign saying, “The Genius is in.”  Just 9 months ago one could amble in and talk to the geek in residence as long as necessary.  Now you’re required to take a number and wait.  Everybody is in to Apple.  Unfortunately. 

Steve Jobs, the co-founder of Apple, he was cast out over a decade ago and then started the powerhouse animation company Pixar (Toy Story, Bug’s Life, Capt. Nemo and The Incredibles) was the prodigal son brought back to save Apple from oblivion in 1997.  That mission has been accomplished and then some.  Steve is everywhere, on the covers of Fortune, Forbes and Business Week, consulting heads of state and appearing on the evening news. 

And those of us who were so smug with our Apple secret?  Oh we’re still smug, just secretless.  It’s much like being a Red Sox fan for forty years.  Now that they’ve won the World Series, rooting for the Sox just isn’t that big a deal.  Everybody’s doing it.