BusinessWeek has been publishing Byte of the Apple by Charles Haddad for the last two years or so. Because of Mr. Haddad’s columns, many of BusinessWeek’s readers have been exposed to positive coverage of Apple, as well as honest criticisms of the company. Coming at a time when BusinessWeek was not known for its Mac-friendliness, Byte of the Apple was a breath of fresh air. Today, the magazine has published a harder news article by one of its reporters, Alex Salkever, that offers another very positive look at Apple.
The piece, titled "Apple Reclaims the Innovation Lead," literally says that Apple has reclaimed the lead in the PC market. Though Microsoft is not specifically named as the former innovation leader, the implication is very strong.
Singer’s experience [with the iPod] illustrates a perception that PC and electronics industry experts are starting to express more frequently. Simply put, Apple and its CEO, Steve Jobs, are regaining the PC industry’s lead in innovation that they lost five years ago. In a bid to improve the Mac’s lowly 5% market share, Apple’s product developers are the ones pushing the envelope — and the competition, too.
The case for this is made not just about features, but about its approach to computing:
Take the case of Mark Rolston, a vice-president at frog design, the firm that helped design the Apple IIc back in the 1980s. He appreciates the nifty packaging of the latest iMac, with its small footprint and 17-inch flat-panel monitor that seemingly floats in mid-air. But more important, OS X has changed the way Rolston thinks of his computer.
"I had never bought a digital camera even though I had been in this industry since 1987," he says. "I think the reason was that it looked like a dead end. You put the picture in the computer, but you had no way to get it back."
REDEFINING THE PC. Apple’s unveiling in January, 2002 of iPhoto, with its easy cropping and printing of photos, persuaded Rolston to buy his first digital camera. What’s more, his mother decided to buy a Mac so she could send, receive, and manipulate photos of her grandchildren. "She didn’t go through a litany of checklists. She looked at the one feature that means everything in the world to her. It redefines your idea of the PC," says Rolston.
There is a lot more to the full article, including some criticisms of the state of browers on the Mac, and many more positive issues as well.
The Mac Observer Spin:
BusinessWeek has not always been friendly to the Mac platform or Apple, especially the print version. For that reason, this extremely positive coverage of the company is even more poignant. It represents Apple’s continued transformation in the public’s eye as a relevant company in the modern PC market, and vindicates many of Apple CEO Steve Jobs’ strategies. It almost reads as a study on how Apple’s business model is the right business model. The article will really help to subtly push home the message that Apple has the good stuff to fence-sitting Switchers, and may help bring more people to the fence as well. BusinessWeek’s radership is very dominated by Windows users, as are most mainstream magazines by the very nature of Apple’s market share, and those are the people who need to get this message.