Doug, you know I own a Mac (and love them). But I still think there is something to them being out of the reach of most working class people, moreso than Compaqs and other PCs.
The reputation you posted about has been around awhile. In 1996, the year Wired ran the cover story about Apple possibly going under and when Apple had the reputation of a holdover relic from the 1980s -- at that time I bought a Powerbook 3200cs (120 Mhz Power PC processor; 32 megs of RAM!). Buying a Mac in 1996 to many, many people was like throwing money down the drain. I loved that thing, everybody eagerly waiting for Mac OS 8 in those days. I brake for OS 8. Anyway, I was confronted then @ work with a guy who said he was tired of all these Mac owners thinkin' they were better than everyone else. Getting an MCSE and have one's Novell certification were big deals at that time in the field I was in then ( but thankfully got out of). Mac owners were always puttin' on airs, was his beef. That seemed to be the common attitude.
Having said that, I think all things being equal, which they never are, you DO have to sink more money into getting a Mac, even with its pre-bundled stuff supposedly making the pricing competitive, etc. And many people just can't do that, though they'd like to. I think that feeds into the elitist air of Apple owners -- the fact you have to spend more to get one. Conspicuous consumption.
(Yeah, Mac magazines have these elaborate articles where they examine PC components/prices and show how Apple comes out about the same, etc., etc., but I don't buy it. Macs are just flat out more expensive.)
-B.
Doug posted:
http://adage.com/article?article_id=123350>
Mac Owners Are Just Like, Well, the Mac Guy Study: Apple Computer Users Less Modest but More Open Than General (Read: PC) Population
By Beth Snyder Bulik
YORK, Pa. (AdAge.com) -- So it's not just that Mac guy in the "Get a Mac" ads who thinks he's better than everyone else. Apparently so do many of the people who use Apple's computers.