Tropophilia

What follows is not as off-topic as you might think.  In preparation for Macworld Expo 2008, I have sought here to reconstruct the events that last year led me to “make the switch” from PC to Mac.  I ended up not making a “switch,” in fact - I made a “leap.”  I’m a shameless Apple fanboy now.  This anecdote not only chronicles personal changes I’ve made, but also documents how a company like Apple can so inspire change that it creates a cult, a movement, even an identity.  That’s some powerful stuff, and something worth bloggin’ about.

About a year ago, I was sitting in my house in Alabama, enjoying the last few days of what had been almost a month off from school for the Christmas / New Year / Martin Luther King holidays.  Man, I wish I was back in school so I could have long breaks like that again.  Anyway.  It was 11:00 am in Alabama, which just so happened to be 9:00am in San Francisco.  I was reading the “live blog” of Macworld Expo 2007, the annual convention where Apple and its developers show off new products.  The highlight of the event, the Christmas Day of the Apple calendar, is what has become known as the Stevenote — the keynote presentation by Apple CEO Steve Jobs where, without fail, he unveils new products or features that change the playing field.  I was in my pajamas, eating waffles and sipping coffee, with my Dell laptop in front of me.  I was captivated, transfixed in a state of what Fake Steve Jobs correctly terms “childlike wonder”.

I had never been an Apple “fan” up to that point, but slowly and surely the stage was being set for a dramatic shift.  My parents had bought an iMac in 2003 or 2004 and absolutely hated the experience.  I tried to help them with their problems but quickly became frustrated, because I was so entrenched in the PC mindset.   iTunes was released for the PC in 2003, right around the time I started college.  My best friend, roommate, and now co-blogger Taylor introduced me to iTunes and to his iPod, and I was impressed.  Not yet obsessed, but impressed nonetheless.  I soon got rid of my Creative MP3 player and asked for an iPod for Christmas.

Sometime in those first two years of college, Taylor ”made the switch.”  He ditched his Dell Insipiron for an iBook.  At the same time, I upgraded from my behemoth Gateway notbook for a lightweight Dell Inspiron.  Taylor took the road less traveled, and I took the safe route.

Taylor was instantly in love with his iBook.  He made a big deal about how much sweeter the Mac-OS X combo was than any experience a PC-Windows duo could deliver.  Taylor was better than me in many respects, but I wasn’t going to let him win this one.  I stuck to my PC guns for years, penning lengthy emails to him about the glories of customization, compatibility, and speed that Windows and PCs offered, and that Macs and OS X simply couldn’t.

At Macworld Expo 2006, Steve Jobs announced that the Macintosh product line would thereafter be outfitted with Intel processors.  The speed argument against Apple, in essense, was dead.  But I had just bought a new laptop, was halfway through my year abroad in France, and was already hooked onto a different tech fix: Google.  I had invested in GOOG and loved all their products, and spent all of my blog browsing time reading about that company.  But by the end of 2006 it was hard to ignore the momentum that Apple was gaining.  More of my friends were making the switch, and there were rumors circulating that something big was coming at Macworld 2007.  My little Dell was already starting to show its age.  I was heading into my final semester at school and would probably need a new computer by graduation.  All the pieces were in place.

As I sat there in my pajamas, reading the various live blogs during the Stevenote,  I knew I was done.  I refreshed the page and there was an image of Steve Jobs holding the iPhone.  A media player.  A web browser.  A phone.  Smaller than most Blackberries, and with only one button.  The rest was a touch screen.  Wireless connectivity.  Google Maps integration.  E-mail.  The internet - the real internet, not the mobile one - was literally in your pocket and at your fingertips.  This was the future, and Apple was delivering it.

That was January 2007.  In February (on Valentine’s Day, ironically), I was starting up my new MacBook.  By the beginning of the summer I had invested in AAPL.  In July, though I thought I could resist at first, I was activating my new iPhone.  I was preaching the Apple cult to anyone and everyone who would listen.  I subscribed to Apple blogs, discovered Fake Steve Jobs and became a member of his cult too, and before I knew it I was just as Macified as I was Googlified.

How do they do it?  How does Apple hypnotize people, even people like me who were die-hard PC-ers?  There are whole books written about it, so I won’t pretend to be the expert.  But I have some ideas.

It’s the simplicity.  Life is complicated and so, by extension, is our digital life.  Apple products exude calm and order from the inside out.  OS X is quick and to the point.  Organization of documents, images, and music is dead easy.  Because 80%+ of the software you’ll use on a Mac is made by Apple, everything works seamlessly together.  The customization argument for PCs is empty.  MacBooks may not let you easily delve into the innards of the system or of the software, but there are plenty enough options to make your experience what you want it to be.  Many of the tasks and maintenance that you have to run manually on a PC are automatically initiated on a Mac (notably, disk cleanup and defragmentation, which when left unrun spell the premature deaths of many PCs).  The new version of OS X features automatic backup and even greater ogranizational abilities.

The objects that Apple creates are beautiful.  My MacBook is a glossy white.  It looks pure, unburdened by its content.  It is not flashy.  The edges are smooth and rounded, so it feels coomfortable in my hand.  The keys are silent and flat.  There is a built-in camera and microphone, and powerful software for using each.  The iPhone is the picture of perfection in design - solid yet lightweight, glossy-but-virtually-unscratchable touchscreen, intuitive software.

Where I used to take pride in maintaining and troubleshooting my PCs, I now take solace in the lack of need to do so with my Mac.  Where I used to revel in the ways I could outfit my PC with software and tweaks, I now celebrate the fact that my Mac very, very rarely crashes because the operating environment is so strictly controlled.  I may have exchanged freedom for tranquility, but if this is what submission feels like, then I submit.

“There’s something in the air.”  This slogan adorns banners hanging all over the Moscone Center in San Francisco today.  Beginning tonight, Apple devotees will already begin to line up for tomorrow’s big event.  At 9:00am PST, Steve will take the stage, make his announcements, and then tell us about that “one more thing.”  Will Apple be able to equal — or top — the splash they made last year with the promise of the iPhone?  Speculation abounds about what Steve will introduce.  A sub-notebook?  A touchscreen tablet?  WiMax integration?  Video rentals from the iTunes Music Store?  An upgraded Apple TV?  Or something we’re not even thinking or dreaming of?

There is little doubt it will be a good year for Apple.  But will it be great?  Find out tomorrow by following the live blogs of the Stevenote.  I may be in my office in my loafers instead of at home in my pajamas, but you canbet that I’ll be glued to my computer in childlike wonder nonetheless.

Images used under a Creative Commons license courtesy of Flickr users procsilas and skell.