TheArchpadre said:
One of the most interesting things I've found with having a Mac is the number of people who express a desire to have one, but never actually buy one.
I know several such people myself. A couple of them are scared off by any possible learning curve, but all of them just can't afford one. Sure, Macs are perfectly price-competitive when compared to a similarly-equipped PC, but if that Mac and that PC are both out of your price range compared to the $499 PC at Best Buy, you'll end up with the PC. Most of them don't want something like an eMac, either.
I am glad to see all the recent mass-market coverage of Apple, especially the positive stuff. Coming from being a Windows user for most of my computing life, and a former CompSci geek, I just can't convey how little the average computer user knows or cares about Macs. If they know they exist at all, they usually only vaguely know that Macs are those strange "other" computers that no one they know uses--and that's ALL they know.
Most consumers don't even know what an operating system is. Support techs don't ask, "What OS are you running?" They ask, "What version of Windows do you have?" Windows is the computer, and a computer is the thing that runs Windows. So any curiosity the average Joe walking into CompUSA might have about this Apple thingy that doesn't run Windows is immediately squelched by sticker shock, and he buys the nice cheap familiar Compaq.
That's where I think the Apple stores are such a good idea. Get people to wander in and see that Macs are computers too, that they're not so frighteningly different, that they can do the same stuff, and that in fact they do a lot of the basic stuff--photos, music, etc--more easily than a Windows machine. And do it in an environment where there is no readily available price comparison, while marketing the whole thing as an Apple-branded "experience". Even without sales, that does a LOT to open up mindshare.