Is Apple a cult?

[Shrek]

I've heard some people say that Apple is a cult and I do see where they are coming from: I've read lots of "switch" stories on the Apple website and many of these people talk about how they are "in love" with their Macs or how they are addicted to their Macs. Hmmm.

Now I'm NOT saying that Apple is a cult and I DON'T believe that it is! My first guess it that it's just pure genius that goes into Apple products (the stuff sells itself), and that Apple in no way attempts to brainwash it's customers through it's marketing strategy. Though I would like to know what Mac user's views on this topic are. Thanks.

 

[evildead]

Apple is not...

... but some Apple users have formed into cult like groups...

its not really a bad thing... is it?

-evildead

 

[Rower_CPU]

I think the whole cult aspect has sort of blown over. Apple is doing a lot better than they were a few years ago. Things looked pretty bleak, but some people hung on so fervently and vocally that people thought it had to be a cult.

Here's a story that always cracks me up. If you're familiar with how Dell has always positioned themselves as innovators in the computer industry, you're also familiar with the way that Mike Dell tries to claim firsts/innovations that Apple has already done. Apparently it has gone so far that people in the Texas town where Dell has its headquarters refer to a cult of Dell, citing the fanatacism there for the company. Cult of Dell! I've never heard anything funnier in my life!

 

[buffsldr]

the word "cult" tends to be used as a negative descriptor, but is it always that?

see dictionary.com
cult __Pronunciation Key__(klt)
n.
1.
a. A religion or religious sect generally considered to be extremist or false, with its followers often living in an unconventional manner under the guidance of an authoritarian, charismatic leader.
b. The followers of such a religion or sect.

2. A system or community of religious worship and ritual.
3. The formal means of expressing religious reverence; religious ceremony and ritual.
4. A usually nonscientific method or regimen claimed by its originator to have exclusive or exceptional power in curing a particular disease.
5.
a. Obsessive, especially faddish, devotion to or veneration for a person, principle, or thing.
b. The object of such devotion.

6. An exclusive group of persons sharing an esoteric, usually artistic or intellectual interest.


Under definition 6, does the shoe fit?

 

[Shrek]

Originally posted by Rower_CPU
I've never heard anything funnier is my life!

Funny stuff! But I will refrain from laughing at your typo.

 

[barkmonster]

I think us mac owners are seen as kind of elitist rather than a cult.

I mean that in the sense that if you want to just get on with doing whatever you like doing a mac is very easy to use so lots of people swear by the hardware and OS. I tend to swear AT the hardware and OS a lot these days because my mac's really old but I do think with macs, once you've used one you'll never want to buy a PC. I've was exactly the same with my Atari ST years ago, had plenty of arguments with the Amiga owners in highschool about owning one of those. It's the same now, PC owners refuse to believe so much of the technology and interface elements they're used to originate from Apple or NeXT and it got really funny a week or so ago when someone asked me where they could buy the PC version of OS X!

The arguments I've had over macs that have been over within seconds are almost countless.

A friend of mine mentioned a few months ago "some guy at work has been on a networking course and they've got this new technology where you can share a cablemodem or a server with loads of PCs without using any wires - I bet you've not got anything like on the mac yet have you ?"

Once I mentioned Airport had been on the mac for over 2 years and it was exactly the same thing the only response was "well, whatever".

It's not something I get particually irrate about but I think it's the windows users who are more of a cult than we are, if you can't build it yourself and it doesn't come with X graphics card and Y motherboard and runs on windows they think it's crap and won't even listen to anything that might show how far behind their technology is.

The whole Mhz Myth is getting a little stale now that PCs are proving to be significantly faster for the price but when I first got my 300Mhz G3 and it was toasting the 600Mhz Pentium 2 and K6 PCs some of my friends had at absolutely everything I felt like it was better to be a mac owner. Even now when for overall performance the mac is starting to look overpriced, I'm still not interested in any other platform because I can upgrade what I've got and then wait for something really powerful to come out. It's not the first time apple have been behind in the performance stakes and come out of it within a year or so. No matter what performance differences there are, it's the OS and the hardware that keeps me with the platform.

 

[firewire2001]

hrm.

i think that a lotta ppl that use macs are kinda cult-ish..

i think its always been like this, but it was exposed a lot more when apple wasnt doing well, cause they were the main group that apple wass completely surviving off of..

i mean.. if you look like ppl that use macs - they are usually a lot more passionate about their machines than your average pc user.. its just that apple is really kinda a culture...

thats my take on it..

-f

 

[rainman::|:|]

Originally posted by buffsldr
6. An exclusive group of persons sharing an esoteric, usually artistic or intellectual interest.


Under definition 6, does the shoe fit?

Indeed! I hadn't realized the definition of cult extended that far. Of course, if you really wanted to apply the word on a large scale, you'd almost have to deem every fan club, etc... still it's pretty damn funny... i'm calling my mom and telling her i'm in a cult!


pnw

 

[Shrek]

LoL paulwhannel!!!

 

[Mr. Anderson]

well, the nice thing about it is that you join and leave as you wish, no one telling you what to do and no one passing out kool-aid......

D

 

[Rower_CPU]

Originally posted by Shrek
Funny stuff! But I will refrain from laughing at your typo.

It's one of those days...

 

[dhdave]

Re: Is Apple a cult?

Originally posted by Shrek
I've heard some people say that Apple is a cult and I do see where they are coming from: I've read lots of "switch" stories on the Apple website and many of these people talk about how they are "in love" with their Macs or how they are addicted to their Macs. Hmmm.

Now I'm NOT saying that Apple is a cult and I DON'T believe that it is! My first guess it that it's just pure genius that goes into Apple products (the stuff sells itself), and that Apple in no way attempts to brainwash it's customers through it's marketing strategy. Though I would like to know what Mac user's views on this topic are. Thanks.

I loved it. It was better than CATS. I'm going to buy it again and again.

dh

 

[idkew]

Originally posted by buffsldr
the word "cult" tends to be used as a negative descriptor, but is it always that?

in case you have forgotten everyone; christianity was a cult when it began. it took hundreds upon hundreds of years for it to be a "religion".


hummm.... lets not get into jobs as god discussions.

 

[SilvorX]

notice how the letters from the switches who werent satisfied with mac didnt have their letters appearing on the site...

 

[barkmonster]

This is quite a funny take on it all...

A bit insulting maybe, but it's still funny

 

[amnesiac1984]

i don't think there's anything really wrong with being elitist towards the equipment you use. You need the best you can get and when ppl think they are using the best they can get when we know that ours is better, we are being accused of being elitist. But being elitist towards other people because you belive yourself to be better is not good. However, if someone is just too ignorant to except that another platform maybe better than their worshipped windows platform, then its their fault for being ignorant and not ours for being elitist, just better informed.

 

[dnte42]

Pauses, knife held inches above the breast of the virgin sacrifice.

"A cult? No, no, not really. Now if you'll excuse me, I have Apple runes to draw in the sand..."

 

[jefhatfield]

to some, apple is a company that builds computers...to me, i believe they build great computers

but to many i have seen, apple is a cult making its members believe false benchmarks, beliefs, ideals, etc...and it is not the fault of apple, but of the people who make it their god

steve jobs' personality is not unlike jim jones in its charismatic quality and certainly, the man probably thinks he is something he is not based on the numerous articles and eyewitness accounts i have read...but is he any different than bill gates or henry ford or howard hughes?

i like to try and state the facts of what my apple machine can do and what it can't...i realize my rev a ibook has its limitations and i remember at its introduction, steve jobs called it the second fastest laptop in the world, which was not true at all...but that was just a push for his product...a salesman's pitch and nothing more

i like to read pc publications also and websites and i realize that pcs are currently faster, but my needs are not that great so i don't really care that there is an athlon 2200 or 2.4 ghz p4 or whatever...i don't need that power in computing right now for what i do anyway...just a good, reliable mac...and if someone wants to make apple a cult, that is their problem

 

[macstudent]

what about wired's webpage. Cult of the Mac http://www.wired.com/news/mac

 

[jefhatfield]

Originally posted by macstudent
what about wired's webpage. Cult of the Mac http://www.wired.com/news/mac

wow, great stories!

some of them are really funny and accurate since i know people like those zealots written about...i guess there are those that take the mac thing way too far

the linux and unix crowds are also quite, how shall i say it, "devoted", but at least the mac cult wants to stay within the confines of the law or at least are not obsessed with changing it and making everything open source which may or may not be good

being a owner of a pc and a mac, and being a techie that fixes both, i can't stand ignorant comments that a mac zealot sometimes says about pcs without ever having owned one...they will take some comment steve jobs said long ago about a pc, and take it as gospel (not realizing that pcs also have improved over the years...greatly so)

still macs' ease of use and hardware reliability and industrial design still stand head and shoulders above the pc

i would call most pcs good computers, and most macs great computers...even the lowly crt imac is great because the thing is practically bulletproof...and it doesn't hurt either that it runs mac os

 

[ArtMan617]

I wish it were a cult...maybe then we'd take some action in getting rid of Micro$oft...heh. Anywho, I don't feel that Apple is a cult, just that (as some others have already said) many people are fanatical about their macs (I'm one of them) and then get percieved as a cult...

-ArtMan617

 

[Choppaface]

Re: Is Apple a cult?

not a cult, but not far from one

too much brand loyalty... he he

 

[kiwi_the_iwik]

Because of the latest spate of bad feelings with regard to:

* The full-price Jaguar upgrade;
* The .mac fiasco & shutting down iTools;
* No discernable increase in speed with the new DP Towers (as well as an ugly design - in my humble opinion, paint it a bright colour, put a stick in the back, and it'll look like a Dyson Vacuum Cleaner);
* And dropping the Cube in favour of a lamp, only to phase it out starting October 2002 - less than a year from when it was released (what were they thinking?!?).

...a few people will be replacing the "l" in "cult" with an "n"...


Say no more.

 

[tjwett]

Originally posted by kiwi_the_iwik

* And dropping the Cube in favour of a lamp, only to phase it out starting October 2002 - less than a year from when it was released (what were they thinking?!?).

they are phasing out the new iMac? in favor of what? i haven't heard anything about this.

 

[vniow]

Originally posted by tjwett


they are phasing out the new iMac? in favor of what? i haven't heard anything about this.

I think he means the rumor that the 15" iMac is being discontinued in favor of a discounted 17"