“What is it about Apple products and the Mac in particular that inspires a fanatical, almost religious devotion among users? The question has baffled marketers and others outside the Mac cult for years, so Kobi Shely and a band of documentary filmmakers went out seeking answers,” Asher Moses reports for Stuff.co.nz.
“Over their two-year journey the seven-person team interviewed more than 50 “Macheads” for their film of the same name, which is due for release this year,” Moses reports.
“But at the end of their long journey, during which the filmmakers spoke to virtually every prominent member of the Mac community, Shely hasn’t come much closer to cracking the cult of Mac,” Moses reports.
MacDailyNews Take: Guess we don’t have to bother watching it then.
Moses continues, “He said most Macheads volunteered ‘ease of use’ and ‘design’ as reasons for their devotion but this did little to explain how a subculture could develop around a computer.”
“He concluded that the core reason for the Mac’s unique success was Apple’s ability to appeal to people’s emotions,” Moses reports.
“Shely said he was inspired to create the film after witnessing the vitriolic reaction from the Mac community after Apple announced the ability for Macs to run Windows.
The Mac camp showed its typical air of superiority, saying the move would be like a gourmet pizza restaurant starting to serve Domino’s,” Moses reports.
Full article here.
“MacHEADS the movie,” a movie about Apple Mac fans from “Chimp 65 Productions,” online trailer:
Direct link via Dailymotion: http://www.dailymotion.com/video/x44l1c_macheads-the-movie-trailer_tech
True Macheads are those that adopted the platform early and resisted the siege of Windows, along with with mass media’s constant drone of the death of Apple throughout the ’90s.
Apple II’s in college 25 years ago, first Mac in ’89, and nothing else since.
Ever.
When I was in my teens, I owned an Apple IIe. In the 90’s I began my working career and moved to PC’s. In the new centruy I got a job that entailed doing some testing on a Mac. It was then I remembered that computing was supposed to be FUN. I started the switch, and you know what I found out? Macs are fun, they are easy to use, they are a pleasure to work on, they are very powerful machines and they are made really well.
I argue with PC enthusiasts all the time about why anyone would use a mac. I have learned one thing about those PC users, they don’t care about quality. They put out crap code and crap products calling it good enough, while I care about quality and elegance.
How does a person who only cares what the price tag is even begin to understand quality and elegance and the motivations of the people who care about such things. And likewise, how do we who care about good stuff learn not to turn of our nose?
I guess its the old argument of bad beer. I have friends from college who still drink Bud Light while I am trying the latest Belgium, German and US microbrews. Life is too short for bad beer and bad computing, for them, ehh its just alcohol and a job.
@spark,
That’s not really fair. I didn’t know anything else when I was growing up and only in the last couple of years did I get a Mac and see what I’d been missing. I think that the attitude of “you’re only a fan if you’ve been here since the beginning” is a bit shortsighted. If you have nothing else around you and have no experience with anything else you can’t blame people for being bandwagons and whatnot. If they’re meant to see it and be part of the community you should welcome them, not look down your nose at them.
That is all. Back to the previously scheduled smugness.
Apple II – CPM – lack of ease-of-use, no desire to “build” my own computer. Don’t do gaming
Been through the mill on the other stuff.
I use Macs to work – make money. Bought first one in 84, bought several dozen or more since. They don’t break, just get old. We donate them when they need to be replaced by faster machine. We run 20 some Macs in my office – no IT (I’m as close as it comes to IT). Email, network, server, multiple printers – everything connected.
All easily, quickly, no hassles. Yeah – I’m a Mac head, because they work and as a result, let ME work.
I sure hope they get it right. It’s a lot more than a handful of nuts that like the same thing.
I believe it’s basically preservation instinct that drives a lot of Mac users. We came close to losing what we know is superior technology… and we’ll never let it get to that point again.
There is no ethnic, social-economic, political, religious divide with Mac Users. We are there to help any present or future user. I tend toward the conservative, but would as gladly help Al Gore as I would Rush Limbaugh with a Mac question.
We’re all one family. By helping others we know that we ensure our preferred computing experience will continue.
It has been my experience that Mac users are more demanding and are more knowledgeable about computers in general. Apple has a very close community and brand equity that nobody else in the industry can touch. I think Mac users would love to embrace Microsoft products if there were something innovative there but those days are long gone for MS
“He said most Macheads volunteered ‘ease of use’ and ‘design’ as reasons for their devotion but this did little to explain how a subculture could develop around a computer.”
“He concluded that the core reason for the Mac’s unique success was Apple’s ability to appeal to people’s emotions.”
TRANSLATION:
Kobi Shely didn’t get the dramatic, sensational answer he wanted, so he made it up!
Started out with TI 99-4a and the Commodore 64 as a kid. Table sized floppies and cassette tapes for data storage. Oh what a world.
Grew up, sk8 boards and drugs were my calling. No computers.
Went to college, meet my first Windows machine. 3.1 and had to use Word Perfect for DOS. What CRAP! I knew computers could be better.
Started classes for media production. Meet my first Mac running OS 7. I was amazed. This computer actually talked to me like a human. It just made sense on a level that 3.1 couldn’t even try to reach. This had a major impact on my life. I was to become a mac addict!
For all those who don’t understand or see the light, they are doomed to live in darkness.
The Mac is not just a computer. It is a part of me and who I have become in this world.
Way back in 1984 I was happily running my Apple IIe and decided to move up to the flashy new “Business” computer … the IBM pc, so I took my 11 year old daughter with me to the computer store… just as I was being rung up for my purchase my daughter, Michelle showed me what she had just done on that new little computer in the back … it was a printout, complete with picture of a heart that said “I Love You Daddy”. She had never, ever touched a computer before that day. I was sold, I switched that day & have never looked back, or used anything else … and I managed to convert quite a following over the years.
Luv, Peece & Maciness yall
It’s absurd really. Kobi Shely would have done far more interesting work by exploring why there is a Cult of Windows: why would large numbers of people devote themselves to absolutely crap technology?
There is no Cult of Mac. Mac simply works better.
This should be interesting. I’m sure the film focuses on the strangest of the breed. I’m sure the film is constructed in such a way that you’d be able to deduce that Shirley McLaine must use a Mac.
I might be considered a Machead. I’ve been an Apple admirer since the time I saw the first Macintosh — everything was so crisp, clean and simple and the packaging was gorgeous. Plus you could pick it up and go. I bought my first Mac in 1999, a Tangerine G3 iMac, shortly after Steve Jobs had come back to rescue this amazing company with its storied history. They’d basically booted Jobs a decade earlier to make the company more like every other computer company, and Jobs had returned the company towards its unique vision of computing, the one with the beautiful fonts, the brain of the scientist, the spirit of the artist, and the simplicity of a child. The iMac just plugged into the electrical outlet. That was all the set up that was required. My friends with PCs had to install discs, drivers, cards, you name it. It took them days to set up a simple computer. The Mac was different, and it did everything I need to do. I’ve never looked back or elsewhere. Sure, I use PCs at work, and they’re not bad. But my heart & soul works like a Mac. And since that first Tangerine iMac, I’ve had a white 12″ G3 iBook, a “white lamp” G4 iMac, a titanium 15″ G4 PowerBook, a black CoreDuo MacBook, and a 24″ gloss iMac. I’m not counting AirPorts, iPods, Cinema Displays or software, but that’s a lot of Macs,and they’ve gotten plenty of use.
Maybe it IS a religious experience!
For me it’s the “it just works” thing. In my print shop we have a variety of machines, and the Macs always get the job done. I make more money using Macs. Thats got to count for something!
The madness that is maintaining a Windows network, and why people dont demand more from Microsoft, that should be a freakin’ documentary…
If this is an ad for Apple users, I own a Dell.
This is like ‘Trekkies’ except without the hot Denise Cosby.
Wow, looks like from her docmumentary preview, Macheads are Jerry Garcia-worshipping hippies! Ooops, I meant Steve Jobs-worshipping yippies!
I started out using computers that used punch cards and digital tape in the Navy on the 1970s, then moved to the Apple II in 1979.
I’ve used only Apple computers since then, the Mac since 1984 and I will NOT even touch a Windows machine.
Apple. Real Intelligent Design.®
Hey there Spark.
True Mac Users adopt Apple because they use Micros**t products and something bad happens. They wander into an Apple store or have a Machead buddy and that’s that.
So the lady starts about her late dad, and a picture of a chimp pops up.
??
I know I know, it’s the production company.
And it’s a retarded name. Does every company have to be ‘Blue Frog’, ‘Nine Cows’, ‘Electric Chicken’, ‘Frozen Mackerel’ etc etc..?
Just a first impression.
I think many of you have it wrong.
A MacHead is really someone that started with a Lisa and migrated to a Macintosh.
I started with Lisa. Actually, the second Lisa in the state of Alabama.
It was converted to a MacXL at a later date.
After watching that trailer..all I have to say is that y’all wear weird clothes.
Just my $0.02
“True Macheads are those that adopted the platform early and resisted the siege of Windows, along with with mass media’s constant drone of the death of Apple throughout the ’90s.”
These “True Macheads” are idiots then. Back in the 90s Apple sold crap. What they had was _worse_ than Windows.
They didn’t have anything decent until Apple bought NeXT and got the BSD Unix/NeXTSTEP technology:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/NEXTSTEP
Oh, and when they did that they got Steve Jobs back, too. Jobs had wanted to move Apple to Unix before he got ousted in the first place — smart guy.
This is why Apple is riding high now. It’s not because of a bunch of irritating, emotionally immature Apple-cultists. It had those in the 90s, and it was heading down the toilet then. ***It’s because Apple have good technology***. The iPhone runs on the same software technology as the computers: it’s that flexible.
MAC= More Advance Computer ,three letters says it all.
This is as bad as all the Obama crap.
I am among, the few, the proud, the earliest Cult of Mac members, before it had a name.
Resisting all attacks from the Dark Side, facing near death, praying for the return of Steve Jobs. Believing against all odds (and financial Prophets) that the current resurrection would come, and against all odds—it did.
Howz that for a cult statement? ; )
I think the longer your a Mac user, the more passion you have, so new users have passion but maybe not as much or as deep as us early 1980’s Mac users. When you have a billion+ people against you for decades, passion keeps you going, keeps you fighting, because you know there is something better than what the status-quo is using. Apple’s “Think Different” commercial says it all: