The New York Times’ Thomas Friedman “cites Harvard University labor expert Lawrence Katz, who explains in the column that the now disadvantaged are ‘those engineers and programmers working on more routine tasks and not actively engaged in developing new ideas or recombining existing technologies or thinking about what new customers want… They’ve been much more exposed to global competitors that make them easily substitutable,'” Dana Gardner writes for Seeking Alpha.
“They are also more likely to be using personal computers with nine-year-old operating systems, with little choice but to take what their companies provide in terms of personal productivity IT. They are the 90 percent for whom good enough IT has made them as good as anyone anywhere,” Gardner writes. “In contrast, it’s the ‘top half’ of the labor pool, and more specifically the apparent 10 percent that are ‘entrepreneurship, innovation and creativity’-focused among them, that know to succeed and win they need the very best computer and associated services, even if it costs $500 more. Nowadays there’s no better way to gain an advantage in business and life than to have the best technology.”
“The people who are succeeding are buying Macs, iPhones, iPod Touches and Apple’s services and applications… A flight to quality is usually spurred by disruption and uncertainty. It’s not about brand religion or pretty graphics. It’s about survival and success when the going gets tough. It works for me, it has to,” Gardner writes.
“A chef doesn’t buy the cheapest knifes. A painter doesn’t buy the cheapest brushes. A carpenter doesn’t buy the cheapest hammer. And all the winners in the economy today — those that have a say in what they use to do all the digital things so critical now to almost any knowledge- and services-based job — need the best tools,” Gardner writes. “And they will upgrade those tools just as fast as they can (hence the rapid adoption of Apple’s Snow Leopard OS X upgrade in recent months).”
Gardner writes, “So for all those millions of newly laid off workers who know that ‘entrepreneurship, innovation and creativity’ is their only ticket to a new, fresh start — those that no longer have an IT department to tell them what to do (at lowest cost) — they seem to be making a new move to a Mac.”
Full article – very highly recommended – here.
MacDailyNews Take: Obviously, Gardner gets it implicitly.
But a salesman like Ballmer buys the cheapest suit! May he remain CEO as long as it takes!
@ loopy_nj
So Say We All!
Good analogies.
I’m looking for the cheapest brain surgeon.
This is a new angle never touched. Makes sense.
One of the best arguments for Mac I’ve read in a long time. It’s a spot on observation.
Wonder if Balmy buys the cheapest chairs, its not that he needs them for long.
There are two schools of though on a workforce. One says preserve every job. Change nothing. These folks will keep there IT staff working on XP for another decade. The IT people will be fine with that.
There is another school of thought which says upgrade to something better, then use that extra manpower to innovate and create even more jobs and revenue.
If people would use better, easier and more reliable equipment, they could free up some of that IT staff to innovate elsewhere and make the company more profitable.house
Productivity is increased when you enjoy what you’re doing and don’t have to fight the technology. Factor in the (mostly) reliable hardware.. Factor out the impact of bloatware, viruses, malware, and antiviral programs. The total cost of ownership is arguably less with Macs.
I have a friend who just got a client running Windows NT4 server.. Ouch
We buy Macs because in music and film we want the tools to aid our creativity and to give us the edge.
But from a ‘lifestyle’ perspective where do we spend the most time in our lives? In front of our computer, on the phone and sleeping (hopefully!) in bed. So what do we own? … 3 Macs, 2 iPhones & and a 4-poster bed. Maybe Apple might consider making an iBed??
@ Mahoodas,
An iBed? It would have to be moisture proofed a lot better than an iPhone. Electronics and incontinence are not a good combination, don’t ya know.
A cushioned combination sleeping-working-playing surface would be Apple’s answer to the M$ Big-Ass Table…
All that is true. What is missing is the extremely high percentage of college graduates that are hired on the cheep that use Macs and have seen Macs used for 4 or 5 years while the Windows PC could not survive and had to be replaced.
They were not blinded by the PC only IT department. They are informed employees now!
Where are all the reviews blasting Windows 7? This is MDN after all… The answer, of course, is that W7 is an excellent OS. And there aren’t any scathing reviews to be found.
Me thinks some people are scared the tide will turn…
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Interesting year ahead.
@ Pc Fanatic
PcF doesn’t get it.
There’s no need to blast another (snore) Windows ‘operating system’, it does it itself.
I think we’ve moved on from that paradigm. Apple / Mac products are so far superior to grubby PCs, that they simply sell by being ‘insanely great’.
And if PcF should wish to question what I’ve written, then think on this: What music artists does he like to listen to? What movies does he love and go and see? Sorry Matey, they’re all made on Macs!
Efficiency is just a rounding error.
A ’rounding error’ is PC speak for ‘I don’t know how to deal with this. Please sack me and get some other sucker to run this empire in decline’.
That’s exactly right. People who actually make a real decision based on what they want to use (instead of what is least costly to the bean counters with a bulk purchase) tend to choose a Mac and Mac OS X. That’s why Apple has more than 90% of the market for PCs costing more than $1000. And Apple succeeds in that market by offering a more desirable product that no one else can match.
@ Pc Fanatic
“Where are all the reviews blasting Windows 7? This is MDN after all… The answer, of course, is that W7 is an excellent OS. And there aren’t any scathing reviews to be found.
Me thinks some people are scared the tide will turn…
Interesting year ahead.”
Who cares? That would be like us wanting to try to stop Sir Gill Bates from committing suicide.
Why the hell would there be scathing reviews of Windows 7? Sure, it’s only Vista with a superficial layer of new shine. And yeah, it deserves to get blasted. But Microsoft isn’t paying for scathing reviews.
The tech media always raves about the latest Windows at launch. They raved about Vista, too. Every successive version is automatically the best yet, even when it’s not.
Somebody else already posted this link, but it’s too funny not to post it again just to whack you over the head with:
http://csharpner.blogspot.com/search/label/windows 7
See? It’s a little dose of Windows 7 reality to help balance out the phony praise.
“That would be like us wanting to try to stop Sir Gill Bates from committing suicide.”
Man, that was cold. You’re a Republican, right?
@ Sir Gill Bates
Re: “Man, that was cold. You’re a Republican, right?”
Nope.
@spyinthesky
Wonder if Balmy buys the cheapest chairs, its not that he needs them for long.
You have my vote for the best line of the day!
@ MDmac,
Sorry for jumping to conclusions. I guess there’s no strict rule saying that only conservatives can be assholes.
Excellent article. I refuse to work for a non-Mac company. You have to wonder about any firm that gives their employees crap tools.
Last non-Mac job I had, used my own Mac laptop, good move.
Turning to Apple requires an evolution of consciousness toward realization of the power of excellence and creativity.