“The Dictionary.com site defines an ‘aristocracy’ in part as ‘a class of persons holding exceptional rank and privileges,'” Mike Elgan writes for Cult of Mac. “Scanning the news recently, I got to wondering: Is Apple creating a new aristocracy?”
“Aristocrats are characterized by, among other things, desirable social privileges and conveniences, especially in transportation. In the 17th and 18th centuries in Europe, aristocrats traveled in horse-drawn coach carriages. The riff-raff not only had to walk, but get off the road when an important person came along in a carriage. Travel has always been more convenient for aristocrats,” Elgan writes. “Cult of Mac reported back in April that Apple had filed a patent for an app called iTravel. (The patent was granted this week.) You can follow the links to read the details, but in a nutshell the app is a kind of ‘Easy-Pass’ for air travel. While the hoi polloi queue up for check-in, security and boarding, the Apple aristocrats just stroll onto the plane.”
Elgan writes, “Of course, aristocrats have to pay more for better travel services. A recent report revealed that Orbitz routinely offers only higher-rate rooms to site visitors using Macs, as it found that Mac users typically spend more anyway. This difference in hotels offered is not revealed to users. Visitors to Orbitz who use Macs simply live in a world in which hotels are better and more expensive.”
Read more, including commercial, privacy and other privileges afforded to Apple users, in the full article, in which Elgan concludes that Apple is not creating a new aristocracy, here.
MacDailyNews Take: Elgan’s right, there’s nothing new about it. Mac users have always been the aristocrats of personal computing and now iPhone users and iPad users are the aristocrats of the smartphone and tablet/personal computing markets, respectively.
[Thanks to MacDailyNews Readers “Fred Mertz” and “Dan K.” for the heads up.]
Related articles:
Why smart retailers lust over Mac, iPhone, and iPad users – June 26, 2012
On Orbitz, Mac users first shown pricier hotels than Windows sufferers – June 26, 2012
Wealthy smartphone users more likely to have iPhones; less likely to play games, tweet – April 2, 2012
U.S. Apple product users split evenly between Republicans and Democrats; Half of U.S. households own at least one Apple product – March 28, 2012
Mac users are more fashionable than Windows PC sufferers – March 1, 2012
Study: iPad users more likely to buy – and buy more – online than traditional PC users – September 29, 2011
iPhone users smarter, richer, less conservative than Android phone users – August 16, 2011
Apple iPhone users spend significantly more on their credit cards than non-iPhone users – November 5, 2010
Study: Apple iPhone users richer, younger, more productive than other so-called ‘smartphone’ users – June 12, 2009
Nielsen: Mac users are better educated and make more money than PC users – July 12, 2002
Riiiiiiiight… because Apple’s products clearly aren’t becoming more mainstream or anything. Come on, MDN, this is a really dumb article to give clicks to.
It give license though for us iPhone, iPad and Mac users to look down our nose at all the “commoner” offerings/droppings for the less well informed, cheap bastards or ultrageek who is always at the bottom of the food chain and deserves only our utter contempt.
Last I checked Wal-Mart sells Apple products. Come on MDN! Ease off on the disciple approach to your comments. Be pro Apple but please be relevant and objective.
Pat
This disciple begs to respectfully remind you that all welfare recipients to aristocrats enjoy freedom to shop wherever they want.
Idiotic! That’s not what Orbitz does at all — it simply shows more expensive hotels to Mac users as *suggestions* — you’re still free to look at and book other hotels. No hotels are hidden. Mac users don’t *have* to pay more, but many choose to do so because they like better hotels and have good taste.
Orbitz skews our eyeballs to expensive rooms and we’re supposed to feel complimented by it.
^ … put that in your MDN take.
If you wanted to buy a house or car or anything….would you rather the agent showed you what you want straight away or would you want the agent to start out buy showing you all the crap you wouldn’t buy? Orbits, looks at WHO you are (in this case a Mac user) and straight away shows you what you want….not the flea pits that you would not want. The flea pits are shown to PC users first. HOWEVER, if you are a Mac owner and you REALLY want a flea pit……you CAN!
I’d want a nice room for a cheap price shown first. I guess I’m crazy! I thought that’s what Obitz was all about… the price-conscious segment of customers.
Here’s my take on this: no one’s buying the premium rooms lately (because of the economy), so hotels are working with Orbitz to lead Apple’s customers towards the expensive route of which the MAJORITY are looking for a cheap deal. Think what you want… I’m right, for I’m “Correctu”. (You’re welcome.)
Depends on where you are going, but in many markets the “cheaper room” is a flea pit, and no one would want to stay there unless they had no choice.
In some markets most places are affordable and it doesn’t really matter.
Being shown a more expensive room does not mean you have to take the first thing offered. Mac users tend to have more money and spend it on nicer things. If that offends you, then maybe you should go buy a PC. Sounds like you might be happier there.
I’ve been to many a cheap hotel all over the states and have had no issues with fleas. Nothing offends coming from someone who would name themselves twimoon… and I’ll keep my Mac thank you… not because I have more money as much as common sense. Pshaw!
I hope you mistakenly hit your head and in a state of dementia buy an android phone.
You have to have lived a charmed life. When my company was young and struggling I stayed in many “bargain” hotels and motels and I can tell you that for certain I would rather NOT ever stay in one again.
Orbitz does not just find the cheapest room, if finds the best VALUE rooms. Big difference there.
I for one do not feel deceived by Orbitz, they were doing their best to try to display (out of the hundreds available in a given area) the best (and most likely) matches available.
That they discovered that most Apple users have more demanding standards as to what is acceptable surprises you?
I simply don’t trust big businesses that profile us. I don’t like when Google does it with their advertising, and I don’t appreciate the unique benefit to us when Orbitz does it either. Usually businesses do this for their own benefits NOT ours. In this case, they benefit by selling more expensive rooms. Just look at where the puck is heading. It may seem innocent enough now but what will this lead to? That’s my concern. One of my demanding standards is not paying more for the same thing. Hopefully this won’t lead to that in the future. No one can invalidate such a concern unless they have valid sources and a time machine.
Again, big difference there, the crowd profiling Orbitz is doing is not the same thing that google does (individual profiling)
It’s not even in the same league.
(Pop psychologists need not apply… lol)
Not surprising MDN posts this kind of garbage instead of an article I sent it about a different Steve Jobs documentary that was now online.
Figures
just curious, dou mean that doc by Robert X. Cringely… the one that’s available on iTunes?
I have noticed that too. Seems MDN wants to be the SUN tabloid than a respectable Apple/MAC publication.only thing that makes me read the article are the sometimes hilarious takes. Other than that, TUAW is way better for everything Apple.
dunno, aristocracy means “privileged group” to me…virtually any product can be purchased by anyone with a job.
Shhh, you’ll give away our little secret…
Not true. A working lower class family on food stamps in the US receives about $2500 a month. That is because the minimum wage is so low. These are the people that work in factories to make our products. I’d argue that as a whole they are the most important part of the company. The part that creates the product. The one who brings in the money, yet they get treated like shit. After
Paying basic bills like water, electric, taxes, etc. they are left with just less than enough to feed their families. Each member of that family gets $1.50 towards every meal. For each person it’s $31 a week. Which isn’t much. Do you think these families would be able to buy an iPhone or an iPad in the near future?
That depends on where you live. There are many places you can live very well on tht budget.
Aristocracy my ass!!!
It makes more economical sense to pay for high quality , long life product that comes with the best customer support and replacement policies in the world , any day .
Apple products are best pure value to anyone with even half a brain. Throw in superior slick design and top notch seamless integration and compatibility, user freindly devices and sex appeal and you have to be an idiot not to buy them.
That’s just basic common sense…and in times like these, that has clout and everyone is finally seeing the valur in – It Just Works.
I’ve seen crack heads with iPhones.
Apple is pretty much mainstream lol
damn, Really…thanks for blown’ my cover.
Every time you put a comment up you reveal yourself to be cracked.
Ease up! These people have got to come up with an idea for an article five days a week or more. They don’t trash your work. Don’t trash theirs. If you don’t agree, just smile and move on. Griping is the Microsoft way. Be an Apple aristocrat!
Not so much. Apple just sells things that many people like. I bought my first Mac in 1984 because it was the first widely distributed GUI, my first iPod because it accessing all my old music easy and then made it easy to buy more, my first iPhone because it made phone features usable and came with a built-in Mac and iPod, and my first iPad because it was the first widely available multi-touch experience with enough size to make it useful.
Cult of Mac has a schizo attitude regarding Apple. I am frequently taken aback by some article they post critiquing the company or praising a competitor, usually an Android product.
It’s not an aristocracy if anyone can join.
Is it a question of cost to join this aristocracy?
Seriously, how much money are we talking about here? The 3GS is free with a plan. A enormous number of people have cellphones with plans. How much more does a 3GS plan cost over a non-iPhone phone? $30 a month more or something?
So this newfangled elite aristocracy costs an extra dollar a day to be a part of? Or is it 2 dollars a day?
really, after reading the comments I’d have to say that some of the thickest, slowest and stupidest people I’ve ever come across post on this site.
sure, a crack-head can own an Apple product and yes, as evidenced here on MDN a person with limited brain power, zero class and no style can use an iPhone.
all Elgan is trying to demonstrate is that the few people roaming the planet that do have class, style or grace do indeed tend to lean in an Apple direction. y’all really don’t get it. the filthiest Mac users live here, the unwashed Apple set.
you people call yourselves Mac users?
Well you posted so welcome to the club of the thickest, slowest and stupidest people.
I was worried you wouldn’t make the cut so thank you for coming here and proving us all wrong.
fsck you.
See? That just proves the point. Someone with a little class and more than half a brain would have come up with a much better retort than the tired old FU.
Just to note: Aristocracy is defined by the fact that a group receives special privileges over the “unwashed masses”, and not by how they achieved that status. Throughout history, it has often been material wealth that has been the deciding factor, but not always. It has also included belonging to a particular political party or religion, being born in a certain place or during a certain tone of year, and even eye-color. So the author’s point is a valid one. I have noticed certain advantages from using Apple products since I currently live in a country where stays is king. And there’s no denying, whether it’s justified or not, that owning Apple products infers status.
Of course, you can give up that stays pretty quickly by throwing unwarranted FU’s at people who are just expressing their opinion. I mean really, are you that insecure that the original comment actually offended you somehow? Sheesh…
@misterME
fsck
The system utility fsck (for “file system check”) is a tool for checking the consistency of a file system in Unix and Unix-like operating systems, such as Linux and Mac OS X
botvinnik was merely checking you for validity.
You should know that besides being a knowledgeable technophile, he is a world-class ironist, and a chess grandmaster. (As for being a Yankees fan, well, nobody’s perfect).
funny.
Well you posted so welcome to the club of the thickest, slowest and stupidest people.
I was worried you wouldn’t make the cut so thank you for coming here and proving us all wrong.
This article is silly. You can board a Delta flight with any smartphone. They have QR codes for their flights. Other airlines too. Starbucks has a similar function, etc. Chipotle lets you order on your phone and pick it up. The lisy of these features go on. The difference between the old aristocrats and the Apple tech users is that people couldn’t afford a horse and carriage. People can afford an iPhone but most just don’t know how to use all the features to their fullest. This is a HUGE distinction.
When the iPad replaces the cash register at your bagel shop, you know Apple has reached the masses!
Besides…the aristocracy only exists in WDC!
I get it. The Mac set gets bagels while the masses have Dunkin Donuts.
It ain’t that Apple is creating an aristocracy (ridiculous notion) but that µ$oft and Dell and HP and the rest insisted upon doling out devices for the insipidly clueless and proletarian.
http://www.macgasm.net/2012/05/25/parody-siri-and-malkovich-go-wild/
‘Aristocracy’. What piffling nonsense.
Horse pucky topped with bull dung, the French revolution knew how to deal with the aristocracy.
Call me an aristocrat and I’ll piss on your lawn.
Yes Apple is creating a new aristocracy. They’re called AAPL stockholders.
No …. no its not. Wow step to far on the road to delusion that.
This is idiotic. Here we are entering the next dark age with Neo-Feudalism crashing in our doors with battle axes, the 1% absolutely DEMANDING tax cuts while DEMANDING the gutting of all social services to the less fortunate and disabled. And Apple users are the new aristocracy?! Yeah right. We know who are our new overlords.
Apple and Apple users are the exact OPPOSITE of the idiotic aristocrat system. We are the revolutionaries who tell all the mediocrity and oligarchical lame brains to GO FRACK YOURSELF. The spirit of smashing OUT OF THE BOX lives on, in spite of the abusers and oppressors!
So take your dopey concept and toss it in the trash, Mike Elgan. Get some perspective and think harder and different next time! 😛
Here’s to the crazy ones, the misfits, the rebels, the troublemakers, the round pegs in the square holes… the ones who see things differently — they’re not fond of rules… You can quote them, disagree with them, glorify or vilify them, but the only thing you can’t do is ignore them because they change things… they push the human race forward, and while some may see them as the crazy ones, we see genius, because the ones who are crazy enough to think that they can change the world, are the ones who do.
– Steve Jobs
Aristocrats my Aunt Fannie’s ass.
-> And then I read the source article. Dumdum me:
Is Apple creating a new aristocracy? No, of course not. But reading the news lately, it sure looks that way!
Thank you Mark Elgan!
But I strongly expect you’ve started a new meme with which the anti-Apple trolls will attempt to yet-again wrongfully bash us on our heads. Not good. Hopefully my rant-fest above tore some good whopping holes in the misguided concept. 😯