We Have All Become Women

Most of my 60’s liberal to radical friends boastfully sport Apple PC’s and ancillary equipment. I’ve never been particularly tempted until just a few years ago when they opened an Apple Store in the mall near our house. What I loved were the designs and colors. Everything looked so futuristic and bright. It had not been around long enough to gather dust.

Too late to start over. I was already quite used to WINDOWS and dreaded making a change. Besides, what I was using worked just fine.

I spoke to my 30 something daughter about it only last week. She’s a product of Rutgers and rather liberal in her views. Yet she consistently chooses DELL. Why, I asked.

Her answer was rather enlightening. She said that Apple’s sales model is flawed; that it works entirely on the principle of planned obsolescence. When the batteries die, there’s usually no way to replace them; or, if there is, it’d still be cheaper to get a whole new unit that’s even snazzier looking, and has add'l new and exciting apps.

This, by the way, is the same sales strategy that ended up driving the American auto industry into the dirt back in the sixties, and allowed Japan to overtake it.

“Why then,” I asked, “are so many 'save every scrap of crap' libs so loyal to Apple?”

“It’s the old ‘big vs. small‘ bias all over again,” she began. "Microsoft is seen as big; Apple is seen as small (the underdog). ‘Big’ is always bad or wrong. ‘Small’ is to be nurtured and protected - even celebrated when it takes the initiative to use its crayons and draw on the wall.”

We have all become women.