Apple enthusiasts vs. the tech press
As any reporter who covers Apple knows, its fans — and detractors — are quick to find bias in almost any press report. Farhad Manjoo, who writes the Machanist column for Salon, tells the story of Walt Mossberg's 2004 review of the iMac G5 in the Wall St. Journal. It began:
I am writing these words on the most elegant desktop computer I've ever used, a computer that is not only uncommonly beautiful but fast and powerful, virus-free and surprisingly affordable. (link)
The piece was, by any objective measure, a rave. By Manjoo's count, only 70 of the column's 900 words had anything negative to say about the machine, and those complaints were minor (the lack of a photo card reader and Mossberg's feeling that Apple had "scrimped on memory"). Yet Apple partisans felt slighted. What did he have against Apple, they wanted to know.
What's going on?
Mossberg calls it the Doctrine of Insufficient Adulation, and Manjoo (who has experienced the effect first-hand) addresses it in a new book entitled "True Enough: Learning to Live in a Post-Fact Society."
Manjoo writes:
There are many tribes in the tech world: TiVo lovers, BlackBerry addicts, Palm Treo fanatics, and people who exhibit unhealthy affection for their Roomba robotic vacuum cleaners. But there is no bigger tribe, and none more zealous, than fans of Apple, who are infamous for their sensitivity to slams, real or imagined, against the beloved company. (link)
The chapter that deals with Apple (AAPL) is excerpted in Tuesday's Machanist column. Manjoo finds parallels in a Stanford study of pro-Arab and pro-Israeli students — as we as some choice tidbits from the mailbag of David Pogue, tech critic of the New York Times.
I don't claim to be in Pogue or Mossberg's league, but for anyone who has wondered about the phenomenon, I think it's a must read. See here.
The irony here is that most of the response posts provide evidence for the premise of the article. The "hard core" fans on either side really need to get a grip. You love your machines? Great! Use them and be happy. Oh and by the way, let every else enjoy theirs, be they Mac or PC.
I should also add however-
Apple aficionados actually have good reason to be a bit sensitive about the press. Over the years the press has treated Apple pretty badly overall, denigrating the products and their possibilities and forever underestimating the growth.
I mean – I actually had someone tell me about 12 years ago, that a Mac was not a real computer – only a "toy." This level of ignorance was perpetuated by the press.
But the proof of the pudding is in the eating, and now that millions have had a taste, we are seeing a "flight to quality" – exactly what Apple aficionados have been saying all along.
Well – this is interesting.
A couple of the comments here seem to prove the pint.
The problem with comments like these is that – while they may be true about SOME people, they are definitely NOT true about MOST of the Apple fans. Sure – there is the radical fringe who are hyper-sensitive about the smallest slight. The overwhelming majority of Apple users – and Apple fans – are really a lot more moderate in their views. Yes they may be very enthusiastic about the products, but they do not indulge in inflammatory postings at any minor criticism.
And so – the article, by focusing on the most outrageous "fanboys" presents an extreme stereotyping of the generally more moderate population.
"the tech press" is manipulative. You probably wanted to write "the press" but the word tech makes it seem more competent. Well, I thought the media is pluralistic, there is no "the tech press" to be victimized against those subjective fans, who put there money where their mouth is.
A little more objectivity please.
Reality Distortion Field? You've got it in spades, DeWitt. You're so jaundiced, you can't even see where you've lost your way. Your credibility is moot when you try to convince us that you've been fair and balanced — if that's your point here…
As a user of both platforms, I've enjoyed your "neutral enough" column and just rolled my eyes at the occasional PC Nutcase vs. Apple Fanatic blowups, scanning past them to get to the worthwhile content.
That said, I do understand where some of the frustration that drives these Apple guys comes from.
A few years ago I wanted to buy a cheap, small, portable laptop. I looked at every PC model out there – I'd only used PCs since I gave up my last DOS, and it took me a while to accept DOS after CP/M. All the 12" screens were obscenely expensive except for a no-name WalMart model that looked and felt like junk. Finally, I stumbled across the 12" iBook for $999, which included wireless, a dvd reader, hi-res screen, workable software, and (from the vendor) a free (good) laptop bag, printer/scanner, eabuds, memory upgrade, earphones, and shipping. No PC system came close except for a 15" Dell without WiFi and an ADVERTISED 1.5 hour battery life. So, I bought my first Mac, which has been a pleasure to own.
That month, PC Magazine had a Laptop review, and compared two dozen laptops in several categories by size and speed. The 12" iBook, inexplicably, wasn't compared to any 12" laptops (the cheapest of which was over $2,000) though the 15" iBook was mentioned, only compared to a Powerbook ("it's slower.") All Macs were dismissed with admitted good performance and battery life, but at a premium price, even though at that time the 12" iBook would have been half the price of any similarly-sized, identically configured model.
Shortly after that, Consumer Reports' Laptop Roundup admitted that the iBooks were reliable, powerful, and loved by their owners in surveys, but added that Apples are "usually more expensive than PCs." Again and again over the next year, few reviewers seemed able to admit that Apple had the lowest price in a laptop size. On the rare occasions that 12" iBooks were actually compared to other 12" portables, they were deemed slower than laptops costing 2 to 3 times as much, but the price wasn't discussed, nore were PowerBooks. Alternately, when PowerBooks were mentioned as being too expensive, iBooks were somehow never discussed. At the time, it really did seem like reviewers were either blind or in someone's pocket.
Apple user since 86.
If we "mac" people are overzealous and outspoken about our computer of choice, then PC people are the ivory tower arrogant "banker" types who have been trying to justify their computer choice since the beginning.
For 10 years, I tried to keep my mouth shut at the snickering, the look of "oh, you're one of THEM" whenever computer choice came up. I tried to avoid it like the plague, not because I wasn't happy with my choice, but because pc types were all united in their dislike of the products – even though, in a serious discussion, I could easily refute every stupid reason they gave for it being a bad choice.
Karma is a bitch. Call me a zealot all you want, I've listened to, and been subject of jokes and ridicule since the beginning – for no other reason than I don't have "right-click."
If all you PC people would just admit you have been wrong all these years, there would be no problem. 
To show my love for pc users, here's a tip (and you don't even have to by a mac) – Buy the stock and you can have as many pc's as you want.
Posted By Matt, Washington, DC: >>Keep in mind that product reviews and strong competition, among other factors, are what prod Apple to improve its products.>>>
Hardly .. sorry I disagree it's us consumers and the will for Apple to listen to our opinion that makes Apple improve it's products..
Very few columnists have this influence with Apple, to be able to criticize you need to know the product well and I am sorry to say but half of these brainwashed boneheads have never used a Mac before for more than 20 minutes .. David Pogue and Mossberg are part of the few..
Criticism is good when it is done for the sake of letting Apple know it's shortcoming . When criticism is done for the sake of sensationalism and to create hits to their blog, it doesn't do a damn thing but call for nasty posts.
I don't thing Savitz nor the Author of this post are true haters of Apple their only fault is a lack of knowledge and a need for hits, I don't see any bashing going on here just biased reporting…. and that, these days equals hits.
Just to make an example John dvorak is a basher, he writes mostly original material and no one takes him seriously thank god… Savitz and Dewitt post mostly reports from analysts and rarely use their own opinion, the fact they chose to post mostly negative stuff is unimportant, they do not create the content they just repost it ..all this is irrelevant to Apple's own plans and product improving.
If it was relevant, we'd all still be using windows 95
I read the link and have a possible answer for the "phenomenon": Anyone who's been an Apple user, much less a fan, for more than 5 years (me: 25 years) has endured their share of abuse from supposed PC experts. Everything from "What do you mean you can get Office on a Mac?" to "it's a toy" to my personal favorite: my brother's company wouldn't even allow him to use his laptop when his company assigned PC broke down incessantly because the PC guys were afraid it would do "something" to their server. (But they couldn't say "what" that might be).
It's just sweet revenge, nothing more or less. Affirming how smart "you" are for having made such a good choice.
Incidentally, Philip… I think you do a good job remaining neutral. Constant praise with no negative criticism gave us the K-Car.
Mossberg sets the standards to which all tech columnist should write..
David Pogue has criticized Apple when it was necessary and praised them when they've done right. He's funny , great sense of humor I have been reading his stuff since my first subscription to Macworld in 1995
"As any reporter who covers Apple knows, its fans — and detractors — are quick to find bias in almost any press report."
Wow, no shortage of irony in this sentence, eh, Philip?
As a Microsoft Admin for a 25,000+ network, I think the title of this article should have been "Apple Enthusiasts vs the PC Bigots". PCs are mostly junk. Everyone and their grandmother make a board with some hack hardware that you'll have to download a driver and de-bug to get it to work. Check Homeland Security for the 30 or 40 virus and malware that PCs have every week. How many for Mac? 0 to 1 and that's usually a Microsoft macro virus in Office for Mac. The Army is buying thousands of Apple for a reason – they're tired of all the trouble you're forced to swallow with a PC.
I'm a big fan of Apple and own multiple Apple products, including a MacBook Pro and two iPods. As an Apple fan, the visceral reaction that some other Apple fans have to any criticism of the company or its products never ceases to astound me. Apple enthusiasts seem to feel that the company is somehow beyond reproach and take critism aimed at the company or its products personally. Keep in mind that product reviews and strong competition, among other factors, are what prod Apple to improve its products.
Read the referenced article. So it's all in our heads? There's no negative bias regarding Apple by yourself, Savitz, others? I think you should look at the man in the mirror…
(sigh…)
Long-time Apple users have a persecution complex (and I'm as guilty as any), and a related frustration with the willingness of the wider world to accept what they/we believe to be mediocre (or worse) alternatives. The trade press here over the last 10-15 years has been an amplifier for the ups and downs of Apple. (That's not unique to Apple or the technical press, it's a general attribute of the media, particularly now in our 'nanosecond response time' world…) But still, for every balanced reporter (Apple is most certainly not without flaws as a company, nor are their products perfect), there are enough people out there whose comments are either (a) deliberately inflammatory, (b) shills for technologies/companies, or (c) just plain ignorant, that it's hard to not view everyone through the lens of that experience.
I've seen the same basic problems in the dealings between the press and the military over the last 40 years. Things there are -much better- than they've been since the early 60s, but still the mistrust of the press exists in the military, just as it does across the Apple fanbase.
dave
PED, keep waiting for you to break the news on the predicted upswing in Mac sales this quarter?? What's the deal?
ex ped: See here.
"Hardly .. sorry I disagree it’s us consumers and the will for Apple to listen to our opinion that makes Apple improve it’s products.."
If ny – your comment only supports how seriously fans of a technology think they really are. If you don't think that Apple has development teams reading every computer review they can find, you are delusional. This is something that every company does. Yes, I am sure Apple listens to it users. But they monitor the press just the same.
By the way, I wrote on this same topic several months ago. And I don't care one way or the other regarding computing. I just want something that works and does what I need it to do.