Is it Relevant?
I have gotten a few emails as of late asking why we have posted non-Mac-related articles here at MyMac.com. Also, there was a recent thread over in the Mac Observer forums in which a reader posed the same sort of question: What is this discussion doing here? He was asking about a forum thread in which a TMO staff member asked the questions “…who here plans on buying an X-Box?” and makes the statement “For example I just saw a discussion thread asking if forumites would buy an XBox? For crying out loud – what the heck does this have to do with the Mac or the PC for that matter?”
This is nonsense.
Making the logical assumption of what he is saying, no Mac site should ever write about, discuss, or report on any subject that is not Macintosh related. You will forgive me, but I think that would make for some very boring reading, if all Mac web sites concentrated on Mac subject material only. Don’t you? I for one would be bored writing about just Mac subject matter, I can tell you that.
The “Mac Web” as it is known is a collection of web sites that cater to the Macintosh user. That is not to say we only write about the Mac, Apple, or even computers. All that means is that the common theme of the web sites in question take a pro-Macintosh stance. The Mac is the common denominator that binds us to our readers. But like our readers, the creators of the Mac web sites, and their creative staffs, have interests outside the narrowly defined “Macintosh” topic.
The original question of “…who here plans on buying an X-Box?”, I think, is a very relevant question to ask Macintosh users. For one, everyone knows how many Mac users feel about Microsoft. The question being “Will you buy an X-Box” is a good one to ask to help judge how well the X-Box will sell to a vocal anti-Microsoft group. But more importantly, it sparked a thought in my mind about the gaming world, and its relationship to the computer world. (The two are really cousins of one another.)
As Mac users, we like to think of our favorite companies plight (Apple) taking on Microsoft is a huge battle, one in which the whole world knows about. This is not the case, however, and a much larger battle has just begun which makes the Mac/Windows fight for your desktop seem trivial.
The largest software manufacturer in the world (Microsoft) is taking on the largest video game manufacturer (Nintendo) who is also taking on the largest electronics maker in the world (Sony) for a battle of the console videogaming world. The new battle Microsoft is focusing on is not Mac vs. Windows, but rather X-Box vs. GameCube vs. PlayStation 2.
And this is VERY relevant to the Macintosh and Apple. If either the PlayStation or GameCube beat out the X-Box, it will probably be because of a combination of reasons. And it is those reasons Apple can take note of, and use similar techniques to gain market share in the computer world. If the media blitz alone that these three companies are putting forth are any indication on how to win market share and sell your product in the 21st century, then Apple needs to up it advertising big time. Right now, more people know about the X-Box and what it can do than they do an iMac.
So you see, taking about the X-Box IS a Mac related subject. And even if it is not, and you don’t care to read non-Mac-related subjects on your favorite Mac web site, you don’t have to. Those non-Mac-related articles are not taking up space that would have gone to a Mac-centric article. This is not a newspaper or magazine in which space is and articles are limited to a physical space. These are web pages, where nothing at all exists until it is created.
Mac users are a diversely populated society. We come from all over the world. We all have different outlooks on life, love, and happiness. The common thread is, of course, our love for the Macintosh platform. But that common thread is not all we talk about. Is not all we are passionate about. Like any other group of people, we thrive on communication, and while the Mac is the main thing we have in common, and talk about amongst ourselves, it is not all there is to life. And it is not all there is to the Mac web.
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