Re: Am I in a time warp?

Maureen, it all depends on your market.  Apple has had a pretty defined 
strategy for some years now, realising that they're not going to be a 
general-purpose computer for everyone, in the way the PC is close to.

So if your market is anywhere near graphics or education, you'd be a lunatic 
to leave macs out of your equation.  If you're heading for the home users, 
also you'd be a fool to leave out mac users.

If you're looking to attract business network users, I doubt if macs are 
even 1%.  I have dealt with business network administrators extensively over 
the past 7 years, and can't think of one mac site.  Where there is a mac or 
two, they're regarded by the network administrators as an aberration and 
destined for the junk heap as soon as the administrator can arrange it.

This isn't to express an opinion about the merits of macs against pcs.  
(Which is an argument I find tiresome and futile to say the least)  It's 
merely expressing a fact as I've experienced it.

Like every other part of communication, you have to tailor your site to your 
audience.  If your target audience includes a whole lot of macs, ignore them 
at your peril.  If there aren't many macs in your target audience, safely 
forget 'em.

Cheers,
Mike Kear
AFP Web Development
Windsor, NSW, Australia
http://www.afp.zip.com.au


>From: "Maureen A. Barlow" <mobarlow(at)earthlink.net>
>To: hwg-techniques(at)hwg.org
>Subject: Re: Am I in a time warp?
>Date: Thu, 27 Apr 2000 12:16:38 -0400 (EDT)
>
>I have to agree with Michael.  When I read about ignoring Mac users safely,
>I tuned out to the rest of the e-mail.  I am a Mac user and a web and
>graphic designer, and I have no patience for businesses that ignore the Mac
>market (except Microsoft, I'm used to it).  Ignore the Mac market that's
>using Mac OS 7 or lower, and therefore lower version browsers--OK, that
>makes sense.  But ignoring the Mac market completely--I think that's a very
>bad business idea.  In addition, I think the estimate of 1% of net users
>being on a Mac is wrong---I think it's more like 15%.  Clearly not a
>majority, but not worthy of total omission from consideration.
>
>Just my 2 cents...
>
>Maureen
>
>
>------Original Message------
>From: Michael Heliker <mheliker(at)ncrel.org>
>To: Arcady <arcady(at)jps.net>, hwg-techniques(at)hwg.org
>Sent: April 26, 2000 12:08:18 PM GMT
>Subject: Re: Am I in a time warp?
>
>
>hmmm....interesting. Apple has sold over 2 million imacs (internet ready,
>out of the box) in just over a year. Hundreds of thousands of ibooks in 
>even
>less time...who-knows how many Powerbooks....
>
>
>I realize they are a very small percentage of the computing world...but I'm
>not ready to ignore 2 million + possible audience members... I just don't
>think it's a good idea.
>
>just a thought. I do agree with much of what you say, in theory. But,
>ignoring anyone isn't a good idea, in general. Just not a good business
>practice, wouldn't you think?
>
>michael
>
>"... (but realize that Macs make up only 1% of net-usage statistics,
> > so unless you design for the actual print-graphic-design industry you
> > can ignore them safely).
>....."
>
>--------------------------
>Maureen A. Barlow
>Designer & Consultant
>PixelGem Studios
>Web Design & Technology Consulting
>http://www.pixelgem.com
>maureen(at)pixelgem.com

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