Beauty is in the Eye of the Beholder

I have a confession. I’m guilty of loving the way Apple products look.

Before 2000, I didn’t care much for Apple products, as you may well know. In fact, I’ll go so far as to say that I hated the way they looked. All of that changed with the introduction of the iMac.

When the first iMac was released, I took a look at it. I was still a Windows man, so I wasn’t interested in purchasing one but one aspect did draw my attention: the idea of a computer housed inside a monitor case.

The first person I knew who had the computer was my girlfriend. I was actually impressed by what Apple had managed to do. It was a fully, functioning computer, complete with all the same standards I enjoyed using my Windows machine.

The iBook was the next Apple product that caught my eye. The original, like the iMac before it, had a range of colors it came in. At the time, the clamshell look of the laptop was amazing compared to similarly equipped Windows machines and the aesthetic was light-years ahead of what Dell, Gateway, or HP were doing.

When I was in college, it was the G4 Cube that really got my blood pumping. All of that power inside a tiny cube. I was blown away by the way it looked, especially hooked up to an Apple monitor with matching keyboard and mouse. Sadly, it lagged behind the Power Mac G4, which was an amazing looking machine all its own but by this point I had begun associating Apple with all-in-one computer solutions and not expandable towers.

I remember seeing the iMac G4. Now this is what I associated Apple with: all-in-one desktop solutions that were aesthetically gorgeous and functional. It also came with a flat panel screen, which was still new and “cool” for a poor college student. I remember thinking that Apple was onto something with their product line.

For a few years, I didn’t pay much attention to Apple. It wasn’t until I saw the all white iBook that I again took notice of things Apple was doing. By this time, my irrational hatred of all things Apple had long since evaporated and I was interested in seeing what else was out there. Not feeling the need to purchase a new computer, even though Apple had piqued some of my interest, I started fiddling with Linux and its assorted kernel types.

The Macbook is what ultimately led me back to Apple. Surfing Neo-GAF, a website I routinely visit, I began noticing a large number of Apple users at the site, particularly those that participated in the “Gaming Setup” Thread. Seeing so many all-white Macbooks made me a bit jealous, so I decided to see what else Apple had.

My Windows computer was due for an overhaul and with the changing landscape of PC products, I would literally need to replace my motherboard, processor, memory, video card, sound card, and networking capabilities to even take advantage of anything new on the market. Since I was essentially going to replace my entire computer, it was time for a switch anyway.

Ultimately, it’s the way Apple products look that got me into checking them out over everything else available. Granted, I eventually learned about the biggest features of OSX like Expose, Spaces, Time Machine, and more, but it was the way it looked that got me to check it out in the first place.

It would appear that I’m as superficial as everyone else and even though I don’t think my Macbook makes me any better than anyone else in the world, I became an Apple fanatic based purely on looks alone, before ever knowing the joys of OSX. If I didn’t know any better, I’d think that Apple’s ads, the way they present their products, and how they meticulously craft their product lines, are exactly what they want new users to fall in love with first. I have to hand it to them if it is because it worked.

~ by The Shepherd Sons on February 18, 2008.