Corrections or additions?
This article by Kathleen McGinn Spring was prepared for the March
6, 2002 edition of U.S. 1 Newspaper. All rights reserved.
Megan Peterson: A Mac Person
Just as there are dog people and cat people, bulls
and bears, vegetarians, and fans of bar-b-que, there are PC people
and Mac people. In none of these groups is allegiance shallow or
fickle. Megan Peterson is a Mac person.
Peterson has been a member of the Princeton Mac Users Group (PMUG)
for “at least 15 years.” She is a past president and vice
president, and edits the group’s newsletter. She recalls that the
group was started by Princeton staffers who worked on the university’s
mainframes. Among the founding members were Alan Goldberg and the late
Phil Thompson, whose children are now members
of the group.
PMUG (www.PMUG-NJ.org) started as a place where the university
community
could meet to talk about how to get the most out of Macs. Now, says
Peterson, “there are very few members from the university
community.”
Membership has been as high as 200 people. Now there are about 100
members, 80 or 90 of whom turn out at each meeting. But while
membership
is down from all-time highs, new members are joining, and excitement
is building as Apple introduces products that win raves from tech
reviewers for their outstanding design, ease of use, and cutting-edge
applications.
PMUG meets on the second Tuesday of the month at Jadwin Hall on
Washington
Road on the Princeton University campus. Each meeting begins at 6
p.m. with two question and answer groups, one for beginners and one
for more advanced users. A presentation by a speaker follows. On
Tuesday,
March 12, at 7 p.m., Andy Baird, a long-time member, speaks
on digital cameras. There is no charge. Call 609-258-5730.
Peterson, a graduate of Kutztown University, has been a communications
designer in Princeton’s office of communications for 12 years. Before
that she worked in advertising, a profession known for its embrace
of Macs. She got her first Mac 16 years ago. She remembers that
“it
cost $3,500 and could do barely anything.” She used it mostly
for word processing. “It could do page lay-out,” she says,
“but just barely.”
Then software designers like Adobe came out with more sophisticated
design and lay-out programs. “Desktop publishing was the first
killer ap,” says Peterson, “and for a long time it was much
better on a Mac.” On a PC, commands had to be typed into a DOS
program. “Only programmers could understand it,” she says.
“You had to have a Mac-like interface for a lay person to do
computer
design.”
While PC design programs have caught up with those for Macs, design
people generally prefer to work on a Mac. Often more expensive than
PCs, the machines captured only a tiny fraction of computer users
in other industries, and did not do much better with home users. Steve
Jobs, who, along with Steve Wozniak, founded the company in his garage
in 1976, did capture the school market in the early years. Apple beat
IBM to the classroom, but eventually lost this stronghold.
Jobs left Apple in 1985 after losing a power struggle with John
Sculley,
whom he had lured from Pepsico to lead the company. After Jobs left,
says Peterson, Apple’s products lost some of their zip and had trouble
standing out in a sea of PCs.
Then, in 1996, Jobs, returned. “When Steve Jobs came back, the
excitement came back,” says Peterson. He gave the world its first
blueberry-colored all-in-one computer, the iMac, and followed up this
winter with an eye-popping update. The new iMac is a half-globe that
uses a flat-screen monitor attached by a graceful, flexible arm that
allows users to pivot it to any height. “The company received
150,000 orders for the computer just in January,” says Peterson.
Having remained a loyal Mac user through boom and
near-bust,
Peterson talks about why the machines fell out of favor, and why they
may rise again.
No excitement. “Interest in Macs went down,” shesays of the post-Jobs era. “All the boxes looked the same, therewas not a lot of excitement. People in charge for years had noimagination.”High prices. With every computer looking pretty much thesame, price became a determining factor in purchasing decisions. Applecomputers tended to be significantly more expensive. This problemsurfaced again just recently. Apple introduced the Mac Cube, astunninglittle computer in a completely new shape. While reviewers praisedits lines, consumers balked at the price tag.The beautiful Cube exceeded the amount she — and most otherconsumers— were willing to pay. At the same time, the machine disappointedthose who need the kind of power it delivered. Graphics professionalsworking, for instance, for glossy magazines, need to run PhotoShopat ever higher speeds, and the Cube was not expandable.Marketing mistakes. Apple attempted to sell its computersalongside PCs in chain stores like Sears. “Salespeople weren’ttrained,” says Peterson, “they didn’t know how to handle Macs.This went on for years and years. People in user groups werescreaming.”Confusing line-up. “There were so many models, fora while people got confused,” Peterson says. “Steve Jobs brokeit into four categories.” There are now consumer laptops anddesktops,and professional laptops and desktops. Period. Says Peterson,”they’reable to do better with fewer machines.The iMac. “The iMac was a big change,” saysPeterson.The all-in-one machine, which came in a range of vivid colors, wasa breakthrough in design and ease-of-use, and its price was on a parwith — or below — that of comparable PCs. The iMac sold well,as did the iBook, its laptop counterpart.PMUG saw an increase in membership as the computers caught on. Theorganization makes use of an iMac at its beginner question and answersessions.The new iMac. “The 20th anniversary iMac is a gorgeousmachine,” says Peterson. Sure, she is prejudiced, but newspaperand magazine tech reviewers share her enthusiasm. Just becomingavailablenow, the stylish-looking computer even includes a CD-RW/DVD-R drivein its highest end model. This means that it can copy files —say home movies — from the computer onto a DVD. Priced at from$1,299 to $1,799, including, of course, the attached flat-screenmonitor,the computers compare favorably in price with comparably-equippedPCs.Somewhat better marketing. “Have you seen an ad forthe new iMac yet?” Peterson asked a good month after reviews forthe computer had appeared in the New York Times and The Wall StreetJournal. The answer was no. Peterson hadn’t seen any ads yet, either,and was dismayed and puzzled at Apple’s failure to tout its handsomemachine. A multi-story banner advertisement for the machine now hangson 7th Avenue in New York, near Penn Station, but there has not beenanything like an ad blitz.Peterson does give Apple high marks for opening its own stores. Sofar, there are not too many of them, though. The only Apple storein New Jersey is in Tice’s Corner, at the northeast end of the state.Also a plus, in Peterson’s view, is Apple’s retail website(www.apple.com).Business there is so brisk that by the end of 2001 Apple had won aspot as the fifth largest E-tailer.New operating system. Through good times and bad, Applehas been able to boast of an outstanding operating system, saysPeterson.The company has just introduced a new one — OS X. “It’s notan upgrade,” she says. “It’s based on UNIX. It’s completelydifferent, but it will run old programs.Growing compatibility. Compatibility was among the biggestreasons that consumers shunned Apple computers. PCs — andMicrosoft’soperating system — became so dominant, at home and in offices,that people feared they would not be able to easily send or receivefiles with an Apple.Peterson says she has virtually no trouble working with PC files.”I’ve been dealing with PC files on a Mac for five years,”she says. “I might have to fudge a little bit,” but not much.”For 10 years, we’ve had a virtual PC on Mac that allows you torun Windows.” She opens Word files easily, has been sendingPageMakerfiles back and forth for years, and only occasionally runs intoproblemswith picture files. And even then, she suspects human error more thancore incompatibility. “I have family members with Macs who can’topen picture files,” she says.Lots of software. There is no gap in software, Petersoninsists. But she admits many consumers don’t know it. “Storesthat sell PCs don’t stock it,” she says. “It’s a bigproblem.”Mac people know where to go for software, but, “PC people thinkbecause it isn’t on the shelf, it doesn’t exist.”Cool bundled software and hardware add-ons. As beautifuland revolutionary as its new computers are, it is not the machinesthemselves that will be prime movers in Apple’s. The engine forgrowingsuccess? Says Peterson, “I think it’s some of the sideproducts.”One of those products is iMovie, software that turns consumers intomovie directors. Peterson has been “having a ball” with theprogram, and is now eager to try iDVD, a program that will get herhome movies onto DVDs, which can then easily be played on television.Then there is iPhoto. Among the features she thinks are especiallycool is its ability to help users create photo albums. “You canorder a hard bound book with linen pages,” Peterson says. Thesoftware provides a variety of lay-outs. Users type in captions andreceive their albums in the mail “in a week or two.” The costfor 10 pages is $29.99. Extra pages are $3 each.This software — and iTunes, too, for organizing MP3files —are included at no extra charge with Apple computers.Relegated to the backwaters of computerland for so long, Macusers now have plenty to crow about. So exciting way back in the early1990s, computers are at risk of becoming ho-hum tools. But Apple’sstrategy is to jazz things up. As Peterson puts it: “Steve Jobswants the computer to be more the center of all digital toys.”Kathy Spring, the Survival Guide editor of U.S. 1, is acat person who happens to use a PC.Previous StoryCorrections or additions?This page is published by PrincetonInfo.com— the web site for U.S. 1 Newspaper in Princeton, New Jersey.
