An Open Letter to Apple.

An Open Letter to Apple.
June 28, 2009


Dear Apple,

Let me start by saying I love your products, But.

That But is the purpose for this letter. I friend of mine upgraded his computer about a year-and-a-half ago. He's a very generous sort of guy and he gave me his
old laptop. It happened to be a Macbook. Before that day I could have counted the number of times I'd used a Mac. You know the drill, kind of weird, nothing's
where it should be, and what happened to the right button, etc. I adjusted quickly because I'm used to running several different OS's (Linux in various flavors and
MS Windows). Today I am addicted.

I love my computer. It's sleek and simple and elegant and everything you claim that it is. It hasn't spontaneously invented a cure for cancer yet, but other than
that...

I live in a small town. I'm rather technically minded. You might think that's something of a non sequitur, but believe me, it's not. These two facts go hand in hand.
When someone has a problem with a computer, they often come to me. Am I a certified computer repair technician? Nope. Can I help a lot of people solve their computer
problems? You bet.

When people come to me and say they're ready for a new computer, that this dinosaur from the 1990's has finally given up it's ghost, the first thing I ask them is
"What do you use your computer for?" Most of the time the answer is e-mail, word processing, and to surf the net. Do they need BlueGene/L to do these things? Of
course not. But they do want to watch those videos people send them and they do want to play those silly flash games too. Looks like it's upgrading time.

I would love to be able to tell them that I'd be happy to pick up a Mac Mini next time I'm down at the store. I'd love to be able to tell them to order a Macbook
(Look, it even has free shipping!) But I can't. Why not you ask? You just said you love our products. Don't get me wrong, I do love your products, But.

But I could buy a Mac Mini for $600, or I could buy just-another-PC for $275. I could buy a Macbook with those cool new aluminum cases for $1200 or I could buy the
"On sale now!" just-another-laptop that I saw while writing this letter for $300. And that includes Windows XP. Sure, I'd take it off and put Ubuntu on it, but
imagine if I could find it without Microsoft on it in the first place. It'd save me another $50 or $100. Sure I could buy the Macbook Air for $1500, or I could
buy an AEEE Asus netbook for under $300.

You produce nice, high-end, quality merchandise. But you don't make anything for the my granny on Social Security, or for the high-schooler on a limited budget, or
for anyone else on a limited budget for that matter.

Give us a Crab Apple Mac. A Mac to get us started. A Mac for the masses. We want to buy it, I want to buy it. I want to pass them around like hot-cakes,
and recommend them to everyone I know. But you don't seem to want to sell them to me. Apple, why don't you want my money? I want to give it to you.

C.W.Holeman III

Cross-posted on my website and sent to Steve Dowling (Apple's Corporate PR contact).