If you’ve missed the furore of rumours about the possibility of a forthcoming “headless iMac” then you’ve probably been hiding under a rock of late. The Mac community rumour mill has been grinding overtime ever since ThinkSecret – an Apple enthusiast site with a good track record of predictions – published details of what might be a stripped-down, low-cost iMac.
Over the last few days, mainstream media has picked up on the story, and it’s gone pretty much around the world. At which point, Apple have decided to fire off a lawsuit against ThinkSecret, alleging that the rumours contain Apple trade secrets.
Which leads me to two possibilities. Either Apple have a spectacularly clueless and inept legal department, who wouldn’t know brand-enhancing publicity if it fell on them – or they have an incredibly cunning marketing wizard pulling the legal strings to whip up the furore even further.
The chances of it being the second are quite frankly nil, because at a stroke Apple have positioned themselves as the neighborhood corporate thug throwing their weight around in the way we’ve come to expect of petrochemical giants. Which is doubly bizarre when you consider that they benefit from a customer base which tends toward zealotry at times. Although their products are now positively hip – not to mention increasingly cost-effective when compared with a Wintel-based platform – what’s kept them going over the years has been customer loyalty.
Compare and contrast this approach with that of the Evil Empire itself. Sure, Bill Gates is capable of coming out with comments that give the occasional glimpse into the heart of the convicted predatory monopoly, but the public face of Microsoft today has been transformed by people like Robert Scoble, sites like Channel 9 and a whole host of others who are now talking more-or-less openly about what they’re doing and why. You might not trust them or like what they’re doing, but you’ve at least got a clearer idea of what they’re thinking about.
So there’s the paradox. On the one hand, the open and increasingly-cuddly giant that everyone loves to hate, and on the other the secretive and knee-jerkingly litigious underdog that inspires devoted loyalty from its customers fans. Doesn’t make sense, does it?
