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Comment by scholia | Hacker News Reader

> Apple's mission has always been to make computing accessible to the masses (remember the slogan: "The computer for the rest of us"?), not to make it better for the elite few who already know how to use one.

Except the masses buy Windows 10 laptops that cost $199 or whatever. The Mac has never been "accessible to the masses" because they won't pay Apple's prosumer prices...

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I suppose it depends on which masses you're referring to, but when I look around at any public place in New Jersey where there are people on laptops, I always see a very healthy representation of Mac users. Of all ages.

Apple have something like a 10% market share. I think what you see in coffee shops and on expensive commuter trains is not at all representative; if you go into a Starbucks in a trendy part of east London, you'd be forgiven for thinking that Apple had a 95% market share, but I'm pretty sure if you go to, say, eastern Europe you'll see very, very few Macs.

I have noticed that as well. Mac users seem to feel the need to use them in public for some reason.

This could be explained by Macs working better on random networks and having better battery life than other laptops.

Anecdata: I know of several Windows laptops, but only one Mac laptop, which are now effectively desktops.

Did those laptops start out as expensive as a Mac, or were they low end machines?

Apple's PC market share is much higher in the USA than it is worldwide, and it's very low in Asia, apart from Japan.

Also, Apple's market share is much higher now than it was when the masses adopted PCs. That happened under Windows 95 (which nearly drove Apple out of business) and XP.

When Windows brought computing to the masses, Apple's global market share was closer to 2%.

The world is not divided into rich tech elites who can afford the best, and uneducated, poor people whose only hope to join the tech revolution is buying the cheapest of the cheap. There is a huge segment in between.

It's true that Macs have never been the cheapest, but many, many ordinary people buy them none the less. Why? Maybe because a lot of people need a computer, but hate using it. So they choose to spend a little more to get one that is a little less user hostile. That doesn't make them feel dumb. Maybe even delights them from time to time by the many small considerations its designers have made for them.

> many, many ordinary people buy them none the less.

True, but Windows still has around 90% (or more) of the global PC market. Windows actually brought computing to the masses. Apple didn't.

We are using the same words to mean different things. When I say accessible, I mean approachable and usable, whereas you seem to mean affordable. When I say the masses, I mean in contrast to the elite, whereas you mean the overwhelming majority.

Windows is approachable. MacOS isn't significantly different, in terms of usability, for the majority of the non-computerate public.

And however you define it, the fact is that Windows did bring computing to the masses and Apple didn't.

And you think finder is less hostile than file manger on windows?

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