News & Views

The other day I was wondering which are the 500 most visited English langauge web sites, so I asked the good god Google to give me an answer. Imagine my surprise when I noticed that Apple is the 34th most visited web site, and Dell is the 33rd most visited web site on the Alexa web site. http://www.alexa.com/site/ds/top_sites

Well, well, well, it looks like we have a close race here. Neck and neck. And wouldn't you know it, there are many Apple users who don't take the time to regularly visit Apple's web site. They don't call home. People, if you're an Apple user, visit Apple's web site. Visit for no good reason. Why? You might find a reason when you get there.

Just like brushing your teeth every day, you need to make a visit to Apple's web site a part of your routine. No, you don't need to linger on the site. Just go there. Showing up counts.

In the coming months Apple is probably going to be improving their Hotnews section of their site. http://www.apple.com/hotnews. This sleeply little backwater could use a fresh infusion of energy and ideas.

Apple, which is staffed by a few people who are smart, likes to think of itself as a software company more than a hardware company. It's neither. If you think Apple is in the computer hardware or software business, you completely miss what the company is about.

Apple is in the business of expanding human possibilities. It currently does so via computer software and hardware. Those are some of its core compentencies. They're just a part of the bigger picture, though.

Apple's greatest competency is a deeper understanding of human needs and human nature. I've never attended a design meeting at Apple, but let me predict what the discussions are about. The engineers there debate intensely on matters wholly unrelated to computers. They discuss what it means to be a human being and to be faced with the daunting task of navigating the modern world. And then they start brainstorming solutions.

And the solutions they devise need to be more than "single problem solutions." Apple's genius is that they devise generalized solutions. Solutions that other companies build upon. They see further, think deeper, and empathize greater. But Apple's thinking skills is not its greatest asset. It's the company's intuition and hunches that are the most valuable asset the company owns. I sure hope Apple's accountants have a line item valuing corporate intuition and hunches.

Getting back to visiting Apple's web site. If you're an Apple loyalist, do visit it often. Does Dell honestly think they can maintain a lead over Apple's web site now that the cat is out of the bag?

I have a hunch, an intuition, that the web site ranking for these two corporations will be switching places before the end of 2005. Keep track of the horse race yourself at http://www.alexa.com/site/ds/top_sites (click on the English Language link at the top left.)

Phil Shapiro

The author works as a Macintosh consultant in the Washington DC-area, helping Mac-using nonprofit organizations and home Mac users. He can be reached at pshapiro@his.com and at
http://www.digitaldivide.net/profile/pshapiro