Whiners and Champions: MacWorld Expo 2002

In front of the Jacob K. Javits Center in New York, a disheveled man with unwashed hair paces back and forth through the burgeoning crowd as Macworld 2002 attendees amble past, on their way to the front door and the relative security inside the conference center.

"You, sir!" the man yells to no one in particular. "You too must Switch! You all must Switch!"

I wander past him and notice a placard with an Apple symbol hanging over his chest. Maybe this was to make Microsoft happy, I think. In-your-face advertising. After all, Mac Business Unit head Kevin Browne did recently complain that Microsoft's sales were not high enough because Apple wasn't pushing its new operating system enough. But 300,000 copies at $460 (price right now at the Apple online store), that's $138 million? Even with many of those copies probably being $280 upgrades, or some of the $199 specials Microsoft offered awhile back, it can't be that bad for Kevin and his Merry Band of Elves, I think.

No matter. I'm reaching the doors, and I head over to pick up my credentials. The man behind the Plexiglas at the Will Call line tells me that my press pass has been revoked. But I can get over in that other line and purchase a regular pass.

Huh? All of a sudden, I seem to have been lumped in with those rumor sites. Must have been that time I linked to that fool and his iWalk photos. I still think Apple really developed it, but decided at the last minute to cut it from their program in January because of the leaks. Oh well, no matter. As long as I can get in.

Once inside, it's a Mac lover's wonderland. Everyone and anyone in the biz is there, with their own space to show off in. There's Alias|Wavefront, a new addition, with their port of the high-end 3D software Maya to the Mac. There's the company that does all of those games, Aspyr. Nearby is Conectix, which makes all of its money by allowing us to run -- gasp! -- Windows. Epson, Extensis, Filemaker, Griffin Technology, LaCie, MacAddict and MacWorld magazines and Maxtor are also there, too!

Nearby, there's OmniGroup, REAL Software (as in REAL slow in adopting OS X), Sonnet Technologies, Stone Design, ThinkFree (of the ThinkFree office alternative to Microsoft Office) and good old Version Tracker.

And then it hits me, I haven't heard anyone else complaining about the adoption rate of OS X -- which Apple says is about 10 percent of an estimated 25 million Mac users. Apple advertises on the Mac OS X Applications page that there are more than 3,000 apps available for the OS. I haven't heard too many of them complaining to the Wall Street Journal, as Browne did.

Or maybe it's that Switch thing, I think as I move past the thousands of people and the exhibits in the hall. Maybe that punched Microsoft too low. Naw, I think. Can't be. The Mac BU makes a big deal out of being a separate business from the big ship in Redmond. There are separate, right? I mean, MS Office v.X is a part of the whole switch campaign for Apple. Switch to Apple, and yes, John Smith, you can still open those Word documents your clients send you.

Get over it, Browne. You're resting on a high horse anyway. Millions of people around the world use your proprietary format on both Windows and Mac, mostly because they have no choice. As someone on an e-mail list I belong to pointed out, the Harvard University application site requires your documents to be uploaded in .doc format.

Your software is overpriced, anyway. The price of the suite is half as much as a new low-end Mac, and in an era when Open Source software is starting to nip at your heels, you should be happy with all of the sales you do get, on either platform.

Besides, adoption rates for Office v.X will probably rise soon, with the impending release of OS X 10.2, or Jaguar, later this summer.

But now, things are really starting to get out of hand. CNET writer Joe Wilcox is reporting that Microsoft is not feeling much "gratitude" for what it's done for Apple. Gratitude? For charging too much for software? No wonder Apple is making deals with AOL behind Microsoft's back. It will be something else to see the MacBU guys and the Apple people trying to get along this week at the Expo.

Walking past the exhibit list, I see Microsoft and think, I'll have to stop by, give them a piece of my mind. Then, scanning the list, I notice a conspicuous absence: Adobe.

Earlier this year, the maker of what is arguably the Mac's most important piece of software, Photoshop, is not there. Neither is another important developer, Macromedia. Both pulled out earlier this year, Adobe officials saying that they reached more customers at the January San Francisco show.

This is no time for such a refocusing, I think to myself. This is an exciting time for Mac lovers. The next year could lead Apple to a slow climb back into some of the market share it deserves -- or it could lead to that downfall all of the company that all of the analysts have been thumping their chests about for a decade at least.

Now's the time for the whiners to pipe down, and the champions to step forward.

I push it all out of my mind. Steve Jobs' keynote, and the inevitable reality-distortion field that it creates, is about to begin, and I don't want to miss it. Because there's always that one more thing...