Class signaling via Apple products

[firecat]

"A Macbook Pro is just as much of a status marker as a Louis Vuitton purse or a BMW."

I recoil at the notion because I think Vuitton purses and BMWs signal a different class than ones I identify with. (At least I tend to have prejudices about people who have those things—I'll assume "not like me" unless I get evidence to the contrary.) But I do think that, in California at least, there's a class I might call "hi-tech professionals" and having Mac products can signal identification with it.

FWIW, I think I'm kind of clueless about class.

Anyway, it's interesting to contemplate. What do you think?

Comments

[twisted_times]

Interesting comments here; not read the article yet, but I might at some point.

Being a guy, I just don't get the whole female fashion thing, especially not when it come to big name labels like Louis Vuitton. I do know some women how have a down - or more - different purses and/or handbags and swap them around to go with their outfits, but it seems too much hassle for me and most women I know.

As to BMWs, I know a lot of folk like them for their reliability how comfortable they are to drive. One company I worked for gave all their Regional Managers and above company cars and they all picked either BMWs or Mercedes. As a pedestrian, I've come closest to death by car most often under the wheels of more expensive cars (like BMWs and Mercs), which seem to be more prevalently driven by idiots. YMMV, if you'll pardon the pun.

Some people do indeed treat Apple products as status symbols, especially iPhones these days, although that has always been the case for new and shiny mobile phones - it's just that the tech fashions have changed over the years. Most Mac laptop users tend to own them because they like them and/or get best use out of them; all the designers at my last company used Macs without exception as Mac software is the industry standard for design, graphics and publishing industries.

I'm working for a software testing company now, so I'm getting a lot of exposure to Mac OS. Personally, I don't like how it works and the look n feel of the UI, but that probably because I've used Windows, UNIX and Linux far more over the last 20 years.

I'd say there's another class of "hi-tech professionals" who make a point of using Linux systems as a way sticking your fingers up at the The Man. However, because you can run it on any hardware and it's not as blatantly styled/branded as Apple products are, you can't tell it's a Linux system unless it's up and running and even then it's not always obvious as most programs are cross-platform these days (he says typing this in an Opera browser tab on his Linux netbook).