The Path to OS X
Part Eight: X Equals Ten!

New!The Path to OS X Finale: OS X Spreads Its Wings
(MacOS/hype)-D. Browell

Part12: This Might Hurt A Little...
Part 11: The App Game
Part 10: Novice Shoes
Part 9: It's the Hardware, Baby!
Part 8: X Equals Ten
Part 7: Good Karma
Part 6: A New Breed Of Apple
Part 5: Steve Jobs/Spurrier
Part 4: Sideshow Skirmishes
Part 3: Command Who?
Part 2: Glances...
Part 1: From the Ashes

There's an internet-aided habit that has reduced our marketing people to baby talk in terms of names. Every day a new site is born with some ridiculous name that harks back to the early 20th century campaigns for strange catch-phrases and product names. Granted a strong reason is the ever more full dot-com pool of available domain names, soon to be resolved with the opening of more suffixes. But there's something a little odd about a bunch of X-Files Lone Gunmen style code-crunchers rallying behind these increasingly weird names and hoping a bunch of fresh faced web newbies will not only visit, but become hooked on their cyberwares. So when Apple introduces OSX in just a matter of weeks, there is a giant marketing leap many new users will have to take:

X means ten.
Doesn't mean much does it? But in the land of X-Men, X Rated and the X-Files we have few things to go on when we see a big X. Plus, this is a jumping on point, or at least will be, for all Mac users under the sun, so at some point there will be users that never new 9. Plus, this is a visual medium...sure there's sound in an operating system (for better or worse in some cases) but no voice announces the OS so we know how to say it. The box, the start up screen and the marketing will have to do a job that flesh it out.

Of course, to assume Apple is blind to this is ridiculous. We trust them to have the foresight in the already proven marketing department to tackle or not tackle this issue. It is the age of all those X-things and OS X fits right in. The trust may very well lie in the Mac veterans... Why? Well to not be the annoying, braying asses that have to correct everyone when they say "ex" instead of 10. The problem is one of respect in that case, and please remember the whole visual-medium thing that might not expose the "appropriate" pronunciation... I got enough Linux comments before I honestly knew, and for that matter I had to listen politely as someone told me how much they like the game Rye-ven.

The campaign for Apple's mindshare in the public has begun. We face a year that may hold a huge Microsoft let-go with the antitrust case, and the blitz for the X-Box will put Gate's empire, and even the PC culture, in the visual paths of many uncommitted buyers.

The time in Apple's history may be ripe for this new system, but will it get swallowed by what we cannot control?


by Dean Browell
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"The Path to OS X" is a series of articles examining the casual user's view of OS X. Take with a grain of salt and dash of incense for full effect.

Related Links:

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Apple.com
AppleAddict.com
Utterer.com
MacSurfer.com
AppleTurns.com
The X Files: Mac Speedzone
Macledge.com
the new Macgaming.com
X Bastille
Freeverse
AppleInsider.com
MacOSRumors.com