The love and devotion lavished by Mac fans on Apple (Nasdaq: AAPL) computers and operating systems is a phenomenon that still confounds many of the 95 percent of users who run Windows-based PCs.

The emotions involved can make even the most rational folks flame others in newsgroups, online message boards and chat rooms. Even Ross Scott Rubin, a vice president at research firm Jupiter Media Metrix, admitted to NewsFactor that, in his younger days, he used to boast on message boards about the superiority of the Mac.

Meanwhile, Web sites abound with names like MacinTouch, MacMinute, Macinstein and Apple Lust.

In fact, so many of these sites exist that no one would fault an uninformed observer for concluding that Apple owns 95 percent of U.S. computer market share, rather than 5 percent.

While some refer to this phenomenon as the Cult of the Mac, others call it nothing more than common sense.

So, what is it about the Mac that commands such loyalty? An even better question might be, what is Apple doing right?

User Loyalty

Jupiter analyst Rubin told NewsFactor that for a consumer technology, Apple has the broadest user base -- far broader than that of Palm or Linux.

"Desktop computers are more likely to breed this kind of loyalty since they are a tool with which there is such direct and tactile interaction," Rubin said. "It's almost like a partnership."

The One You Want

Rob Enderle, vice president and research fellow at Giga Information Group, told NewsFactor that unlike such companies as Microsoft and IBM, Apple "speaks to its user and continues to speak to its user throughout [the Macintosh's] lifecycle."

Most PC vendors "gave you the product, and you had to learn to live with it," Enderle said. "The Mac was and is distinctive. The PC was the machine you had to have, while the Mac was the one you wanted."

Ian Schray, product manager at VersionTracker.com, a Web site that posts software updates and shareware and that is especially popular with Mac users, told NewsFactor that Apple offers not only a viable alternative to Microsoft Windows, but also a computer that one can love and truly enjoy using.

"Even Excel is more fun on a Mac," Schray said.

Equipment Standard

Mac lovers also are more rational than garden-variety fanatics. After all, they have what they regard as valid reasons for preferring their computer and OS. (continued...)

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