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HELP! I Got Attacked By Apple Fanboys!

There's an interesting post over at ZDnet by Violet Blue, describing how she was gang-attacked online after writing a post that offended some Apple fanboys.

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The incident is convoluted. Blue apparently referred to someone at Macworld as a "Booth babe," and the fanboys got offended and demanded that Blue apologize and call the women by her proper designation--"developer."  Then it turned out that the woman was not the person the fanboys thought she was and was in fact a PR person. But the command to slander Blue had already been issued from on high, so the attacks and demands proliferated.

Violet Blue

The particular story is convoluted, but Blue makes a valid point:

Apple fanboys, who seem to attack en masse whenever they are commanded to, have long since ceased being an asset to the company they so violently represent. 

A decade or so ago, when Apple was flat on its back, the fanboys were a sympathetic bunch: A group of passionate if downtrodden devotees whose object of devotion had been crushed. Apple was an tiny underdog in those days, and it needed help and believers. And Steve Jobs' vision and passion and commitment to product design were worth believing in.

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But now, 15 years later, Apple is one of the richest and most powerful companies in the world. Apple has gone mainstream. All of Apple's former foes and subjugators are reeling and scrambling to catch up.

And yet Apple's fanboys still persist in acting as though they're a threatened religious sect who must fiercely defend their cause or risk going extinct.

Needless to say, Apple doesn't need this sort of support anymore.

Apple is now much richer and more powerful than the hated Microsoft ever was.

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If you want to "think different," these days, you have to buy Android. Or RIM.

In short, Apple has won.

So it's strange to see Apple's most passionate fans still acting as though Apple needs such mindless, Borg-like support.

Read Violet Blue's account of being gang-attacked by the fanboys >

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