Here’s the thing: In the 6 months that I have written this blog, I have had a total of 3 comments posted. I posted a semi-negative post (and quite possibly a logically flawed one) about Apple 4 hours ago, and I have had a rash of comments and email. Impassioned I might add!

It is awesome. I can pretty much tell you that if I had written the same post about Dell, Hyundai, McDonalds or Delta…nothing. Chirping crickets. Apple has what Kathy Sierra rightly calls the Kool Aid Point.

Lesson #1 is simple (to write about, not to execute). Get people to be passionate about your brand.

Now for my 2 cents (like anyone cares). I use Apple products. My whole company uses them. We like them. A lot. But I can tell you that after 8 years and hundreds of service calls and warranty repairs (we are in the IT services business) that Apple’s service isn’t that great. The quality isn’t that high. I know, I know. Consumer reports. PC Magazine. #1.

But what are we comparing them to? Dell? Gateway? Lenovo? Acer? I mean maybe this isn’t something we should be grading on a curve, you know? Maybe this should be a finite comparison. Working vs not working. If you are #1 with a 20% failure rate is that something to be proud of? (I know one of you will send me the actual stat – I made 20% up) Is that really #1?

How about having enough confidence in your product to say it will work as advertised for 3 years? That doesn’t seem like such a stretch, does it? Hell the first PC company to do that might even find a way to stop racing for the bottom to match Dell, and have a (gasp!) differentiator.

Lesson #2? Let’s stop grading on a curve. It’s cool to rank ourselves based on the performance of others in our industry until… someone changes the formula and starts doing it way better. Then the guy who was previously the best becomes a distant #2. Just ask Mapquest.