A Hybrid World

Spencer Howson’s tweet below is the inspiration for this blog post.

Of course, the brand in question in Apple- everyone loves a good Apple product and they are taking over the computer market- especially in the younger demographics.

Yet some companies are still missing out by making their products incompatible with Macs. The most relevant company to me who don’t cater for Macs is the Taxation Office. I can’t believe that after all this time there is still no eTax for Macs. For weeks now I have been trying to do my tax but the only PC available to me is the old home computer at my parent’s place. It would be so much more convenient if I could do it on my computer just like this blog post, which I am writing with a hot chai tea in a trendy café.

As someone who has a huge interest in marketing, I find the tax issue particularly interesting given that both Macs and eTax have similar target markets. Young, self-sufficient working people. And this got me thinking, if an organisation as big as the Australian Government is ignoring such a huge part of the market, what other companies are locking people out through technology.

One of my experiences of “technological lockout” is with my favourite news site brisbanetimes.com.au. I like to wake up and read the news before I roll out of bed to start my day. I also have an Android phone. Fairfax has tailored their phone viewing so specifically to the iPhone that the usability from an Android is appalling. I feel like I’m using a 100-year-old computer on dial up internet. The stories appear slowly, in poor format and without headlines or images in the right place.

And so I have come to the conclusion that in today’s society, it is not enough to cater just to PC or just to Mac. In order to make your audience feel included and as though the news is personalised for them you must cover all aspects of the technological world. It is a world that is rapidly changing and this is no easy feat for companies.

For now, I will just cross my fingers that next year I can do my tax on my laptop!