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Comment by nailer | Hacker News Reader

> The niche developer/macrumors posters

It's not just developers and MacRumors posters. Joe Rogan - the comedian and MMA commentator - did a massive unprompted rant on how poor (and he didn't use the word 'poor') the Apple keyboard was on his recent podcast (3rd most popular podcast in the world http://www.itunescharts.net/us/charts/podcasts/).

The keyboard affects anyone who types. It's not a niche group of obsessives at all.

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I don't know why you're being downvoted. Rogan is a good proxy of Hollywood creatives, which in turn has an enormous impact on how often Macs show up as default movie props.

Isn’t a better “proxy” for how well the Mac is doing reported sales numbers?

Have you seen reported sales numbers specifically for Hollywood creatives? Will you ever?

Apple sends hardware to movie production companies. They’ve been doing this for years.

There's a big difference between the AfterEffects guys and the writers. Rogan's complaints were as someone whose career requires massive amounts of writing and understandably wants a keyboard to have feedback.

I'm in complete agreement with him. In their obsession to make the thing thinner and fancier they have rendered it less usable. They've locked themselves into a marketing pattern that precludes them from having a "if it ain't broke" mindset.

..the difference being, Apple can send the hardware, other companies often have to pay for product placements.

I would also add Rogan has a massive following and is a big influencer in many areas. His opinion could easily affect people thinking about or considering moving to a Mac product.

I know a lot of his followers on Twitter are super loyal to the brands he promotes.

Consumer electronics movie props are typically paid advertising placements now. I don't think there's really a default anymore, at least not for big-budget Hollywood productions.

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