A tale of tales: the Apple Newton narratives

This is an account of the textual, oral and pictorial traditions of the Apple Newton brand community. Echoing the much longer and richer tradition of Irish storytelling, Newton users have constructed a tapestry of tales that interweave the personal and the commercial, the scientific and the artistic, and the factual and the mythical. These tales are full of intrigue, betrayal, and wanton unsanctioned fulfillment. They comprise a brand melodrama with symbolically rich and graphically intense user-created content. The authors have embedded researchers in this community for nearly 4 years: one as participant and the other as a known interloper. The stories the authors relay are meant for public consumption. They are publicly posted, in some cases communally authored, widely shared, interpreted, reinterpreted, deconstructed and analyzed within the community. They are tales that demonstrate the darker-side of the marketplace: when the marketer withdraws betraying loyal consumers and those same consumers refuse to go quietly to another market offering.