Its about ego and risk
Good article, and you almost hit the nail, but then don't.
Scientists and Academics do fashion, but not the same fashion as everyone else. They do fashion as a reduced risk of mockery type fashion. They might be very knowledgeable about stuff that nobody cares about, but they have very thin skins, and are very self conscious. Why do you think they like being published? Its all about ego, baby!
They like Apple because they look good, and their work mates have one. If you ever want to sell a computer to a scientist, tell him that the scientist down the road has one like this, but with something missing. What's better than getting your work published? Having better equipment than the scientist who just got published! That's another Macbook sold, then! ;-)
Scientists don't do IT networks, or even use more than 1 or 2 desktops at once. They never see the problems of Apple hardware that IT bods see - so they don't care. All they want is a better laptop than their colleague who just got published! ;-)
Biting the hand that feeds IT
