Two local businesses shared their stories with me on how they're making a pretty decent living servicing Apple products to different kinds of customers in the Baltimore area.

One is MacMedics, which has been around for 20 years and is based in Millersville. The other is Chesapeake Systems Inc., which is based in Hampden.

Here's the top of my story, which ran in yesterday's print edition, and is online here:

Dana Stibolt was in his early 20s when he started seriously tinkering with Apple computers at his parents' computer shop in Severna Park. It was the late 1980s and the computer that he taught himself to fix was called the Macintosh Plus.

What's interesting to note is that both of these businesses have done well because they've specialized in some areas of Mac product expertise. MacMedics offers consulting on networking, including integrating Macs and PCs; while Chesapeake has expertise in Apple's video hardware and software offerings, i.e. Final Cut Studio, and building out enterprise systems for companies that do a lot of video work.