Main Area and Open Discussion > Living Room

It's Official: Apple Is Now Worth More Than Microsoft*

<< < (2/8) > >>

cranioscopical:
a magical elephant hiding in his garage that craps out all his merchandise
-app103 (May 26, 2010, 11:29 AM)
--- End quote ---
Tusk, tusk!

zridling:
I now get requests for new systems which start "I have been wondering if it is worth buying an Apple computer to replace my Windows machine. Everyone tells me that Apple's never go wrong ..."

Marketing is winning the war despite common sense!

Having said that customers usually settle for Windows when they see the price, the catalogue of Macs I have been asked to fix, know bugs in MacOS and my unvarnished comparison of the actual hardware found in machines with like-4-like price tags.

I'm not a Windows zealot or a Mac hater (and I can see that in some specific fields it might be good to move to Mac) but I get really fed up with having this conversation with customers who are being blinded by Mac religious zealots and a lot of flannel.
-Carol Haynes (May 26, 2010, 10:17 AM)
--- End quote ---

I see news people on cable TV constantly taking an opportunity to mention their "ipad" or latest itunes list, or heck, any Apple news -- especially on business channels. They're not reporting financial or company info, just tossing it out there that "they" own a Mac gadget and because of that, you're supposed to think they're cool. Usually these people start in their 40s; I suppose that's the only crowd who can really afford them.

However, after the novelty wears off, most of the Mac-heads I know are only impressed as long as they stay in the Apple ecosystem and do not dare compare their gadgets to anything else.

daddydave:
Usually these people start in their 40s
-zridling (May 26, 2010, 11:44 AM)
--- End quote ---

So the iPhone is the new red convertible?

Darwin:
My parents had to replace their G5 iMac recently (the capacitors on the motherboard were all melting down - evidently a known problem with iMacs of it vintage - 2005) and I insisted that they look at both Windows 7 and Apple replacements. They paid $1300 for a 22' iMac with a Dual Core Intel processor, integrated graphics, 4GB DDR3 RAM and a 500GB harddrive. It's stunning. However, for about $300 less, they could have gotten an HP with Quad Core processor, 16GB RAM, 1GB dedicated graphcs and a 1 TB Harddrive. The obsequious Apple salesman kept going on and on about the superior "innovations" on the iMac (like streaming video!) and went on about the superior security, yada, yada, yada. I was with my mum for that embarrassing spiel. She and dad went and checked out Windows 7 machines on their own and went and bought the iMac without me. The same salesman convinced them that the iMac was competitive in terms of hardware at that price point. Ridiculous.

I do have to say this: the way that the Apple was presented - in a very uncluttered, very bright environment with lots of light-coloured, real-wood and stainless steel furnitutre - half sold me on the thing. Around here, most Windows based machines are available in box stores - crowded, dark, austere, and with horrible music blasting at you. Further, the machines don't tend to have any software on them for you to play with. At the Apple store everything was loaded for demonstration, so the salesman was showing my mum streaming video from websites that he'd bookmarked, showing off TimeMachine, and demonstrating OpenOffice and iWorks. I think that made a big difference as well...

I take comfort in knowing that: I have access to Snow Leopard to play around with and that my parents are using a machine that they are comfortable with and that they know. But it still rankles... I keep thinking about the GB's of unused Windows shareware that I have and don't use and that I could have loaded up for them. Perversely, I bought my mum an Acer netbook with XP on it for Christmas and she loves it. I wonder what would have happened if I'd sprung for a Windows 7 Starter based machine instead... ?

PS I did consider loading Vista Ultimate on their iMac but can't see them using a dual-boot setup and doubt they'd enjoy running Windows as a VM. Thoughts?

app103:
PS I did consider loading Vista Ultimate on their iMac but can't see them using a dual-boot setup and doubt they'd enjoy running Windows as a VM. Thoughts?
-Darwin (May 26, 2010, 12:20 PM)
--- End quote ---

Don't do that! Keep that Vista away from them.

Giftmas comes every year. You could start buying the parts now, then assemble it in early December, put Win7 on it, configure it, load it up with all the best Windows software goodies that would make them wet their Mac loving pants, install a wallpaper changer and load that with the best looking wallpapers you can find, stick Circle Dock on it, and give it to them as a gift.*

If not this year, then maybe next year.  :D


*Then watch them fight over who gets to use the Windows machine and who gets stuck using the Mac.

Navigation

[0] Message Index

[#] Next page

[*] Previous page