Macs are Awesome……Or are they?
Ok , for some reason the CSS is totally screwed over by this post , so I’m in the process of fixing , please forgive me.
I figured I’d post up a little tidbit on my blog again (Finally , I know) about something that’s been bothering me – Macintosh Computers.
You know, there’s been tons of commercials on TV about how PCs are old and antiquated and Macs are the future! It even seems that every single trendy person uses a mac (Heck, even the president uses a mac).
So , being a ‘open minded’ individual as I am, I’ve asked every person who owns a mac the same question – Why did you buy one over a PC?
The answer I get about 80% of the time is “Because I’ve heard they’re the best” , The rest of the people I talk who answer because they run OSX on it.
So , I wanted to do something fun this morning , so I priced out 2 very comparable systems, a Macbook Pro 17″ and a dell XPS 16 (yes there’s 1″ of difference) to see how similar I could make the systems.
Ok , now what’s the difference? A different graphics card (Nvidia vs ATI) and about 1″ monitor difference. The price difference was pretty substantial at $820 difference between the two systems. Even more amazing was that Apple wanted $1,000 just to upgrade their macbook to 8gb of ram (Compared to dell’s $500 for the exact same thing!).
So , for about 50% more you’re paying for a name & Recognition along with a operating system that’s not compatible with quite a few programs, as windows still leads OSX in program development. Having said that , there’s always 3 choices for OS – Windows, Linux and OSX which whether the companies want to tell you or not , can be run on any of the systems, it just requires a little bit of tweaking.
So , here’s the question – Is someone really all that smart and trendy if they over pay on a computer by around 50% just to be like the next guy?
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good, Point made.
I say its yummy capitalism.
Apple has positioned themselves as the Mercedes of computers.
This luxury can either be dwindling or transcendent like Ferrari or Rolex.
so far its still a buy as people flock to buy their products at a premium. They have meticulously managed their image, product delivery and service reminiscent of a young wal-mart coming up on old Kmart in the 80’s.
For someone with a plan to become a Billionaire the lesson from this is simple.
Increase the perceived value of all goods for sale its the easiest way to increase profit margin vs competition.
freedomhomefinders.com
I will say we are a 2 system household so I feel I can speak to the subject. We have both a PC and a MAC and hands down any day I want to do something quickly I will pick up the MAC. We didn’t even get the Pro, just the regular Macbook. Much better system performance, less hanging and crashes vs. the PC that we have that technically has ‘better’ specs. To me it comes down to a quantity vs. quality. Adding resources to a PC won’t get you nearly the same result as adding resources to a Mac because the Mac uses its system resources much more efficiently without loops in the software and memory leaks. I’ll take the quality of the Mac over any bigger numbers and quantity of a PC any day. Actually, the only thing I touch the PC in my house for is programs that I don’t have a Mac version (they are available, I just bought them on the PC before we had the Mac) I think that in and of itself speaks to the superior performance of the Mac.
I have owned many computers since 1981 when I was an engineering student (freshman) at Purdue and the IBM PC was introduced. I have been through CPM(computer program for microcomputers), MS DOS, DR DOS, Wang VS mini computers, X windows, MS Windows, Sun Microsystems, Digital, etc. My personal computers have varied from lugables, desktops, notebooks, subnotebooks, etc. I have owned 40+ since 1981, and built several myself. Currently I own 9 Macs running various versions of OSX (and a couple occaisionally run Windows XP using Parallels), and one Dell notebook running Windows XP. There is no comparison between the Macs and the PC and it all comes down to something I call “Design Coherence”. The Mac is clearly hardware built by people who create software. There is an elegance of execution based on everything working together as a coherent system. Specifications don’t tell the story. It is similar with automobiles. I have owned many …and my current Porsche 911 is more coherent than the Vette Z06 it replaced. It is not as fast on the track, can’t beat the numbers. But the sum of the parts exceed the expected result. Something which is overpriced on brand is something like Grey Goose Vodka. Not really better than many cheaper vodkas. But when it comes to Mac … it is delivered value. You are paying for the software and the hardware. The PC is a batch of parts with a starter kit of software.
Since 1989, I have owned Dell, IBM, Compaq, Hewlett Packard and others so I had to try a MacBook Pro. I purchased VM software so I could run Windows on it. It is somewhat slow when I use the PC capabilities of Mac but it is convenient not to have to turn on my Dell XPS (which is 6 years old and still works great, though a little show). There are still quite a few real estate programs that require Windows so I had to ad the capabilities to my Mac. With me, the verdict is still out…I am still attached to my Dell XPS.
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