[opendtv] Re: I'm starting to feel sorry for, and worry about

  • From: Craig Birkmaier <craig@xxxxxxxxx>
  • To: opendtv@xxxxxxxxxxxxx
  • Date: Fri, 6 Aug 2010 08:16:53 -0400

At 11:40 AM -0700 8/5/10, Kon Wilms wrote:
 > Absolutely, because the components that made up the Mac hardware were more
 expensive...and superior by the opinion of some.  But I tend to agree with
 Craig when he says that pricing was much closer when comparing performance,
 specifications and features.

We're talking about current hardware. You can't compare pricing based
on two completely different system architectures that had different
manufacturer pricing right down to the CPU.

Agree with Kon here. The reality today is that Macs, and particularly the MacBook Pro offer significant advantages over the low cost commodity PC products; and now the iPad is kicking netbooks where it hurts. The MacBook Pro is increasingly the choice of Road Warriors, where a comparable PC Laptop is only slightly cheaper, and obviously less attractive in terms of form factor and durability.

And one must also take into consideration the software that is bundled with the Mac, in particular, iLife for home PCs.

Apple's excuse for higher pricing in non-Intel days was that the
components were superior. When they moved to Intel they could no
longer use this excuse, and instead shifted it to a nebulous of an
excuse along the lines of 'it's just better.. we use these connectors
other people don't, blah blah'. Nevermind the actual systems are Intel
an manufactured by the same plants that churn out cheap clones. I
guess fooling the sheeple is easy.

By the time Apple switched to Intel, they had also switched to industry standard i/o. Many machines still support Firewire, but USB has been supported for most of this decade. And yes, it is in the iPad, but it looks like the lack of a general purpose USB port has more to do with Apple's mobile/wireless ambitions - getting rid of the wires all together.

One of the most successful products in terms of getting people to switch from PC to Mac has been the Mini. It is sold with keyboard, mouse or display; as it assumes that the potential customer already has these on their PC and can move them to the Mac Mini.

Like it or not Kon, the average consumer believes that Macs are built better (because they are) and are less risky in terms of malware than PCs. Just look at any recent consumer satisfaction surveys.

Right - and if you remember back then, no-one was reskinning Windows
applications either. Only with the advent of WinXP did 3rd parties
start reskinning and replacing common controls. Windows had the same
set of shortcut mechanisms as MacOS had.

As I pointed out recently, and is confirmed by Dan, the disadvantage of creating applications for the Mac was primarily centered around having to follow GUI rules. As Windows moved to match the Mac, feature for feature, rollng ball mouse developers had to follow essentially the same rules.

Other than the second mouse button, both are now very similar, and Apple now provides support for two or more mouse buttons. I was pleasantly surprised when my wife replaced her ancient "roller ball" mouse with Apple's touch sensitive wireless Magic Mouse. She quickly adapted to it, and her first "support" request was how to turn on the right click mouse button.

What one can do, is compare price on components to build a 'clone',
and warranties for said components. The hackintosh is always cheaper.

Are you considering form factor and packaging to be components?

Apple is clearly winning on this front, especially in laptops. And with little thing like the Mag Safe power connector that has saved many a laptop from a catastrophic tumble. And then, as with luxury cars - there is the perception problem. Macs are now cool and perceived to be worth a bit more.

I think that part we agree on. The problem I have in this particular
discussion is the 'woe is me' excuse for Apple not besting Microsoft
due to some cherry-picked excuses, followed up by the ironic 'but
Apple is and was always better and is not more expensive' claptrap.

Let me modify Kon's last statement just a bit.

Apple is and was always better and is not more expensive when total cost of ownership is the metric that is used for comparison.

Regards
Craig


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