| Author | Message | ||
     Reepicheep |
Macs (and IPhones in particular) are making HUGE inroads at my (really big multinational online research) company. Mac is BSD with a great UI layer, so you can argue that it is Unix. The app store business model is the model of the future, and Microsoft will gradually continue to loose market share for PC's... and the whole time PC's become less and less relevant and get replaced with Apple Iphones and IPads and set top boxes... WinTel has the market locked up now to some degree, but only by virtue of racing to the bottom and doing insane amounts of work for a per device profit margin lower then the last motorcycle part you probably bought.. | ||
| Midknyte |
I can see numerous commercial applications, None that I will pay the release price for, but there are several that will make it worth getting when the price halves in 18 months time. Halving? Not likely. They have a greater habit of incrementally improving their 'pods and dumping the old one to maintain the price point. | ||
| Chainsaw |
...Embarrassing, and proof that people are finally seeing the light. Yup. Embarrassing alright. "Apple outpaced the rest of the U.S. PC market, which also grew an impressive 24 percent year-over-year, according to preliminary data released Wednesday by IDC." Wanna buy some Microsoft stock...cheap?  | ||
| Pwnzor |
That graph is very misleading. 400% of a small number is still a small number. Windows PC's already dominate the market everywhere. The reason they are gaining at all is due in part to the fact that Apple has gone to Intel processors and the ability to run Windows. | ||
| Chainsaw |
That graph is the 5 year stock price, not misleading. I sold all my MSFT stock when Vista was released and bought Apple with it. A 400% gain is not a trivial matter. | ||
| Chadhargis |
I've been in the IT biz for 23 years. Most of that time I've spent managing Windows systems on Intel platforms. I guess that's why I love Apple products so much. I never liked them prior to OSX. Once they became UNIX based, they were intriguing to me. I could drop to a command prompt and do whatever I wanted to. Count me among the group that loves the CLI. My first computer was a Radio Shack Color Computer. I loved that thing. I loved the IBM PC. I liked Novell Netware of Windows NT. There is something to be said about having a blinking cursor and having to actually KNOW what to type in to make the thing work versus clicking around on a bunch of icons and really fouling things up. I'm still waiting on that "headless" version of Windows server Microsoft has been promising. I cracked my iPhone and one of the first things I put on it was a terminal. It's a tiny UNIX workstation. Fantastic! I can't say that Mac is "better" than Windows, but it's different. As an IT professional, I enjoy having knowledge of more than one OS. I like LINUX, OSX, Windows, etc. They all have their pros and cons. All my personal computers at home are Macs. At work, I'm Windows. Well, actually my MacBook Pro has Windows and Linux on it as well. My Mac runs Windows like a champ either in a dual boot mode or as a virtual machine. Sweet stuff. | ||
| Chainsaw |
MSFT market cap is 266 billion, APPL's is 219 billion. I for one don't consider 219,000,000,000 to be a 'small' number.  | ||
| Pwnzor |
Yes, 400% is still 400%. But, 400% of what? The graph shows Apple towering above Microsoft, but it isn't. Walk into over 90% of all businesses. What do you see? PC's. Ok a few hair salons and talent agencies have Macs. What do they use them for? Email and web browsing. Yes, movie and music studios use Mac. So what? All the businesses that make things that keep us alive use PC's. | ||
| Pwnzor |
Apple mostly sells Ipad/pod/phone. Macs don't sell nearly as well. | ||
| Chainsaw |
...My first computer was a Radio Shack Color Computer...There is something to be said about having a blinking cursor and having to actually KNOW what to type in... My first real computer was an Atari 800 (I asked for a Commodore 64). Been on Apple's and PC's since 1983. I knew BASIC, Logo, and PASCAL before I turned 18. Let me say things have changed significantly since then. I use Apple's and PC's professionally every day for the past 17 years. In my experience, the Macs are waaaay more reliable than the PC's. (Message edited by chainsaw on April 10, 2010) | ||
| Steve_mackay |
It's MORE than made up for by the Mac zealots that think Apple can do no wrong. Portraying Steve Jobs being the messiah  , and Bill Gates as the anti-Christ.  | ||
| Pwnzor |
Hey, my first computer was an Atari 800XL! I had to write a little terminal program to start up my modem every time I turned it on, because I didn't have a tape drive. Good times with the old 110bps pulse dialer that took up half my desk. | ||
| Chainsaw |
But, 400% of what? That is a 400% increase in the value of the stock and net worth of the company. Let's say you had $10,000 in MSFT stock in January 2007, it's worth about $8600 today. Let's say you had $10,000 worth of APPL stock in January 2007, it's worth $60,000 today. | ||
| Steve_mackay |
I've had FAIRLY good luck with both. Less luck on the mac side, because of their more expensive component costs. I had a mirror drive door dual G4 that went through 2 power supplies. If it was a PC, it would have been a trivial matter to replace. But the Mac needs a special PS, and a non standard connection. At work, in the 12 years of being there I've had one Mac failure(A Hard Drive), and ONE PC failure(Power Supply).The PC was up and running within 2 hours. The Mac, being a mini, took a bit more time because of it's over-complicated chassis. | ||
| Chainsaw |
because I didn't have a tape drive. I had the tape drive! IRRC it took about 15 minutes to load the "States and Capitols" program. That's why I know the capitol of Vermont is Montpelier. | ||
| Chainsaw |
I've had FAIRLY good luck with both... We've had crashed hard drives, dead CD drives, bad RAM and such. The Mac's were pretty easy to get back up and running, the PC's not so much. If you think using a putty knife to crack a Mini is tough...ever replaced both sticks of RAM in an iMac? That was like brain surgery...maybe more like the 'Operation' game really. | ||
| Chainsaw |
I admit I have a bit of a bias against Gates. I think he's a great philanthropist...but by the same token you'd think as one of the world's Richest Men, he would have gotten that way by selling 'bombproof' software. I wouldn't call myself an Apple fanboy, but I am a shareholder with a big smile on his face. | ||
| Steve_mackay |
I've got a 17" Core2Duo iMac. The ram isn't that bad. But replace the HD? No thanks. NEVER again!!!! THAT was brain surgery. What should take 5 minutes, takes over an hour. | ||
| Chainsaw |
Apple sold 3,360,000 computers in the First Quarter of this year. I think selling a million computers a month is pretty respectable. http://www.apple.com/pr/library/2010/01/25results. html | ||
| Chainsaw |
Yeah, but it's a darn sexy machine, right?  I could probably replace the spark plugs on my Sportster while waiting at a stoplight...my XB...well...it's a little more involved. Fork oil change on it is a PITA in comparison too. | ||
| Bking |
For me, I hope Apple never becomes the dominant player in the PC market. I like the way it is: yearly gains, great machines and operating systems, innovation instead of just copying, less problems with malware and viruses. They just work without all the Windows gibberish. Kind of like Buell, it's different. Everybody else has a Honyamakawasuki - yawn. I used my wife's iPad on a couple of sales calls this week showing some potential accounts short videos on product features and benefits. I left them hold the iPad while viewing. I thought it worked out great. I'm now thinking of getting the 3G version when it comes out. | ||
| Steve_mackay |
 I'll take easy to work on, over sexy. | ||
| Danger_dave |
The bad news for the mac haters is that if you know and have used the products for over 20 years like me - you actually don't give a crap what they say. I don't rally care what OS I use or Jobs or Gates or anyone else - just how the tool works for me. Macs have been the backbone of my business since I started it and have been a great asset to it. Long may they continue. My next purchase will be a PC Netbook because that is the right tool for the job I want it to do. (Message edited by danger_dave on April 10, 2010) | ||
| Guell |
I dont hate apple products, i think they make a fine computer. Overpriced, yes, but still a fine computer. Its the fans that i hate | ||
| Danger_dave |
>>Its the fans that i hate<< Maybe you should get a life. :-P (Message edited by danger_dave on April 10, 2010) | ||
| Buelldyno_guy |
Started at home with a Commodore PET with 8K of memory, Then to a PC-Jr with 128K and over the years a series of MACs. The latest is the new 21 inch iMac with a 500 Gig drive. At one time the entire engineering department at UAL had 1300 MACs networked and the day they came and took my mine and installed PC I submitted my retirement papers. When Jimmy and first started JT&S Performance, the Dyno Room computer needed dual RS232 cards and ports and was a MAC Pro running Windows faster than a PC could. I think I will add a iPad to my list of business toys when the 3G is available, as the gearing calculator alone would make it worthwhile. Terry www.jtsperformance.com | ||
| Pwnzor |
MAC Pro running Windows faster than a PC could You're dreaming. | ||
| Buell2001b |
there is a reason why the Government or real business go PC and not Apple. I know developers that hate Apple and the proccess to get an app approved. lits like Obama and his way of contoling everyhting like healthcare. socialist think alike | ||
| Danger_dave |
I think the main reason today is because of investment in existing infrastructure. That can be traced back to when the 'accounts department' ran a 386 with a mono screen and no sound card - and the art and marketing departments had a Sony trinitron monitor, CD drive, and video ports. Important at the time was coloursync software. Apple had it MS didn't. But you could buy three Wintel machines for the price of a Centris. By the time the specifications matched and there was some off the shelf price parity the lines were pretty much drawn. Business that was about data went Wintel, those that were about imaging, arts or Adobe graphics software went Apple. Because they were the right tools for the relative jobs. Now it doesn't make much difference. Socialists - that's a new one. Edited for carp. (Message edited by danger_dave on April 12, 2010) | ||
| Seanp |
http://www.cnn.com/2010/TECH/ptech/04/16/volcano.a sh.norway.ipad/ |
