You don’t agree that Mac users will tend to want another Mac?
You DO agree that Mac users will tend to want another Mac?
Things like Intelliscreen - which throws up your calendar, weather, email on the lock screen - the one thing that Windows Mobile got right. MyWi, which turns it into a hotspot… Cydia tweaks like SBSettings that allows me to toggle airplane mode, 3G, brightness, etc. with one swipe… putting 5 icons in the dock and more on the springboard…
I can’t parse this. 
Why does anyone want any computer that is merely capable of running Mac OS? Or why does anyone want any computer that is merely capable of running Windows? There’s this thing called the App Store by Apple, and it has over a million applications in it. Yet, the vast majority of them aren’t compatible with Mac OS or Windows, so it seems pointless to have a Mac OS or Windows computer.
Of course context is everything, so this is in reference to,
Sic stat, since there’s so much in the App Store, there’s no point in owning a Mac or Windows computer.
Bijou has a history of being biased, I suspect this thread isn’t meant to convince anybody, anything.
But here’s my methodology:
I want a laptop that LASTS. (Items eliminated: $300-$600 Windows compatible laptops)
Cheap laptops skimp on the internal structure that keeps the motherboard from flexing…flexing = death…ports go away, power plugs get weak.
If you’re spending $1000+ on a quality laptop, You can choose from lots of Vendors…Toshiba, Lenovo, HP, etc. At that level they all have good internal structures, You can expect they all have a chance of lasting a good long time as a result.
What only ONE of them has, however, is iLife and OS X. If you have a host of laptops that are fast, rugged, have excellent battery life and a great screen, good wireless and a camera…but one comes out of the box with EXCELLENT media management software…and you have an occasional need for media management software…well, I pick Mac.
I HAVE Alienware, I have an iMac and a Mac Book Pro. I have one of every console. I’ve had a Nook Color (flashed), and I have an iPhone and iPad. I have Windows 7, OS X, Ubuntu in the house. The things that USED to matter (speed, stability, safety) are no longer an issue. The devices are at parity.
But I PREFER OS X on a Mac Book. Why? Because I do. Do I need to convince Bijou? No I do not.
But for YEARS, the ONLY manufacturer that surrounded all it’s guts in a solid piece of aluminum was Apple. That protection equals long life. Long life plus compatibility with EVERYTHING, either natively or via emulation, plus iTunes/iPhoto/iMovie reduces the equation to one maker.
If you want a soundbyte: If Apple sucks so much, why does everybody try to emulate them? (and by everybody, look as Samsung on the phone/tablet side, and the upcoming Ultrabook category of computers.)
For decades Apple has released things, only to have them emulated by other vendors 6-18 months later. Wonder why that is?
As far as “But it doesn’t play games! LOLlollolol!”, I have consoles for that. Do they lag behind PCs? Sure…but they’re cheaper and more stable as a result.
My MBP is an office computer. If I ever leave that job and have to surrender it, I’ll be hitting the Apple Store on the way home.
No. What I am stating is that people will buy the platform they have spent all their money buying programs for. No matter how good a mac is, if someone has $2k in programs for a PC they are not going to get a mac and spend another 2k in repurchasing programs for the other platform. Gamers are not going to go and start buying macs because they can’t game on them, and a corporation who has spent several million licensing or even having programs written for them are not going to jump onto the mac bus.
Inertia, dude. People go with what they generally know. I put together a linux box for my dad, all he was doing was email online. He needed to get thunderbird, and run the printer. No need for him to have more than the one icon on the desktop, but as soon as he saw that cure little linux salamander from SuSa, he freaked out. It literally had ONE icon on the desktop, labeled email. Despite his never clicking on anything other than the thunderbird icon on the PC, change the OS in a manner that has absolutely no impact and everything is changed.
$2000 worth of windows programs is a $50 purchase away from retaining (http://www.vmware.com/products/fusion/overview.html). The three major emulators all support sucking in your old PC as a virtual machine. All of these arguments why “people” don’t “change” are anecdotal or worse, supposition. If it’s not for you, it’s not for you…but for every “My illiterate relative freaked out at an icon” story, there’s another “My mom made the switch and never looked back”.
I have a standing rule with family members. I will provide all the technical support they could possibly want…if they buy a Mac. I went for YEARS fixing laptops three times a year for issues…having a family member ask for help with a scanner driver and coming up for air three days later after a reinstall because the computer was so f’d, scanner support was the least of their problems.
Twice, family members have purchased Macs, and beyond a two week orientation period, their support calls drop to ZERO.
Ok. The reasons don’t actually matter. If the OS platforms are sticky for any reason, then those users adhering to the Apple side of the picture have a smaller range of devices on their menu.
Nope, but it does prove a real life instance to the OP. And to tell you the truth many Apple users I have encountered over the years have had the exact same attitude. Hell, it can be seen in their clothing as well, Tommy Hilfiger and such. Nothing wrong with it, but it does seem that style over substance is the norm. Financially speaking, there is no sane reason to purchase a Mac over a PC. None, there is absolutely nothing that a Mac can do that a PC can’t. And do it at a significant savings.
I have nothing against Apple as a whole, but I do have some thoughts about them that make me question why someone would choose to spend their money on that product:
1: Look at the iPhone. I have one now because my Android died after 2 years and my sister gave me her old one. There are some very good things about the iPhone, but it is offset by some very very stupid things that would prevent me from actually paying money for one.
Just to mention a few, no replaceable battery? What the hell is that all about? When the battery eventually dies I need to send it into Apple and pay them $80 or so to replace it? When my Android one died a quick scan of Ebay got me a new battery for under $10.
My sister gave me here old 3g iPhone. The phone has no video capability. I read an article recently that a app developer made an app that gave the 3G video capability and was going to market it for .99 cents. Of course Apple would not let the app to be sold in the app store. Why not? Because the 3Gs has video and why allow your paying customers the ability to upgrade via a simple software enhancement when you can sell them a new phone.
The power cord. Now, this is a simple one right? Nope, my sister didn’t have the power cord so I had to go buy one. It was $10, really not that big of deal, but why couldn’t Apple use a USB cord like just about every other smartphone company? Because by choice, they used a proprietary cord that you can get only one place. Guess where?
And finally (but not all inclusive) I have noticed that with each new iPhone the new features really appear to be things NOT included on the last phone just to be able to sell you a new one. It is almost like Apple leaves out some minor detail with the intent of including said detail on the next version. And like the above example, even if there is a simple workaround, they won’t allow it in order to force their (willing) customers into dropping a few hundred more dollars.
The bottom line is the Apple users I have met in real life and those I have observed on the internet all follow a similar pattern. They don’t seem to buy the product some much for what it does, but what it says about themselves. It is almost like a cult, and iCult, but a cult none the same.
You are absolutely correct.
There’s (essentially) nothing you can do on a Mac, that you can’t do on Windows.
It’s the thing you CAN do on Windows that keep me on the Mac - like get infected by the hundreds of thousands of bits of Malware that are lurking everywhere, just waiting for the opportunity to wreck your computer and steal your data.
No thank you, sir.
Replaceable battery? Well, I’m willing to trade off the slight inconvenience of not having a replaceable battery for the increase in battery life and reduced size of the iPhone. Custom charger cord? Well, every iPhone comes with a USB cord, but the point that people miss when complaining about this is - it’s not just a charger cord - it’s a full dock connector, and is one of the reasons that the iPhone has such an enormous array of third-party docking solutions.
Heheheheh. Yeah, I’m just sitting here in my Tommy Hilfiger clothing. That’s me, all right.
Guys, should we tell him about the secret Tommy Hilfiger boutique in the back of all Apple stores, accessible only by plugging in your proprietary iPhone charger? Or should we keep it a secret for now?
I posted it before and I’m not going through the effort do to it again. A couple years ago I crawled through the Cert alerts database and extracted all the top two levels of viruses & exploits for both Windows and Apple OS.
The counts were virtually the same.
Earlier, somebody said their sound card didn’t work in Windows 7 because nobody made a driver for it anymore. However, for $16.17 at Best Buy, they can get a new one that certainly has drivers for Windows 7. I don’t think the Apple guys can do that.
There’s an old joke that if Apple made cars, they’d weld the engine compartment closed and replace the dashboard with a big red explanation mark that would occasionally light up.
The two big things that bother me about Apple products is the 40% “cool charge” they add to everything and my belief that they’ll sacrifice function for form every time.
It’s the same thing that made me buy a Kawasaki rather than a Harley.
One thing I’ve hated about windows is the Registry. At least you don’t have that headache in OSX! 
Lets use small words:
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If a computer lasts longer, you don’t go through as many of them. That saves money in the long run. But, you know, you’re categorized as some kinda fanboi for not wanting to replace it.
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If two computers are made up of the same guts(*), but one has software that the other doesn’t, that you like, which do you pick? (Hint, the Mac runs everything the PC does…the PC does NOT run everything the Mac does) Platform lock-in only matters if you CARE about it. I’ve made peace with it, Your pity is misplaced.
- = Arguably, Macs are DIFFERENT than PC’s. Don’t believe me? Buy a PC with MagSafe.
3a. Phones: That potential for replacing the battery means squat in a device that people tend to replace when their two year contract is up. While iPhones tend to look ugly after two years, they tend to work just fine (including that battery).
3b. iPhones are more expensive…if you’re bad at math. Figure the cost over the Two year contract, you’ll find the price differential is negligible on a $100 Android vs $200 iPhone phone. (hint: It’s north of $2000)
3c. Debate over who makes the best phone is a fool’s errand. Nobody CARES what phone I pick…nobody CARES what phone you pick. You could pick a better hobby than prosthelytizing for the Wireless Carriers…they all suck. They’re all predatory. They all rape you for every bit they can. Spend your time curing world hunger or something.
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People get sore when other people spend more money on stuff. A $1200 laptop is infinitely more expensive than a $600 one…if all you can afford is $600. A VAST majority can afford more than that, and it’s not that big a deal…really. A $1000 Mac Book Air is 0.8% of my family’s annual gross income. Now consider that it’s a 5 or 6 year computer, rather than a 3 year one…and compare percentages.
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What you call ‘pretty’ is actually pretty tough. I have an early 2009 17" MBP. It looks as good as the day I got it, and it travels to and from work with me most every day. It has had 200 load cycles and the battery retains 92% of the designed maximum charge.
-You should revisit those statistics. The ones for the Macs were theoretical and not found in the wild. I responded to your post. 
-The Apple joke is realized by Porsche. Try to get a look at a Boxster’s engine sometime. They still sell a bunch of them.
-The 40% cool charge is a myth, albeit a persistent one. Where’s the cool charge in apple’s $1000 Air? Where’s the cool charge in the $500 iPad? The $200 iPhone? The $50 shuffle?
Which just goes to show you, you can always find data to support your argument, no matter how wrong you are…
Why don’t you try doing this: Do a similar search for Virus or Malware or Worm on this message board, and see how many threads are related to Windows, and how many are related to OS X?
There are been a mere handful of OS X malware threats in the 10 years that the OS has been used, and almost all of them are Trojans. Compare that to the hundreds of thousands of unique Windows attacks. To imply that a user of OS X has anywhere near the same chance of being attacked as a Windows user is not just cherry picking, it’s an outright lie.
Aww maaaan, I don’t have any iTommy Hilfiger stuff yet. NO iWONDER everyone else in the iCult was giving me the iStinkEye.
MsW, I like your look, but shouldn’t those iJeans be yanked down to show a bit of iAss? Keep it real, yo.
Well, after re-reading this thread one thing is obvious. Debating this is no different than debating religion, abortion or politics. No one is going to change anyone’s mind and neither side is going to see the other’s side.
With that said I will leave with one other observation. As a whole it isn’t Apple products that I don’t care for. It is the Apple users. The smug factor is beyond belief. If I went to the Apple store tonight I don’t think that they would sell me anything, I don’t possess enough smug.
You should meet me. I’m pretty nearly 100% smugless.
You want to see smug? Try this.
Huh. I’m surprised this thread is talking about “choice of computer” since it that’s a category where Apple isn’t really behind.
Most companies offer a ton of conifguration options and models, but, meaningfully, they only offer a few “things”: big laptops, little laptops, and desktops. The fact that HP has dozens of lines and types isn’t a benefit. It’s the reason buying computers from most companies is a huge pain. Apple covers all those bases (except tower desktops, but who cares?) just fine, and makes it really, really easy to pick the one you want.
Apple is, quite frankly, ahead of the curve. Every other manufacturer could really, really stand to prune their lines. Aggressively. Buying any other PC is a tour through cumbersome, overbuilt webstores. Buying an Apple is simple and easy.
When I read the thread title, I thought the OP was asking about the lack of choices within the OS: Macs are built, roughly, around a “there’s ONE correct way to do it” philosophy. It’s elegant, but frequently grating to Windows users.