Ramblings from another nerd on the grid
Apple has enjoyed a tremendous amount of mindshare and market share the past few years. Many people think they are the innovation leaders and their stock price reflects that. But there are a number of companies that have had Apple in their sights for quite some time and the market is getting ready to shift.
Windows 7 is getting ready to ship. It’s a good OS. Maybe great. But it is made better by the quality hardware products that run it, or the applications that run on it. We all know this. The Microsoft partner channel is critical to the success of Windows. The laptop market is getting ready to go white hot again. I’ve been talking with hundreds of customers and nearly everyone I talk to is waiting for a key date, 10/22/2009. Why?
Because everyone is waiting to buy a new computer. Upgrading from Windows XP? Nope. Buying a new machine with Windows 7 already on it. Want to see a machine on my short list? Look no further.
HP Envy
HP is pretty cocky to name a machine Envy. But then again HP is doing pretty well and the specs for the Envy look great. I would trade my ThinkPad today for this machine. That should not be surprising. It’s been a loyal servant but it’s 2.5 years old and that is getting ready to make it positively ancient compared to the crop of new machines coming out.
So what’s so hot about the HP Envy? How about a Quad core processor and up to 16GB of RAM for starters. And that’s in a slim package. In the picture above you can seeing the Envy all snuggled up to the MacBook Pro. As you can see, it compares nicely. Click the link just above or the pic and head on over to the gallery on gizmodo.com.
Plug in a nice eSATA drive and we are ready to rock Hyper-V virtualization or Hi Def encoding. The rest of the technical specs are very respectable. According to a few articles on the internet, the HP Envy 15.6” model starts at $1800. The 15.4” Apple MacBook Pro starts at $1700 so it would appear we have an interesting horse race here.
Summary
So what should you do? Get a bag of popcorn because the show is getting ready to start. First up this week are the new Windows Mobile Devices. After that, there should be a steady parade of laptops and netbooks showing themselves before Black Friday. Game time.
Keith Combs wrote:
> I would like to know how many people buy a
> netbook again after having used one for a
> period of time.
I have been using a HP 2140 (Vista edition with 2 GB RAM)) for about 6 months and I dont think I will buy and use a machine this small again, unless the resolution of the screen improves. 1024x576 is simply not enough screen real estate and I miss a TrackPoint pointing device.
It ran Vista fine and is running Windows 7 just as fine.
I'm with you Peder. 14" is about as small as I want to ever go with a 1440x900 resolution.
James,
Considering the Envy doesn't have an optical drive, many people would probably consider that a show stopper and disagree with you. I'm certain the Apple machine don't make most of the people gag.
But thanks for the feedback.
I have to disagree that HP technical support is the same as Apple. For the same price or a bit more I can assure you that even as a primarily PC user, I'll buy the Mac in a heartbeat. Every time I buy an HP product and need technical support I have to wade through 5 levels of useless scripted Indian technical support before getting anyone who is knowledgeable and able to help. Apple has a reputation for superior hardware design and support. For the same price it's a no-brainer.
HP will have to build this for a lot less to gain my interest.