My Thoughts ... : Windows

The Apple Tax – Get Less for More

Donnie Wilemon — Tue, 06 Jan 2009 20:17:58 GMT

I’ve discussed previously how the consumer’s dollar doesn’t go as far with Apple products, but this chart illustrates it much better than words. The data below shows how you can save money on hardware that is actually more powerful (fast processors, more memory, bigger hard drives, etc).

As a consumer, make sure you understand the extra money Apple requires of you for your computing experience. Do real comparisons of their hardware versus other options in the marketplace and you may be surprised by the savings you can achieve. Don’t buy into the hype and hysteria; make informed decisions and get more for your dollar.

NPD Study: Average Mac Computer Price More That Twice That of Average PC

Donnie Wilemon — Thu, 07 Aug 2008 00:20:32 GMT

Very interesting ... There are a couple of ways to look at this, but why stand on your head to explain away the blaring truth ?

Specifications often vary sharply for these systems, with Apple often focusing on faster processors than some rivals in notebooks but at the expense of memory and hard drive space. Its insistence on using mobile processors and custom designs for desktops, however, has created feature discrepancies where a Dell Inspiron 518 tower nearing the $700 mark features two more processor cores, three times as much memory, and twice the hard drive space of an $1,199 entry-level iMac despite both coming with near-equivalent LCDs. While the average price for Windows-based systems is described in the NPD data as having largely flattened and unlikely to drop further in the near future, the disparity between these and Macs has only widened in the last few months, according to eWeek. Apple's general policy of refusing to alter prices until its next hardware revision has reduced the value of its systems relative to Windows competitors.

"If Apple is going to continue its market share gains, or simply maintain that 8.5 percent U.S. share, prices must go down and configurations bulk up," eWeek notes. "The math is simply undeniable."

The Microsoft Mojave Experiment

Donnie Wilemon — Tue, 05 Aug 2008 18:29:21 GMT

Microsoft gets a bunch of people in a room with negative impressions of Vista (and no previous experience) and shows them what they think is the next version of Windows. Microsoft asks them for feedback and opinions. Everyone is "wow'd" except for one skeptical guy. Most of the ABMers and Apple fanboys out there are poo-poo'ing this new approach saying it really ignores the problems with Vista and blames the users for what is really a substandard product. I couldn't disagree more ... Microsoft has been more than forthcoming about some of the shortfalls in our bringing Vista to the marketplace (hardware requirements, application compatibility, etc), and we've done many things to address these issues. However, the plain, hard truth of the matter is that Vista is a very secure, high-quality product that performs very well in many environments. This truth is lost on many in the general population due to what have been some very effective (and unaddressed) Apple ads of which I'm sure you're all aware (the Mac guy versus the PC guy). Trying to remake a Vista "first impression" will be difficult, but needs to be done ... hopefully the biggest mistake in the Vista release - allowing a competitor to falsely label the product with misinformation - will be a lesson well learned for the next time around.