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Forbes Predicts 5% Desktop Share for Apple in 2005
sebFlyte writes "Spurred on by the iPod, Apple's share of the desktop computer market will grow to five percent (from three percent) this year, according to research from Morgan Stanley. Apparrently nearly 20% of iPod users surveyed are planning to switch to Macs, and the sales figures for the last few quarters are backing up the theory of the iPod Halo Effect. All this suggests the question ... how many iPod-touting Slashdotters are thinking of switching?"
That's really great. "5 down, 95 to go! ... still."
Moof.
I actually am the only person I've ever talked to in engineering who switched FROM PC to Apple but then switched back to Windows.
Why?
- World domination: Microsoft owns the market. I don't care what number you want to quote, but when it comes to writing shareware/freeware for a living like I do, you have to do it in Windows or else you won't be eating very long.
- Top-notch developer tools: Visual Studio, C#, etc. all make coding incredibly easy. Going back to writing Object Oriented C or AppleScript from within Vi on a Mac OS X box just seems... well, archaic.
- Price: Windows for me is cheaper. I get a new Dell box for $599 every 6 months which lets me build faster.
- Devices: My Windows mp3 player was half the price of iPods of equivalent storage. Why pay twice as much for half-the functionality??
You know, "Wine Is Not An Emulator" WINE? Copy over a few of the files off an old Windows 98 CD + some fonts 'n' libraries and you can be playing "World of Warcraft", "Half-Life 2", "GTA: San Andreas", or whatever else you'd like. And if that fails, just get Cedega for $5. They're for linux, but they work just as well on a Mac. I know, I've tried.
I'm a signature virus. Please copy me to your signature so I can replicate.
Have a GameCube and PS2 haven't played a PC game in 2+ years and haven't missed it. I plan on getting a Mac Mini.. Great OS underneath, pretty UI on top and all my favorite Open source apps will run on X-windows if nothing else.
What in the world do I winders for?? Oh thats right so I can get all those viruses, Malware and zero security Active X controls.. No thanks.
So Long and Thanks for all the Fish.
- Get a Mac
- Download OpenOffice.org
- Get Virtual PC if you still need to run Windoze apps
You'll never look back.Currently bidding on sig
The mac mini is obsolete. My 3 year old computer is on par with it on performance. It's not worth $500 unless you need the small form factor.
Vote for Pedro
Well, I'd consider it for a fun home machine, but Macs are still pretty useless in most business environments. Poor hardware support (no serial or parallel port), and many, many fewer customer business apps make it impossible for me to consider switching my business. Also, I'm not really a fan of hardware lock-in. They're cute and fun, but not nearly as functional as a boring, generic PC if you're doing almost anything other than web browsing and writing email. Also, the upgrade cycle is insane. I'm simply not buying a new OS every 6 months just to maintain compatibility with current versions of software. My copes of Windows 2000 are still 100% compatible with all of my software, and probably will be for a long, long time, especially if I install the bolt-on .Net stuff.
I don't respond to AC's.
I don't know where you get your data on universities. I work at an Ivy League university and am a member of several higher ed associations where we trade operational info. Everyone I know has ditched Apple. Three years ago, we were 90% Apple, now the university is probably 80% Windows based. They made a conscious decision to go with the system that's used in the real world. There are departments that tenaciously cling to Apple - they are generally looked down on as averse to change.
laugh hard, it's a long way to the bank