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Apples Are For Grannies?
RoboJock writes "So much for Justin Long — the young, hip 'n' trendy face of the Apple Mac (as seen in the 'Mac vs. PC' ads) is even further removed from the average Mac owner than everyone suspected... By three or four decades. According to research discussed at Silicon.com, 'nearly half of Mac owners are 55 and older — that's almost double the share for average home-PC users.' It seems the young guns don't have the extra cash to stump up for smooth shiny aesthetics." From the article: "For the digital youth, high-street box shifter Gateway is the brand of choice, taking the number-one slot among PC buyers aged between 18 and 25. Dan Ness, principal at MetaFacts, said in a statement: 'Apple can claim long-time loyalists but its future among the young technoliterati is an interesting dynamic.'"
And Gateway is their client. Suprise Suprise...
s _background.htm
http://www.metafacts.com/pages/corporate/metafact
Old people just want their computers to work. No driver loading, virus scanning, malware removing... just plug the camera in and press a button to publish it on the web yadda yadda.
Shit, when I get home I just want my computer to work.
This
Exactly! It's not so much the advertising, it how many parents and grandparents ask someone savvy in the family what computer they should get. You say what most of us say: "Get a Mac." Nobody wants to clean an exploit out of a relative's XP machine.
The opportunity here is getting to the point where it's as easy to give them Ubuntu.
There is no fscking way I'm inflicting Windows on her. System administration aside, she knows nothing about the social engineering hazards out there -- email scams, phishing scams, the vast cornucopia of malware...
Linux is an option, but it would take me weeks to build and tweak a configuration to the point that I'm happy with it and feel it would serve her needs, and I don't have that kind of time (although Ubuntu out of the box is darned close). Further, she has little interest in exploring computing for its own sake.
So that leaves Mac/OS-X. And, frankly, of the three, I think she'd be happiest with that.
So I don't think it's economic factors at work. I think it's because seniors have highly-developed bullshit filters, refined over decades of experience, and have figured out that Macs Just Work.
Schwab
Editor, A1-AAA AmeriCaptions
For youngsters, Apple seems to be a high-end "mall-brand", but often times no more expensive than other brands when you start to compare features and software bundles.Except that most "PC's" are available without lots of extras that youngsters don't want.
:)). Bottom line though is that a lot of us simply don't want all that stuff.
I'm sure than when you consider the onboard GPS, the heated cup holders, high-end surround sound, leather interior, etc, that a BMW stacks up rather well compared to a Kia of comparable features (if Kia made such things
"People who think they know everything are very annoying to those of us who do."-Mark Twain
While maybe most of those young hipster types aren't able to afford Apple computers, they are definitely buying scores of IPods. This feeds a brand loyalty and interest in Apple as a whole and then can lead towards them eventually purchasing Apple hardware.
The reality is when you do an apples to apples comparison (pun unintended), Apple's are not expensive. Go out and buy a dual woodcrest workstation from random PC vendor and see what kind of price they are charging you. What makes Apple seem expensive is that the average person will compare that against a desktop PC with half the power and think it's a valid comparison.
Generally speaking Apple systems are more of a long term investment and so it costs more. Overall you're probably getting better quality for your dollar, but if you only have a few dollars, that doesn't matter much. While the other PC vendors are fighting for every little cent on sub $400 PC's, Apple is selling $2500 PC's and making enormous margins.
I'd rather be in Apple's position than Gateway's.
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As someone who uses a Mac and a PC daily, I think some of the commercials are funny but a couple of them are a bit misleading. I think that implying that Macs are for certain stuff and PCs are for other stuff is pretty annoying. I'd rather they use blatant sex to sell stuff then try to mislead people.
The opportunity here is getting to the point where it's as easy to give them Ubuntu.True. For just web browsing and email for a non-techie, Linux is pretty close. The problem is when they call you and say "how do I do this [digital photography] thing I've heard about"? Where [digital photography] could be GPS mapping or digital movie making or DVD burning or something else. My elderly relatives can figure out things like iLife (iPhoto, iMovie, Garage Band, etc.), but if they were using Ubuntu I wouldn't even have any idea what to tell them. Plus, I wouldn't have an answer for "you setup my computer for me and now you tell me I can't use iTunes/iPod with it?? The clerk at the store said that iTunes works on all computers (Mac AND PC)."
Avoid Missing Ball for High Score
But to be honest, and not to be troll, I found Mac OS X to be relatively stupified in comparison to other OS's that I've used. OS X is pretty and all, but I prefer 'functional' over 'shiny' and I like to really dig into the inner workings of the OS that I use.
I've not the foggiest what you're on about. It's a freakin UNIX box with an open source kernel, that ships with a DVD full of developer tools! How much more functional do you want?