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Apple Dominates "Premium PC" Market
itwbennett writes "Macs made up a whopping 91 percent of the $1,000-and-up computer market in June. Not so long ago, $1,000 got you an entry-level machine. Today the average computer sells for $701, while the average Windows machine sells for only $515. Still, Macs only make up 8.7% of PC sales. But is that really such a bad position to be in? Consider an Apples to Apples, that is, Macs to iPhones comparison: the iPhone takes only a sliver of the phone market but a much larger share of the profits."
windoze variants just don't feel like a modern OS.
if XP wasn't so crufty for ones whole computer life to be sitting on top of... the experience and the stress is like taking a cross country road trip in a 1986 Ford Fiesta. And Vista.. was a poor launch, not to mention the uber-triple nagware affiliate bundles that all the laptop players crammed in, making for a maze of questions, cluttered desktop and auto install/update go away!!! AAARARARARARGAGGGGG! *feh*
i'm still a windows user, but mostly from a stable image inside a Parallel's virtual machine inside of OS X. now that feels modern to me.
not to say I'm a fan boi, cuz i miss some windows deets, like windows explorer always being active, even in a modal dialog. just saying that the few hundred extra up front is well worth the flexibility and reduced servicing downtime i've experienced.
My prediction is mac market share will go up steadily over the next few years while microsoft gets itself sorted out and all those college boys they hired get some real world experience. i'm sorry, in good conscience i can't recommend windows to anyone in the market for a new computer, unless its a cheap tower for straight ahead production work.
Like Mac OS X.
Circumcision is child abuse.
Useability? How do you rename a file in OS X again?
Oh yeah, you have to hold down the Command key, click on the file, then select Get Info, then change the filename and hit Okay.
In Windows?
Right click on file, click Rename, edit the filename right there, hit enter.
How do you backspace?
On OS X, you have to hold down the Command key and then hit the delete key.
In Windows?
You hit the fucking backspace key, because that's what it's for.
How do you run a program?
On OS X, you select Finder from the dock, then find the Applications folder, then find your app.
In Windows,
Select Start, place mouse over Programs, click on program.
Apple has spent a long ass time doing what they want "their way," not because it's better, but because it's theirs. People buy Macs when they want to dick around and they buy PCs when they actually want to be productive.
I have a battery, you ignorant clod!
doesn't save the screen, which is more likely to be damaged, since, with a laptop, power management will spin down the hd much of the time. Also, you can buy laptop hds that come with a motion sensor and will self-park, so this is no longer a "premium", but a standard feature.
Why? Are you typing a murder mystery while under the covers? oh, right - surfing pr0n!
Sounds like the most common point of failure is the user. Maybe a "don't drop me" sticker would help?
For this end-user, premium means gobs of disk space, cpu, screen, ram, and decent battery life. For under a grand, I've got twin 320gig hds, 17" screen, full-sized keyboard, 4 gigs ram, dual core 64-bit cpu and decent (a couple of hours with everything running) battery life. And those self-parking-when-you-drop-me drives.
It's usually thrown in a pull-behind, along with camcorder, charges, extra batteries, tripod, cabling and media, etc (It's my video-production-studio-in-a-box).
Just saying that "premium" is entirely in the eye of the beholder. I was willing to pay a premium for a bigger keyboard and space for a second hard drive. I can buy 3 x 17" laptops for less than the cheapest 17" mac laptop. for others, the mac might be a better deal, but not for me, and I suspect not for many in this crowd.
Shame? Embarassment? Yes, that case is significantly larger than the Mac Mini in every dimension. In facct whilst the Mac Mini is 84.5 cubic inches, that leviathon is 523.5 cubic inches. More than 6 times the size.
But hey, you saved $250 right? Well the Mac includes OSX. But you didn't include a price for Windows. From Newegg, even the Home version of Windows will add $189 to that price.
(Yes, maybe you'll cut price by running Linux. But then you are talking about an alternative for even fewer people. And you''re not comparing hardware prices but commercial software vs open source.)