The twittervers has, over the past few days, been brimming with feverish talk about the latest Mac offerings, cheaper, faster, stronger and able to leap tall buildings, they latest Mac’s are the solution to all your issues, credit crunch men/
Trouble is, I don’t get it, not that you care but,,,hey
Now ill grant you Macs look nice, but then so do Dells XPS laptops, (for instance) yes Apple’s are shiny they're pretty and the new 15 inch offering seems very 'nice', and yes the air is ridiculously slim and …ill admit it a beautiful piece of kit but is it worth the over inflated price tag?
They are, admittedly well spec'd but not to the degree that you can justify the additional spend?
What exactly do you get for your added moola?
I did a highly unscientific twitter request for information the summary of which is;
Ease of use
Really, ok I get the OSX is a nice interface but are we not confusing the operating system with the hardware here, you may not like $ but windows isn’t exactly hard to use.
Whilst usability is designed and the Mac is very well designed, familiarity is key to its use, if I where to try to sue a Mac now, I guarantee it would neither be intuitive or easy,
Dislike of Microsoft
Again confusing the issue, besides, ever heard of Linux?
And why anti Microsoft, if it’s restrictive practices and actions against competitive values buy an iPhone
I’m sorry but if you want to talk restricted practices then you can't really use this argument, sure Microsoft get nailed a lot or the way they do business but Apple are at least as bed.
Tools available that are not available on PC
Really is there really tasks you simply have to have a mc for because you can’t do the same on a PC?
Consistency
Better fro web dev
Again don’t get this, how is using an Apple better, what are the advantages?
Elegance
Shiny
Looks nice
AH! the crux, I’m fast coming to the conclusion that Apples are seen as ‘cool’ you have to be seen to be using one, the latest one and it has to be shiny, and it your doing something ‘web .20’ ish on it then that’s really cool, the Mac is web 2.0.. In a box.
Its not that they are significantly better, but if you have one, then you are in ‘the club’ your in the club its a Mac and that means your savvy, it used to mean your a creative, kooky free thinker, and it still does, you just do other stuff, snowboarding and paragliding..Maybe...
And this is the thing, Apple and packages the whole ‘owning and apple’ experience into a lifestyle statement, and that’s what Steve Jobs set out to do, create a product range that made people want to belong to the club enough to pay for it.
Yes the products are good but that’s not whey you but them, it’s because you want to belong to the club, (cult ?) PC’s don’t and can’t do that
It’s just like the apple app that cost $1000 and did nothing aside from show an icon on your iPhone saying you could afford this app, it’s not that it does anything exceptional, its just, well cool to own?
I should probably point out that I’m not anti Apple, far from it, what they have done is nothing short or genius and far as product development, marketing and branding is concerned.
They have created the Mac not as a piece of tech, but a lifestyle choice and it’s brilliant.
I love to see well thought out design, and the Apple is a well designed piece of kit. All of it, I love my little IPod and use it daily, it’s an excellent piece of kit made better when I dumped iTunes and use winamp instead (far superior)
But not one person who I asked could give (IMO)a valid reason why the apple is worth the extra money, all praise to apple they have created the ultimate product suite and with it a sense of belonging, but you pay for it and not the tech, anyone who believes different is kidding themselves,
Of course there is no way for me to test this theory, I have no Mac to test the theory, nor will) and no doubt those that belong to the Mac fan club will be quick to point out how superior the Mac is, fine, no problem.
Enjoy
To see the new apple offering go the (UK) Apple store
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