5 Jul
2012
5 Jul
'12
5:16 a.m.
On Jul 4, 2012, at 7:25 PM, Chris Tofu wrote:
C: Who was talking about modern Macs??? I was referring to the original Macs, didn't
I mention that? The Mac has come a long way, but I don't consider it a marvel
nevertheless. The Mac became a *real* pc w/the inception of the Mac II. Still love those
machines. But they were expensive.
Whatever superiority there is in a modern Mac is way offset by the price. It makes ***NO
SENSE*** to pay over 1000$ for a computer that will be outdated in 3 years. If you have a
specific need, then go for it. But a 300$ Toshiba will get most people through those 3
years. Why spend 4x more then you have to??? Wow what a marvel. A marvelous way of
draining your wallet. It's all pretentious nonsense to me.
Oh, not *that* argument again. *sigh*. Actually try and price an *identically*
configured PC & Mac and I think you'll find that the price difference isn't so
much (in quite a few cases the Mac is cheaper). Yes, there are cheap PCs. And they are
little more than repackaged Intel reference designs (and they pretty much suck). Then
look at the MacBook Air (which turns out to be the *least* expensive of the Mac
portables). The PC manufactures can't even match Apple's price. It's so bad
that the "ultra book" designation that Intel is pushing (Apple invented the
category with the original MacBook Air BTW) can't be built to be price competitive
with Apple unless Intel subsidizes the price.
Apple designs its systems to be:
1) thin [the tolerance of components in the Z dimension is measured in microns] & not
using "off the shelf" components such as LCD assemblies but rather using the
case as the structure for the LCD
2) light weight [removal of plastics and using CNC milled structural aluminum which
removes the need for separate structural components]
3) low acoustics (i.e. quiet) [asymmetric fan blade design & closed loop thermal
management]
4) long battery life [lithium polymer batteries that are form fitted to the enclosure,
which also aids 1 & 2 which allows higher battery capacity per volume and weight]
There was a "race to the bottom" that most PC manufacturers fell into. Look at
their profits. Then look at Apple's. The last numbers that I saw (externally
available, I'd have to look it up) was that HP's profit (on average) is $50 per
PC it sells. Apple's profit (on average) is $350 per Mac it sells. At profits that
low, HP can't even take a service call on a system without blowing the profit on the
system. Wonder why service from the various PC manufacturers is so bad? You get what you
pay for. Ever wonder why that cheap PC has so much crapware on it? It's because the
manufacture gets *paid* to put all of that on the PC. That's the only way that
they're actually making any money at all.
Because of Apple's profits, it has the ability to really engineer the Mac vs what most
PC manufactures do (which is take an Intel reference design and repackage) and it shows.
TTFN - Guy