Sidebar Sidebar
Become a MacRumors Supporter for $50/year with no ads, ability to filter front page stories, and private forums.

Apple not a computer company - they are a mobile device company.

KnightWRX said:
That's where we'll have to disagree. I keep hearing about "computer" to refer to actual computers like . . .
Click to expand...
I had a thought: As a linguist I'm now wondering if perhaps this impasse is due to the fact that French is your first language and the standard, "everyday English" use of "computer" requires a more innate understanding of the subtleties of its use. Everything you listed would normally be called a computer--I doubt you'll get any argument from anyone here. Yet, one would not normally refer to an iPad, iPhone, etc. as a computer.

Peut-être vous employez « ordinateur » d’une manière différente que celle de nous ?
 
Last edited:
KnightWRX said:
Also, when I hear people talk about their laptops, they don't call it a computer, they call it a "portable" or "laptop" or "notebook". Same as for desktops, people will usually refer to them as "towers" and let context do its job of letting us understand they're not referring to the CN Tower in Toronto. Again this ridiculous notion that "computer" means "laptop or desktop and nothing else" is something I only hear on this very forum
Click to expand...
I call my laptop a computer, because that is what it is. I have never called a desktop a tower, I call that a computer. In fact I don't think many people call it a tower.
 
KnightWRX said:
That's where we'll have to disagree. I keep hearing about "computer" to refer to actual computers like "my car's onboard computer" or the "central computer" in our data center or even "the navigation computer in my boat" by ordinary folk every day. Also, when I hear people talk about their laptops, they don't call it a computer, they call it a "portable" or "laptop" or "notebook". Same as for desktops, people will usually refer to them as "towers" and let context do its job of letting us understand they're not referring to the CN Tower in Toronto. Again this ridiculous notion that "computer" means "laptop or desktop and nothing else" is something I only hear on this very forum.

Seems to me maybe it's MacRumors, with its computers and iTouches that's kinda of "out of touch" so to say.

The fact that some people use computer interchangeably with laptop/desktop does not mean that the word is now limited to only those computers though. People still know and understand what an actual computer is. And that doesn't change the fact : Apple right now is still selling boxes with CPUs, RAM, they are writing the OS using normal a language, compiling it with a compiler and selling you the result, earning them 90% of their revenue.
Click to expand...
Perhaps you just happen to deal with... more intelligent people on a consistent basis. Half the people I know hardly know how to open an internet browser.
 
Drop "mobile" and I'm with you

Apple, since the iPod, I would argue, has been less in the business of "computers" or "laptops" or "mp3 players" or "phones" or "tablets" and more just in the business of making devices that people want. When you take the labels away, their strategies, which very frequently involve combining features of one or more of these classes of devices to create entirely new paradigms, make them money by creating classes rather than persisting in them.

Will Apple make anything that can fairly be called a "PC" ten years from now? I think so. Twenty? Dubious, but then, it might be that the PC will be totally dead by the end of the 2020s, so who knows. But, if Apple keeps doing what it does, what will be important about an Apple product of the 2030s won't be whether it's a computer or tablet or whatever. What will be important is that it will be cool and useful and that people will want it.

And this isn't limited to just mobile devices. Consider the increasingly likely Apple television set. Nothing mobile about that. But if Apple can come up with a workable concept for a giant screen that sits in the middle of your living room and serves as a seamlessly integrated media buying, accessing, and watching machine, I bet they'll do it. Call it a TV. Call it something else. Doesn't matter. It's a device. But it's definitely not mobile.

Apple doesn't make mere computers. That's why they changed the name. They make devices. Computers are a kind of device, to be sure. But just one kind. Maybe a nearly extinct kind. But you can bet Apple would never be so foolish as to say "we are ONLY a MOBILE device company." That would be dim.
 
Wondercow said:
Will I stir up a hornet's nest if I point out that, under the wide-reaching definition of "computer", an iPad is also a PC? :cool:
Click to expand...
I agree with that. Though when the OP said "computer" he obviously was referring to just laptops and desktops so it makes sense to me to limit 'computer' to laptops and desktops for this discussion.


KnightWRX said:
Again this ridiculous notion that "computer" means "laptop or desktop and nothing else" is something I only hear on this very forum.
Click to expand...
I think this is where the disconnect is happening. No one is saying that the word computer only means laptops and desktops. Except, of course, w/in the confines of the discussion started by the OP where we've already agreed that we all know that 'computer' is being used as a slang reference to laptops and desktops and not iDevices.

Also, in the US it must be more common than in Quebec for people just to use the term computer when talking about laptops or desktops as opposed to the more specific terms laptop and desktop/tower. "Hey, let me show you something on my computer" is a much more common phrase than "Hey, let me show you something on my desktop" or "Hey, let me show you something on my tower."


The fact that some people use computer interchangeably with laptop/desktop does not mean that the word is now limited to only those computers though. People still know and understand what an actual computer is.
Click to expand...
Nobody is saying otherwise.


Lethal
 
LethalWolfe said:
Nobody is saying otherwise.
Click to expand...

Actually, re-read the thread, 2 people said otherwise, I asked them for their definition of a computer. They never gave me one.

And again, the my point is the OP is looking at the situation in the wrong way by limiting is use of the word computer to only mean desktop/laptop. Apple is a computer company, they just don't concentrate on the laptop/desktop as much as they used to.
 
KnightWRX said:
Actually, re-read the thread, 2 people said otherwise, I asked them for their definition of a computer. They never gave me one.

And again, the my point is the OP is looking at the situation in the wrong way by limiting is use of the word computer to only mean desktop/laptop. Apple is a computer company, they just don't concentrate on the laptop/desktop as much as they used to.
Click to expand...
Apple is not a computer company anymore, they said so themselves when they changed the company name to Apple Inc.
 
KnightWRX said:
Actually, re-read the thread, 2 people said otherwise, I asked them for their definition of a computer. They never gave me one.
Click to expand...
Many people have tried to explain to you that using the word 'computer' to refer to laptops and desktops is very common short hand (at least in the US). Even Apple uses the term 'computer' to refer exclusively to its laptops and desktops. Your refusal to acknowledge this information is your own fault.

And again, the my point is the OP is looking at the situation in the wrong way by limiting is use of the word computer to only mean desktop/laptop. Apple is a computer company, they just don't concentrate on the laptop/desktop as much as they used to.
Click to expand...
How is the OP looking at the situation wrong? The OP doesn't like that Apple isn't concentrating on laptop and desktops as much as they used to (which we all pretty much agree is true). Why is the OP's opinion that he wished Apple would focus more on desktops and laptops wrong?


Lethal
 
LethalWolfe said:
Many people have tried to explain to you that using the word 'computer' to refer to laptops and desktops is very common short hand (at least in the US). Even Apple uses the term 'computer' to refer exclusively to its laptops and desktops. Your refusal to acknowledge this information is your own fault.
Click to expand...

By that token then, we can agree IBM got out of the computer business a decade ago.

Ridiculous notion is ridiculous. End of discussion for me.
 
Sue De Nimes said:
I am moving from a three year old Core i7 machine running at 3.8Ghz. None of the new Macbook line will come close to it in performance.
Click to expand...

The new MacBook Pro's Core i7 (Ivy Bridge) processors are quite faster than the Intel Core i7s from 2009. In fact, the fastest Core i7 in 2009 (975X) was 3.33 GHz—not 3.80 GHz—and it scores about 2000 points less than the 2.6 GHz Core i7 Ivy Bridge in PassMark tests.

PassMark 2012 Benchmarks
 
carlos700 said:
The new MacBook Pro's Core i7 (Ivy Bridge) processors are quite faster than the Intel Core i7s from 2009. In fact, the fastest Core i7 in 2009 (975X) was 3.33 GHz—not 3.80 GHz—and it scores about 2000 points less than the 2.6 GHz Core i7 Ivy Bridge in PassMark tests.

PassMark 2012 Benchmarks
Click to expand...

The computer I moved from was an overclocked 920 based machine.

----------
Michaelgtrusa said:
They cannot update every item on the same day, it would be bad practice.
Click to expand...

Do you have a source to back up that statement?

----------
LethalWolfe said:
How is the OP looking at the situation wrong? The OP doesn't like that Apple isn't concentrating on laptop and desktops as much as they used to (which we all pretty much agree is true). Why is the OP's opinion that he wished Apple would focus more on desktops and laptops wrong?
Click to expand...

Exactly - I based my initial point on direct quotes from Tim Cook and Steve Jobs. With those quotes and the change in company name I believe it is pretty clear that Apple don't consider the iPad and the iPhone computers.
 
G51989 said:
How isn't it bad practice? Apple will be losing a good number of Pro customers over not updating the Mac Pro.
Click to expand...

No company should ever try and update everything in their lineup at the same time, why no touch and go?I understand the issue everyone's having with the MP, it needs a complete redesign. Apple has had too many quality control issues in resent years and should take it's time on the Macs.
 
Michaelgtrusa said:
No company should ever try and update everything in their lineup at the same time, why no touch and go?I understand the issue everyone's having with the MP, it needs a complete redesign. Apple has had too many quality control issues in resent years and should take it's time on the Macs.
Click to expand...
Have the quality issues been on the Mac Pro or other systems? It would seem that the Mac Pro is the easiest to build and get right.
 
LethalWolfe said:
I agree with that. Though when the OP said "computer" he obviously was referring to just laptops and desktops so it makes sense to me to limit 'computer' to laptops and desktops for this discussion.
Click to expand...

Yeah, the OP was talking about markets. Computer market = PC market = laptops and desktops. Phones and iPods are in the mobile device market, not the computer market.

All the "but a phone is still a computer" talk is totally unrelated
 
MacNut said:
Have the quality issues been on the Mac Pro or other systems? It would seem that the Mac Pro is the easiest to build and get right.
Click to expand...



Not the Mac Pro. I haven't heard of any serious issues with the MP at any time since it's a low volume production item. The iMac yes.
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Register on MacRumors! This sidebar will go away, and you'll see fewer ads.
Top Bottom
Back