Does anyone else remember back in 2006/7 there was supposed to be a 'halo' effect on the sales of Macs after huge sales of the iPod? This, at the time, was accepted as generally being good for Apple. After all, what computer company wouldn't want to sell more computers?
Fast forward ten years, and throw in the halo effect of the iPhones and iPads, and surely Apple's computer offerings must have people dancing in the streets? Well, for the majority of users, that is probably true. Okay, maybe not the dancing, but most users are happy with Apple, placing them top of Customer Satisfaction reports. And therein lies the problem.
Problem! Why? What? That doesn't make sense! No, I suppose it doesn't make sense to the new breed of Apple acolytes, immersing themselves not only in the best operating system on mobile devices, but now also being able to access virtually the same operating system on their shiny new Apple computers. No, I'm afraid that the problem is reserved for the older generation of Mac users.
Users who have seen the top end desktop classic Mac Pro replaced by something which is, no doubt, much more energy efficient. But it's limitations are obvious. The graphics cards in these smaller, new Mac Pro's are proprietary. Plus they are three years old. There's no room internally for extra hard drives or PCIe cards. In short, it has a much reduced shelf life compared to the previous Mac Pro's. The same applies to the iMac's. Limit the shelf life, and Apple will sell more machines. And the entry level Mac Mini fares no better. No more quad core processor option; soldered on RAM; weak built-in graphics.
The halo effect that was predicted has certainly exposed more new users to Mac OS X. The problem is that Apple have no business need for the old users, and their hardware line up reflects this. As an older generation Mac user, I have no qualms welcoming the next-generation to the Apple party. I just wish DJ Cook would play the odd song we could dance to.
Fast forward ten years, and throw in the halo effect of the iPhones and iPads, and surely Apple's computer offerings must have people dancing in the streets? Well, for the majority of users, that is probably true. Okay, maybe not the dancing, but most users are happy with Apple, placing them top of Customer Satisfaction reports. And therein lies the problem.
Problem! Why? What? That doesn't make sense! No, I suppose it doesn't make sense to the new breed of Apple acolytes, immersing themselves not only in the best operating system on mobile devices, but now also being able to access virtually the same operating system on their shiny new Apple computers. No, I'm afraid that the problem is reserved for the older generation of Mac users.
Users who have seen the top end desktop classic Mac Pro replaced by something which is, no doubt, much more energy efficient. But it's limitations are obvious. The graphics cards in these smaller, new Mac Pro's are proprietary. Plus they are three years old. There's no room internally for extra hard drives or PCIe cards. In short, it has a much reduced shelf life compared to the previous Mac Pro's. The same applies to the iMac's. Limit the shelf life, and Apple will sell more machines. And the entry level Mac Mini fares no better. No more quad core processor option; soldered on RAM; weak built-in graphics.
The halo effect that was predicted has certainly exposed more new users to Mac OS X. The problem is that Apple have no business need for the old users, and their hardware line up reflects this. As an older generation Mac user, I have no qualms welcoming the next-generation to the Apple party. I just wish DJ Cook would play the odd song we could dance to.
