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"New iMac" versus "The Competition" .....
- Thread starter Perfectionist
- Start date
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New iMacs offer more value than competition - report
http://www.appleinsider.com/article...offer_more_value_than_competition_report.html
http://www.appleinsider.com/article...offer_more_value_than_competition_report.html
Which developers, which applications…?
I'm genuinely curious. Where's are the MacroMate's, Delicious Monster's, Panic's, Omni's, etc. on the PC side?
Here's some apps from a number of fields from the top of my head (note: none from the developers listed above as their respective products are well known enough):
Bento 2.0
Billings 3.0
DirectMail
Versions
Times
Macnification
Checkout
None of them really share any one thing in common, other than that they all carry forward great UIs, great user experience.
Like I say, I don't see this level of care and effort towards fit and finish on the PC side. I'd be delighted for you to prove me wrong.
Reason why Apple has gained = Microcrap Vista + iPod ..... however despite a major funk up by M$ and the huge conversion power of the iPod ..... Apple still is just a minor player
They need to add just ONE more system ..... an iMac Pro !!
I know dude ..... my question was actually rhetorical and sarcastic !!
Yes there a growing number of cheap clones out there ..... but I stuck with the bigger firms as Apple won't be losing any sales to some no-name manufacturer whose quality is unknown/crappy !!
Reason why Apple has gained = Microcrap Vista + iPod ..... however despite a major funk up by M$ and the huge conversion power of the iPod ..... Apple still is just a minor player
Minor in what regard? Is being 1/3rd the size of the market "leader" insignificant? Particularly when you only go after a small subsegment of the market ($1000 and up)? Get real.
They have ~9% market share. AND the highest growth rate. Not bad considering they don't play in the low end where Dell and others excel. Operating system software? Well obviously, they won't get more than 10%. In mp3 players? Hardly. In song downloads? Wrong. In smartphones? The iPhone has gotten over 10% market share in its short life. There are just as many iPhone apps in 9 months as Windows Mobile apps in 9 years. In all-in-1 computers? Guess again. In notebooks? Again, 10% and growing. What other computer hardware/software/cell phone manufacturer/mp3 player/online movie player/music download company has the breadth that Apple has, and has the integration across those product lines? They have a major presence, maybe not the highest, but major none-the-less in EVERY market they are in.
Besides, I ask the same question I posed earlier on this topic that no-one answered. Wal-mart has the largest market share of any retailer - are they the "best"? Don't get so hung up on market share. They do what they do very well. Accept that.
Inaccurate and very biased report ...... check out the comments !!
http://forums.appleinsider.com/showthread.php?s=&threadid=95932
PS - The guy is crazy to think Apple will hit $120 next year with this economy !!
I agree, the UI on Apple stuff is superb ..... but you're being ridiculous if you're saying MS software is unusable and doesn't get the job done !!
Nevermind commercial software ..... even Free apps are pretty good ..... some of them almost as "slick" as Apple ......
http://bestwindowssoftware.org/
http://www.gadgetadvisor.com/computer-software/recommended-software-downloads
Prove it to yourself by going to your local Sony Centre ..... trust me, they don't make crap !!
I totally accept it ..... "They do what they do very well" ..... and what Apple does better than almost any other company in the Tech Sector ..... is make money !!
Apple's genius is that it has turned what is essentially an everyday productivity "tool" in to a kickass "object of desire" ..... they have uniquely turned a computer in to a fashion item which has an image of cool that no other does !!
Personally I think Apple doesn't even want a major share of the market ..... they thrive from being the "exclusive" and "designer" choice of the more "discerning" buyer ..... if they gained more than say 10% they would lose that image ..... and therefore their ability to charge a premium price !!
Prove it to yourself by going to your local Sony Centre ..... trust me, they don't make crap !!
Sorry, have to disagree here. Sony does make crap when it comes to computers (VAIO). Incredibly bad, stinking, piles of crap. Every VAIO we ever had at work was a nightmarish disaster bomb. The cases have fallen apart. In one laptop, every replaceable component has failed, in others at least 2 or 3. In a 2 year span. Their service is atrocious.
Since January we have had to replace all the VAIOs with Lenovos and MacBooks. Our end users stopped short of kissing our feet.
You must have got a bad batch or have bad luck dude !!
My company only uses Toshiba and Sony laptops ..... both brands are superb and very reliable ......
You got to be kidding me. Several bad batches I guess. I've never heard anything good from VAIO laptops.
I totally accept it ..... "They do what they do very well" ..... and what Apple does better than almost any other company in the Tech Sector ..... is make money !!
Apple's genius is that it has turned what is essentially an everyday productivity "tool" in to a kickass "object of desire" ..... they have uniquely turned a computer in to a fashion item which has an image of cool that no other does !!
Personally I think Apple doesn't even want a major share of the market ..... they thrive from being the "exclusive" and "designer" choice of the more "discerning" buyer ..... if they gained more than say 10% they would lose that image ..... and therefore their ability to charge a premium price !!
'sactly! And they couldn't do that if their products were all smoke and mirrors, all show and no go. I do not believe that they want to be a mass merchant; rather, skim the customers they want off of the top. No denying that.
Apple stock HAS risen $11/share in 1 week to $95. $110 is not that far off...
I thought about buying this when my G5 iMac dies..but it has a few quirks in it that the iMac doesn't that kind of shy me away from it.
1) speakers pointing to the back. I use my iMac's built in speakers all the time when I am drawing with my Wacom and the sound quality for the small speakers is great. In the Averatec I would think they use cheap speakers and cheap speakers pointing backwards probably sounds like @SS.
2)cheapo 22" TN monitor..uggh, The panel in my iMac is a high end 20" with the same rez and its stunning! I have a cheapo 22" TN monitor on my PC and the picture quality doesn't even come close to the iMac.
3) parts, the iMac has so many aftermarket parts for repair that if I have problems with my iMac I can find parts anywhere for it and repair it myself..with the Averatec I am not so sure that would be the case. Also I can take my iMac to any apple store to have it looked at or repaired, not so with averatec ( or any other AIO for that matter).
4) no demo units in stores..Seriously I bought the iMac because I was able to give it my personal tests before buying it. I knew what to expect. example: how loud are the fans on the Averatec? how do the speakers sound?
I dont know, because I haven't seen it in stores anywhere to demo. I have to take the word of (possibly shilled) customer reviews.
However I would buy that thing as a backup PC to my iMac and to replace my loud, huge, old XP HTPC, but somehow I don't think it would make an adequate iMac replacement, but DAMN, the low price tag for it is very tempting
Sony customer service is bad. I bought a PSP which had tons of dead/stuck pixels. I called Sony customer service and they said the pixel problem was MY PROBLEM. My 2 Trinatron TV's bought three years apart both had the same broken front and back panels. Last year I was going to buy a PS3 and thought why bother. Why support a company that can care less about me. I know I will never get a perfect product but I can at least get a company who tries to give me good service.
toshiba i agree make very good quality laptops but i cannot say the same for sony.
That must be why Sony sell millions of them !!
ALL manufacturers have faulty/defective products slip through QC, including Apple, you can just search through this Forum to see that !!
If a company constantly and consistently keeps supplying crappy hardware, it will fail ..... last time I checked, Sony/Toshiba/HP/Dell etc were still trading !!
Apple IS more show than go ..... they make beautifully designed products which are overpriced, yet not really on the cutting edge of technology ..... whereas other manufacturers do have the go but just can't touch Apple on aesthetics and usability .....
Yup, who else would pay double the going rate for a Memory upgrade ...... or pay the same price for a computer which was released 6 months ago ...... etc etc
Apple's stock always does that after a product update ..... but we are fast approaching the Mother of all Economic Funk Ups so EVERY company is gonna be hit hard this year ..... thankfully Apple has Billions sitting in the bank so it will be able to ride it out ..... hopefully
By the way, don't forget Stevie Wonders future is uncertain ..... as far as I'm concerned, if Jobs goes ..... so will Apple's lustre .....
Did you return the faulty PSP for a refund and get another one from a different store ?? Did you buy an extended warranty on the TV's ?? Don't buy a PS3 until it comes down in price !!
I don't dispute that Windows programs gets the job done. To go back to your original point:
This is the part I'm disputing, I don't think it is entirely true. Contrary to what logic would dictate (with the bigger installed based of Windows) I think there are more exciting, innovative Mac only desktop applications than there are exciting, innovative Windows only desktop programs.
This trend I belive has been a fairly recent one too (last 3-4 years). This isn't some mad “fan-boy” statement. I've made this observation based on the evidence I see.
I'd love to read and engage in the other side argument, but in my experience no one is making it, or if they are they are not doing a very convincing job.
Apart from the small point that none of the software I linked to was made by Apple... the Mac has a fair amount of free software as well, like:
Quinn and Adium.
Please don't take offense by this: but I'm distinctly underwhelmed by those two lists (there has to be something better out there - surely!). Much of the stuff listed in those two links is cross platform. Some were even webapps, such as 37 signals Basecamp (incidentally 37 Signals mainly use Macs). The fact that Ubuntu makes the list tells me they were scraping the barrel somewhat.
I came up with a select list of high quality Mac only software (I deliberately didn't even include anything from Panic or Omni). I could add Scrivener, BeeDocs, Pixelmator and Things to my list as well. All are Mac exclusives.
I know very well how good some of Sony's hardware can be. I was talking in the context of software, not hardware. And apparently Sony don't make some bad software either, like Vegas Pro, which I hear is pretty good.Prove it to yourself by going to your local Sony Centre ..... trust me, they don't make crap !!
I think this is mainly because lots of programs and programmers are still rooted in XP *****. At some point MS has to just stop supporting all the legacy crap so that programs have to be rewritten to take advantage of their newer operating systems.
That said, I feel that as far as Windows software goes, the audio and video players as well as file browsers that are available for Win are vastly superior to what's for OSX. Not necessarily innovative, but just faster, easier to use and with better support for formats.
OSX apps in general look fantastic and the way they are marketed is also very appealing because programmers have followed Apple's guidelines on how they should look rather than doing whatever they want. Just look at Adobe CS4 - it looks like **** in both Vista/Win7 and OSX because it doesn't fit in the style of the OS at all. Safari 3 on Windows looked awful because of this too, whereas on OSX it's perfectly fine.
Overall though there are a few programs I miss on either platform but for most there are perfectly viable alternatives.
But getting back to the iMac-alikes, it's great that there are alternatives coming to the market. This will mean that Apple has to step up their game because the competitors are already beating them in specs and the aesthetics are improving too. These machines are not for me (I'd rather have my way more powerful PC with a 30" monitor) but they are pretty handy when you don't care if it's the bees knees in performance and would just slap it on the table, plug in your mouse and keyboard and start using it.
What do you think the reasons for programmers being rooted in XP? Is it that the tools Microsoft provides, like .NET and WPF aren't quite all they are made out to be? If not, then surely the installed base of Vista is big enough now to target that platform (I mean there are Leopard only applications on the Mac, which must have a far smaller installed base than Vista).
Out of interest, which programs on Windows have you tried and what have you compared them to on Mac OS X?
That must be why Sony sell millions of them !!
FAIL. You do know that the top notebook makers, of 2007 are
Dell
HP
Apple
Gateway
Acer
SONY is not on that list
http://www.pcworld.com/article/136257/apples_laptop_market_share_climbs.html
The 2008 list is similar.
In addition, Apple gaining notebook share in 2008.
http://news.cnet.com/8301-13579_3-10044204-37.html
I can't say anything to that, I don't do Win programming. I was mostly talking about how developers aim for XP first rather than looking to the future and making their new apps primarily Vista and 7 compatible. Understandable due to the large install base of XP. Also it seems that the designer and programmer seem to come together more often in the OSX world than on Windows.
On OSX for video players I've tried QuickTime Player (plus Perian codecs), VLC, MPlayer and NicePlayer. On Windows I use Media Player Classic Home Cinema with the ffdshow codec package and it offers slightly better image quality (and far superior post processing) than VLC IMO and also an easier user interface. It's an ugly program but it just works well.
For the audio side, nothing touches foobar2000 to me on Windows. It's exactly what I want from an audio player: very fast, supports pretty much any format and easy to use and very customizable. On OSX I stick with iTunes because the alternatives, mainly Songbird and Cog are not up to the task. They're either slow or lack some feature I use a lot. iTunes is a necessary evil to me since I own an iPhone and iPod. I feel it's a poorly designed, idiotic program in many ways. For example just the fact that I can't use a "Windows formatted" iPod in Mac iTunes and vice versa "Mac formatted" has to be erased in Windows. Poor design overall.
For file browsers I've only tried Finder and Path Finder on OSX. In its current version it's actually pretty good, but nowhere near the customizability of Directory Opus for Windows. At the moment I'm using Windows 7's file browser and it's superior to Finder IMO.
Dudes !! The thread is actually about Hardware not Software !!
And I'm not surprised that Apple are doing well in the laptop market ..... after all even I bought a MacBook !!
Anyway, I'm curious ..... why do you think Dell seems to have the top spot ..... despite so many here saying they are total garbage !!??
Ninja Please !! Your post has thoroughly convinced me that Sony do not sell millions of laptops ..... they only sold 150 to my company and that's it !!
And I'm not surprised that Apple are doing well in the laptop market ..... after all even I bought a MacBook !!
Anyway, I'm curious ..... why do you think Dell seems to have the top spot ..... despite so many here saying they are total garbage !!??
Anyway, I'm curious ..... why do you think Dell seems to have the top spot ..... despite so many here saying they are total garbage !!??
Price, marketing/mindshare, corporate/enterprise business contracts. Dell was the low price bidder for my company of 60,000, so they got the contract. Same reason why Verizon is our corporate cell phone service / hardware provider.