Two Questions for a Small Business

[Thomill]

Hello all,

A friend of mine came to me with a couple of questions today that I have to admit am having a hard time answering for him. Hopefully the folks here can give us a bit of advice.

Jack works in a small digital processing studio. He is a part time designer, and part time IT manager. The company has about 15 employees, 7 or so use Macs for digital photo and video work; the rest use Windows boxes. They are getting ready to expand a bit and, at the same time, plan and budget for next year. All told, his company expects to add two more people and three new Power Macs. Here is where the questions come in.

The company has a full time accountant, and he is balking at buying three new Apple boxes and the associated software (or licenses, most likely). His reason is that, as Apple is planning on making a platform switch in less than a year, the company should not invest in end-of-the-line PowerPC hardware as Intel will be the new de-facto platform for Apple. Further, he is also concerned about possibly having to re-purchase the same $1,000+ software that has been optimized for Intel units (as opposed to what I would think would be slower original versions running via an emulator). So, the first question is: how can the purchases be justified? Does the accountant have two valid points here?

Here is the second part, from a more technical side. If the company decides to buy the Power Macs, at lest one will probably be the Quad machine. Jack’s question to me was: is current software designed to take advantage of this new architecture? He and his folks are running mostly Adobe CS applications, I believe, along with one or two people using Apple Pro apps. If the answer is no or even unknown, I have to wonder if it would make more financial sense for them to just buy a few dual 2.7 machines and wait for the Intel switch.

Good questions, and tough ones, at least for me. Any help would be appreciated! Thanks.

T

 

[iEdd]

As for waiting for the intel switch, he should get them when there is the need. Powermacs will probably be last to go intel, so if he needs them sooner, then it may aswell be now...
It would be handy if there was a reverse rosetta.
I think if you buy a few refurb 2.7s and then want to upgrade when intel comes, the resale won't be very much at all.

 

[Graeme Pearce]

Not such hard questions, really, if you concentrate on getting the job done rather than on the technology.

When, and if, Apple switches to Intel processors it does not mean that all the hardware and software out there stops working. If you have software doing the job for you now then it will continue to do the job for you. Frankly there is absolutely no reason to upgrade software just because the vendor does unless there is a cost benefit to your business by doing so.

Further, do you want to be an early adopter when Apple makes the switch? If your business relies on productivity then let somebody else be the beta tester.

Bottom line is that if you buy what you want now in both hardware and software then when it is due to be replaced anyway then this would be the time to go with the new technology - after a million other people have ironed out the bugs.

Mac or PC? I run Illustrator and Photoshop on both Mac and PC. The program functions are virtually identical on both platforms. Go with the computer you are most productive with. I tend towards the Mac.

I have not heard that any software is 'optimised' for the quad processors. These new machines should be a bit faster overall at most things they do and so should be looked at as 'speed bumped' replacements.

In short, if you need a new computer today then buy the thing ... and buy what you like to work with the most. If you are happy with your tools you will be more productive.

Gp