I know a rant on this subject many times but if there is anything in the world that bothers me is to watch a bunch of followers. Over the last couple years I have been noticing the tech (follower) community such as Leo Laporte, and his groupies singing the praises of the Mac. First let me say that I have nothing against Apple or Leo Laporte but sometimes I see people shamelessly promoting a product in the spirit of “I’m cooler than you are”. To be a Mac owner means you are better than everyone else. I do not buy this and an I think most people are beginning to agree.
One thing that is certain in the world is that if it has the Apple brand name it is going to be over priced and that is undisputable. In some cases the Apple product is actually better but good enough to equal the disproportionate pricing for their products. The Apple Mac crowd has been emboldened by Microsoft’s poor release numbers of Windows Vista. Vista has been plagued by so many negative press stories relating to the slow release, to security issues to even “it’s just to darn big”. Despite this negative press, Microsoft Windows’ market share dwarfs anything that Apple can produce even with all the free press they get by appearing in almost every Hollywood film produced since 2000.
We have listened to the virtues of Apple Macintosh to a point where it is nauseating over the last couple of years. I must admit that I am a little stubborn and tend to be motivated by going against the crowd. With that I have gone out of my way to avoid anything Apple such as the iPod, iPhone, and especially the Mac. I just see these products as being over priced and embarrassing to be seen with. To be seen with any of these products tells the world that I am proud to be gouged and that I knowingly allow people to overcharge me all in the name of a perceived “coolness” factor.
Lately Microsoft has been running an ad campaign called “I’m a PC” to combat all the pro Mac press.
Microsoft is going to be releasing the much anticipated Windows 7 later this year to put the nightmares of Vista behind them. For the record I have Vista on four of our computers and it works very nice. In the beginning it did seem to be a little flaky but has since become very stable and has some nice features. In fact this very post is being posted using Microsoft Vista. For those that are about to accuse me of being a hypocrite for paying for four computers I will explain. As most people have probably noticed the depreciation value of a computer is as bad as a car. When your computer ages, you will never get enough money for it to equal what it is worth to you. So we have decided to keep them and pass them down into our family instead of throwing them out. My children could make better use of them than the dumpster. Now I will get back on topic.
In recent days their appears to be evidence that “I’m a PC” may be working. I stumbled on this story from Boy Genius about Apple sales declining while PC’s are increasing. I do not find pleasure in Apple declining. My point in this post is that I sometimes think that all the hysteria over Apple is not proportional to their market share. With a company that has less than ten percent of all computer sales, you would think you would hear less than ten percent of all praising. Instead I find that with every tech blog, movie, celebrity known to mankind singing the praises of Apple Mac as the best computer ever built. Again, I am not saying their products are not any good but just pointing out that it seems that you have a crowd that is putting a lot of energy into praising this company’s products while not pointing out the over priced factor in all this. To use an Apple computer, you have to have their hardware and their software.
Apple is way more proprietary than Microsoft ever was. At least on a PC you can use Microsoft Windows or Linux but certainly not Mac operating system (OS). You cannot even legally put anyone else’s OS on an Apple computer. I fin it hard to find value in this from the consumer’s perspective. At least on a PC, I can choose any number of hardware manufacturers and choose the better buy. Not with an Apple! You must by their over priced hardware and their over prices operating system. This is just one of the reasons that I refuse to buy any Apple products. I can get an mp3 player for a cheaper price from ANYONE! There are dozens of manufacturers that make mp3 players and every one of them is cheaper than the iPod. I do not even want to get started on the iPhone because I think it has faults that speak for itself and those begin with AT&T.
Although I am not necessarily a Microsoft fan, I do think the PC hardware is better for the consumer. You can buy hardware piece by piece from virtually any electronics store in America. You can buy disposable Dell, HP/Compaq, Gateway, Acer, or any other brand name. You can choose to install Windows, or any variant of Linux for a fraction of the cost. Maybe that Macintosh is better than my PC but it is not good enough to justify the price. It is not good enough to justify my being locked into one manufacturer for my piece parts. It is not good enough to sit on my desk either. You can keep your Mac, iPod, iPhones. I will go with something that will not have me being in the crowd that asks the government to buy out their mortgages. So with that I will just reaffirm that “I’m a PC”.
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richard123456Q
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richard123456Q
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richard123456Q
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richard123456Q
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richard123456Q