[RayChuang88]

Macs are great machines but their initial high price can be a bit of a turnoff. Also, I’m surprised that Apple didn’t use some of that seed money from Microsoft offered in the late 1990’s to come up with better keyboards such as Microsoft’s excellent split-key ergonomic keyboards.

[Spktyr]

Psst - if you leave out the bargain basement PCs and go look at workstation and premier desktops and laptops... Apple gear is *cheaper*.

See the threads comparing a Dell workstation to an Apple Mac Pro. The Dell costs hundreds more and offers less.

Also, see the laptop cost comparison threads. The MacBook lines are often cheaper.

FYI, the Microsoft “seed money” wasn’t a bailout. It was Microsoft settling up for all the stuff they stole from Apple. In addition, the first PRODUCTION split ergo keyboards came from APPLE. Not Microsoft.

Nobody bought them. Which is something that Microsoft is now discovering - and is why they are killing off their ergo line, slowly.

[Swordmaker]

Also, I’m surprised that Apple didn’t use some of that seed money from Microsoft offered in the late 1990’s to come up with better keyboards such as Microsoft’s excellent split-key ergonomic keyboards.

Microsoft makes some excellent keyboards... how they avoided screwing them up is a wonder.

Apple also had some of the best keyboards around... good feel, good response.

Microsoft's purchase of $150,000,000 in preferred stock was not seed money when Apple had almost 1.5 billion dollars in cash when that purchase was made. Apple was in the middle of developing the iMac, OS X server, and starting development of the iPod. I think their choices of where to spend any cash they had were the correct ones... except the money they spent on the original iMac's mouse...

I hope they got a refund...

[RightOnTheLeftCoast]

"Macs are great machines but their initial high price can be a bit of a turnoff."

Ah, I was waiting for someone to bring up the Mac-is-costly canard.

Not the case anymore. Sony's answer to the Macbook Air costs more, for example. The Mac Mini is a flamin' bargain at $600. And so on. You have to compare the Macs with other premium brands, not the third-tier stuff you see in the back pages of PC Magazine. And what about the iPhone? All that functionality for $400, and it fits in your pocket. All the hoo-hah in the press lately about UMPCs like the Eee and Cloudbook, yet here's something with just as much functionality and a way-cooler user interface, with four to eight times the storage capacity, and it's a phone too.

[antiRepublicrat]

Apple didn’t use some of that seed money from Microsoft offered in the late 1990’s to come up with better keyboards such as Microsoft’s excellent split-key ergonomic keyboards.

The money thing has already been shown false. Aside from that, as a touch typist I can't stand the split-key "ergonomic" keyboards. I wasn't too sure about Apple's aluminum keyboards at first, but I have been pleasantly surprised. Not only is it nice to type on, but Apple brought that old beloved solid feel back to OEM keyboards that had been missing for so long.