Posted on 05/31/2010 8:14:20 PM PDT by RightOnTheLeftCoast
I got $100 towards a printer when I bought my iMac and bought a $100 printer -- in effect free. Around now they're giving away free iPods to student Mac buyers.
That's the kicker. Apple simply doesn't sell in the "good enough" market.
80% of computer buyers will be happy with a good enuff computer. Apple cannot survive by getting a proportion of the remaining 20%. So this is where Apple's evil coercion, peer pressure and propagandizing come into play. Where buyers are bamboozled into buying too much computer and paying Apple hundreds more for it
Buying too much computer means buying one with expensive bells and whistles and more powerful than what you need and paying hundreds more for this.
Now imagine your friend didn't have you, was paying Best Buy or some other outfit to do it, at $$$ per hour, go slow to earn more $$$.
I'm sure that all over America there are kids and others who will take your new computer and get rid of trial-ware, will slap on a free antivirus. By default you have windows Firewall there and Windows defender which are very good. It seems that preinstalled programs like MacAfee insert their own firewall so after deleting MacAfee you must make sure windows firewall is turned on.
By default Windows 7 will steer you towards automatic updates. I like to approve any update but for friends I make sure it's on automatic
What I'm saying is that locking down a new computer can be done very quickly. Not a big deal and nothing you have to panic over and run out and buy a Mac for.
One dicey thing is making restore disks. The situation is very fluid and sometime the computer comes with them and sometimes you have to make them. A newbie who skips making them can get into big trouble. But buying actual restore disks can be cheap. $30 or so from HP. My nephew got into trouble and one call to Dell was enough for them to send out free restore disks. But he got it done the next day by restoring from the recovery partition
Time Machine, the OS X backup utility, also acts to restore your machine. Every Mac comes with a full OS disk (there's a differentiator). Plug that in, reinstall with drive format (which doesn't take forever as on Windows). At the end you'll be asked if you have a Time Machine backup. Plug in the backup drive and you're automatically presented with options of what to restore to what point in time. One option will bring your system back to as it was including all installed programs and user accounts.
And what kind of expertise did it take to set all this up? Buy an external hard drive, plug it in, and click "Yes" when asked whether you want to use it for backup. It is literally that simple.
“Can’t run Windows software” — oops, that only applies to Wintel boxes. ;’)
80% of computer buyers will be happy with a good enuff computer. Apple cannot survive by getting a proportion of the remaining 20%.That's the kicker. Apple simply doesn't sell in the "good enough" market.
The reality, so we're told, is that - by dollar volume - AAPL sells most of the PC's in the country.
Where does Apple bamboozle people? I have had Apple employees try to talk me into a Macbook over a Macbook Pro before. I don’t think that is true at any level.
I would like to hear examples of evil coercion and peer pressure (from a corporation especially) as well. To act like Apple advertising their computers as superior is bad is just silly.
On the contrary, Apple seems to be surviving quite well, better than other OEMs. Apple has 91% of the $1,000+ market, and has a higher profit margin per unit than other OEMs.
Buying too much computer means buying one with expensive bells and whistles and more powerful than what you need and paying hundreds more for this.
Quite simply, with Apple you pay for superior design, construction, integration and support. Other than that, how many bells and whistles, and how much power, a consumer "needs" is up to that consumer. That's his value judgment, not yours or mine. It is that value judgment that will determine whether the higher price of an Apple computer, or any other premium computer, is a good deal for him.
I of course always have my caveat. For any Apple system with user-upgradable memory or hard drives, always order the base amount from Apple and add more from Newegg.
And like Microsoft is operated by those espousing American ideals loudly....right? And MS founder Bill Gates is left wing nut case now using his fortune to fund wonderful things....and believes in eugenics (sp) and population control (is that redundant?) and all that that entails. AND....Gates was a thief initially. Jobs was rather naive...nonetheless trusted Gates.
I'd like to see more choices more innovations from DIFFERENT people but have you ever noticed, once fortunes are made by some individuals in their market of choice, that market becomes impossible to penetrate or form any competition..... /rant off
In what way is that HP tower an all-in-one form factor computer? You are not comparing like to like computers at all. You are not providing any information at all on what components, specs on the monitor or its capabilities. Is that monitor capable of 179º viewing??? I sincerely doubt it. You said you "built" an iMac with no upgrades? How do you do that????? You either buy an off the shelf iMac or you build one with upgrades. You don't have it both ways.
Time Machine, the OS X backup utility>>>>>
The way you describe doing a restore on a Mac sounds very good and idiot proof
http://www.staples.com/MSI-20-All-in-One-Touch-PC/product-nr_866866?cmArea=SC3:CG71:DP4119:CL161746
Here is a 20” all in one computer/LCD combo—— $549 -—Touchscreen too
All computer makers naturally try to up sell. So do employees in Best Buy and other places. By this I mean spend more money getting a fancier computer than what you need. Lets get real here. To do e-mail and surf the internet, to use Word, you don't need to spend $750 which is what keyboard, mouse, LCD and mac-mini will cost you minimum! For a small LCD say 20"
I would like to hear examples of evil coercion and peer pressure (from a corporation especially) as well. To act like Apple advertising their computers as superior is bad is just silly.
Their advertising says it all. You are a moron to buy a PC. Shown in those "I'm a Mac. I'm a PC" TV advertisements designed to amplify peer pressure/ Among the young that you are so uncool to buy a Windows computer. That you are a loser.
Apple loves to feed this peer pressure
So? Now, Dennisw, upgrade that AMD 1.5GHz Processor to a 3.06GHz Intel Core2Duo, make the screen a 21.5" instead of a 20", Upgrade the resolution from 1600x900 to 1920x1080 while you are at it, upgrade the HD to 500GB from the 320GB it has now, Increase the RAM to 4GB, and while you are at it make it DDR3 instead of DDR2, add BlueTooth, and THEN see what that system would cost... and compare it to the base model iMac at $1199. Which has all those upgrades standard AND comes with a suite of world class software that is entirely missing on the MSI-20 inch PC.
80% of computer buyers will be happy with a good enuff computer. Apple cannot survive by getting a proportion of the remaining 20%. So they poach and steal from the 80% who can by perfectly well with lets say a $500 Dell laptop my friends girl friend just bought. She could have saved $100 at Dell refurbished but she wasn't listening to me. Why on earth would she buy an Apple 13.3" laptop at twice the price when she has told me she only uses it for the internet? That woman is who Apple is targeting and is a prime buying demographic for Apple
That's the kicker. Apple simply doesn't sell in the "good enough" market.
You couldn't be more wrong. Their entire strategy is to target the "good enuff" people and brainwash them into buying far more computer than than they need and to pay Apple hundreds more for this privilege
The Freepers here who buy Apple products are mostly demanding customers (power users) who need a superior computer, not just a good enuff computer. So they are honest and legit Apple customers
Personally I want a larger LCD and there are plenty of all in one computers out there with larger LCDs and at half the Apple price for same size LCD
Acer is making incredible LCDs these days and at very nice prices. You don't need an Apple to get great LCD displays. For me, I always have my LCD connected digitally to my computer and have been doing so since about 1999 or earlier when Compaq came out with a pre-DVI digital connector
“Let’s build a computer to fit my needs, with the components I want, at the prices I’m willing to pay, then decide which OS to put on it.”
And you can then put the Gun142 brand on it, promote it, and watch it completely fail to develop into a quarter-trillion-dollar company.
Most users don’t want to DIY, they want a _system_ that _works_. Only Apple does that (remember Microsoft only makes the OS).
So what has your experience in Apple Stores been since it differentiates from mine? How do you know so much better what someone needs? When does the generally longer useful life of a Mac come into play?
So what has your experience in Apple Stores been since it differentiates from mine? How do you know so much better what someone needs? When does the generally longer useful life of a Mac come into play?>>>>>>>>
Not been in one ever and I don’t have to. I am talking to and helping people all the time who have modest computing needs. I sometimes repair their computers. You would be amazed at how unsophisticated people are such as..... Not knowing how to right click a hyper-link so it will open in a new tab or window. I teach them how but soon they are back to their old ways
If someone refuses to open the hyperlink in a new tab or window when it is needed..... LOL LOL LOL.... They sure as heck don’t need to be buying a Mac-Mini/LCD combo for 750$ or so. I am helping those kind of people all the time plus some folks who operate on a somewhat higher level
Why would I send someone who can’t properly open a hyperlink to an Apple store? They would pay at least twice as much for a computer above their level. With an Apple laptop more like 3x as much as an HP or Dell laptop that will be a good fit with their skillz and needs
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