Mac Ping!
If you want on or off the Mac Ping List,
Posted on 01/26/2010 5:32:21 AM PST by PreciousLiberty
Apple on Monday fuelled anticipation about its expected launch of a tablet computer with a 50 per cent leap in quarterly profit and fresh evidence that the consumer technology juggernaut behind the iPhone is riding the popularity of that device into the corporate market.
“The new products we are planning to release this year are very strong, starting this week with a major new product that we’re really excited about,” said Steve Jobs, Apple’s chief executive officer, in his strongest hint about the tablet-sized device he is expected to reveal on Wednesday.
The company reported another blowout quarter, as net income soared to $3.38bn or $3.67 a share, from $2.26bn or $2.50 a year earlier, well above Wall Street estimates.
IPhone sales doubled to 8.7m units shipped and company executives said they were being welcomed inside many more offices.
Chief Financial Officer Peter Oppenheimer said 70 per cent of the 100 biggest US companies were at least experimenting with supporting iPhone use by employees, double the proportion from before the summer’s introduction of a speedier operating system. Half of the largest companies worldwide now accept iPhones, he said.
(Excerpt) Read more at ft.com ...
Apple sold a record 3.63m Macs in the quarter, up a third from a year earlier and about double the growth of the PC market, helping drive overall revenue up 32 per cent to $15.7bn.So much for the "expensive Macs won't sell in a down economy" theory. I guess folks value productivity after all. :-)
Ping!
In the market for a computer. Somebody please give me 5 reasons to go for a Mac over a pc. Thanks
Do they get a special tax on profits?
It’s great News for capitalism when a company turns a profit.
However, if this was EXXON or any other oil company enjoying a 50% jump in profits, the MSM would be screaming a the top of their heads about greedy oil companies taking advantage and exploiting the American consumers while demanding more congressional oversight.
3...2...1...before I’m flamed ....
It works.
I am a photographer, and in this age of digital files having a PC that works without problems is critical. When i was using a PC I had to reboot at least three to five times a day to clear out the memory and reset programs. (I know what I am doing, and after years these were the best methods for fixing PC problems.)
It took at least five minutes to go from shutting down to restarting and being able to work. Thats about fifteen to twenty minutes a day, waiting for the PC to boot. Five days a week, all year long. 15 minutes a day, equals an hour and fifteen minutes a week. Or about 65 hours a year. A full work week.
With a Mac I shut it down and night and start it up morning. Maybe every third day or so I need to do a reset for some reason. The time savings alone gives me an extra work week every year.
Yes, it was more expensive than a PC. But within a year, the productivity gains have more than paid for it.
No, I am not some kid who is going to say, “yeah, dude...it runs iTunes better.” In my case it works for me. Not in every case. But you asked.
I can give you a few reasons. This household has had Macs exclusively (one for DH and one for me) since the mid-80’s and never had a hard drive crash, never lost data, never had to take a computer in for service and they have always done everything we needed them to do.
Besides that, the new MacBook Pros are super slick looking and fast. DH runs Windows on his Mac which makes it fully compatible with other PC’s, if that’s something you need.
We are not computer geeks or hippies in Birkenstocks. We both have home based businesses and use our computers for business related correspondence and databases as well as personal use like video and audio editing and DVD and CD burning. Those functions work great.
If you want to follow Apple related threads, ping Swordmaker and ask him to put you on his Apple Ping List.
1. Rock solid hardware
2. Apple support second to none
3. Can run windows in bootcamp (native windows) or in a virtual machine using vm fusion or parallels
4. Comes with sweet software for photos and movies
5. It looks cooler
6. Lasts forever
No viruses in the wild that attack Macs; about 100,000 that attack PCs, and not all viral attacks are prevented by anti-virus software (because the virus writers are always one jump ahead of the AV vendors).
There is some "human-engineered" malware (not true viruses) which attacks by fooling the user (you). So the user must take responsibility for not doing stupid things, like visiting dodgy sites and clicking on suspect links without knowing where they go. That's true for both Mac and PC.
But on a Mac you save the cost of AV software, and the constant stress/worry that is a significant part of the Windows experience. In the lifetime of any computer you buy today, the likelihood of a significant viral threat to Macs is essentially zero.
Part of this is the better operating system design of OS-X (based on BSD Unix) compared to Windows; part of it may be the smaller number of Mac users compared to Windows users, although I personally do not buy that argument, since there are more than 40,000,000 active Mac users, which is a few orders of magnitude more than are in a typical botnet.
I work on both Macs and Win PCs for many hours every day. They both are usable for a variety of tasks -- so the real question is: What do you plan to do on your computer? Choose appropriate software, and see if that points towards one or the other platform.
No flame, but an observation.
Nobody HAS to buy a Mac from Apple. There are plenty of other choices, and Apple is a small player in the computer market. They're an extreme underdog (5-10% marketshare), and America generally likes a spunky underdog.
Whereas pretty much everybody HAS to buy petroleum products (not just gasoline and oil, BTW), and EXXON is a majority player in their market.
So IMO it is not really comparable, in this situation.
Thanks everyone for the great input.
I bought a mac laptop (the cheapest white version) last year. It’s a nice piece of hardware. What I really like is how simple networking is with it. It never has any problem finding my other networked machines, and no problems with my wireless router. Simple one click and I’m in. With my linux machines, I always have to hunt for them, and not always successfully (don’t have any windows machines). I plan on keeping the mac for as long as I can. I’d love to get the new Mac Pro (I have an older one from work), but I really don’t like the price.
Check the Apple Store - Refurbished Section. I got my 17” MBPro for $500 less than the local Apple Store quoted. It looks brand new and gets the same warranty as a new one. The refurbs are most often just returns and not faulty machines. Swordmaker tipped me off to the Refurbs.
If you want a 13” MBPro, you might be able to pick up one there for $700-$800. I need a bigger screen for my failing eyes.
Check the Apple Store - Refurbished Section. I got my 17” MBPro for $500 less than the local Apple Store quoted. It looks brand new and gets the same warranty as a new one. The refurbs are most often just returns and not faulty machines. Swordmaker tipped me off to the Refurbs.
If you want a 13” MBPro, you might be able to pick up one there for $700-$800. I need a bigger screen for my failing eyes.
If you want on or off the Mac Ping List,
Not even three time the price of a piece of junk PC and often less expensive than equivalent PC hardware and software systems.
Depends on what your whole purpose is - and what you are willing to put up with in a PC to do those things.
Here are 5 reasons that I continue to be a Macintosh owner:
1. Virus? Huh? Wassat? And before someone flames with the "security through obscurity" line. The Unix underpinnings and superior assembly of the GUI on top make the OS more secure by nature.
2. Hardware + OS integration - Windows can do some things well, but as it tries to do all things, it tends to master none. Apple, partially because they make the hardware, can integrate and put code with function seamlessly unlike any other make - lending yet another layer of stability.
3. Hardware Quality - all PC makers face quality issues from time to time. Apple's overall track record is better than others, constantly earning Apple top billing in nearly every survey of customer satisfaction and initial quality. It is this quality that enables Apple hardware, though now based on the same commodity Intel processors as other PC's, to retain much more value over time. Which leads to the next:
4. Resale value - Because of the above, Apple hardware retains much more value, and tends to have a much longer service life than PCs.
5. Design - maybe not important to some - but the engineering that goes into Apple hardware is amazing - OK - maybe this isn't enough to be on the list...
6. iLife suite - Basic image editing, video editing, DVD burning, all integrated and it just works (old saying, I know - but still true).
ANd if you just absolutely HAVE to still run Windows from time to time (can't imagine any overwhelming reasons... but one never knows):
7. You can install pretty much any flavor of Windows you feel like you have to, running it in parallel, or booted natively.
8. Despite pontificating by the clueless - networking is a snap...
I am sure many others will pipe in (both good and bad)
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