When will Apple get any respect?

[applewhore]

Originally posted by Lycander
What is it that's really bothering you? What is it that's missing for you then?

Lycander, I obviously can't answer for Go3iverson, but it seems to me that he suffers from the same problem that most Mac-loving friends of mine are afflicted with - I know I've certainly got it!

Basically, I "switched" when the PB 667 came out - I'd been using IBM ThinkPad's for EVER and thought they were the pinnacle of mobile computing at the time...

Then a friend of mine turned up to a meeting with the "new" PB 400 - I was amazed... and after a couple of months of convincing myself that I could still run all the software I used (basically M$ Office!) I bought a PB 667 for myself as a Christmas present in December 2001

Since then, I've found myself amazed that not EVERYONE I know has seen the light too! I mean, I may be reasonably innovative, but it's so patently obvious, with XXX years of Windows usage, that the Mac OS makes sense...

as does the design of the hardware

as does the fact that everything works together...

So why doesn't everyone notice these things too and do the only thing that makes sense and move to using Apple??!?!

I just didn't understand it...

Then the friend who first put me on to Apple asked me an interesting question :

"But how would you feel if everyone had a 17" PB and a 23" Apple Display?"

Point taken! As long as Apple can keep solvent, and making profits, I don't mind about the rest of the world... Let them suffer the problems of bulky designs (or hardware-deficient laptops) and infinite blue screens - they're not my problem any more...

The frustration has gone away! I don't want everyone to "understand" why Apple is better... It would take away some of my "feel good" factor!

(I have, however, managed to convert everyone at work, my parents, sister and girlfriend to Apple though...

7 15" PBs and 3 15" iMacs in the last 18 months - not a bad start!)

[Arden]

I have a deeper problem with the whole Mac vs. PC debate. For me, it comes down to being a form of discrimination. What is one of the major reasons, if not the biggest reason, software developers do not necessarily develop for the Mac? They will not sell nearly as many as PC units. So it's cheaper for the company just to sell to one market than to spend time becoming compatible with everyone.

Companies are required to offer minorities (as in ethnic minorities—blacks, Asians, Hispanics, etc.) as equal an opportunity as anyone else. They can't discriminate any ethnic groups if they might not make them as much money as another. So why do software companies get to discriminate against users of different platforms? We are consumers willing to buy a product who happen to use a Macintosh (or Linux box, or anything else besides Windows). Why do they get to discriminate against us and treat us as second-hand citizens just because we prefer something different?

[applewhore]

interesting idea, arden...

I wonder how that would stand up in court though?!!!

[Arden]

The judge would probably rule in favor of the SW companies based on the concept of "bottom line."

[malexgreen]

Originally posted by Go3iverson
Really, when will it happen?
[snip]
Ok, that's enough for now.

Plain and simple: Apple needs to prove over and over again via "bake-offs," benchmarks, and testimonials that Apple is the best solution for the desktop in corporate America, and that it's XServe line is the price/performance leader for small to medium storage and web/email servers. They also need to quickly come out with either a PPC970 or Power4 based XServe, to move into the enterprise market currently dominated by HP, IBM, and Sun.

They need to take advantage of the missteps of its compeitiors, like the fact Microsoft Server 2003 (MS's server and so called poster child for security) has been taken offline for www.windowsupdate.com because they are so scared that the W32/blahblahblah worm of the day will drop them on their behinds.

They need to make a bold move, and come out with a cheap and equally capable replacement for MS Office X. They need to make it stable, compatible, cheapter, and have a few wiz-bang very high demand features that make current MS Office X users say, "I gotta have it!"

They need to make MacOSX so compatible and as networkable with MS Windows that it easier to plug Apple computers together on a MS network than it is to plug MS Windows computer together on a MS network.

They need to advertise over and over and over again on TV, radio, and the internet, that a top of the line Mac IS CHEAPER than a top of line PC, and that a consumer priced Mac IS CHEAPER than a PC. They need to prove that TCO for a Mac is lower than a PC.

That a Mac has higher quality than the PC quality leader.

They need to ask the question, which PC notebooks have gigabit ethernet? Which desktop PC's come with PCIX? Where's PCI Express? Hypertransport is in a product now. Maybe that says something about Hypertransport over PCI Express?

[Arden]

I think, if Apple has promised to be at 3 Ghz in apx. 1 year (which should be when 10.4 comes out, at the current rate), they could easily surpass Intel and AMD in pure clock cycles. Sure, "Mhz myth" and all that, but if Macs are faster than PC's with higher CPU speeds, imagine what Macs with higher CPU speeds would look like. "Well, for one thing the G5 is faster per clock cycle than the P4, but it also has more of them per second than the P4. Which do you think is faster?" (salesman to Joe Consumer)

Got any more stuff you can throw at us, malex? You're on a roll...

[Satcomer]

Here is something I'm becoming concerned about. It's the growing number of web sites that reject any computer that is not a Windows PC running the latest MS browser. I just seems that in the last 3 years it is steadily becoming the only way someone will be able to surf the NET is with a PC and Explorer. It just seems inconceivable that a company would lock out out a segment of the population just to please Microsoft. Or is it just plain laziness?

On a side note, I made it a personal policy never to buy anything from a company that does that. I just believe the power of the pocket book is stronger than any ideology today.

[malexgreen]

Looks like Apple is starting to focus on the Enterprise: http://www.thinksecret.com/news/enterprisegroup.html