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I am actually now starting to look at netbooks, primarily the Asus EEE. If it can get me 90% there at 1/3 the price of the Macbook, I think its the way to go. Will report back on a decision.
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I'm interested in netbooks too but for ultra-portability.
Have no illusions that you will get the same utility because of the smaller keyboard and screen. So it would be a good thing to have as a second or their computer. Apple could make a cool one, with a multi-touch screen which might make it more usable if you don't have to rely on the small keyboard as much. Netbooks probably killed the value of the MacBook Air. |
I have a friend who had a laptop in the form factor of a 'netbook' years ago. I don't get how reducing the price on an already existing form factor warrants its own name.
You'll still be stuck with some version of Windows running on 3rd party hardware and all that comes along with that. By the time you add the software to match iLife that 1/3 of the price becomes 1/2 or more. Not to mention that in 2 years time, each of the machines will have depreciated the same value. The only difference being that the Macbook will actually have some value. A small PC might make a great choice for a secondary laptop for traveling, but a 13" laptop gives you a full keyboard and decent sized screen. The build quality on the new Macbooks is amazing. Some things are just worth spending the money and in the long run the price difference is negligible. |
Originally Posted by wco81
(Post 11331671)
I'm interested in netbooks too but for ultra-portability.
Have no illusions that you will get the same utility because of the smaller keyboard and screen. So it would be a good thing to have as a second or their computer. Apple could make a cool one, with a multi-touch screen which might make it more usable if you don't have to rely on the small keyboard as much. Netbooks probably killed the value of the MacBook Air. |
Originally Posted by caspritz78
(Post 11330439)
I switched from Windows XP to Mac last December and I'm happy with my decision. I need my MacBook Pro mainly for surfing the internet, reading emails, doing some text editing, watching movies, etc. Everything works fine and is pretty easy to use. I can't say how well a Mac would work in an all Windows office environment.
From some experience I can say that Word, Excel and Powerpoint for Mac with the latest updates from Microsoft work fine. Entourage on the other hand is light years away from Outlook and no fun to work with. Apple's Mail and Thunderbird for Mac are much better but lack the tight integration of Outlook with an Exchange Server. So for people who rely on Outlook and Exchange for work should think twice about getting a Mac. You might be disappointed. An alternative is to install bootcamp and run Windows XP or Vista on a second partition but in this case you can buy a high-end Windows laptop cheaper. My biggest issue so far with my MacBook Pro is the DVD Superdrive. While it is pretty simply with most Windows PCs and laptops to make the DVD drive region free it is impossible with the drives installed in the newer Macs. The drive won't play any DVDs if it doesn't get a key which is compares the region setting of the DVD with the setting of the drive. This is done within the drive and can't be overwritten by software. I have multiple Macs (desktop and notebook) and use Outlook routinely. I dont use Boot Camp though but simply fun XP in a VMFusion window. With the built in multiple windows manager in the new Macs but XP world is just another window I can click to. That is the kind of flexibility that makes the Macs hard to beat in my opinion. |
Originally Posted by pred02
(Post 11331501)
I am actually now starting to look at netbooks, primarily the Asus EEE. If it can get me 90% there at 1/3 the price of the Macbook, I think its the way to go. Will report back on a decision.
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Does anyone have a fairly current (year 2008, say) figure of what the PC vs. Mac market percentage is?
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Originally Posted by Non-NonRev
(Post 11336213)
Does anyone have a fairly current (year 2008, say) figure of what the PC vs. Mac market percentage is?
I'd post some links, but it's easier to just use the Google on "Mac OS percentage" or something like this. |
I think that's optimistic.
Apple was doing real well in specific areas like laptops sold at retail or laptops sold to the consumer segment. They might have had double-digit shares in current sales, not installed base, in those specific segments. So they had some good momentum but this economic crisis may just reset everything for every manufacturer. |
Originally Posted by brp
(Post 11312534)
I've never been a Mac user, and love the PC. But I will agree that, even these days, there is often some amount of "configuration" required if one wants to go off-road at all. Most of the stuff just works, IME, but some things require intervention.
As an example, my Moto RAZR has a mini-USB for power, so I figured I could charge it from my computer. Well, I could, but it required a special driver to set it in a power-supply mode. I had to go out and find the driver, then install it. For me, no problem. For someone who doesn't want to muck with this, could be a bigger deal. Of course, I don't know what would happen on a Mac if one plugged a RAZR into a USB port and it didn't have the power supply driver. I like the PC because of the configurability aspect, but I can see how this could be a detriment to some who don't want to do this sort of thing. Again, though, all the basic stuff (such as the thing that the OP mentions) have always just worked for me, at least through XP. Cheers. |
I have a GPS logger made by a small company.
It charges fine via USB but it's using a serial modem to USB driver rather than a storage device USB driver so it doesn't mount on the Mac desktop. So I use the software, which also geotags my photos, to extract logs from it. I think the PC software also does the same but I don't know if Windows requires a device driver for it. |
yes, I think one has to define "of total pcs'" of NEW pc's, and of NEW LAPTOPS, and of laptop market.
I THINK that the latest of pc's, was like 6.5% last year, but more like 15-20% of laptops sold, which was higher than any other MANUFACTURER, I THINK. Total of all pc's is not really going to be anywhere more than the 2-3-4% that people have quoted in the past, since the new acceleration in second and third world sales, low cost and netbooks is nothing the mac competes in. |
Originally Posted by RichMSN
(Post 11336241)
From what I've found, Mac is at about 10% right about now, higher than in a long time.
I'd post some links, but it's easier to just use the Google on "Mac OS percentage" or something like this. |
Originally Posted by ScottC
(Post 11337698)
I think the final numbers for 2008 will look really bad for them - the Netbook market is killing Apple. As usual, they completely missed the opportunity to make their own Netbook, and a lot of people are just buying a Dell Mini 9 and turning it into a Hackintosh.
MacBook was their big-seller and it probably took years for them to develop the unibody models which they intro'd only in the last quarter of 2008. They probably set up their supply-chain around MacBooks, based on it being their best-selling Mac for years. Sure they could put out a netbook and I hope they do (with multitouch, which is better for smaller form-factors) but they have to figure out how to position it so that it doesn't cannibalize their mainstays. Maybe price it high enough that they get good margins but in order to do that, they have to offer value that isn't in the market already. BTW, I thought they still had a good earnings report for the final quarter of 2008. Oh and the hackintosh crowd is not their customer base. Those are the people who complain about not having FLAC on iPods or iPhones not playing Divx videos. They did well without catering to that crowd. |
Originally Posted by ScottC
(Post 11337698)
I think the final numbers for 2008 will look really bad for them - the Netbook market is killing Apple.
I know that NYC, where I live, isn't necessarily representative of the world as a whole, but when I go to Starbucks, the only people with tiny laptops are Japanese girls. Businessmen have Lenovos and Dells, and everyone else has a Mac. |
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