Palador here, long time reader... first time poster.
I decided to chime in on this one for several reasons. Mostly because there are an increasing amount of people who think it's 'okay' for Apple to only release updates once per year. And that we dont 'need' updates because how often does the normal user use all their processing power.
You people are completely deluding yourselves. I'll say that right now, and on some level you must realize it... even if you are in Apple's PR damage control department, because that assertion is completely ridiculous.
You have to remember this is the COMPUTER industry. Not the microwave, refrigerator, or TV industry where people only buy these things once in a while. And only a small portion of people need new ones from year to year. For every person that bought the G5s to stay on top of computing technology there are at least 2 that are running early or mid G4s that are continually getting more and more outpaced. Try running Halo, iDVD and Limewire at once and even the mighty G5 is brought to its knees.
Not to mention the professionals here who without these machines wouldnt be able to make a living. No even the dual G5s apply a complicated filter to a 500 meg TIFF in less than a minute. That translates to lost productivity.
It's not so much the fact that I cant handle the delay, its the fact that they continue to charge $3000 for a machine that was announced in June and delivered August of 2003!
I see so many claims of 'we are still on top' and 'the G5 is still worth the money' and those statements simply arent true. Shortly after the G5 came out there were benchmarks challenging the 'fastest PC' statement. Now, Im not a Mac hater, but I dont hate PCs either so I wont say which I believed is faste but you have to admit that many of the tests showed that the Athlon 64 and Dual G5 were running neck and neck.
THAT WAS 8 MONTHS AGO PEOPLE! AMD and Intel have come out with a dozen processors since then. Granted they have hit a wall as well, but we are still seeing Prescotts, EE, and AMD FXs come out even if the clock speed isnt being pushed as much.. we are still seeing progess. And we havent seen a thing from Apple/IBM. Sure, you can make the arguement no one needs more speed... but thats all relative. Sure YOU might not need more speed, hell, 95% of the people out might not NEED it. But I WANT IT. And so do a hell of a lot of people. If the computer industry ran on that rationale the best selling computer would be a 1GHz Duron for $129 because it can run the internet, e-mail, word processing, etc just as well as everything else.
To the guy that said a comparable system for $3000 couldnt be built... POPPYCOCK! I could build one that beat it on EVERY system spec and saved close to a grand. Check out the forums on overclockers.com and check out some of the dual AMD rigs. Hell, if the first Athlon 64 could run neck and neck with a DUAL 2.0 GHz G5, you wouldnt even need a second processor. Just check out newegg for the latest and greatest from AMD.
Bottom line is that Apple is dropping the ball right now. I sold my Quicksilver G4 before Macworld and was going to get a G5 after the updates. When none came I realized that we were in for the long haul. Think about it... Steve would have announced the G5sthen if he could have shipped them in 16 weeks. But he didnt. I bought a 3.2Ghz Dell I got from a great deal on fatwallet.com in Jan and have been happy every since. It hasnt crashed, and while its not nearly as pretty as the G5... at least I dont have to search high and low for the software I need.
Apple has lost a customer here because of this. Maybe they'll get me back sometime around the Powerbook G5s, or maybe they wont... Funny thing is that I was a switcher prompted by the LCD iMacs and decided to get a Powermac instead. Guess I went back to the dark side...
