Hi-
Sorry about the length of my post!
I'm a new poster, but I have been reading these forums for about 6 months in anticipation of (and to gather information about) the new Macbooks, Leopard, and computer product development. I respect all the opinions expressed here , and wanted to weigh-in. This is unusual, as I am quite the lurker and not such a poster.
I work at an educational research firm where, in the early 1990's we used Macs exclusively. Several issues arose to force our slow but, ultimately, total adoption of MS/Intel boxes. The top three reasons were: 1. price, 2. MS Win compatibility and 3. trends in schools (in which we work). In a nutshell, educators loved the Mac platform but educational IT admins and districts did not like the limited hardware upgrade paths and overall TCO, as compared to a MS/Intel box. Schools were and are ditching their Macs.
For the last year I have been pushing my office (40 or so employees) to move back to a Mac platform; ultimately my desire to do this was based on our firms overall experience with Dell and HP laptops. Each year we added several layers of spyware and virus protection, but still each year our systems were straddled with these issues.
We bought a MacBook a while ago for testing purposes, and ran our software: the graphics did not meet our needs. We run simulation software and real-time visual data analysis packages, in conjunction with several stats packages running simultaneously. I supplied my organization with information about the upcoming MacBook, Santa Rosa, etc, learned on these forums, but now the news is out and I am sad to report that the MacBook will not meet our specs.
Our budget will not allow for MacBook Pros. My organization, after waiting, has ordered 10 new HP, which have the Santa Rosa platform, with the intention of 10 more in about 6 months. This HP hardware/software runs graphics superbly-- but I'm not talking about games or anything like that. The below poster is correct, and, with some quantity discounts, we are receiving laptops which exceed MacBook specs for much lower cost (approximately 1100/laptop, but each has more RAM, bigger screen, bigger HD, etc.).
Several posters have reported that Apple doesn't need to cater to a niche like my company, which would be the road warrior/consultants who need more GPU power but are not allowed to spend top dollar on a laptop for budgetary reasons; however, I disagree, and find that other small businesses too would consider a "fleet" of MacBooks if such a combination existed. Posters have said that business should opt for the more pricey MBP- that simply does not fly with bottom line.
Sorry to go on and on, but I appreciate the Mac platform so much, and feel compelled to report that, for business reasons, other-- perhaps less well designed-- platforms are winning new customers. Thus, aside from the college students and less intensive business users, this recent product move by Apple has not helped them make inroads and win new customers from Wintel companies.
Be well.
Sorry about the length of my post!
I'm a new poster, but I have been reading these forums for about 6 months in anticipation of (and to gather information about) the new Macbooks, Leopard, and computer product development. I respect all the opinions expressed here , and wanted to weigh-in. This is unusual, as I am quite the lurker and not such a poster.
I work at an educational research firm where, in the early 1990's we used Macs exclusively. Several issues arose to force our slow but, ultimately, total adoption of MS/Intel boxes. The top three reasons were: 1. price, 2. MS Win compatibility and 3. trends in schools (in which we work). In a nutshell, educators loved the Mac platform but educational IT admins and districts did not like the limited hardware upgrade paths and overall TCO, as compared to a MS/Intel box. Schools were and are ditching their Macs.
For the last year I have been pushing my office (40 or so employees) to move back to a Mac platform; ultimately my desire to do this was based on our firms overall experience with Dell and HP laptops. Each year we added several layers of spyware and virus protection, but still each year our systems were straddled with these issues.
We bought a MacBook a while ago for testing purposes, and ran our software: the graphics did not meet our needs. We run simulation software and real-time visual data analysis packages, in conjunction with several stats packages running simultaneously. I supplied my organization with information about the upcoming MacBook, Santa Rosa, etc, learned on these forums, but now the news is out and I am sad to report that the MacBook will not meet our specs.
Our budget will not allow for MacBook Pros. My organization, after waiting, has ordered 10 new HP, which have the Santa Rosa platform, with the intention of 10 more in about 6 months. This HP hardware/software runs graphics superbly-- but I'm not talking about games or anything like that. The below poster is correct, and, with some quantity discounts, we are receiving laptops which exceed MacBook specs for much lower cost (approximately 1100/laptop, but each has more RAM, bigger screen, bigger HD, etc.).
Several posters have reported that Apple doesn't need to cater to a niche like my company, which would be the road warrior/consultants who need more GPU power but are not allowed to spend top dollar on a laptop for budgetary reasons; however, I disagree, and find that other small businesses too would consider a "fleet" of MacBooks if such a combination existed. Posters have said that business should opt for the more pricey MBP- that simply does not fly with bottom line.
Sorry to go on and on, but I appreciate the Mac platform so much, and feel compelled to report that, for business reasons, other-- perhaps less well designed-- platforms are winning new customers. Thus, aside from the college students and less intensive business users, this recent product move by Apple has not helped them make inroads and win new customers from Wintel companies.
Be well.
