That's probably how most people buy a computer. Doesn't necessarily make it wrong. Computers are still way too complicated for many people, which is probably why tablets are so popular as they are so much simpler to use.
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Lenovo Passes Apple in U.S. PC Shipments As Worldwide Market Flatlines
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That's probably how most people buy a computer. Doesn't necessarily make it wrong. Computers are still way too complicated for many people, which is probably why tablets are so popular as they are so much simpler to use.
i wish apple would actually offer a desktop computer. the imac just being a laptop disguised as a desktop and the mac pro just being like a laptop is disappointing. i dont like how apple is trying to adapt the customer to the company, not adapt the company to the customer.
most people i talk to wont buy imac or mac pro because they lack basic desktop-computer features.
most people i talk to wont buy imac or mac pro because they lack basic desktop-computer features.
Wuh? Other than not being able to jam a new GPU into it (which I admit is a downside), what feature is the Mac Pro missing in comparison to other desktop machines?
I hate how people cheap out on laptops, even when they can afford a nice computer, PC or Mac. Cheaping out is probably the worse thing you can do, as laptops are pretty much the embodiment of the phrase "you get what you pay for".
I am glad I replaced it since it was breathing fire whenever I did any sort of work with it. The upper case is cracked and now the lower case is cracking along the screws.
My old Macbook is alive, if you can call it that.
WHAT!?!!? Computer (not Pads and smart phones) sales are UP? That's IMPOSSIBLE! 
We've been told for years now that computers are DEAD. Of course, most of us that actually use them know that they don't get updated as often as these mobile devices (which often force you to upgrade in short periods of time or get all support dumped) and that a house can get by with one or two computers, but often have multiple phones, for example. In other words, far from "dead", computers are simply not brand new technology and people don't often buy a brand new one every year like they do phones.... No no, the news just harps on the fact they're a dying breed. Right. Smart phones will probably never have the same power as a desktop or notebook so there will always be demand from those that do more than just "tweet" and "text".
Lenovo, though. Isn't that IBM's line that they sold to Lenovo? You know the one that they said they weren't making money on? Yes, sell it to a corporation in Communist China instead of making them in the U.S. You won't catch me buying one. At least Apple has moved some lines back here.
We've been told for years now that computers are DEAD. Of course, most of us that actually use them know that they don't get updated as often as these mobile devices (which often force you to upgrade in short periods of time or get all support dumped) and that a house can get by with one or two computers, but often have multiple phones, for example. In other words, far from "dead", computers are simply not brand new technology and people don't often buy a brand new one every year like they do phones.... No no, the news just harps on the fact they're a dying breed. Right. Smart phones will probably never have the same power as a desktop or notebook so there will always be demand from those that do more than just "tweet" and "text".
Lenovo, though. Isn't that IBM's line that they sold to Lenovo? You know the one that they said they weren't making money on? Yes, sell it to a corporation in Communist China instead of making them in the U.S. You won't catch me buying one. At least Apple has moved some lines back here.
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Well.. EVERYTHING? Can you update the motherboard? The cpu? The GPU? Ram? Can you put some HDDs and SSDs in it and make a RAID? What's the point of having a SMALL PORTABLE PRO computer? Isn't it just.. A Macbook PRO?! The old Mac Pro seems like a GOOD, EXPANDABLE and TRUE computer. The new mac pro is just for shitz and giggles and brag rights. It's beautiful and powerful. For now. But it isn't worth it.
P.S. The GPUs suck in the new mac pro. Rebranded ATI gargabe that costs x2.
Correct.
Migrating to a new OS is a big job, migrating to a new PC is a network reimage
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Over the next decade, you will upgrade the PS as games get better? A high end gaming PC will out perform and out graphic a console. The games are more featured and use add-ons etc much more. Dollar for dollar you cannot beat a console, but if you want the best experience, use a gaming PC
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Yes, but they did last quarter and last year as well, nothing has changed. XP does not cause hardware changes, it causes OS changes, the hardware changes keep occurring the same cycles as normal
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More expensive? No, But can be closeish. I had a look at Dell last night, pretty nice units, a lot of the specs were above the Apple equivalent. The MBA equivalent was about the same dimensions and weight. Battery life was good bit not as good as an MBA.
Take me, I am typing on my late 2013 rMBP. Its practically a coffee table laptop. Yet I did not war an 11 or 13 inch, and by the time I looked at the base MBP, added RAM to 8, added HDD storage, it was already pricey so I just said, who cares Ill just get the rMBP. The non retina 15" option was there but the price gap after base upgrades made a base machine costly
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Wouldn't a Mac Mini fit the bill?
I have two 2013 MacBook Pro 15" laptops. I use them for work, running Win7 and Win8.1 on them. They cost me more than a comparable laptop, but for me there are two things that makes Apple the right choice
1. Strength of the aluminum body. Sometimes I travel to the field and have to log around my laptop. I had my 17" Samsung cracked when I lifted it up by holding one corner.
2. Access to parts, support and repair at the local Apple stores.
I am about to get another laptop for a new project and I just wish Apple would consider the 17" again. The retina display has the pixels, but they are very hard to read on the 15" screen.
1. Strength of the aluminum body. Sometimes I travel to the field and have to log around my laptop. I had my 17" Samsung cracked when I lifted it up by holding one corner.
2. Access to parts, support and repair at the local Apple stores.
I am about to get another laptop for a new project and I just wish Apple would consider the 17" again. The retina display has the pixels, but they are very hard to read on the 15" screen.
Terrible?
You are kidding me?....Terrible would be on my opinion 25 or 30%......But that is open to multiple interpretations.
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You are kidding me?....Terrible would be on my opinion 25 or 30%......But that is open to multiple interpretations.
Wow, this thread has grown since I last posted
As for those who are "angry" in this thread about the Surface Pro 3. I'm sorry about the fact that someone's choice in computer makes you angry. It's a puzzling thing I've encountered from PC users when I first switched to Macs in 2007, and I have gotten since switching back to a PC in 2013. I'll continue to choose the best tool for my particular needs whether it has a Apple Logo, a Windows Logo, or even ... an Android (though I see little interesting in that platform at the moment).
And, the Surface Pro 3 is the most coveted device I've held since getting my original Macbook Air. More oohs and ahhs from people than anything else I've owned.
But my point isn't that SP3 is the awesomest thing ever. My point is that if you look around, there is actually a fair number of good, competitive, high quality PCs today, something I couldn't have said back in 2007.
In Ultrabooks (Lenovo, Samsung, etc.) there are a lot of really competitive devices. The Yoga was another really interesting device when I was investigating a replacement for my Macbook. There are a lot of situations where a tablet'ish screen is advantageous for reviewing materials with clients, or even having multitouch is a good idea.
Build quality on these new waves of Ultrabooks and PCs are pretty good. However, they are priced almost identically (if not more at times!) to Macs. Though, I think they may at times have superior screens to Macs - now, when in the history of computing can such a painful thing be said?
Of course Windows doesn't have nearly as nice of a scaling system as OS X. Multiple monitors and multiple DPIs in particular are frustrating compared to OS X.
Now, if someone cannot see my critiques of each ecosystem as not being particularly biased, I cannot help that. The rabid Microsoft, Apple, or Google cheerleaders should take critique at face value. You should see my posts against some of the issues on the SP3 and Microsoft Customer Support on the Surface Forum I visit. You'd think I was the world's biggest Apple cheerleader
Taking valid criticism is a healthy thing to make product better. And when I spend > $1500 on a computer, I want it to be a REALLY good product! Sadly, right now - nothing in Apple's stable pushes the cost/benefit ratio their way for my needs.
Not sure why you quoted me, but I'm glad you found something that suits your needs
Yes, it is open to interpretation. But in principle you agree that there is a difference between -1.3 and +20.3? Or even between -1.3 and +12.3?
I share your sentiments. I upgraded my 17" MBP and replaced the HDD with a Hybrid active and the DVD Drive with another 1TB HDD. Awesome machine, 2 TB internal storage, no need to connect an external HDD when doing Video Editing on the go
I would like to see a new 17" MBP as well. But I am not holding my breath. Especially one with Desktop Components. Heck, even the iMac uses more or less mobile components.
The rMBP's screen is too small for me, I would like to have more screen estate while not having fonts and other UI elements too small. Also the internal storage is too limited. But also here: I don't think that Apple cares about that much, when even the R2D2 trash can only holds a small amount of internal storage.
It's sad, that such a rich company like Apple can't have a few machines in their line up, which cater for the pro or niche markets. Everything is so frikking streamlined to max profits. But somehow by looking at the latest market figures and
being bypassed by Lenovo, maybe they need to have a look at their strategy since the present one seems to be running out of steam The bizarre thing to me is, that
's Laptop lineup is overlapping with their similar offerings of rMBP and Airs. But on they high end side, there is no offering with a bigger screen 
MacRumors does that when someone multi-quotes; it's a glitch. Sorry about the annoyance, but I can't really do anything other than not posting.
On the desktop side, I'm mostly free to stay with my OS, except that the new Xcode will only work with an OS up to one year behind the latest. So if I want Xcode 6, I need Mavericks or later. If Swift becomes necessary to use, I'll need Xcode 6. Hopefully by then I'll be able to hire other programmers anyway.
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They seem super extra pricey to me, but I'm not authoritative in this area. Aren't they supposed to be the fastest ones out there?
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I installed it on my main hard drive as an update and on my brother's '09 MacBook Pro on a fresh partition. I downgraded them both a few months later at different times because I couldn't take it anymore. My Mac Pro only ever had 10.9.0, but the MacBook Pro went up to 10.9.2. Everything took more CPU, more RAM, especially more hard drive I/O (less noticeable with your SSD), and significantly more time. My friends who updated complained about similar problems. There were also new bugs that I found inexcusable, like one that made the MBP log out randomly every week or so.
It was questionable in the first place. A free update with almost no UX features, no ecosystem improvements, and mostly "optimizations". Why would Apple make their customers' existing computers last longer for free? Well, I'm glad it's working well for you, but I'd be surprised if it was faster than a fresh installation of Mountain Lion for anyone.
Well it does say shipments. Which is generally into the sales channels rather than to customers.
The market share means a lot more than revenue comparison, since one unit is used by one person. 3 million of $400 units let 3 million people plus their friends get familiar with the unit and its operation, while 1 million of $1200 units only influence 1/3 of the population. After enough period of time, when most people talk about how things are done in a certain way, it's very difficult for you to resist adopting their "language", especially that you could save money if you do switch.
I feel the shipping vs sales is not relevant. Its easy to get shipping numbers but to get sales you need much more detail, literally down to the store level. A handful of companies make computers, a gazillion stores sell them.
At the end of the stat period there will be shipments that are counted, but are unsold, as either in transit or in warehouses. But the same applies at the start of the period, shipments not counted as shipped prior to the period, but all will have been sold. As this occurs every stat period, the variance is probably quite minor.
The other variable which applies irregardless of shipments vs sales, is the release date of new models. This will reduce sales in the lead up. Thats a more valuable caveat to show as a note to the stats
This is precisely the thing that Apple didn't learn from the 1990s near bankruptcy. High margin items are great until the market drys up. I maintain the breaking point is somewhere near 8-10% market share on the PC for "big" software developers. The iPhone is not having problems right now because Apple's share is still in the high teens (already dropped below 20% of the market, though). They're still selling huge volume at high profit margins and so your typical fanboy thinks everything is just peachy keen and Apple has never done better, but that's very nearsighted. Android is gaining market share by leaps and bounds and it doesn't matter if the phone they sell costs $50 or $300 or $600. It's still one person using a phone that can buy software from a developer perspective. Fewer users means smaller potential profit from sales.
This is why there is SOOO much more software for Windows than the Mac, especially in the early 21st Century when OS X was new and market share was at an all time low. They blew a lot of compatibility with Classic (at least with games that ran bad in Classic emulation mode). How will iOS sales be in a few years if the developer market starts drying up in favor of only making apps for Android if it controls 90%+ of the smart phone market share? THAT is when the stock will plummet, not NOW. But the writing is already on the wall! Apple DOESN'T CARE enough about market share and NEVER have since they always go for the high margin profits which cost BIG $$$ for hardware. Unless that hardware represents significantly better value overall, the "average" consumer is going to go for the cheaper product, which is why Windows still controls most of the Earth in sheer volume.
Now maybe Microsoft is having problems selling new copies of Windows, but the developers have got to love Windows since that's still where the meat is. There needs to be a balance between profit and market share or the short term and long term effects get out of whack (unless of course you can keep creating innovative market breaking products, but I haven't seen ANY evidence of that without Steve Jobs thus far).
The point is that Apple could nip a lot of these problems in the bud by offering competitive lower-end products instead of just trying to sell last year's model at a small discount, but then abandon all software support for that model a year later! (WTF wants that phone at that point?)
I agree.
In NZ, the cheapest 13" MBA is NZ$1399. The cheapest MBP is NZ$1699.
Base specs for both. For those numbers I can pickup and really nice Windows laptop, or I could buy a budget machine with a brand name at around NZ$700
Yes, its not Apple, yes it won't have the battery life, but as is often stated, the customer just wants a laptop. So they get Windows by default, get used to it, bye bye a sale to Apple now and in the future.
Apple could offer a base MBA or MBP by cutting some costs, plastic body, etc. Offer some irresistible pay over time deals, get the sale. That customer will then be an OSX user, now and later. probably favour Apple phone and tablet too.
I'm still waiting for a consumer mac tower, will probably be waiting forever
mac mini with a desktop gpu? (i guess then it wouldnt be mini)
does the mini even have a desktop cpu? meh
mac mini with a desktop gpu? (i guess then it wouldnt be mini)
does the mini even have a desktop cpu? meh
Many? Just the top 1% in the U.S. is more than 3 million potential customers, and a lot more than the to 1% can afford Apple hardware. Some software companies, one of the perks is a high-end laptop of the employee's choice. I occasionally see them pull up to the coffee shops in high-end sedans and sports cars, walk in, pull out a Mac laptop... and open it up to a Windows desktop.
I don't really get all the posts crowing about the high profit margins. High profit margins from a company means either:
1. the company is keeping manufacturing costs low and selling the product at a higher markup
2. the company is keeping workers' wages low
Neither of which are necessarily good business practices. They're popular practices but in the long run people are going to see that: 1. they're getting ripped off; or 2. the company will attract less talent.
So everyone crowing that their Macbook Air has 30% profit margins ... really they're just crowing about the fact that the Macbook Air components are really cheap compared to the price.
1. the company is keeping manufacturing costs low and selling the product at a higher markup
2. the company is keeping workers' wages low
Neither of which are necessarily good business practices. They're popular practices but in the long run people are going to see that: 1. they're getting ripped off; or 2. the company will attract less talent.
So everyone crowing that their Macbook Air has 30% profit margins ... really they're just crowing about the fact that the Macbook Air components are really cheap compared to the price.
The customers who buy their products like what they offer. The customers who don't buy their products don't like what they offer. I really don't understand where the problem is. Can you name one company in existence that bends and does every single thing that every single customer wants and never loses customers ever? You keep mentioning how they're losing customers or alienating customers yet they are selling more products than ever in their 30+ year history.
Can you name one company in existence that bends and does every single thing that every single customer wants? They're not just saying "We're doing what we want, and if you don't like it, go to hell"...because if they actually did that...they'd be bankrupt. It's how business works. For reasons unknown to anyone, Apple bashers like to imply that Apple has somehow managed to throw out every facet of good business practice and still manage to succeed.
No company can or ever has met every customer's needs. A company who doesn't make their customers happy will fail. Theres not much else to say on that.
Yes, your googling "bad Apple reviews" is completely irrelevant because anyone anywhere can find a bad review for any company.
huh. http://laliaflia.blogspot.com/2009/05/wheel-is-worst-invention-in-world_20.html
Thank you. I agree on memory and storage. Matte screen and optical drive not so much, but again thanks.
Market share does not equal declining sales.
At least you admit this is imaginary.
I understand your wants, and you have the choice to get whatever you want. Makes zero sense to buy a product that you know doesn't have everything you want and then complain about it. Again, this is consumerism. You pick what works best for you. That doesn't mean you're not allowed to want something extra, but if you make the decision to buy something from a company and you keep buying it, complaining about it is nonsensical.
You shouldn't be. Their sales are up, their stock is up, and they are the most valuable company in the world.
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You're not allowed to talk about profits unless you're an investor. Yet talking about marketshare as a consumer makes sense.
Or that the company is adding value (innovation? quality? taste? accessibility? fashion? brand trust?) above and beyond the price of the components and the labor to assemble it, and that lots of customers willingly choose to pay more for Apple's product over an assembled wad of similarly spec'd generic parts from somebody else.
As for low wages, note the long lines of people outside of Foxconn trying to be hired for those "low" wage jobs rather than whatever else they would otherwise do (or get from the state). (...and with a suicide rate lower than in their home towns.) I also note that Apple is successfully hiring in Cupertino, in spite of the ridiculously sky high housing prices around that neighborhood. Low wages???