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Microsoft Remains on Offensive with 'Apple Tax' Report and Latest Laptop Ad
- Thread starter Eidorian
- Start date
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Because Cheap Is A False Economy
In 2001 I got a Dell. Big heavy thing it was (Cream Base unit). Not new, it was about a year or so old. No great specs or anything I just needed it for simple work and college essays. Damn thing was notorious for crashing. I was constantly backing up data for the fear of losing it and on lots of occasions I did despite my best efforts. Recalling from memory it was either a Pentium 3 or 4 with Windows 98 or 2000.
I paid a tech support guy over a period of time no less than a couple of hundred quid to sort the damn thing out, so I was throwing good money after bad. I knew very little about the inner working of a computer in order to look into resolving it myself. However the whole thing was unsatisfactory I eventually got shot of it and glad that I had. The one thing that never left my mind was not just that fact the damn thing continued to fail me but a real certainty that this was not the experience neither me or anyone else should be having. If I had a vehicle that was notorious for breaking down I would have rights to return it!
In 2003 after some time being without a machine and concerned about reliving the whole unsatisfactory Windows experience (and it’s eco system) I bought an iMac. I had never really heard or known much about Apple computers and for me it felt like a less risky option than going with “better the devil you know”. I had nothing to lose really. It was a G4 800mhz processor with 256Mb RAM (later upgraded to 768mb RAM), with a Superdrive and a whole suite of apps that interconnected effortlessly. I was doing things I was unable to do with my last machine without it crashing on me. I was able to hook up to the ISP which was solely for Windows based machines all by myself without any major hassles and best of all I was able to run Office Mac X. I found myself being productive and efficient with my work for work. Remember I was not computer literate (and no doubt some Windows advocate will pick this up and utilise it as a case for why people move to the Mac). A note of interest that when I went looking around for a computer almost every vendor that I went to pushed a Windows based machine and never once showed me an alternative and this was still the case just over a year ago.
Fast forward to now and my iMac is still running fantastically well and has out done my PC’s at work. In the time I have had my iMac I have at work gone through a DELL GX240, 260, 280 and now I’m on a 740. On my iMac I can run Office Mac 04 with no hassles at all in comparison to my experience at work where if my machine is not either running slow or crashing it’s acting increasingly buggy when I use Excel, Word and Outlook and although the IT department have looked at my machine this continues to be the experience I have today.
Now moving forward I’ve noticed over a period of time how a lot of the PC manufacturers HP, DELL, Sony and many more) have been using the Mac OSX Aqua Desktop image (or one very much like it) when advertising their machines. Then there was the exceptionally late Vista which was an appalling mess (which I now understand is being labelled and re-worked as Windows 7) however a copy of Mac OSX (Yet MS still has the gall to state that it is innovating). It is also clear that the Mac was gaining some influence with the consumer and I believe this still continues to be the case today hence the ad campaign otherwise I would not see these indicators of the growing influence. All the PC manufacturers in some way shape or form have at some point been influenced by the Mac.
Now MS is talking about the Apple Tax in it’s ad and how you pay a premium on Macs. MS states that this is not the case when purchasing a Windows based machine.
Well how about the Windows Tax that has been so synonymous with the Windows platform/ecosystem!
Windows TAX costs me:
My efficiency and productiveness
My time
My patience
My right to utilise a tool without experiencing unreliability on a constant basis
My budget every time I have to get an IT person to resolve and issue
My resources when I’m not the only individual who is experiencing the Windows Tax
And unfortunately I could go on. However for me and from the experience I have personally had and also from the feed back that I receive from several of those to whom I have recommended the Mac, it is more appealing to pay a premium on a quality product and service than to pay a premium on ones time and productivity (not forgetting ones patience).
BECAUSE CHEAP IS A FALSE ECONOMY AND IS NEVER THE EPITOME OF VALUE!
Now to a few people these ads appear to have merit especially during an economic downturn however would it not be a wiser to purchase a machine that is likely to out last many PC’s as has been the case for me. Is this scenario not indicative of what is deemed to be true value. Value is not how cheap something is but in the little you have to spend over the coming years and utilise ones purchase to it’s full extent!
My iMac had it’s 6th birthday! For me good reasons never to go back to the PC.
In 2001 I got a Dell. Big heavy thing it was (Cream Base unit). Not new, it was about a year or so old. No great specs or anything I just needed it for simple work and college essays. Damn thing was notorious for crashing. I was constantly backing up data for the fear of losing it and on lots of occasions I did despite my best efforts. Recalling from memory it was either a Pentium 3 or 4 with Windows 98 or 2000.
I paid a tech support guy over a period of time no less than a couple of hundred quid to sort the damn thing out, so I was throwing good money after bad. I knew very little about the inner working of a computer in order to look into resolving it myself. However the whole thing was unsatisfactory I eventually got shot of it and glad that I had. The one thing that never left my mind was not just that fact the damn thing continued to fail me but a real certainty that this was not the experience neither me or anyone else should be having. If I had a vehicle that was notorious for breaking down I would have rights to return it!
In 2003 after some time being without a machine and concerned about reliving the whole unsatisfactory Windows experience (and it’s eco system) I bought an iMac. I had never really heard or known much about Apple computers and for me it felt like a less risky option than going with “better the devil you know”. I had nothing to lose really. It was a G4 800mhz processor with 256Mb RAM (later upgraded to 768mb RAM), with a Superdrive and a whole suite of apps that interconnected effortlessly. I was doing things I was unable to do with my last machine without it crashing on me. I was able to hook up to the ISP which was solely for Windows based machines all by myself without any major hassles and best of all I was able to run Office Mac X. I found myself being productive and efficient with my work for work. Remember I was not computer literate (and no doubt some Windows advocate will pick this up and utilise it as a case for why people move to the Mac). A note of interest that when I went looking around for a computer almost every vendor that I went to pushed a Windows based machine and never once showed me an alternative and this was still the case just over a year ago.
Fast forward to now and my iMac is still running fantastically well and has out done my PC’s at work. In the time I have had my iMac I have at work gone through a DELL GX240, 260, 280 and now I’m on a 740. On my iMac I can run Office Mac 04 with no hassles at all in comparison to my experience at work where if my machine is not either running slow or crashing it’s acting increasingly buggy when I use Excel, Word and Outlook and although the IT department have looked at my machine this continues to be the experience I have today.
Now moving forward I’ve noticed over a period of time how a lot of the PC manufacturers HP, DELL, Sony and many more) have been using the Mac OSX Aqua Desktop image (or one very much like it) when advertising their machines. Then there was the exceptionally late Vista which was an appalling mess (which I now understand is being labelled and re-worked as Windows 7) however a copy of Mac OSX (Yet MS still has the gall to state that it is innovating). It is also clear that the Mac was gaining some influence with the consumer and I believe this still continues to be the case today hence the ad campaign otherwise I would not see these indicators of the growing influence. All the PC manufacturers in some way shape or form have at some point been influenced by the Mac.
Now MS is talking about the Apple Tax in it’s ad and how you pay a premium on Macs. MS states that this is not the case when purchasing a Windows based machine.
Well how about the Windows Tax that has been so synonymous with the Windows platform/ecosystem!
Windows TAX costs me:
My efficiency and productiveness
My time
My patience
My right to utilise a tool without experiencing unreliability on a constant basis
My budget every time I have to get an IT person to resolve and issue
My resources when I’m not the only individual who is experiencing the Windows Tax
And unfortunately I could go on. However for me and from the experience I have personally had and also from the feed back that I receive from several of those to whom I have recommended the Mac, it is more appealing to pay a premium on a quality product and service than to pay a premium on ones time and productivity (not forgetting ones patience).
BECAUSE CHEAP IS A FALSE ECONOMY AND IS NEVER THE EPITOME OF VALUE!
Now to a few people these ads appear to have merit especially during an economic downturn however would it not be a wiser to purchase a machine that is likely to out last many PC’s as has been the case for me. Is this scenario not indicative of what is deemed to be true value. Value is not how cheap something is but in the little you have to spend over the coming years and utilise ones purchase to it’s full extent!
My iMac had it’s 6th birthday! For me good reasons never to go back to the PC.
Admittedly, its anecdotal, but I was a PC user for almost 20 years before switching to a mac last year. I feel like I have died and gone to heaven with my "user experience" and now risk sounding like the proverbial reformed drunk (mixed metaphors not withstanding). So i will simply qualify it as "imo".
In my opinion, these commercials are just getting old.
I'm never gonna buy a PC Laptop, anyway. Last time I had my macbook in public, someone was like "I just bought this Sony for like $2000. Its huge and slow..." then they are amazed that I only paid $1300 for mine, and it looks beautiful.
I'm never gonna buy a PC Laptop, anyway. Last time I had my macbook in public, someone was like "I just bought this Sony for like $2000. Its huge and slow..." then they are amazed that I only paid $1300 for mine, and it looks beautiful.
They could've definitely taken this commercial somewhere if they built further upon the gaming aspect b/c a PC kills in that aspect.. if they showed off the ASUS gaming laptops that BB has. Bluray! lol, meh get a PS3 for that. But yeah a lot of misses in this last ad, not very good.
I'd much rather buy Pizza myself
Dave Rosenberg posts an interesting article regarding Windows 7. Ties in nicely.
Link: http://news.cnet.com/8301-13846_3-10217252-62.html?part=rss&subj=news&tag=2547-1_3-0-20
Dave Rosenberg posts an interesting article regarding Windows 7. Ties in nicely.
Link: http://news.cnet.com/8301-13846_3-10217252-62.html?part=rss&subj=news&tag=2547-1_3-0-20
LOL! Very observant. That's absolutely hilarious. These may be real people in the ads, but clearly the ad people are directing them quite a bit. ("Yeah, just need to demonstrate that you don't want a Mac, so just go in and come back out and we'll have you comment on how expensive they are.")
Would someone who has experienced this "epiphany" care to elaborate on what, exactly, it entails? I go back and forth between the two systems, but I'm still waiting for the "wow" moment after, I dunno, say 50,000 hours with Windows and 10,000 hours with Mac. All I see are two screwdrivers with slightly differently shaped handles.
Well, obviously she never entered the Apple Store. All they did was cut out the snippet where she does a 180 in the doorway. I suspect it was simply a matter of steering clear of potential legal entaglements.
Well - reformed drunks have to mix SOMETHING.
But I am in the same category. used windows since 95, switched to mac in 07.
My only regret is not trying it sooner.
Its easy to go with what you know - but the mac way is so much more satisfying.
When i turned 35, i really vowed to stop being a cheapskate and start paying for - and demanding lasting quality.
I never had a religion - now i stop people on the street and ask them if they have heard the good news - life after windows!
Don't you find one is more comfortable?
May be a frippery - but If I am spending hours a day on a chair - I won't consider it a worthwhile saving if i keep catching my arms on some superflous appendage.
When i had to learn mac, it soon seemed that every process was one mouse click less. Over the day this added up to a more comfortable work environment. Especially as the supplied hardware felt better designed to fit in my hand. And this was before expose and mouse zoom
(The exception that proves the rule is the circular imac mouse - wtf?
)If you want to game, then get a PC. However, a laptop for gaming is a horrible idea. If you want to game, build your own desktop. It's fast and cheap. Never use a laptop to game. That's just dumb.
Small screen, more expensive parts, harder to upgrade. WHY WHY WHY would anyone buy a LAPTOP to game?
Use a custom built tower to game and run windows programs and use your macbook or macbook pro for everything else. Win Win!
I mean, everyone says gaming is not for macs, but we are talking about laptop hunters. No even moderately serious gamer should use a laptop to game.
Small screen, more expensive parts, harder to upgrade. WHY WHY WHY would anyone buy a LAPTOP to game?
Use a custom built tower to game and run windows programs and use your macbook or macbook pro for everything else. Win Win!
I mean, everyone says gaming is not for macs, but we are talking about laptop hunters. No even moderately serious gamer should use a laptop to game.
However I'm a Mac and I'm cute and small!
Oh yeah I almost forgot: Macs are too expensive! No, no, no, PCs are more expensive in long run! Oh yeah, Macs suck are too expensive! Oh yeah pal, you and your virus infected PCs suck!
Okay moderators you can close this thread now because I just covered about 95% of this crap in just one post.
HILARIOUS!
I see the PC Grandmas are out in full force (again), frothing at the mouth and wagging their crooked little fingers at all us "cool" and "sexy" Mac users for wasting our money instead of buying the cheap stuff.
It's so flattering that you Apple Haters care so much about how much we Mac users are spending, but, really, don't you have something better to do, like install another Windows update or defrag your hard disk?
I see the PC Grandmas are out in full force (again), frothing at the mouth and wagging their crooked little fingers at all us "cool" and "sexy" Mac users for wasting our money instead of buying the cheap stuff.
It's so flattering that you Apple Haters care so much about how much we Mac users are spending, but, really, don't you have something better to do, like install another Windows update or defrag your hard disk?
Sure.
- many fewer crashes
- many fewer file corruptions (no idea why)
- No viruses / no resource hogging anti-virus
- No spyware
- Simple graceful user interface that really does just work, mostly
- much less time spent trying to fix problems myself or with the aid of an IT professional.
- More production, less fixing, saves money
- many less network issues (computers seem to stay happily connected better)
- lovely hardware
- lovely software (iLife and now, in it's lateset iteration, iWork.)
Any questions? Sounds better, huh?
Would I like it if the hardware were less expensive? Sure, as long as the user experience did not suffer.
Nope, it evens out in the end.
On one hand I might argue that Exposé, QuickLook and Spaces give the Mac an edge, but on the other hand the retarded menu bar at the top (an ancient design conceived at a time when screen space was really cramped -- we're talking about a 9" screen, mind you -- and having several different windows spread out across the workspace was unthinkable) and the inability to resize windows with anything other than a single measly resize handle at the bottom cancels out the aforementioned advantages.
On one hand OS X is more tastefully designed from a visual POV, with a cleaner interface, but on the other hand it wastes tremendous amounts of screen space by hogging not only the top of the screen but also the bottom or one of the sides for the Dock -- functionality that Windows combines in a single bar.
On one hand OS X is marginally more stable, but on the other hand when it does crash or do the perpetual beachball dance it's so in denial about having screwed up that it gives me no information other than a cryptic "Error -13" or something else you have to look up on the web.
I could go on about the pros and cons of both systems but like I said, it all evens out. Windows 7 actually comes quite close to adding the things I miss from OS X (Exposé- and Spaces-like functionality), but Snow Leopard may have something up its sleeve, so it looks like the jury will have to keep deliberating as far as I'm concerned...
Reading through this 3rd windows thread I did a little reflection on the computers in the house.
4 laptops 5 desktops.
6 running XP SP3, 2 running Vista SP1, 1 running Win2k server.
Reading this thread I must be the luckiest person in the world.
Other than a few sticks of RAM dieing and a few HDDs crashing I really haven't had any issues.
Over the past 6 years the cost of software to support the windows computers is less than the amount of money I have spend at the iTunes store.
I just don't see the huge expenditure on software people are mentioning here.
Windows update, perhaps I am not understanding why this is a bad thing.
4 laptops 5 desktops.
6 running XP SP3, 2 running Vista SP1, 1 running Win2k server.
Reading this thread I must be the luckiest person in the world.
Other than a few sticks of RAM dieing and a few HDDs crashing I really haven't had any issues.
Over the past 6 years the cost of software to support the windows computers is less than the amount of money I have spend at the iTunes store.
I just don't see the huge expenditure on software people are mentioning here.
Windows update, perhaps I am not understanding why this is a bad thing.
[*]many fewer crashes
n/a (the crashes I've experienced on either system are too few to constitute a problem)
[*]many fewer file corruptions (no idea why)[*]No viruses / no resource hogging anti-virus
n/a (never had any viruses in 18 years, stopped using AV completely after XP)
[*]No spyware
n/a (never had any)
Edit: Come to think of it I did have spyware once in 2002 or so, it was called "SaveNow" or something to that effect and would show popup ads based on my surfing. I killed it like a mosquito.
[*]Simple graceful user interface that really does just work, mostly
Agreed. Unless a miracle happens, Windows will always be the uglier one.
[*]much less time spent trying to fix problems myself or with the aid of an IT professional.
n/a (I am an IT quasi-pro and never used outside help)
[*]More production, less fixing, saves money
n/a (I get the same amount of production time out of both)
[*]many less network issues (computers seem to stay happily connected better)
On this one I'm gonna have to disagree. I had lots of problems with wireless in Leopard and eventually had to cripple my wireless router's settings to make the iMac's connection stable. It would often slow to a crawl because it didn't like certain channels (channel selection is automatic on this router and the PCs follow it wherever it goes). No such problems in Vista except the first month or so when Intel's wifi driver was still sketchy.
[*]lovely hardware
Agreed.
[*]lovely software (iLife and now, in it's lateset iteration, iWork.)
n/a (the only Apple software I use regularly is iTunes, and that's on the Windows PC I sync my iPods and iPhone with)
Any questions? Sounds better, huh?
Thanks for taking the time -- now I know why you like Mac better. It didn't really bring me closer to why I should've experienced the switcher epiphany because most of it was non-applicable to my experience or situation. Oh well, we're both happy with what we use, so it's all good.
Balmer-being the idiot he is should know you cant negative advertise YOUR competitors product. PT Barnum?: "ANY publicity is good publicity!"
These have a "wonder what all the fuss is-and look at a Mac..........and like it.
ZDNet seems massively anti apple;
When it was posted that PW2OWN "hacked" a Mac -you could sense the sigh of relief-and the vitriol-one post:
"I cant wait for the day when someone walks into apple store and cracks? hacks?-destroys their network?-I didnt quite know what he was talking about
then again, maybe he didnt either
These have a "wonder what all the fuss is-and look at a Mac..........and like it.
ZDNet seems massively anti apple;
When it was posted that PW2OWN "hacked" a Mac -you could sense the sigh of relief-and the vitriol-one post:
"I cant wait for the day when someone walks into apple store and cracks? hacks?-destroys their network?-I didnt quite know what he was talking about
then again, maybe he didnt either