PC's in Apple Stores

[Wry Cooter]

I wonder how this will work out in CompUSAs, where there will be many more PCs to go up against, and its much easier for a customer to merely walk away and go get a commodity PC for 300 bucks less.

Also, I think a mac running os x could still look bad to the casual PC buyer only interested in web surfing, if they surfed to site that needed RealPlayer (I think WiMP is active and ready for OS X, but is not included on Macs as installed. Maybe this won't really go into effect until Jaguar, and we'll have a browser that renders faster.

A lot of PC sales go to people that want to be able to use their proprietary business apps at home, something that VPC shouldn't have much problem with.

 

[quanta]

i have a dream....

Even if the Apple store concocted a comparison which was "fair" between the machines, there would still be some suspicion as to it's inherent "fairness" or reliability for the simple reason that Apple has everything to gain by showing the Mac prevail. This would only serve to dilute a victory in the sheer processing power category.

However, one of those fruity compaq boxes you see at radioshack networked with a powertower with a 23" and an airport base station while the sales assistant (whatever they're called) walks up surfing the internet with tibook in hand, and asks the timid, contemplative convert if he has two seconds to be shown how easy it is to get a powerpoint presentation (or spreadsheet, or database or MP3 or whatever) off of the PC and bring it up on the Macs on the network.... That's a sales pitch and it'll look like the Compaq is an old TV with freaking knobs and a coat hanger antenna.

i think that whoever claimed earlier that all people care about is speed is mistaken. i'm sure that there are a lot of young men out there who waded through 486's, Pentium's, etc. and all the while needed to get a faster machine because when you get 57 players fragging each other over a 56K modem line, you get some frame delay (imagine that coming out in slow motion). Now with the insane graphics cards which you can slot into your PCI, there's not really a whole lot of need for 2.54ghz in the main processor it's overkill. Am i wrong? After 60 frames per second.... who can tell?

Someone else pointed out that most people don't use photoshop. These two points are directly linked. Apple is targeting my dad here, not me (they already have me). i don't hear the call going out for more shock troops of power users, but rather that OSX on the Mac is the luxury car of computers... it still runs on gas.... you just don't have so much car trouble....

Apple believes that less headache is worth more money... and if they get enough converts, won't we all start to save money on their systems?

 

[elmimmo]

Originally posted by buzzer
If Apple is planning to go head to head with PC they better price the Macs way lower than now. I can buy in Germany a P4/2Ghz 256Mb/60Gb/DVD/CdRW for EUR1100 + EUR200 for a Philips 17'' Monitor against 1500EUR for a 800Mhz EMac.

I might be wrong, since I have not done the maths, but you are not being fair comparing just the specs. You are not buying a clone when you buy a Mac, so compare a Mac with another branded PC as IBM, Dell, HP or Compaq or others. Of course if you buy just they pieces and build it up, it even results cheaper, but then you are supposed to be willing to pay for something else besides specs when you buy a branded PC. If not, what do you want it for?

 

[elmimmo]

Re: Rower...

Originally posted by Rower_CPU

And iMovie and iDVD...?

This is not a counter answer, since I have not even seen the software I am mentioning. This is precisely more of a feedback request.

Discreet, without a doubt one of the biggest video compositing software developer (if not the biggest), is supposed to have a software in the iMovie target which is called IntroDV. Anyone knows its price and can do a side by side with iMovie?

 

[pianojoe]

Re: Speed is secondary issue

Originally posted by davester
The fact that a Mac can emulate a PC is extraordinary. Sure its not going to be as fast as a PC - its emulation. Can a PC do the same?

As far as I know the aforementioned Dell systems try to emulate a PC most of the time.

 

[Wry Cooter]

Re: i have a dream....

Originally posted by quanta

After 60 frames per second.... who can tell?

Slightly off topic tangent-- This always puzzled me too, but I finally figured it out I think. I think those glomming for frame rates are doing so for purposes of response latency or lack of same-- despite network bottlenecks, that if they have 70 frames per second to make a game play decision, they will eventually beat out those who only have 30 frames per second to make a game play decision.

Closer to the topic on hand, You know what I think killed Apples in Circuit City before the return of Jobs? Doom. Plain and simple. The sales force, straight out of high school or college, being able to play Doom, and create WADS and Maps, made them think the PCs were the serious iron. Also, the PC folks had a loaner program... I think Apples had to stay in the store. Guess which platform they recommended?

 

[mmmdreg]

i want to see this happen in Australia...we seem to be a bit behind in Apple's methods...
couldn't Apple like bring in out-of-date sony's that still look alright so the Macs compare really well against them even if they look modern? just some cheap tactics but yeah..

 

[GabrielX]

Originally posted by mmmdreg
i want to see this happen in Australia...we seem to be a bit behind in Apple's methods...
couldn't Apple like bring in out-of-date sony's that still look alright so the Macs compare really well against them even if they look modern? just some cheap tactics but yeah..

They could yes, but as someone said, Apple is targeting "my dad".

I suspect their big push is going to be to target the "silent majority". Those people not on boards like this, who don't play games obsessively, who use computers for email, webbrowsing, some word-processing, and a very few games. People who love their computer when it works, and let it grow dust or buy a new one when it breaks.

I think Apple will be doing a comparison with say Dells or HP-Compaqs. It will be more of a "kick the tires and test drive the system" test than a "complete engine check and test on the racetrack" road test. (To use a bad analogy.)

It might work out very well. The PC people will complain some that it isn't a fair test because they AREN'T really testing speed, but more user-happiness, and that is fairly unquantifiable.

Gabriel