Pepsi-iTunes Promo: 5 Million Songs

[jaw04005]

On the other hand Apple has all of these great products and almost no one knows about them because Apple never advertises them. Apple just released a new eMac a couple of weeks ago and I'm willing to bet you that hardly anyone outside the Mac community knows about it because Apple didn't advertise that they now have a newer, faster, cheaper eMac out. You say that Apple advertises on magazine ads, well I've never seen an ad in a magazine that wasn't a Mac related magazine, like MacWorld for example. If advertising isn't so effective then why does Apple advertise the hell out of the iPod? Why does the iPod sell so good? I'd like to think not only because its cool, but also because Apple has gotten the word out to the public about the iPod, and that it will run on Macs and PCs. iPod commercials are all over the place on TV. Apple could even advertise 2 things at once. They can advertise iPhoto running on an eMac, or iMovie running on an iMac, etc... That way they get like a 2 for 1. They advertise the iMac and iLife '04. Many people don't know about iLife '04 and what it can do. There isn't anything like it at all on the PC side. So why doesn't Apple tell people about it! Another thing I don't like is that Apple never gives hardly any incentives to buy their machines. They never give free RAM with a purchase of an iMac, or a free AirPort Extreme Card. They only do these kind of things when they need to get rid of them. Well if they did this in the first place they wouldn't need to try and lower the inventory of a specific machine.

I do agree though that Apple should not advertise its OS. If you can get people to buy the computer they will see and learn the OS. OS X is far easier to learn than Windows is.

You have to spend a little money to make a little money. Apple should quit hoarding its 4.5 Billion and actually start spending some of it on useful things like advertising.

2 more things that Apple should do. First they need to really nail the educational sector and get it back. If you can get Macs in the hands of kids (Apple's future) then when they go out in the world and get their own computer they will get a Mac because that is what they know how to use and thats what they've always used. That being said, Apple also needs to grab a chunk of the business sector. Like I said people will only use what they know. Even Steve Jobs said that. If you can get Macs in large businesses and people start using them then people will start to look more seriously at the Mac. There is a huge myth out there that Macs aren't good for business and thats a bunch of crap! Actually Macs would be better for businesses. They are more stable, no viruses for them (currently), and easier to use. In the business world, time is money and if you have to spend an extra $200 or $300 for a Mac its definitely worth it if they will give you hardly any problems at all. There was a rumor that FedEx was switching to the Mac because it was more secure and more stable than Windows, but seems to have fallen by the way side. That would be a great start for Apple. If it works and works well then I think other companies will see this and start to consider the Macintosh platform.

Apple really needs to do something because they are just barely getting by right now. They are basically breaking even every quarter with sluggish computer sales. Heck Apple can't even sell 1 million Macs per quarter. The iPod even out sells their computers. This is NOT good. They came out with the PowerMac G5 that is really powerful, quiet, etc and its not even selling very good. Apple can't continue to just barely make it.

Apple will never get the education sector back to they start offering $399 computers to educational customers. I've worked in the school administration offices, and the bottom line and the bottom line only is what the school board and superintendents look at. They could careless how much potential value the "extra" software that comes with the computer is. Why pay $700 for an eMac when you can purchase a 2.6Ghz Dell for $399 and use the same monitor you bought with the previous computer, two years before? On that note, why pay $700 for a 1.25Ghz G4 when you can get a much faster 2.6Ghz P4 (and it is a lot faster despite the processor debate). The fact is the only thing comparable to that 2.6Ghz Dell is a Power Mac G5 or at least a Dual Power Mac G4, and there is no way Apple is going to sell those for $399. Only in "wealthy" districts like the one in Maine that Apple promotes will ever see Macs again at their current prices.

 

[mklos]

Well its actually $699 (for an eMac) for schools and thats before any state aid you get with each computer purchase. So with state aid its only around $500 per eMac or less. Actually the problem with Macs in schools is Mac Support. When something does go wrong there isn't any Mac Technicians in the area to service them so they have to be sent somewhere. I work in a school as a PC Technician and I know a couple of Superintendents that want to go Mac but there isn't any one to support them and asking a PC tech to service them is like asking them to cut arms and legs off, unless your like me being a Mac person servicing PCs just because its the only job I can get right now. An eMac comes with a built-in display already so there is no need to be able to use your older displays. eMacs will last a school a lot longer than 2 years. Schools really don't care about the speed of a computer. If a Technology Director, Coordinator, or Superintendent is up with technology then they will know that a 1.25 GHz G4 will be more than enough power to do what most students need to do which surf the net, and use an Office Suite. Thats basically all students need to do.

 

[Chip NoVaMac]

Well its actually $699 (for an eMac) for schools and thats before any state aid you get with each computer purchase. So with state aid its only around $500 per eMac or less. Actually the problem with Macs in schools is Mac Support. When something does go wrong there isn't any Mac Technicians in the area to service them so they have to be sent somewhere. I work in a school as a PC Technician and I know a couple of Superintendents that want to go Mac but there isn't any one to support them and asking a PC tech to service them is like asking them to cut arms and legs off, unless your like me being a Mac person servicing PCs just because its the only job I can get right now. An eMac comes with a built-in display already so there is no need to be able to use your older displays. eMacs will last a school a lot longer than 2 years. Schools really don't care about the speed of a computer. If a Technology Director, Coordinator, or Superintendent is up with technology then they will know that a 1.25 GHz G4 will be more than enough power to do what most students need to do which surf the net, and use an Office Suite. Thats basically all students need to do.

Not to mention lower support costs... those PC techs are worried about their jobs if Mac's replaced PC's in school.

 

[mklos]

Only in "wealthy" districts like the one in Maine that Apple promotes will ever see Macs again at their current prices.

I believe those computers are bought by the state and not the school districts. Any district can afford Macs.

Not to mention lower support costs... those PC techs are worried about their jobs if Mac's replaced PC's in school.

Yes if they really look into switching to the Mac platform the little higher cost will pay for itself just because of things like that. You won't need as many technicians, or technicians there everyday. OS X doesn't let you do anything, which is great for schools. For example, students can't install anything without knowing the administrator password because just about anything you install requires an administrator username/password. Plus they hardly ever break down, there aren't any viruses for them so thats not a worry. I the school I work for which is a small K-12 school that uses PCs we've gotten 2 worms so far this year...each time taking over 5 hours to get rid of it, and about 8 viruses on different machines. All things that a PC Technician needs to be there to fix. Those are things on the Mac side that you don't have to worry about.

 

[sibelius]

A bit off topic... no... a LOT off topic

Plus they hardly ever break down, there aren't any viruses for them so thats not a worry.

I love Macs, but the fact is that there ARE viruses out there that can affect the Macintosh platform. For a while there was nothing, simply because of the brand new operating system... and then again there really isn't that much out there specifically for the Macintosh OS X system. But, it is built upon UNIX... and there are baddies out there for UNIX, so...

There are common mis-truths that just continue to circulate about Macintosh computers (obviously these aren't all of them; nor are they the biggest ones):

1 - They're way too expensive; I can't afford one
2 - They're not for 'real' business use... only for 'creative' people
3 - They are not subject to worms and viruses
4 - I can't switch to a Mac because I only know how to use PC

1 - Macintosh computers are MORE expensive out of the box. After you get them out of the box, however, you quickly see that they are cheaper in many cases. Consider that an operating system will allow you to do nothing but create new folders and send text documents to the trash... you need SOFTWARE to really make your computer sing and dance. And the Macintosh computer comes stocked with a load of cool software. Windows & Mac both have eMail and Web Surfing applications... but only the Macintosh includes, with the new computer, free software for Music, Video Edinging, DVD Authoring, etc., etc. The iLife suite of applications alone will offset the savings of a PC you may have purchased. And that's only the top... there are a lot of other cools applications that come with the Mac.

2 - These people simply do not understand the difference between an "operating system" and a pice of "software" or an "application". Windows and Mac are different, but the software they run typically is not. Photoshop and Excel work and run pretty much the same on the PC as they do on the Macintosh. There are, however, some software that's only written for the PC, as the same can be said for the Macintosh. But for 90% of business use you'll find the software available to both systems... and it works the same on both.

3 - Macintosh computers are subject to Worms, Trojan Horses, Viruses, and all sorts of other baddies... just like PCs. Macintosh is built on the generally-accepted "most secure" UNIX flavor/core out there so it is harder to 'hack' into... but if someone didn't need to 'hack' your system to install a bug then it's not very hard to put one on your machine. The simple fact of the matter is that most people in this working world work on PCs. These people, when they get pissed off, want to hurt their old company... so they make/distribute PC bugs. There just are not that many unhappy Macintosh users out there. Even Mac users that hate their jobs still tend to think of their Macintosh as a 'friend'... so you just simply have fewer people who want to waste the time coding bugs for the Mac side. The other type of people who write these nasties are those who are out for their 15 minutes of fame. They like to see their 'work' spead all over the world. These are typically people who start those bogus 'Virus Warning' or 'Bill Gates will send you $100 for forwarding this eMail to 100 people you know' type of bogus eMails. They just like knowing that something they did was spread all over the world. It's a status symbol to them. Once they get tired of the eMails they move on to other, bigger, more affective things... viruses. And since they want maximum exposure with these, they typically just ignore the Macintosh platform. Beware... bugs for the Mac DO exist.

4 - I think I already covered this one up above. If you can use Photoshop on a PC, you can use it on a Macintosh. Same program. I work in a software development company... and over half of the peope here don't realize that a networked server is not in their computer 'box' on their desk. They don't know how to drag items from a floppy disk to their desktop (they never knew you could manually place anything on the desktop -- they are amazed to know that not everything has to be saved in "My Documents"). These are all PC users, mind you. If it can't be done with copy/paste then it can't be done at all... in their eyes. I can't tell you how many times someone has said "I can't save this logo from the website... it won't let me". That's because they don't understand the concept of drag-n-drop... simply click on the image and hold down and drag it to your desktop... it will place the image there. But they have a hard time viewing the desktop AND an open application at the same time anyway, so that blows their minds also. Either that, or just right-click on the web image and resist the temptation to try to copy/past and just look down the drop-down menu... "Save Target As..." is the option you're looking for. WOW!! It's like I worked some magic. Anyway, my point is not to make fun of PC users (some Mac users are just as bad)... rather, my point is that at this level of understanding I see no loss in 'ramp-up' time if they were to switch platforms.

All that said, most people that still think Macs are overpriced toys are usually people that 'game' all day long, or that got suckered into purchasing the biggest/baddest PC the store had to.... get this... balance their checkbooks. I have news for them... get a PlayStation 2, XBox, and a calculator and save yourself hundreds of dollars.

sibelius

sorry for the off-topic post... just kinda flew with it, I guess...

 

[mklos]

I love Macs, but the fact is that there ARE viruses out there that can affect the Macintosh platform. For a while there was nothing, simply because of the brand new operating system... and then again there really isn't that much out there specifically for the Macintosh OS X system. But, it is built upon UNIX... and there are baddies out there for UNIX, so...

3 - Macintosh computers are subject to Worms, Trojan Horses, Viruses, and all sorts of other baddies... just like PCs. Macintosh is built on the generally-accepted "most secure" UNIX flavor/core out there so it is harder to 'hack' into... but if someone didn't need to 'hack' your system to install a bug then it's not very hard to put one on your machine. The simple fact of the matter is that most people in this working world work on PCs. These people, when they get pissed off, want to hurt their old company... so they make/distribute PC bugs. There just are not that many unhappy Macintosh users out there. Even Mac users that hate their jobs still tend to think of their Macintosh as a 'friend'... so you just simply have fewer people who want to waste the time coding bugs for the Mac side. The other type of people who write these nasties are those who are out for their 15 minutes of fame. They like to see their 'work' spead all over the world. These are typically people who start those bogus 'Virus Warning' or 'Bill Gates will send you $100 for forwarding this eMail to 100 people you know' type of bogus eMails. They just like knowing that something they did was spread all over the world. It's a status symbol to them. Once they get tired of the eMails they move on to other, bigger, more affective things... viruses. And since they want maximum exposure with these, they typically just ignore the Macintosh platform. Beware... bugs for the Mac DO exist.

If you read my other post I said that there isn't any viruses for Mac OS X YET! As of today (May 3) there are NO live (aka out in the world) viruses, trojan horses, worms for Mac OS X. What was announced a few weeks ago wasn't actually a live trojan horse, but rather the potential for a trojan horse to be developed. That wasn't even something that was actually made. If you haven't noticed that if you use anything other than Norton Anti Virus 9 (which detects PC viruses too), the other versions of NAV the virus definations file size never changes. All they do is change the month and release it every MONTH. Yes, thats every month, not everyday like on the Windows side. If there were viruses, etc for OS X then they would be doing the same in releasing updates everyday or week.

Now this isn't to say that there will never be any viruses, worms, etc for OS X. Its probably only a matter of time before the first one hits OS X. Also if you have Macs and PCs on the same network then yes, the PCs will still effect the way the Macintosh performs, especially if its a worm because it will clog up network traffic. If you have PC servers with Macs then the same is true. If the servers are infected then not only are the PCs useless, but also the Macs until you repair the problem on the server(s).

 

[shamino]

1 - Macintosh computers are MORE expensive out of the box. After you get them out of the box, however, you quickly see that they are cheaper in many cases.

Even this is not always true.

Yes, you can get $500 PCs, but anybody who actually goes shopping for these machines quickly finds out that they need more memory, a bigger hard disk and a CD-RW. And once you add that, you're now more expensive than an $800 eMac - which is a great machine right out of the box with no upgrades.

People who say Macs cost more are not making a fair comparison. They usually compare bargain-baement PCs against Apple's PowerMac towers, which are server-class systems. If you actually go to a PC vendor's site and put together a comparable PC, you find that the prices are very similar, and in some cases, the Mac costs less.

I just visited Dell's site to do just this - to put together a PC with features comparable to Apple's stock dual 2GHz G5 system (which sells for $3000).

The cheapest dual-processor Dell system is a Precision workstation with two 2.8GHz Xeon processors. I chose 512K cache, to match the G5's 512K per-processor cache. Upgrade to 512M memory. I chose an nVidia Qudro NVS 280 with DVI support video card (the cheapest DVI-capable card they offer - a Radeon 9600 Pro isn't available). Add a SoundBlaster Audigy card in order to get digital audio. Upgrade to DVD+/-RW. Upgrade to a 120G SATA hard drive (160G isn't available) and a SATA controller card. Add a FireWire interface card.

All of this, including Dell's rebate offers, is about $2650. (About $2900 without the rebates). Compare this to $3250 for a dual 2GHz G5 ($3000 plus AppleCare, since Dell's standard warrantee is 3 years.)

So our difference in price is about $600. But the Dell has an inferior video card, a smaller hard drive, fewer empty PCI slots (the Dell has three in use, for the audio, FireWire and SATA interfaces), less RAM capacity (4G vs. 8G) and an inferior software bundle. And all this assumes that a dual 2.8GHZ Xeon performs comparably to a dual-2GHz G5 (which is not necessarily true.)

Upgrade the video and hard drive to something comparable or choose a faster processor (maybe with more cache) and most (if not all) of that $600 savings will evaporate.

In short: although it is definitely true that the total cost of ownership for a Mac is less, the intial purchase price is comparable and sometimes less as well if you compare similarly-configured systems.

3 - Macintosh computers are subject to Worms, Trojan Horses, Viruses, and all sorts of other baddies... just like PCs.

But it is equally true that the number of them that have actually been developed is FAR less than those that have been developed for Windows. To date, there has been only one for OS X, and that was a "proof of concept" trojan developed by an antivirus company in order to create publicity. (There have been many for older versions of MacOS, but I haven't heard of any of these being found in the wild for over 10 years.)

It is definitely true that Macs CAN be infected, but it is equally true that a Mac user taking no precautions is unlikely to actually be infected, whereas his Windows counterpart is not likely to be as lucky.

 

[bcsimac]

Here in the Memphis area, they had a stupid Grizzlies ticket giveaway and so it wasn't until just last week that the darn iTunes bottles started to show up at all. They only showed up on Sierra Mist bottles. I only drink diet soda so it wasn't any good for me. They ran the Grizzlies ticket promotion right through the playoffs of all dumb things. Playoff tickets were soldout three weeks before the NBA playoffs started. So let's see, the first time I find an iTunes bottle is like April 26th and the promo ended April 30th.....that's a really fair chance to do anything with the promo!(do you sense the sarcasm here.....I hope you do!) Good going Pepsi.....NOT!

 

[sibelius]

... If you read my other post I said that there isn't any viruses for Mac OS X YET! As of today (May 3) there are NO live (aka out in the world) viruses, trojan horses, worms for Mac OS X. ...

Your reply forced me to re-read my message, and I'll admit that it probably wasn't as clear as it should have been. I think we're both on the same page. My point was that while OS X may not have a lot of virus action, that's not the only way into your Macintosh. It's built off UNIX and other application/languages can see their way in as well... JAVA, Shockwave, Shockwave FLASH, etc., etc. I just wasn't clear on that, so there it is. I'm not saying there are a bunch of 'em out there... but they are there (again, I'll have to rely on your knowledge of their 'live' status, as I only work with the 'caged' ones here in Houston).

sibelius

 

[sibelius]

Even this is not always true.

People who say Macs cost more are not making a fair comparison. They usually compare bargain-baement PCs against Apple's PowerMac towers, which are server-class systems. If you actually go to a PC vendor's site and put together a comparable PC, you find that the prices are very similar, and in some cases, the Mac costs less.

It is definitely true that Macs CAN be infected, but it is equally true that a Mac user taking no precautions is unlikely to actually be infected, whereas his Windows counterpart is not likely to be as lucky.

Dude... I am sooo with you on this. Maybe my post didn't come though properly/clearly, but I actually agree with you. I'm just saying that, even if you PROVE that the Dell cost more than the Mac once you 'add it all up' the PC people still can't seem to get their heads around it. It's like they're looking right at you, but turn away once you tell them the price difference after additing up all the required extras. Like you're speaking alien to them. They just don't get it. They walk away as if you were trying to tell them that you really did see Elvis alive in a mall just a few minutes ago. It's a hard sell. But that was my point. I don't agree with them, I was just stating the facts: that PC people think certain things about Macs. And I listed some of those things. I wasn't trying to say they were true or that I believed them. Sorry about that one.

sibelius

 

[iBook]

Did Pepsi change the caps

I recently bought a diet Pepsi as part of the iTunes promotion. When I opened the cap, it wasn't a winner. Not a big deal, but I noticed the printing and the plastic seal were different than the bottles from early in the "contest." Anyone know if Pepsi caught on that people were tilting the bottles to identify winners and changed the bottle accordingly?

 

[Chip NoVaMac]

I recently bought a diet Pepsi as part of the iTunes promotion. When I opened the cap, it wasn't a winner. Not a big deal, but I noticed the printing and the plastic seal were different than the bottles from early in the "contest." Anyone know if Pepsi caught on that people were tilting the bottles to identify winners and changed the bottle accordingly?

Oh, yeah! That is how many got their winning caps....