jmurray said:
Don't misunderstand, I am willing to wait longer and pay more for products that are done right, but something tells me the whiff of greenback that iPod has provided has changed Jobs and Co. We'll see.
I agree on that. Apple has changed since they started selling the iPod. I got one too and seeing it mainly from an innovation standing point, I think it is one of the coolest products I've ever seen and used. I enjoy seeing Apple's innovations and their great involvement in music, but I think that Macs were always well-known for being mainly for video, photo, and designers, in other words, for professionals. But this has changed ever since the iMac, and especially after OS X. The iPod came and changed the company even more so when they made it compatible with Windows. apple started making money again.
In my opinion this delay in upgrading their professional line of notebooks is in part because they haven't been paying as much attention to pros as they have to the average consumer. For example, the Power Macs are outstanding computers, but I think that they are being limited by trying to make them accesible to the average consumer by lowering their prices. They are worrying too much on marketing and less on releasing products that work the best they can. I don't think iBooks and PowerBooks, and the iMac for that matter, should only include 256 MB of RAM so that they are $50-$100 cheaper. Every Mac today runs better with anything more than 256 MB of RAM, especially beeing that OS X requires 128 MB and applications like Word and Excel require 128 as well. Using another app along with these means the computer is going to slow down, and not perform the way it should. The best example of this is the new Mac mini, that doesn't include a keyboard and mouse. I mean it doesn't bother me and I'm OK with paying the extra $60 for a mouse and keyboard, but they are not fooling me into thinking that I'm getting a computer for only $499. That isn't true. I am aware that Apple is using a lot of marketing techniques to try to sell more.
And before anyone gets me wrong. I'm not attacking Apple. In fact, I love Macs and have used them for about 7 years now, and will probably continue to do so, but I think that Apple has left us PowerBook worshippers out in the cold too long, and are leaving us behind everybody else. It is getting harder to convince others that iBooks and a PowerBooks are better than getting any other laptop. The only thing that keeps winning is the PowerBook's sleek design and OS X.
The PowerBook needs a faster processor now. It needs a higher resolution screen and a larger hard drive. We are falling behind.
Apple has made us wait long enough, and I hope that all of us who are beginning to get disappointed get an answer from them soon.
