The time has come..

[iapple]

It's about time that apple decides where to go, and it's about time we decide where apple should be going.

For the average consumer, they walk into a store, they see loads of computers, and see one lonely Powermac sitting in the corner with a hefty price of 2999. (at least this is how it is in Japan, I'm sure it's better in the US) They see Vaios, they hear everyone around them using a windows machine. They try the powermac (or the iMac if they're lucky) and they try a XP vaio machine. They look at the price tag, and they look at the amount of software, and they listen to the PC geek that's trying to sell them a vaio. There seems to be not much difference between the mac and the PC, so they buy PC's that everyone around them uses.

NOW, we know how great the Mac user experience is, and we know how good OSX is, but how are these people going to get that at their first glance of a Mac and some Bill Gates worshipper trying to sell them a PC?
(Mind you, this is basically the state in Japan, I don't know about US or Europe)
SO, what can apple do? Market more?

I think it's time where they REALLY show the difference! The DIFFERENCE! People are told to think different, but they don't see what is different.

Thisis my idea. They should have a banner in every shop that sells macs saying the differences, and how much better it is to use a mac! For god sakes, Microsoft is great at this! We've gotta get aggresive!
Running photoshop faster, 15 gigaflops, the iapps, JUST NOT ENOUGH!

i think that the www.apple.com/myths is a start!

Where should apple stand?

 

[G4scott]

Good idea!

It would be nice for Apple to take on a more agressive style of advertseing and marketing.

Spread the word! Macs are better!

 

[Stike]

PC users attitude

A friend of mine has recently bought some Athlon XP1800+, 100 GB HD, dont know which GFxboard (Geforce2MX I assume) and additional a Firewireboard and a A/D-Video Converting Box (Formac Studio like, but without H/W codec..) and Premiere 6.0
He´s trying to keep up with my 2.5 years old iMac DV400 featuring a Formac Studio and iMovie! (And a PS2 )

This guy calls his computer a "Videoediting System", but he ordered the thing WITHOUT an OS. He stated that XP would have been included and he didnt want it, (because "The first version is always buggy, so I´ll wait for the first patches") so he installed Win2000 from his old machine. Worked fine...

He believes that this cheap system will crush mine. Ok, in performance, it did. As long as it lasted
Recently the whole System got ****ed up as he tried to install an old game with "works with Win95 or above" on the packaging...!
While I keep rendering slowly, he tries to figure out how to repair his stupid system.

The bottom line is, he thought he could get better performance for less money. And he STILL (!!!) believes that and says: "If my machine is back up again, it´ll be great!"

So, my conclusion must be, that many PC Users are some kind of masochists, they LOVE hazzle with the machine, they WANT the problems. And Billy Boy gives ´em. Plenty.
This is a point where Apple can come in and tell them "We will take the pain from you!" or something like that

What do you people think!?

 

[iapple]

Re: PC users attitude

Originally posted by Stike
A friend of mine has recently bought some Athlon XP1800+, 100 GB HD, dont know which GFxboard (Geforce2MX I assume) and additional a Firewireboard and a A/D-Video Converting Box (Formac Studio like, but without H/W codec..) and Premiere 6.0
He´s trying to keep up with my 2.5 years old iMac DV400 featuring a Formac Studio and iMovie! (And a PS2 )

This guy calls his computer a "Videoediting System", but he ordered the thing WITHOUT an OS. He stated that XP would have been included and he didnt want it, (because "The first version is always buggy, so I´ll wait for the first patches") so he installed Win2000 from his old machine. Worked fine...

He believes that this cheap system will crush mine. Ok, in performance, it did. As long as it lasted
Recently the whole System got ****ed up as he tried to install an old game with "works with Win95 or above" on the packaging...!
While I keep rendering slowly, he tries to figure out how to repair his stupid system.

The bottom line is, he thought he could get better performance for less money. And he STILL (!!!) believes that and says: "If my machine is back up again, it´ll be great!"

So, my conclusion must be, that many PC Users are some kind of masochists, they LOVE hazzle with the machine, they WANT the problems. And Billy Boy gives ´em. Plenty.
This is a point where Apple can come in and tell them "We will take the pain from you!" or something like that

What do you people think!?

I think you're right. PC users (ya know the geeky ones...) They actually like problems and getting illegal errors and crap, so they can FIX them! But, I don't think normal consumers want crashes everyday... especially students, like me, who get fed up using a dell that crashes everytime we load a web browser.

I'm not kidding. Every morning, the think crashes, and the whole thing turns black with "press any key to continue" crap. It really is no laughing matter, when kids are afraid to browse because the thing might crash! Jesus! They just bought the suckers!

Anyway, I'm off the topic. Thanx guys for responding, and I think this is an important issue to talk about, more than specs of hardware coming out and stuff.

SOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO, gota go..

 

[abe]

PCs are o.k. as long as you don't have any problems (you have a lot of problems with them). Fixing Windows is nearly impossible. If you can't manage to make it run again within 30 minutes, you better reinstall the whole system.

That's why I love the Mac OS 9 (haven't worked with Mac OS X professionally yet). If the system runs I simply copy the system folder on another partition. If the main system crashes I simply copy the backup system back and restart = resolving system problems within 5 Minutes.

 

[erova]

just as a heads up...at a few compUSA's and other retail markets, Apple sends in its own salespeople to push Apple products, instead of some 17 year old sales guy making 6.50 an hour who doesn't know the difference between a g4 and a vcr...

(no offense to 17 year olds who make 6.50 an hour but know the difference between computers and vcrs..)

plus i think apple caters to the user who already has his digital camera/dv editor etc...and not the random joe who says, hmmm, my porn seems awfully slow, maybe i need a new machine...

here's the job description from apple's web site:
The representative that Apple intends to supply to CompUSA will be designated as an Apple Solutions Consultant or ASC. The ASCs will be trained by Apple on selling Apple-branded products and on solutions selling. The job description of the ASC will include the right to train the store sales staff on the latest products, promotions, and solutions from Apple and to be involved in the weekly store meetings. The ASC will be on hand during peak store hours (as defined in the Agreement) to assist the CUSA sales staff with demonstrations and selling Apple products. The ASC will not be involved in the transactional aspect of any sales, as an ASC will hand off the actual sale, on a rotational basis, to the CUSA sales staff. The ASC will be required to be only in the Apple area and will not be required to do any daily household store chores as prescribed by the Store GM, but will assist the CUSA staff in ensuring the general look and feel of the Apple area is up to mutual standards. Apple will require the ASC to have access to the store training area, or a regionally located CUSA training center, for the purpose of conducting seminar trainings and new user courses.