Too anal about the hardware?

[SansSociety]

Hi,
I just picked up a 24 in iMac 2 weeks ago and I love it to death.
I went onto this forum recently to check things out.

What I've noticed, and this might be due to the increasing switcher community, is that some mac people go to great lengths to scrutinize every flaw in the hardware (whether it be dead pixels or smudges and scratches), resulting in many trips to the apple store/exchanges.

Isn't the point really the fabulous software and computing experience? I know this type of thinking is really prevalent on my college campus, where people mainly pick up a mac because of the hardware and aesthetics. Coming from a long-time Thinkpad user, the idea of using keyboard covers and wrist guards is just ridiculous - but it seems like 1/5 macbook users have em. It just seems that this goes beyond the point of getting a mac.

What is irksome is that to a degree this might contribute to a premium normal people have to pay for a mac (even insignificantly).

Your thoughts.

 

[317342]

Agreed--it does get nauseating at how much people obsess (borderline sickness) over every precise, minute detail of their

I used to think it was b/c they cost so much, so it would stand to reason that the more you pay for something....the more you'll worry about it. Perhaps I'm right/wrong, but I do think that cost does have some influence on this.

Cost-aside, most Mac owners are artists and creative-types and that also has an influence.

My wife and I both own/use Macs in our home; she since the 90s, me off and on since 2003.

I would like to point out that in terms of "build quality", I've not been impressed w/ what PC manufacturers are putting out these days; Sony is the only exception, I thought the FW series was really well-made. Macs, even with the most insane defect you can imagine, do not have the same defects as PCs.

With Macs, the worst you'll hear is a Mac user lament ad-nauseum about a dead pixel or scuff on the bottom of their beloved Mac notebook.

With PCs, the worst you'll hear is something like, "...it's dead...they lost my notebook....they won't fix it....keyboard is dead...etc." Macs have had issues as bad or worse, but nothing like on the frequency that PC notebooks seem to have.

I've bought/opened a few PC (all HP, one Sony) notebooks over the last 10 years, and it seems (in my opinion) that PC quality has degraded anywhere from gradually to greatly; Apple quality seems to have only gotten better with each generation.

I think the tipping point for me with Windows notebooks was when PC makers decided to stop including the recovery discs, and expect the customer to burn their own discs--cost cutting move, and lousy for the end-user experience. Basically, it tells the customer, "Ok, first thing you need to do is make your recovery discs!" WTF?!