Interesting thread
I have been buying and selling used macs for a few years, mostly powerbooks and mostly to keep myself up with the 'last great computer', and its true that the old machines are just as fast.
I sold my Pismo 400 for $1500 CAD ($1000 USD) and put the cash towards a new Tibook 667. My first new computer in a long time.....
Is it faster? Well, a bit, but not much. Video perfomance seems the same, screen brightness is exactly the same (I put them next to each other).
The extra cost was $3000 CAD ($2000 USD) - for 10 gigs more drive space, same (512) ram, and of course, my main reason a built-in dvd/cdrw drive.
I sold my burner for another $200, so I guess thats $2800 CAD extra.
If my company hadnt kicked in most of the extra cash, I wouldnt have purchased.
No question that these newer machines arent really any faster or better - sometimes they have less facility than the old ones.
Perhaps the real issue here is 'Human Speed' - for most of us who just want to write documents, surf the web, email, program small databases, listen to music - computers now are as fast as they need to be.
More speed will not allow me to type faster, and there would be no point in playing my music at double speed!
I like that ripping a CD to iTunes is faster, but would my life be better if it ripped a CD in 5 seconds? We only have so much time to listen to music, and I know many people who would have to quit work and listen to music for 15 hours a day for the rest of their lives and still they wouldnt get to hear all the music they own.
We may have reached the max. "human speed" levels a year or two ago.
Mac market share including all the old used? More like 7 - 10%.
One of the reasons that Macs attract the college crowd, and the more upmarket crowd is because they last longer and are well built.
Yes, we have two Volvo's (1981 and 1983) and they still run great!
We also have a Nakamichi mini-system stereo, over 6 years old, expensive when new, but I dont see it being replaced for at least 10 or more years.
Is this a problem for Apple? Well, unfortunately, our global capitalism world doesnt allow Apple-like companies to exist for long. Its likely that Apple will be bought by a much larger entity in the next few years, just as Volvo was and Jaguar Cars was, and many other small and great companies.
Even Lands End has been bought by Sears.
Apple computers will be around for many years, even if Apple isnt around in its present form.