Buying a new computer
I'm confused about something. Why is it that there are so many people who seem seriously bent-out-of-shape when an update is pending? This is particularly noticeable now with the pending MBP update. But it has been true for all of Apple's computers in the past couple of years that I've been here. Certainly most of you are not caught unawares when your computer is getting long-in-the-tooth. A very small percentage have computers that die horrible deaths and need replacements today, but the vast majority have working computers that will continue to work for the next year or more if need be.
My current computer is a Dell Inspiron 600m 1.4GHz. At the end of March it will be four years old. For the past 18 months I've been planning on replacing it sometime between May and September of this year. I may actually push that off another year, but we'll see. It's no surprise that I have a four year-old computer because... I bought it four years ago. It make sense to me to plan your update schedule (mine is quite longer than most are willing to wait, but I use my computer for very little in the way of intensive computing -- Maple is the most power-hungry program that I use, and if I need real processing speed, I can run Maple remotely). Along with this planning is the "wiggle room" for Apple's own update schedule. If the MB update comes in June, I buy in June; if it comes in November, I buy in November. It's no skin off of my back to wait.
My iPod Mini 1Gen died on the 5th of January: I bought a new Nano the next day. If my Dell dies today, I'll buy a MB tomorrow. Short of your computers dying, why is anyone not able to wait for the next update to buy their new computer? Can you not plan big purchases more than a paycheque in advance?
My current computer is a Dell Inspiron 600m 1.4GHz. At the end of March it will be four years old. For the past 18 months I've been planning on replacing it sometime between May and September of this year. I may actually push that off another year, but we'll see. It's no surprise that I have a four year-old computer because... I bought it four years ago. It make sense to me to plan your update schedule (mine is quite longer than most are willing to wait, but I use my computer for very little in the way of intensive computing -- Maple is the most power-hungry program that I use, and if I need real processing speed, I can run Maple remotely). Along with this planning is the "wiggle room" for Apple's own update schedule. If the MB update comes in June, I buy in June; if it comes in November, I buy in November. It's no skin off of my back to wait.
My iPod Mini 1Gen died on the 5th of January: I bought a new Nano the next day. If my Dell dies today, I'll buy a MB tomorrow. Short of your computers dying, why is anyone not able to wait for the next update to buy their new computer? Can you not plan big purchases more than a paycheque in advance?
Comments
I've got an iMac, not gonna replace it. I've got a PowerBook, not gonna replace it. But, I want a Mini to install as a media-center in the RV.
The "agonizing" part is that I don't HAVE to buy it, certainly not today, but I would LIKE to buy it before a particular date. And it becomes extremely frustrating, with Apple, to buy a computer that is due for a change (like the Mini... i think it'll get the new x3100 Graphics, and 802.11n soon) and have a new computer at the exact same price available a week later.
I don't like using Windows, so I'll buy the Mini eventually, but it seems that other manufacturers will incrementally drop the price of their hardware as it becomes "old"... so that if you buy it right before a major upgrade, you don't feel like you got shafted (since the "new" hardware will not be at the "discounted" price.
Like I said, I'll buy the Mini anyway before the end of the month, but that's why people get so "bent out of shape" when major updates are due... because we don't get any sort of price break for buying hardware we know is out-dated (even by Apple's standards
Along the same vein, there are undoubtedly others who have a desktop and are starting to feel the need for a notebook (perhaps this is where the anxious MBP people come from). I thought that it was funny a month or two ago, some guy (or girl: you never know) was in here saying that he's going away to college in the fall and he "needs" to get a computer now for when he leaves for college in seven months: absurd.