<strong>I would say the mac world is in a better position today because Apple seemingly has everything covered and is growing and stable. What do you think?</strong><hr></blockquote>
Since I am an owner of two lemon iBooks, and have seen tremendous amounts of problematic iBooks, TiBooks, and iMacs (including the new G4 iMacs), I would have to say Apple's quality control ended just after my Performa 630CD was manufactured (which, to this day, runs EXACTLY as it did when it was originaly purchased and has taken quite a bit...). Apple seems to be concentrating on the quality of its Power Mac G4 towers, which seem rock solid and perform quite well. Unfortunately, they seem to pay little or no attention to the quality of their other products (i.e. one of my iBooks was shipped to Apple, "repaired", sent back in 2 1/2 weeks, in worse condition).
Maybe I've just had a lot of bad experiences with Apple, but it seems I am not the only one...it seems like another user ditches Apple for another platform each day because of terrible quality.
<strong>I have never had a "bad" mac.</strong><hr></blockquote>
then again what exactly would someone like you consider a bad mac.
Apple is likely the best they have ever been right now overall. quality control sucks. buggy software and hardware problems and their tech support and customer support is horrible.
My airport card doesn't work and is under 90 day warranty. it did work when I first got it. Now it doesn't. I'm under warranty I tell them the problem. they tell me I need to bring in my powermac to be looked at before they do anything and I'll have to pay because the powermac isn't under warranty. that's bullshit
Apple's QC doesn't seem as good as it used to be, but I haven't come across many "lemon" macs.
As far as Apple as a business, I think they are in a very solid position. OS X has more potential than any OS Apple has ever used, and their hardware is excellent.
I think Apple's only weakness at this point is marketing. I don't think Apple does a good job at convincing people why Macs are better than PCs. Another problem is that Apple is losing the MHz marketing war, or whatever you would call it. With such low MHz on Macs, I think it hurts Apple's chances for increasing market share. Apple must do one of two things, either convince consumers that MHz is not a reliable measure of performance, or get their MHz up so they can compete with Wintels.
With the G5 on the horizon, and G4s in consumer Macs, I think Apple will soon have the performance/MHz debacle under control. They have software by the balls, with OS X and all the iApps, Apple is ready to kick ass.
If by the end of this year Apple's market share isn't growing, then I don't think there is ANYTHING Apple can do to boost it. They are doing everything right, their prices are coming down (well, staying the same, but the value is going up), there just isn't much more Apple can do for marketshare.
I think that with all the iApps, a Mac can do so much more out of the box compared to a Wintel that it's ludicrous! It hasn't been so obvious that Macs are better than Wintels since before Windows.
Comments
<strong>I would say the mac world is in a better position today because Apple seemingly has everything covered and is growing and stable. What do you think?</strong><hr></blockquote>
Since I am an owner of two lemon iBooks, and have seen tremendous amounts of problematic iBooks, TiBooks, and iMacs (including the new G4 iMacs), I would have to say Apple's quality control ended just after my Performa 630CD was manufactured (which, to this day, runs EXACTLY as it did when it was originaly purchased and has taken quite a bit...). Apple seems to be concentrating on the quality of its Power Mac G4 towers, which seem rock solid and perform quite well. Unfortunately, they seem to pay little or no attention to the quality of their other products (i.e. one of my iBooks was shipped to Apple, "repaired", sent back in 2 1/2 weeks, in worse condition).
Maybe I've just had a lot of bad experiences with Apple, but it seems I am not the only one...it seems like another user ditches Apple for another platform each day because of terrible quality.
Just my thoughts...
<strong>I have never had a "bad" mac.</strong><hr></blockquote>
then again what exactly would someone like you consider a bad mac.
Apple is likely the best they have ever been right now overall. quality control sucks. buggy software and hardware problems and their tech support and customer support is horrible.
My airport card doesn't work and is under 90 day warranty. it did work when I first got it. Now it doesn't. I'm under warranty I tell them the problem. they tell me I need to bring in my powermac to be looked at before they do anything and I'll have to pay because the powermac isn't under warranty. that's bullshit
As far as Apple as a business, I think they are in a very solid position. OS X has more potential than any OS Apple has ever used, and their hardware is excellent.
I think Apple's only weakness at this point is marketing. I don't think Apple does a good job at convincing people why Macs are better than PCs. Another problem is that Apple is losing the MHz marketing war, or whatever you would call it. With such low MHz on Macs, I think it hurts Apple's chances for increasing market share. Apple must do one of two things, either convince consumers that MHz is not a reliable measure of performance, or get their MHz up so they can compete with Wintels.
With the G5 on the horizon, and G4s in consumer Macs, I think Apple will soon have the performance/MHz debacle under control. They have software by the balls, with OS X and all the iApps, Apple is ready to kick ass.
If by the end of this year Apple's market share isn't growing, then I don't think there is ANYTHING Apple can do to boost it. They are doing everything right, their prices are coming down (well, staying the same, but the value is going up), there just isn't much more Apple can do for marketshare.
I think that with all the iApps, a Mac can do so much more out of the box compared to a Wintel that it's ludicrous! It hasn't been so obvious that Macs are better than Wintels since before Windows.