Why don't PC users buy Macs?

macluvmacluv
Posted:
in General Discussion edited January 2014
I need you help. Whatever you know, think, hear, or feel about why PC users don't buy Apple products, please post your comments on this thread. It could be anything. Duplicate opinions are welcome.



Thanks in advance.





<img src="graemlins/smokin.gif" border="0" alt="[Chilling]" />
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Comments

  • Reply 1 of 86
    spartspart Posts: 2,060member
    1.) Perceived slowness.

    2.) Belief in myths.

    3.) Bad experiences in school (with Macs, of course.)

    4.) Unfamiliarity with the OS.

    5.) Bandwagon.



    Those seem to be the big five, at least IMO.
  • Reply 2 of 86
    macluvmacluv Posts: 261member
    [quote]Originally posted by Spart:

    <strong>

    2.) Belief in myths.

    </strong><hr></blockquote>



    Spart, what exactly do you mean by this? Could you elaborate?



  • Reply 3 of 86
    bluerabbitbluerabbit Posts: 105member
    1) Macs are more expensive

    2) People think they are slower

    3) There are still some people (like my cousin) who will think that Macs are bad no matter what
  • Reply 4 of 86
    giaguaragiaguara Posts: 2,724member
    Of the rants i have heard around:



    "macs are for stupid people who can't use computers"



    "macs are more expensive"



    "there is no software for macs"



    "you cant find any of the illegal software that i want ot use on my pc for macs" = i think that's the major reason.



    "99% of the world use windows"



    [ 12-12-2002: Message edited by: Mulattabianca ]</p>
  • Reply 5 of 86
    giaguaragiaguara Posts: 2,724member
    [quote]Originally posted by MacLuv:

    <strong>



    Spart, what exactly do you mean by this? Could you elaborate?



    </strong><hr></blockquote>



    Are you sure?



    Hey, you are using Emacs..!!
  • Reply 6 of 86
    stunnedstunned Posts: 1,096member
    price of course. You can probably get 2-3 Pcs for the price of a mac.



    Most people believe in the Mhz myth. many people probably cannot justify buying a 1.25Ghz desktop as compared to a 2.4Ghz Pc. And of course, when the price of the mac is three times more expensive, it is even more unjustified....



    Then, there is the compatability issue......



    Ya, and the $99 .mac per year



    And most PC users never heard of our wonderful OS X...
  • Reply 7 of 86
    formerlurkerformerlurker Posts: 2,686member
    I think software availabilty and compatibility is the one I hear most often. That, and the perception that the OS may be bettter, but NOT better enough to justify the price and MHz delta.
  • Reply 8 of 86
    splinemodelsplinemodel Posts: 7,311member
    1) status quo

    2) status quo

    3) status quo

    4) status quo

    5) status quo

    6) speed/price comparison
  • Reply 9 of 86
    trevormtrevorm Posts: 841member
    Younger people generally 'Hate/Dislike" macs because they cant get a wide variety of games for mac, and therefore stick to PC
  • Reply 10 of 86
    ghost_user_nameghost_user_name Posts: 22,667member
    This whole MHz myth thing.... I don't think it is really a myth anymore. I look forward to seeing one of Jobs' famous "bake-offs" at the MWSF keynote in January, because after reading a lot of reviews lately, the fastest wintel boxes are outpacing the fastest macs in a lot of different applications. Face it, our machines are slower than theirs, despite how much marketing babble you want to swallow about the G4; a nearly four year old chip that has only increased its clock speed just over 100% since its introduction <img src="graemlins/hmmm.gif" border="0" alt="[Hmmm]" />



    That and price. Macs are pretty expensive. The price to performance ratio is quite off compared to pcs. Mac OS X is really the only reason I still use a mac, and I'm not alone in that....
  • Reply 11 of 86
    stunnedstunned Posts: 1,096member
    [quote]Originally posted by tonton:

    <strong>These are the top excuses I get from my parents and sister and girlfriend and ex:



    "I don't want to learn a new system."

    = Their experience with Windows was so bad that it took them a really long time to learn how to do the most basic things and they are afraid that with a Mac they'll have to learn all over again.

    "Macs don't have the software I need."

    = They don't realize Macs have all the software they need. They don't even know you can open MS Word and Excel files on the Mac without problems and when I say they can they don't trust me.

    "I need to use my files from work."

    = They still live in the age of the floppy and don't realize that they can easily: use email instead; get a $49 USB floppy drive.

    "I don't need a Mac"

    = They may actually realize Macs are better (and they are aware they are more expensive) and they do not see the ease of maintenance, usability, connectivity, design aesthetics and general fun factor as sufficient reasons for choosing a Mac over the PC.



    This is how the non-geek over thirty crowd generally think. Others have been brainwashed by "authorities" like John C. Dvorjak, from whose mouth they believe every word.</strong><hr></blockquote>



    Ya, these excuses can be heard so ever often.



    But one thing though, it is really troublesome to send data to the mac w/o floppy disks



    I know the age of floppy is slowly dying, but it is still very prevalent in my country Singapore. Its really frustrating when my friends give me data in the form of floppy disks. i have to copy them to my Pc and then use my alternate email account to send them to my .mac account. Absolutely troublesome
  • Reply 12 of 86
    paulpaul Posts: 5,278member
    [quote]Originally posted by stunned:

    <strong>i have to copy them to my Pc and then use my alternate email account to send them to my .mac account. Absolutely troublesome </strong><hr></blockquote>



    why dont you just use your iDisk?
  • Reply 13 of 86
    ast3r3xast3r3x Posts: 5,012member
    " to expensive"



    "too slow"



    "only for audio/video"



    "no games"
  • Reply 14 of 86
    mimacmimac Posts: 872member
    Pricey software compared to that of windose.

    (Compare the price for Norton bundles eg. anti-virus+firewall - I have always seen windows packs much cheaper <img src="graemlins/hmmm.gif" border="0" alt="[Hmmm]" />



    More variety in software for windose machines (abeit much of it is crap) and more widely available.



    Pricey Mac hardware.
  • Reply 15 of 86
    dygysydygysy Posts: 182member
    I agree with all of the above, but I think the main reason PC users don't use Macs is because they do not have any idea how much more pleasurable the OS X experience is over Windows.



    There were many times I passed by the Mac section at my local CompUSA and stopped for a couple of minutes to play with them, the OS seemed foreign to me, you can't learn a new OS in a few minutes.



    I took the chance & purchased an iMac, when I got comfortable with OS X and really enjoyed it I purchased my Powermac.



    I don't think nearly enough people even give trying a Mac a second thought.
  • Reply 16 of 86
    lucaluca Posts: 3,833member
    [quote]Originally posted by M3D Jack:

    <strong>This whole MHz myth thing.... I don't think it is really a myth anymore. I look forward to seeing one of Jobs' famous "bake-offs" at the MWSF keynote in January, because after reading a lot of reviews lately, the fastest wintel boxes are outpacing the fastest macs in a lot of different applications. Face it, our machines are slower than theirs, despite how much marketing babble you want to swallow about the G4; a nearly four year old chip that has only increased its clock speed just over 100% since its introduction <img src="graemlins/hmmm.gif" border="0" alt="[Hmmm]" /> </strong><hr></blockquote>



    Actually at its introduction, the G4 was at 450 MHz (yes, it was 500 MHz, but no original 500 MHz machines actually were made, there was that motorola error). So 450x2=900, and 450x3=1350. I'd say the processor speed has about tripled. Probably more, considering the faster bus, dual processors, faster L2 cache, presence of L3 cache, etc. Still not too impressive.



    I agree that the G4 is sorely lacking - however, it's still more efficient than the P4. If the G4 was at dual 2 GHz configurations, I bet it would stomp all over the P4. Also, you have to remember the laptops - G4s might be a bit hot but they're nothing compared to the P4, so they're much better suited to laptops. G3s are even better for laptops. P4 laptops have to make a lot more compromises than G4 laptops... basically, you choose either power or portability, while on the PowerBook G4 you get both, and a DVD burner to boot.



    [quote]Originally posted by tonton:

    <strong>Others have been brainwashed by "authorities" like John C. Dvorjak, from whose mouth they believe every word.</strong><hr></blockquote>



    I don't think most PC users (or most Mac users, for that matter) have heard of John Dvorak. Only us geeks know about him.
  • Reply 17 of 86
    matsumatsu Posts: 6,558member
    software, OS, ignorance and some of the other stuff talked about around here are nothing more than Apple comunity myths, concocted to let mac users fancy themselves more enlightened than the rest, that's just simple BS,



    the real reasons are:



    Price,



    lack of expansion/flexibility,



    lack of performance, given the price.
  • Reply 18 of 86
    composercomposer Posts: 212member
    The whole "price" thing is a bunch of garbage. Yes I can get a box, just a box, from Dell for $1199. I get a crappy integrated graphics card, cdrw drive and nothing else. For the same price I can get a sexy new iMac with flat panel display, nVidia Graphics card and a cdrw drive. Heck I can even get an eMac for $999 and get a Combo drive out of it.



    Did I mention the great software that comes buindled?



    Price my ass. Just as soon as you add anything to the computer to make it useful, you're spending MORE than what Apple gives you TO START WITH.



    So quit yer yappin' about price.
  • Reply 19 of 86
    ironchef82ironchef82 Posts: 83member
    I can't really speak for everyone in the PC community, but for me, it was simply that the PC is what I grew up with and what I used to become proficient with computers. I have a feeling that a lot of people my age share this feeling. So I used PC's all the time (I still do) and whenever I used a Mac, it was alien and foreign. I could eventually figure something out but it took some time and some help. Plus I didn't like the user interface and other aspects of the Classic Mac OS.



    Over the summer though I was able to work on a Powerbook and Mac OS X. It was absolutely amazing, everything negative I thought about Macs disappeared. Everything is so elegant and fluid.



    I think one reason is the lack of Apples at the big electronic stores like Best Buy or Circuit City. Which also leads into the Mhz Myth again, which I admit scared me too. Yeah, I would think that if PC users tried out a Mac and saw that everything runs fine, and saw the elegance of OS X, they would switch, but it probably takes some more time then 5 minutes playing with it at the Apple Store....
  • Reply 20 of 86
    murbotmurbot Posts: 5,262member
    [quote]Originally posted by Matsu:

    <strong>software, OS, ignorance and some of the other stuff talked about around here are nothing more than Apple comunity myths, concocted to let mac users fancy themselves more enlightened than the rest, that's just simple BS,



    the real reasons are:



    Price,



    lack of expansion/flexibility,



    lack of performance, given the price.</strong><hr></blockquote>



    Matsu, the software, and the quality of the Macintosh OS are nothing more than myths? I'm afraid the only BS around here is coming from your direction.



    Price is a hurdle on some models, no argument there. You can't just say that as a general blanket statement however, as some models are a great price/performance value. The new iBook is a good example. Sure Macs are more expensive, but many of us feel they are still worth the money. If you don't, you can choose to buy a different product.



    Lack of expansion? iMacs sure, but Power Macs are more expandable than ever. Laptops aren't of course, but Wintel laptops are no different. I think the whole "expandability" thing is a bunch of bull anyway. I bought a PC a few years ago, paying extra for a certain MOBO, etc, so I could upgrade the processor down the line... truth is most people don't upgrade. They use it until it's at the end of it's productive rope, and replace it.



    Don't take this question as a flame, it's an honest question I've wondered: What the heck are you even doing here?



    You seem more suited to a career in the Ars Battlefront.



    [ 12-13-2002: Message edited by: murbot ]</p>
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