Microsoft pays for inaccurate "Apple Tax" study, issues 3rd TV ad

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  • Reply 41 of 343
    Quote:
    Originally Posted by Quadra 610 View Post


    OS X, OS X, OS X.



    THAT makes a Mac worth every damn penny.



    The value of Windows? What value??



    Is it the value of:



    Running antivirus software

    Slowdowns over time

    Regular maintenance

    A slipshod UI

    Poorly integrated software

    Messy interface

    Badly designed software

    A massive target for virus writers

    Conficker (which is now awake, have fun! (Again))

    Hardware/software compatibility issues

    The worst browser in history, fully integrated into the OS (Bonus!)

    HIG guidelines that are hardly ever followed

    An OS that so obviously tries to be an ass-backwards, upside down clone of OS X

    Running Crysis faster than the other basement shut-in living next door

    And . . .



    The happy knowledge that you come off looking cheap, and worse, a loser that secretly lusts after OS X . . . mostly because MS said so in their ads. Isn't that nice? If I were a Windows user I'd feel beyond insulted. It's a horrible image.



    Lots of value there. I'd pay extra (a lot extra) just to avoid all of that.



    WINDOWS 7 + OFFICE 14 + WINMO 7 is going to rock your world.



    Performance. Elegance. Permanence.



    Ballmer lost 20% of this generation to Steve Jobs, but the other Steve is fighting back with an army of 10,000 MIT grads with glasses. Lol.



    http://www.microsoft.com/windows/windows-7/



  • Reply 42 of 343
    wheelhotwheelhot Posts: 465member
    lol, they made the kid look at the cheapest mac...and the Mom said I'm not a PC, hahahahhahahaha. and I agree MS is sooo overreacting towards the Mac market when Mac users will buy Office and etc.
  • Reply 43 of 343
    ddubres79ddubres79 Posts: 101member
    Quote:
    Originally Posted by Quadra 610 View Post


    I prefer the second portrayal. Except you inserted the issue of race in there, where it didn't belong. Good job.



    I can make fun of my whitey heritage can't I? I was making a point of stereotypes of elite rich white families like on shows such as Family Ties, Growing Pains and The Family Guy.
  • Reply 44 of 343
    nikon133nikon133 Posts: 2,600member
    Quote:
    Originally Posted by Quadra 610 View Post


    3D apps?



    You mean GAMES. GAMES aren't "3D apps."



    Sorry, most Mac users could care less about Crysis. Some of us have outgrown them.



    Macs were BORN to run Aperture, Final Cut Pro, and all the Pro grade "3D Apps" out there. Macs run all the graphics-intensive apps we need. And they are the industry standard. Macs are all about 3D apps.



    Are there any workstation grade graphics that do work on Mac Pro, anyway..?



    nVidia Quadro, ATI FireGL/Fire PRO..?
  • Reply 45 of 343
    checocheco Posts: 2member
    I was helping a friend set up the wireless internet on his new sony computer, tha laptop look great but man it took toooo muuuuuuuuchhhh tiiiiiimeeeee to booooooth froooooooom sleeeeep i was really this is the newest system? my 5 year old Power Book wakes in seconds. this also afects on productivity, apple should use this for a ad.
  • Reply 46 of 343
    Quote:
    Originally Posted by checo View Post


    I was helping a friend set up the wireless internet on his new sony computer, tha laptop look great but man it took toooo muuuuuuuuchhhh tiiiiiimeeeee to booooooth froooooooom sleeeeep i was really this is the newest system? my 5 year old Power Book wakes in seconds. this also afects on productivity, apple should use this for a ad.



    Tell your friend to install Windows 7 Build 7068 x86. Awake from sleep <2 seconds.
  • Reply 47 of 343
    I am typing this on my new MacBook Pro 17" Unibody. Up until a week ago I have only used PC/Windows my entire life. My favorite notebooks were Thinkpads which I still greatly admire. They too are quite costly, but you understand they are not the same as a base Dell. Just like a Miata is not a Porsche and doesn't pretend to be. These Microsoft ads could just as well fill in a Thinkpad for the Mac and get the same result (or any other quality PC).



    I switched to the Macbook Pro after a year of pawing them in my local Apple store. What won me over is the fit and finish and interface. It began with Leopard. Then the beauty and feel of the Unibody construction and the wonderful touch pad (I am already dismayed when I have to use one of those antiquated PC style touchpads!).



    It is hard to put a price on user enjoyment but I think it cost me about $400.



    That is said because almost the identical computer is available from Dell as the Studio 17 for $2,356 (I swear it is almost identical-But not the same video card, and I added the Sony Imagination Software as an approximation of iLife). Unfortunately the Dell computer only comes with Windows for the price and no Unibody/Multitouch Trackpad. It ain't just a different nameplate.



    I certainly didn't come to Macs to be "Cool". No one is cooler than the Blackberry/Thinkpad crowd. Those dudes Rock! And so goth in their stylish black.
  • Reply 48 of 343
    Quote:
    Originally Posted by dagamer34 View Post


    Funny thing is that had they done a "fair" comparison, there would STILL be an Apple tax, and Microsoft wouldn't have to lie about what Apple charges for products. But being greedy completely destroys the validity of the study and thus it's complete trash.



    Granted, even I have a MacBook Pro and I try to avoid the "Apple" tax as best I can by buying on eBay or refurbished. Plus, everyone seems to forget that Apple products sell MUCH better on the 2nd hand market than any PC EVER will. This is probably because of the premium charged on Apple products.





    I wouldn't call it an Apple "tax", it's more like an Apple "investment" that you could potentially get a positive return on if you play your cards right.



    Does Acura have a "tax" over ford?
  • Reply 49 of 343
    adjeiadjei Posts: 738member
    Quote:
    Originally Posted by iankanderson View Post


    Gizmodo did a great article on the Apple Tax. Fair and balanced. Let's be honest there is one, but it seems to punish the low end buyers more so than the top end. It's more of a way for Apple to convince you to upgrade to the nicer model. This ensures two things... A. you'll be running their system on better equipment which leaves you with a better overall customer experience. B. you pay them more money. That's my overall take on it. Here's the article link.



    http://gizmodo.com/5065133/the-truth...-the-apple-tax



    This Apple tax is so incredibly lame. So because Macs cost more it means there's some hidden tax. Going by their logic everything in this world should cost the same. I wonder why Microsoft is charging more for software than Linux or why Office is more expensive than iwork or open office, what a bunch of idiots.
  • Reply 50 of 343
    fraklincfraklinc Posts: 244member
    The freggin ad is payed by Microsoft so i don't think anyone was hoping for him to pick a Mac and if he did you wouldn't be seeing the ad
  • Reply 51 of 343
    adjeiadjei Posts: 738member
    Quote:
    Originally Posted by a_greer View Post


    Lots of issues with your post, but it is late and I am tired so here is a few:



    a target fro viruses, sure, but that also means that there is a ton of Rand D and competition to find and remove them, if you were to write malware for the Mac, it would never get discovered until Symantec found it.



    the hole that Conflicker hit was patched months before the malware came out, if someone exploits a hole in 10.5.2, that apple patched in 10.5.3 today, when we are on 10.5.6, is that still a black mark on Apple, or does it speak volumes about the users lack of running updates.



    Yea, PCs have hardware issues, but it is a tradeoff, pc guys dont have to use a $3000 tower and $400 GPU to have a reasonable graphics experience for 3d apps



    So you mean there are no PC towers that cost 3000 dollars, let me go and check.
  • Reply 52 of 343
    iqatedoiqatedo Posts: 1,822member
    Quote:
    Originally Posted by Ronbo View Post


    See, now, this is the kind of thing that really frustrates me. I've heard it I don't know how many times from PC users. And yet, I don't know a single Mac user who thinks like this. Not one.



    Do Mac users frequently look at a $300 PC and say, "That's a piece of crap"? ....



    But the elitist thing is an asinine misrepresentation that does nothing other than fuel bigotries and polarize sides. I guess that's what it's meant to do, though...



    Nicely put.
  • Reply 53 of 343
    quadra 610quadra 610 Posts: 6,757member
    Quote:
    Originally Posted by DdubRes79 View Post


    I can make fun of my whitey heritage can't I? I was making a point of stereotypes of elite rich white families like on shows such as Family Ties, Growing Pains and The Family Guy.



    Hehe . . . well if you spin it THAT way . . .
  • Reply 54 of 343
    adjeiadjei Posts: 738member
    I think Apple should change the I'm a Mac, I'm a PC theme and go for something different, and make Microsoft look foolish for copying it, idiots..
  • Reply 55 of 343
    iqatedoiqatedo Posts: 1,822member
    Quote:
    Originally Posted by tigerpro View Post


    There is an even bigger story here than how Microsoft has resorted to lame tactics...
    ...that they are even using tactics at all.
    Apple has come a long way in the short six or seven years since I switched. Microsoft has shifted from ignoring Apple to competing with her. That is the real news here...



    Yes - interesting isn't it! \
  • Reply 56 of 343
    awmawmawmawm Posts: 67member
    Quote:
    Originally Posted by taxfree View Post


    Tell your friend to install Windows 7 Build 7068 x86. Awake from sleep <2 seconds.



    Is Windows 7 out already (besides beta)? If not, it is too early to state how fast Windows 7 will awake from sleep. I was battling the "awake problem" in Windows XP and Vista for years and switched to Mac to get instant awakenings. Maybe Windows 7 will resolve Microsoft's awakening problem but let's wait and see how this whole thing will perform once all features are added to the final product.
  • Reply 57 of 343
    ronboronbo Posts: 669member
    Quote:
    Originally Posted by a_greer View Post


    Yea, PCs have hardware issues, but it is a tradeoff, pc guys dont have to use a $3000 tower and $400 GPU to have a reasonable graphics experience for 3d apps



    Quote:
    Originally Posted by Quadra 610 View Post


    3D apps?



    You mean GAMES. GAMES aren't "3D apps."



    Sorry, most Mac users could care less about Crysis. Some of us have outgrown them.



    Macs were BORN to run Aperture, Final Cut Pro, and all the Pro grade "3D Apps" out there. Macs run all the graphics-intensive apps we need. And they are the industry standard. Macs are all about 3D apps.



    No, I suspect he really does mean 3D apps, like Maya. I'm delighted as hell that Maya runs on Macs, but I'm sorry to say you might be exaggerating its supremacy in that particular field.



    Look here...

    Ars Technica Review

    ...which, after showing some troubling problems in Mudbox for Mac (alright! Mudbox! and yes I have ZBrush too) contains the following:



    "Apple is gaining momentum in the 3D market, but that's obviously despite their lagging 3D hardware options. They should be making it easier for developers looking to bring innovative 3D products to the Mac, not harder. Please, Apple, if you're not going to take up the Quadro driver reins, at least get a 3D card that has more than 512MB of RAM. This is about working on a Mac?not gaming?and it's affecting people's work."



    And that's in a review of the newest Mac Pro. So don't be too quick to dismiss what a_greer said. We can be enthusiastic about our platform and still admit the places where it needs improvement.



    I would be ecstatic to discover 10.6 giving us some serious superiority over Windows. But the pessimistic side of me can picture Autodesk not implementing any huge Mac-only performance boosts until similar things were available for Windows. (But maybe Autodesk will prove me wrong. I admit that I was wrong in thinking they wouldn't port Mudbox. There are some things I'd be delighted to be wrong about)
  • Reply 58 of 343
    cmf2cmf2 Posts: 1,427member
    An Apple tax implies that Apple pads their margins more than PC manufacturers, while they do have a higher margin than HP, they are not higher than a lot of PC manufacturers.



    The fact of the matter is that Macs cost more to build than most "equivalent" PC's. How many PC's feature machined aluminum cases less than an inch thick, LED backlighting, slot loading drives, built in bluetooth, ambient light sensors, hard drive drop sensors, glass multi-touch trackpads, etc? The answer of course would be none. All those features cost extra but none show up in the "specs" of the machine. If you actually wanted to demonstrate an Apple tax you would have to determine how much it would cost to make an Apple machine, not compare it to existing PC's which don't have near the materials nor the research that is put into a mac.



    As an individual, you must determine if you want to pay extra for features that don't directly affect the performance of the computer, but to those that want it, the value is there.
  • Reply 59 of 343
    i think everyone can/has adequately comment on how the comparison charts are inaccurate and blatantly skewed, but the first thing I noticed was that the charts are quite ugly. the text is not sharp and it's hard to read. at first I thought it was cause it was copied from the original report so the resolution may be lower, but I just looked at the original pdf and it looks just as bad there.



    i guess that's one thing you'll get from using a pc - fugly ugly looking results.



    oh, and one more thing about the commercial - i admit i didn't watch it, but i can tell you that if you're looking for a computer for hardcore gaming, get a pc. if you want a computer for anything/everything else, get a mac (especially if you're into multimedia stuff like music, photos, videos, etc.)
  • Reply 60 of 343
    wheelhotwheelhot Posts: 465member
    taxfree, go away man, you troll. First of all it will be near impossible for all Windows 7 desktop/notebooks to wake up from sleep in less then 2 seconds cause of the different hardwares out there. That just MS giving the crap to you guys and it seems you bought it.



    Quote:

    WINDOWS 7 + OFFICE 14 + WINMO 7 is going to rock your world.



    Erm no? its going to be better then Vista, definitely but not going to rock my world, more of yawn my world. And I take iPhone OS, Blackberry and Palm Pre over the much needed update loonymo any day.



    Quote:

    Ballmer lost 20% of this generation to Steve Jobs, but the other Steve is fighting back with an army of 10,000 MIT grads with glasses. Lol.



    10 000 MIT grads? where u get this from? And look at Vista, it got more programmers then Leopard, and look what work it produces...Its not the quantity, its the quality, try and get that into your head.
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