The Mac-Buying Poll...

bobbagum · June 9, 2005 5:47PM

Were you waiting for new mac this year?

And now after the intel debacle, you will...[list=1][*]Wait for the intel machines, definitely getting them[*]Get the current or whatever PPC is coming anyway, I need it[*]I wasn't going to get a Mac till next year, I'm sure as hell gonna grab the last of the PPC[*]Wait and see, [/list=1]

mongo like beans · June 9, 2005 6:32PM

I was about to buy a PB. I will be waiting until next year to see what the first Intel machines can do. I haven't been a huge fan of Intel for a very long time, and unless the "Roadmap" has something really revolutionary in store, then I will be stuck not using OSX. I don't know how Apple can expect to sell their current stock when Steve's goals are to have Intel machines on the market this time next year.

e1618978 · June 9, 2005 6:36PM

A year is a long time - 1.4% of your life. Do you really want to waste that much of your life waiting for an Intel powerbook? If you need a portable, get one now.

If they do starve themselves, it will be just in the last couple months before the first year is up. And they can deal with this by releasing the Intel powerbook early.

mongo like beans · June 9, 2005 6:45PM

Quote:

Originally posted by e1618978

A year is a long time - 1.4% of your life. Do you really want to waste that much of your life waiting for an Intel powerbook? If you need a portable, get one now.

If they do starve themselves, it will be just in the last couple months before the first year is up. And they can deal with this by releasing the Intel powerbook early.

I don't need a PowerBook so bad that I can't wait 1 year. It may not even be an entire year, Steve says the goal is to be shipping Intel Macs by this time next year, when they actually start is anyone's guess.

If I just couldn't stand to wait, I would buy some cheap Wintel laptop, and sell it next year. I think I can withstand the strain though, so wait I will.

I'm sure there are people that will buy some PPC Macs, but I worry that the waiting crowd will be a large portion of Apple's market. I sure hope not.

tedndi · June 9, 2005 8:59PM

Good luck with the Rev. A version of the intel chipset.

All that I see is trouble till next wwdc.

Buy now and be assured at least 18 months of compliance and speed.

Then buy the intel one.

rolo · June 9, 2005 9:11PM

I'm in the "need a Mac, buy a Mac" camp. Buy what you need when you need it. If you're a graphics pro, buy an iMac or PM or PB within the next 12 months of so, be happy, and ride out the transition. Buy a new Mactel in 3 or 4 years.

onlooker · June 9, 2005 9:13PM

I'd still buy a PPC if I was in the market. And I am. But I think I'm just going to upgrade the processors, and graphics card in this beast I'm typing on now.

macchine · June 9, 2005 9:23PM

Quote:

Originally posted by Mongo Like Beans

I don't need a PowerBook so bad that I can't wait 1 year. It may not even be an entire year, Steve says the goal is to be shipping Intel Macs by this time next year, when they actually start is anyone's guess.

If I just couldn't stand to wait, I would buy some cheap Wintel laptop, and sell it next year. I think I can withstand the strain though, so wait I will.

I'm sure there are people that will buy some PPC Macs, but I worry that the waiting crowd will be a large portion of Apple's market. I sure hope not.

The official start date for Mac/s to ship will be 6/6/06, although a few might slip out early, and WWWDC next year will be moved back to its regular 6/20 start date.

The Blue Ray disk systems will also be shipped then for 666$.

iii THE YEAR OF THE BEAST !!!

wgauvin · June 9, 2005 9:26PM

I just go my PB, so I'm waiting, but if I need to a new machine I won't hessitate to get a new one. Of course when the Intel equivalent of the iMac G5 comes out, I will go buy one if I don't already have an iMac G5

yesheh · June 9, 2005 10:59PM

it's interesting that apple still offers a more competitive platform for the 12" market than either dell, Levono (Thinkpad) or HP, or even something like alienware. In fact, out of these four, apple is the only one that offers anything bigger than a 40 gig stock, and the only one that has 64 mb gfx. I've been reading about how the dev powermacs have only phoenix bios, so i was thinking of getting something like a thinkpad and waiting for the hack, but a powerbook g4 is quite a bit better. The best pentium m 12" I found is Seanix (seanix.com), which is a canadian company that just started selling to private; they used to sell only to ottawa. their stock specs are simaler to an ibook (256mb ram), but no firewire or other goodies. the nice part of that one is it may have potential to become ok in the future, but right now i'd much rather have a powerbook g4 that will become obsolete in... lets say 4-5 years....

Wait and watch, I might wait until january, and just lug my mini with me travelling, but maybe better to take a notebook.

<slightly off topic side note> what has really impressed me about the mini is the fact that for $700 or so (USD) you can have full screen videoconferencing from anywhere you can get adsl or cable. for example, my uncle in viet nam brought his mini with him and (probably due to the proximity of fibre to both of us) we're able to have full screen video conferencing with no lag. That, as a relativly recent returner (from os 8/9 with a pmac 6100 that still works great) impresses me. </offtopic>

surfacenuts · June 10, 2005 1:31AM

I got sick of waiting for a new PB or iBook to come out so I bought a used 1GHz iBook 60GB in beautiful shape 2 days ago. I figure I saved a bundle and though it seems I won't be getting a new PB or iBook in the next year or two, I'll be poised to get a Rev B or Rev C Macintel laptop when they come out.

Get a PPC or an Intel, which ever you need when you need it.

powerdoc · June 10, 2005 2:29AM

I will wait for a laptop, and I won't for a G5 based mac (powermac or Imac G5).

Why ?

G4 are not up to date chip anymore. The G5 was supposed to replace it, but IBM failed to make it a mobile one. The battery life of G4 are not awesome compared to the one of the pentium M dothan.

In the contrary the G5 are awesome chips right now (it won't be the case in two years, because IBM is more interested in pushing the Cell design, than pushing the G5 one.

macchine · June 10, 2005 3:10AM

Checkout what Levy says about PPC...

Carmi Levy, senior research analyst at Info-Tech Research Group

http://www.macnewsworld.com/story/Yx...IT-Plans.xhtml

"G5 Processor Is Dead

"This is essentially a dead platform whose manufacturer made the decision to abandon it solely due to the G5 processor family's lack of a roadmap," the analyst explained.

Apple's abandonment of the G5 is the death knell for this processor family, Levy opined. Other companies using it as a product platform should rapidly evaluate other more strategic options -- just as Apple has, the analyst advised.

"Apple continues to have a small and loyal client base in certain markets. This announcement should give them comfort that Apple is making the right decision in moving to a more strategic processor platform that gives them a long term growth path," Levy said. "

power apple · June 10, 2005 5:54AM

Quote:

Originally posted by MACchine

The official start date for Mac/s to ship will be 6/6/06

I couldn't tell if 100% of your post was sarcastic/joking or just some of it...

Anyhow, 6-6-2006 is not the official launch date, in fact there is no official launch date yet. The "Macintels" could theoretically be launched anywhere between 1-1-2006 and WWDC 2006.

In the end the Mac launch date will be determined by Intels launch of the "Yonah" processors in Q1-Q2

EDIT: Oh, and btw, regarding the OT Poll. I didn't vote, because I just bought a dual 2GHz PM a few weeks ago (And I'm still very happy about that purchace!), so I don't need to buy more macs this year, but if I did I wouldn't wait for the intel. If you need a mac, get it now.

placebo · June 10, 2005 7:54AM

Luckily for me, the new Powermacs will probably be coming out right in line with when I need a new computer, as well as when Unreal Tournament 2007 comes out, so I don't have to buy early or wait on my purchases.

kiwi-in-dc · June 10, 2005 10:56AM

Both buy PPC and wait

My company is due to replace my PB in December (we get a new laptop every 2 years), but I'll wait for an Intel machine.

For our new home, I plan on buying a mini - that won't change, I'll buy it when I need it.

silverdog · June 10, 2005 2:47PM

My next laptop will be an Intel. My 400 Tibook will tide me over until something with a little less heat than the current offerings comes out.

My 1.5 year old G5 will get replaced whenever the performance boost is high enough. The elusive G5 dual dual could do it or I may have this machine for a long long time and that doesn't really bother me.

dcq · June 10, 2005 3:08PM

This is kind of funny and sad. I was getting a little antsy on my 4 year old Quicksilver (867 MHz). Our iMac died last year and we've been using the same comp with multiple users. I was pretty certain that I was going to buy 2 portables this summer...hoping for at least one G5 PBook.

Then the mini came and shook my plans up. The lack of a G5 PBook smashed them.

Still and all, I was probably going to get something this fall. I felt in my gut I couldn't wait any longer. The longest I ever went between computer purchases was from '94-'99 (6100->iMac DV SE), and I actually spent more money trying to keep the 6100 current (mostly to play games) than I would have if I just bought a whole new machine. That's the lesson I had internalized. So I figured waiting beyond 4 years was just stupid.

But something weird has happened recently. Because of the slowness of my QS 867, I haven't been able to play and A-list games lately. The weird thing is...I haven't really cared all that much. Still, since I had planned on buying this fall, I was still going to.

Then the Intel bomb dropped. And it shook me up enough that I was able to see clearly. My QS is running fine. A few months ago, I thought my hard drive was going, so I bought a new one, but realized it was a system glitch that 10.3.9 solved. So after making my old HDD a second (slave) drive, I now have plenty of room to do anything I want. Rip/burn CDs. Edit movies and burn DVDs (which I do a lot of...I'm a new father). Store/edit photos. iChat with grandparents. And of course surf and email. I'm really at the point where I only need to upgrade when this system starts to die. I figure it's got at least another year in it, if not two. If it lasts two more years, I'd be psyched.

By then, everything will really be in place. I can have my superpowerful dual-core laptops at low prices. I can build a cheap HD home theater based on the dual core 2.5 GHz mini that will be available then (and HD content will be more the standard than the exception, and the HD-DVD/BVD format war will be settled, and 50-inch 1080p plasma screens will be sub-$1000 by then). I can network them all with superfast wireless. Store everything I could ever need on low-cost 500GB drives.

So, in short, yeah, I'm waiting for the Intel Macs. But only because I needed something drastic like this change to make me see clearly.

g_warren · June 10, 2005 3:18PM

The intel thing works fine for me. I'll buy a mac mini in September, as I had already planned to do. Because the mini is so cheap, I can upgrade it fairly often, keeping the 20" display, so when Leopard comes out, I'll buy a new mac mini, presumably with intel inside by then.

xool · June 10, 2005 10:46PM

My Rev A Ti PowerBook is long in the tooth, but I rarely use it these days. I don't see potentially replacing it until sometime in 2006, depending on what I'm doing.

My G5 dualie is another story. I don't see really needing to replace it anytime soon. Sure, I always want more power, but this thing is great. I'm glad I upgrade the graphics card when I purchased it... the 9800 Pro helps keep it capable.

I was thinking of getting a Mac mini as a server and now I think I'll hold off on this purchase. I'd still recommend them to your average user though.

o4blackwrx · June 10, 2005 10:57PM

Quote:

Originally posted by Xool

I was thinking of getting a Mac mini as a server and now I think I'll hold off on this purchase. I'd still recommend them to your average user though.

Great minds must think alike. I have been thinking this for months now. But I just bough a mac mini Wednesday and have since loaded Mac OS X Server Tiger on it and am hosting my website and my own mail server. I also installed all the extra stuff like awstats, mysql, php, etc. I figured why wait when it doesn't really matter how much of a bump the mini might get when it's just going to sit there idle most the time <shrugs> happy with the choice though

The Mac-Buying Poll...

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