I didn't realize how popular Macs were

[SlitheryDee]

Pretty much all I see are PCs. My desktop and HTPC will be a PC for the foreseeable future as well. I like building my computers too much to change that. I've been intrigued by the Macbook airs ever since apple released them, but between my tablets and desktops I have absolutely no use for a laptop of any kind.

 

[Mixolydian]

Mac laptops are more popular because they are more better. 🙂

Pretty much this.

 

[Ichinisan]

You're in a microcosm that doesn't reflect the real world. Apple is hip and trendy, so children do what children do. They buy stuff that they think will make them cool. Some will keep Apple when they grow up. Most will move to Windows, and the smart ones will go to GNU/Linux :^P

I speak to dozens of home users every day. Macs are super popular for the last couple years. I can no longer assume that a caller has Windows.

I'm not just talking about young or old people. ALL people. 20/30-something professionals included.

Even our network engineers are carrying around MacBook Pros for a couple years now and getting newer ones every once in a while. They're also carrying around iPhones and iPads.

 

[HeXen]

Some people got tired of Windows in general as some people just tend to have nothing but issues of some sort. Even on 8, performance can degrade over time and I hate the registry and the lazy job so many developers tend to do with their software but that's one thing I tend to dislike about it.

Some people like the "cool" factor about it while others just like the overall experience of using Apple products. Dunno about Macs but Ipad has been a wonderful user experience overall, it reacts how I expect a tablet to so perhaps that's something else that people really like from Apple.
Windows, lol, I mean has Windows ever really been so consistent with what you expect it to do? Not for me, right now 8 is booting slower than usual yet I did nothing to it but whateva.

 

[Wreckem]

Apple thoroughly owns the premium laptop market($1000+)

Apple also has the majority of the ultrabook marketshare.

 

[BarkingGhostar]

Anyone with Apple computer products should be automatically invalid for federal and state financial aid. It just goes to show how your priorities are misplaced.

 

[Kaido]

All that stuff you listed is like bare bones standard these days, and doesn't mean it is nice or junk. And at $279 I can't imagine it is built all that well.

I think the only major thing lacking is an internal SSD, but even the modern 5400rpm hard drives are just fine for your average user. Still boots up quick. The Celerons these days are just non-Turbo, non-Hyperthreaded dual-cores, so it's not like they are bottom-of-the-barrel chips anymore. Screen is mediocre (low-end TN, usually 1366x768 @ 15.6") but again, fine for the average user. The one I got for my mom is great - basically a cheap Ultrabook. Very lightweight compared to laptops from even a few years ago. Here's a couple on Best Buy to check out:

$249 Asus 15.6" laptop (no optical drive)

$279 Dell 15.6" laptop (with DVD burner)

$279 Asus 14" laptop (no optical drive)

$279 Toshiba 15.6" laptop (with DVD burner)

I think we've kind of hit a plateau with computing power - >$300 gets you a pretty decent machine these days. Build quality, well, it's plastic, but it's fine if you don't beat it up.

 

[Kaido]

Agreed. I got my X61 Tablet with a 128GB SSD for $250 on eBay. The Core2Duo is more than fast enough for non-gaming. The stylus with One Note allowed me to consolidate my thousands of pages of notes from several years of classes into one little device that's accessible from anywhere(Office 2013 is cloud based).

I remote desktop to home when I need to use my beast of an OC'ed i7 quadcore for Matlab.

Yeah, to me, the Core 2 Duo chips was when things got "fast enough" for the average user. Throw in at least 4 gigs of RAM & an SSD and you have a great machine for all of your basic computer activities. It sure makes shopping used nice! Although with the links I posted above, not much point when you can a really nice dual-core Ivy Bridge laptop for $250!

I still have ancient Dell Dimension 2400 & 3000 towers at work with single-core Pentium 4 chips that work fine with 2GB RAM & SSD's with IDE adapters. They're not lightning fast, but they're good enough for your basic activities. And the Celeron-based NUC mini computers are like $135 for the barebones chassis now, so it's getting pretty cheap to get reasonable performance & not have to hang out at the water cooler for 15 minutes while your computer boots up :awe:

 

[lxskllr]

I speak to dozens of home users every day. Macs are super popular for the last couple years. I can no longer assume that a caller has Windows.

I'm not just talking about young or old people. ALL people. 20/30-something professionals included.

Even our network engineers are carrying around MacBook Pros for a couple years now and getting newer ones every once in a while. They're also carrying around iPhones and iPads.

Apple has about 6.5% share. It's not as rare as finding a BSD user, but they aren't exactly taking over the world.

 

[Eug]

What kind of majors are you around?

<-- Spent a lot of time in the Engineering building. They wouldn't take too kindly to one of them there Mac things. :sneaky:

My network admin friends bought Macs years ago, and stuck with Mac OS ever since.

Yeah, they administer mostly unix networks, but they also administer Windows networks, although for the latter they always have access to Windows machines if necessary.

Even our network engineers are carrying around MacBook Pros for a couple years now and getting newer ones every once in a while. They're also carrying around iPhones and iPads.

There ya go.

 

[TheInternet1980]

I just started pushing out Ultrabooks.

For the price, 13' MacBook Air was the winner. The only competition it really has is the Carbon, and the MacBook actually wins in price there.

I do end up bootcamping them, so they're still running Windows. (Bonus of being able to use my existing MS licensing for Office/etc.) For the savvy users, they get to use OSX and Parallels.

 

[adairusmc]

Anyone with Apple computer products should be automatically invalid for federal and state financial aid. It just goes to show how your priorities are misplaced.

I needed a laptop for going back to school this year, and since the post 9/11 GI bill is paying be housing allowance - but I already have my housing and living expenses covered - I used the first months payment to buy me a new retina macbook pro 15.

Thanks taxpayers! This next 4 years of school is going to net me at least $40,000 in extra cash alone with just pocketing the living expenses. Next up is pocketing the rest of the cash until next fall, and paying cash for a new Ski-Doo XM 800 snowmobile for my wife.

Thanks again! :awe:

 

[Eug]

I just started pushing out Ultrabooks.

For the price, 13' MacBook Air was the winner. The only competition it really has is the Carbon, and the MacBook actually wins in price there.

I do end up bootcamping them, so they're still running Windows. (Bonus of being able to use my existing MS licensing for Office/etc.) For the savvy users, they get to use OSX and Parallels.

The problem with the Air is the mediocre screen. Bad viewing angles.

BTW, how do your users do without the right click button on Windows?

 

[Ichinisan]

BTW, how do your users do without the right click button on Windows?

Can't you just click with two fingers or something? I don't have a Mac, but I thought it was something easy / intuitive like that.

 

[halik]

The problem with the Air is the mediocre screen. Bad viewing angles.

BTW, how do your users do without the right click button on Windows?

Two finger click when I use it through vmware. No idea how to do it if you actually run windows, but then again no idea why you'd actually boot up windows.

 

[Tweak155]

Sometimes that's true, but I see a lot of the cheap ones with rather premature motherboard failures, screen failures, busted hinges or other excessive wear from otherwise normal use, poor battery life (both runtime and aging), poor visual quality screens, annoying glitches like crappy touch pads that are irritating, or flaky wireless, plus the slowest possible hard drive and CPU that is currently available.

I know there are exceptions to every rule. I also ask whether buying a $300 laptop every 2-3 years is really better than a $600 laptop every 5-6 years.

I just had my PSU go out within a year on my MBA. Apple isn't perfect either.

Great timing for me... my warranty is up next month.

 

[Tweak155]

Can't you just click with two fingers or something? I don't have a Mac, but I thought it was something easy / intuitive like that.

Yes this is how you right click in both environments.

 

[Kaido]

Apple has about 6.5% share. It's not as rare as finding a BSD user, but they aren't exactly taking over the world.

Outside of college, the only people I know who are heavily into Macs are people who are relatively wealthy. Not many people want to drop $600 on a Mac Mini or $1,000+ on any other Mac, despite being fairly virus-free & not having a lot of the associated quirks that Windows has.

On the flip side, it means all of us IT people have jobs :awe:

 

[Kaido]

I needed a laptop for going back to school this year, and since the post 9/11 GI bill is paying be housing allowance - but I already have my housing and living expenses covered - I used the first months payment to buy me a new retina macbook pro 15.

Thanks taxpayers! This next 4 years of school is going to net me at least $40,000 in extra cash alone with just pocketing the living expenses. Next up is pocketing the rest of the cash until next fall, and paying cash for a new Ski-Doo XM 800 snowmobile for my wife.

Thanks again! :awe:

Hey man, if you're willing to tote around a gun & risk being shot at in the military to protect me, we can setup direct deposit from my taxes :awe:

 

[JM Aggie08]

The problem with the Air is the mediocre screen. Bad viewing angles.

BTW, how do your users do without the right click button on Windows?

What is this, 2004? 2 finger click functionality has been out for a while.

I had a MacBook/MacBook Pro for a while. It suited me very well at the time. Now I just use my iPad primarily, and hopefully will be building another PC soon for me and my SO 🙂

 

[halik]

I just had my PSU go out within a year on my MBA. Apple isn't perfect either.

Great timing for me... my warranty is up next month.

You had the power brick go out? The only time that happened to me is when i left it outside overnight; turns out they don't like water much.

 

[Kaido]

My network admin friends bought Macs years ago, and stuck with Mac OS ever since.

The popular trend right now is the 15" Retina Macbook Pro running VMware. Pretty slick setup for IT administration!

 

[halik]

I needed a laptop for going back to school this year, and since the post 9/11 GI bill is paying be housing allowance - but I already have my housing and living expenses covered - I used the first months payment to buy me a new retina macbook pro 15.

Thanks taxpayers! This next 4 years of school is going to net me at least $40,000 in extra cash alone with just pocketing the living expenses. Next up is pocketing the rest of the cash until next fall, and paying cash for a new Ski-Doo XM 800 snowmobile for my wife.

Thanks again! :awe:

GI Bill pays for both tuition and housing? That's awesome!

Also you had me at Sea-doo, but lost me when I noticed that's ski-doo.

 

[Mixolydian]

What is this, 2004?

Most of the Mac/Apple haters ARE still living in 2004. or 1994 for that matter.

 

[Don Vito Corleone]

IMO Apple richly deserves its healthy market share on the laptop front, because its machines are the most elegant and best designed (both from an engineering and aesthetic standpoint) on the market. Their resale is also unparalleled. On the desktop side, they are obviously not really pushing for the mainstream professional market (i.e., garden variety offices, as opposed to media or imaging shops) in the same way that MS and the Dells of the world are, and so I see no reason to think they will ever achieve similar numbers in that environment. That being said, I work in a garden variety office (a law firm), and next time I get a new computer at work it will probably be an iMac . . .