The Great Debate - PC Vs Mac

it hit a nerve because people ask me it constantly at work. apologies.

Its true that machines will break, but if they are being sold as in your words with high quality parts then the need to purchase an additional warranty for the life of the machine (I class a pc lifespan as 3 years) should not really be needed if its only used for normal use. Obviously if its used in a way that is outside of a normal user then its going to fail quicker, all products have tolerances that need to be adhered to for optimal lifespan.
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yeah, they have tolerances, but that's not the point.
it is a machine. it's made for something, but even with high quality parts, there will always be space for fail. machines cannot physically be break-proof.

it also annoys me that people want quality and security but dont want to pay for it. everyone wants shit cheap, and look at the price tag over what they're getting.

Cars are now being sold with 7 year warranties, plenty of other electronic devices come with greater than 1 year warranty, if apple believed in the quality of their machines then they would offer the 3 year warranty as part of the product (atleast on the pro range).
Hell I've got a tft panel thats about 8 year old and apart from the psu block failing after about 6 years it is still working just as well as when I first got it, and that's with it being transported up and down the country for several years too while I was at uni!.
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consider that apple have strategies.
it'll probably just be for getting that extra bit of money because of the amount they have to spend repairing machines.

also, did you know apple spent $2m on getting the iPhone box design right ALONE? they have to make some margins somewhere!
 
I agree, if a standard user buys on, and it needs non software, non accident related fixes in 3 years then its a shoddy piece of equipment.

No ammount of apple care and quality that they put into it can get around that.

Why not just include it in the price of them all?
 
you're looking at it like problems ALWAYS happen. they dont.

i havent had one problem with my mac except me dropping it, but even still it was only the casing, nothing else.

in fact none of my friends have had problems with their macs, nor have any of my colleagues.

apple care is to make up for apple's expensive parts.

95% of the computers sold with apple care WONT go wrong, so apple can make that money to afford to repair the 5% with the normal, high quality products.

sorry, do you see PCs coming with a 3 year free warranty as standard?
 
tim-ater said:
95% of the computers sold with apple care WONT go wrong, so apple can make that money to afford to repair the 5% with the normal, high quality products.

sorry, do you see PCs coming with a 3 year free warranty as standard?
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5% rate of hardware failure... sounds like apple need to improve their quality control!

I have to say I have never had any hardware failure on a PC in my life apart from a cheap psu on a ten year old machine... and I have worked with and built lots of systems.
 
5% rate of hardware failure... sounds like apple need to improve their quality control!
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that was a very very big generalisation, nothing at all accurate.

and i've got to say i've never, and i mean never experienced any problems with anything on a mac. i only hear of the bad problems because obviously no one randomly comes to talk to me about being happy with their mac, i'm more there for people who want to blame any failure on me.

let's move away from failure rates,because i'm sure PCs would be looking at a larger percentage than apple would be. but that'd only be because there are more produced and the usage isnt monitored by one perfectionist company.


let's just say this, microsoft are opening stores next door to apple stores in the US. if apple only own 8% of the market, why would microsoft be opening up and copying them?

because they're taking a leaf out of their book. the people who are stealing their sales. they're scared.
 
Tim, I wonder what percentage of mac switchers still run windows on their mac's. I wouldn't be surprised if it was quite high and as its a win win situation for apple (the os is just a sales tool) I would put money on Apple seeing this aspect when they switched to intel.

As to microsoft opening stores in the US, MS has never needed to compete in the os market (apple has what 8%) but its pretty obvious that computers have reached saturation in the more financially wealthy countries and the os's haven't really changed a great deal in the last few years, you can still use xp/os-x 10.whatever without major issues. So MS and apple have to encourage shoppers to buy new pc's, especially in a recession - Apple has a slightly easier job in the states as their prices aren't as comparatively high as in the UK (US prices are better value in relation to other products versus the UK).
 
Tim, I wonder what percentage of mac switchers still run windows on their mac's
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i've sold about 75% of my macs to switchers, and after demo-ing and showing alt software to their current software they've all been ecstatic and bought into it.

the people who have been interested in it, after me explaining the risks of viruses etc etc, they turned it down.

As to microsoft opening stores in the US, MS has never needed to compete in the os market (apple has what 8%) but its pretty obvious that computers have reached saturation in the more financially wealthy countries and the os's haven't really changed a great deal in the last few years, you can still use xp/os-x 10.whatever without major issues. So MS and apple have to encourage shoppers to buy new pc's, especially in a recession - Apple has a slightly easier job in the states as their prices aren't as comparatively high as in the UK (US prices are better value in relation to other products versus the UK).
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i disagree, in three years if apple are able to go from 5% to 8% (whereas from 1984 to 2006 they only grabbed 5%), microsoft do have something to worry about.

you cant make the argument that people are seeing something in a store so they're therefore buying it, you see PCs 10x more in shop centres than you do Macs.

and resellers of apple products are, if anything, making it harder for us to sell products, as they push and push and push to sell one macbook alone, as their commission rates are sky high. bad view on a brand, bad view altogether.

also, if anything i've heard the "macs are too expensive" mainly in america. most of my friends (even the broke ones) believe apple price their products fairly looking at the quality of it.

end of the day, if people didnt want to invest in a mac, they wouldnt. it'd be easy for apple to tap in to the market if they met PC prices, but they dont. in some cases (although technically incomparable) you're looking at 2, maybe 3 times more expensive CPUs.




to be honest we'll never agree. you've got an opinion (although i dont necessarily agree with it!) and so you'll probably never be as passionate about macs as the average user.

i believe PCs are fine for people who know how to protect themselves properly. that's all i'm gonna say. but i used a PC for years and years, and after 2 weeks of having a mac i was confident in using the OS and i was feeling a lot more relaxed not having to be careful about what i downloaded or about where my files were. for me alone, mac is a breath of fresh air. you may disagree, but that is how it is for me.

as an apple employee i'm taught to respect our competitors, our resellers, everyone basically. i will honestly recommend any pc over a mac if the OS is flawless (TO THE AVERAGE USER), it's clutterless, it's beautiful, and it's reliable.

until then, you'll see me on a mac.
 
I have been using Macs for the last 3 years or so and I have to say they are just so easy in comparison to windows, everything just seems to work.

I am however slightly dubious as to how well other OS and microsoft software work on a mac as I have had nothing but trouble from Microsoft Office whenever I have tried to run it within mac.
 
let's move away from failure rates,because i'm sure PCs would be looking at a larger percentage than apple would be. but that'd only be because there are more produced and the usage isnt monitored by one perfectionist company.
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Percentage doesn't necessarily relate to the amount sold though... as non failure percentage would of course increase as well at a similar rate.
 
The biggest reason apple do so well is that 90% of people buying them are doing so for a fashion accessory. No one wants to be the same as everyone else, they think that by buying an apple theyre somehow better than someone else with a pc.

The age old, theyre better for design debate wont cut it here either, its the same programs at the end of the day. Yes the OS does look much better but nothing you couldnt do on a pc if you could be bothered.

Also, If you have HALF a clue, scrap that, 5% of a clue you wont get viruses on a pc.
 
However bren, they are the standard in quite a few universitys for art related degrees, so alot of students are encouraged to buy them if possible. So while you can do it all on a PC people get encouraged otherwise.

I'm looking at getting one (money dependant) so that I have experience using one, don't feel like losing out on a job because I cant use a mac.
 
I have a PC and a Black Macbook and i love them both :) i prefer the mac interface but my design programs wont run on my mac so i have to have my pc - if everything i did on my pc worked on a mac i would 100% change OS and get an i-mac :)
 
The reason theyre in uni's/colleges is because apple give them a much much better deal than microsoft do - its a good marketing strategy as you say... because most favour what theyre familiar with.

I say again that yes... Mac's look a million times better in the flesh and also to use, they have much much better marketing but at the end of the day they do the same thing. So by buying mac your just buying a more expensive image.
 
not necessarily. i bought my mac because i love the machine. i didnt think "yeah, im gonna parade down the street and have trails of admirers" when i ordered it, i thought "yeah, i'm fucken getten a mucback."
 
The biggest reason apple do so well is that 90% of people buying them are doing so for a fashion accessory.
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nope. not at all.

spend a day in the apple shop and you'll see, 99.9% if not 100% of people buy it because they want it (because of shit pc experience/want a new change) or they need it.

and i disagree, viruses get on your machine no matter what. whether it's on a torrent, attached to an email file, blah blah blah blah blah. end of the day i think you'll find the average pc user will not know how to protect themselves or where they got the virus from.
 
buying something because you want it doesnt mean it isnt a fasion accessory,"you" just want it for that reason.

Other than for work I fail to see how someone 'needs' one either.

It is a choice, which could be made due to a bad PC experience, but I imagine most people buy them as they have heard they are better for artsy stuff, or they want to change. The first being untrue, they are no better or worse, and the second being a personal choice.

Bad pc experience is a user fault, as all items come with warranty if bought correctly, and will therefore be fixed if need be, and if it is software or virus related it is personal fault.

Well the last time I had a virus it was on my PC for about 2 to 3 minutes, and then gone again. and the average PC user might not be able to protect from it, but the average PC user wont benefit from using a less compitable (at this stage in life) piece of hardware.
 
Bad pc experience is a user fault, as all items come with warranty if bought correctly, and will therefore be fixed if need be, and if it is software or virus related it is personal fault.
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my latest guy that i sold a mac too kept getting all kinds of error messages when turning his computer on even before load up. he literally started ranting and raising his voice about how shitty vista was. was quite strange.

Typo said:
Here's my PC Macintosh....:D
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that is coooooooooooooool!
 
tim said:
my latest guy that i sold a mac too kept getting all kinds of error messages when turning his computer on even before load up. he literally started ranting and raising his voice about how shitty vista was. was quite strange.
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Maybe he thought it was a conspiracy between Micro$hite and Apple :p :lol:
 
Micro$hite
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:lol:

brilliant!

Maybe he thought it was a conspiracy between Micro$hite and Apple
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probably. we do get some utter freaks in. including one guy who has worn the same clothes apparently for two years coming in every 3/4 days, who always comes in for a genius bar appointment with no fault on his ipod.
 
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