--- On Thu, 4/30/09, dredmond at efn.org <dredmond at efn.org> wrote:
> > Macs are symbols of status, just like driving a BMW.
>
> Nope, my low-end Mac was around $1100. Sure, you can get
> what seems to be
> a comparable PC for $900. Which I did, for years. But then
> I figured out
> I'm being charged for add-ons -- annual anti-virus
> subscriptions,
> utilities, stuff which is preinstalled on Macs. Add in all
> the software,
> and that $900 balloons to $1300 or more. Throw in the
> comfort and ease of
> use factor, plus the fact that Apple does a better job than
> many companies
> in terms of ecological production, and it was a
> no-brainer.
>
[WS:] I paid less than $400 for each of my PC notebooks - both new. Furthermore, I can get software that I need 9Excel, SPSS, SAS etc.) for free (i.e. through the university.) That is far less than $1k+ for a Mac.
I have nothing against Mac machines, they are good quality and aesthetically pleasing. It is the Mac business model that irks me.
Back in the early days of personal computers, Mac ripped off the GUI based software from Zenith (if memory serves) and put it on its proprietary system with a high price tag. The PC by contrast, while still proprietary, allowed after market developers and easy pirating of its software at a much lower price (not exactly an open source, but much closer to it than the Mac business model ever was.) It is not surprising that Mac quickly priced itself out of the market, and they would share the fate of many hi-tech shipwrecks (remember Wang?) if they did not resort to a marketing strategy borrowed from the fast food industry (Pepsi Cola, whose marketing exec they hired for the job, if memory serves.) That marketing strategy hinges on generating "astro-turf" cult of being "hip and cool" by the virtue of using certain commodity - which is nothing more than commodity fetishism - which created a small market niche for them.
In sum - their business model is monopoly (with a hefty price tag) cum commodity fetishism - arguably two most obnoxious aspects of capitalism. What is there to like?
Wojtek