Time Magazine's love affair with Apple continues

"Dell and HP should be very worried indeed." It seems to be the dream of all Mac enthusiasts that someday apple will topple the evil PC empire ala that famous Big-Brother commercial of the 80’s. Apple has moved away from that dream and you should as well. Without PCs, Macs would have nothing to be “better than”. Go check out the Apple ads site and tell me what Apple’s marketing would be without its ugly cousin. Marketing angles aside, Apple Macs are like the Volkswagen Beetle, once there were inexpensive little workhorses that everyone could own. They got reinvented as design-first, beautiful machines that were over-priced but very well engineered. Both companies appeal to folks who have more discretionary income and see value in style. There is room for every new Mac produced to be sold and it would not put a dent in the bulk sales of PCs for the home and business from the big players. It’s simply two different markets.

2.16Mhz Core Duo, 2GB, 100GB 7200rm HD, 17” screen, Good Graphics, plus support

Apple: $3448.00
Dell: $2635
HP: $1849.99 (bad graphics)
Toshiba: $2,263.55

So do I pay up to twice as much for Cool? Sure, If I can afford it.

As posted by Don Wilson: "Reason why HP and Dell aren't worried: Price" But I tend to think this works to our advantage. The fact that these machines are more expensive than say a Dell will keep Apple on there toes. Iff apple wants to keep selling there products at a higher rate than other companies do they will have to keep making high end products, which we like so much.

Brent,
I read the story...and numbers are funny...because without a complete picture it's hard to really understand the MEANING behind the numbers. Is the market for personal computers LARGER now than in 1996? Of course. Have trends toward gaming consoles and the commoditization of personal computers changed the dynamics of the market? Has Dell's value as a company been declining steadily the past couple of years as a result of constant low balling? No question. Does this article ignore the oft ignored installed base of users who are NOT replacing their still functioning Macs (my desktop is from 99 but I just got a new 17 inch MacBook Pro)...

The idea that the market share was halved only makes sense in CONTEXT.

I've got a Macbook with 2 gigs, and love it to pieces. I don't need the video card, and I've had it on my lap for hours at a time (3 hours last night, 2 tonight, working on documentation), and the heat never got uncomfortable. And if the fans have been coming on, I sure can't hear them.

By contrast, my wife's iMac G5 is whining away 15 feet away throwing off heat with the fan always going. 3rd motherboard on that lemon, second hard drive.

I sold a 15" 1.67 AlBook for this MacBook, and am deliriously happy with it in every respect. And don't get me started on the wonders of Parallels and XP (for MS Project and Visio, which I cannot survive without in my corporate life). The MacBook is snappier on these apps than the CoreDuo Vaio (SZ110) my firm lent me.

They'll sell quite a few Macbooks.

@Shrimp

Where I got those numbers:

http://www.siliconvalley.com/mld/siliconvalley/business/columnists/mike_langberg/14191452.htm?source=rss&channel=siliconvalley_mike_langberg

>>>If it has been halved at all, it's because the overall PC market has grown and Apple hasn't been gaining enough switchers to offset that in percentages.

@ Brent

Apple's market share has been halved? Where did you get these numbers? If it has been halved at all, it's because the overall PC market has grown and Apple hasn't been gaining enough switchers to offset that in percentages. If you look at numbers, I'm sure Apple has not been in decline.

And not only are the marins incredibly thin, but also they package crappy bundled spyware/adware and such to bring the price down.

I seriously doubt that Macs will get over 10% market share for a long long time, but think that if they keep innovating and Microsoft keeps pushing back thei release dates, we'll see Apple on the rise.

Reason why HP and Dell aren't worried: Price

The 2GHz MacBook w/ 2GB of RAM has been running Illustrator absolutely fine for me. The only real difference between it and my G5 1.8 w/1.7GB is launch time.

I'm using it w/ a Dell 20" and a BT keyboard and MX1000 mouse.

Matt (4), I'm really interested in buying a MacBook. I plan on buying the 2GHz, and maxing out the RAM to 2GB. I use photoshop every day, as well as the rest of the CS2 suite, and am considering using the MacBook as a desktop replacement, and running an external monitor with a BT keyboard and mouse.

How does it run photoshop? Do you have anything to compare it to? I'd really like to know how well it performs from someone that uses it consistently, not just from benchmarks.

If you can send me an email [see my website for details], that'd be really good.

dburney, the ibook g4 wasn't a big seller and it was a consumer notebook.