You can tell that those marketing minds at Apple have simplistic "Zen" homes and drink a specific imported coffee in the mornings whilst flipping open their I Books to jot down some new wild ideas for their marketing strategy...like "Lets make Apple computers look......PLAIN!" whilst reciting poetry.

No, but really, Apple computers have been transformed from old, clunky, second-rate PCs into very elite, supercool sought after machines that everyone whos anyone uses...and cost a bombshell more than their PC counterparts despite far less impressive stats.

Apple computers are all about the gloss. The O.S, the shell, it all masks the technical limiations of the devices people are using so well that they are actually considered to be better than a technically superior alternative.
and all by a marketing campaign and product design that started with those big , jello style I-Macs. Simplicity works to Apples advantage - but i dread to think how much the gurus spent on the marketing turnaround of an ailing giant.

Indeed,the bacardi company did start out in cuba by a spanish family in the late 1800s.I knew the family was spanish,but i didnt know it started out in cuba.Then they opened 2 plants,one in mexico city and the other in san juan p.r.And when castro took over cuba the family fled,and now the headquaters are in san juan p.r.
Good to learn something new.


=D>

What does Al Jazeera sell? Interesting that the only regional list it showed up is only Europe/Africa at #5 yet it made the global list.

Uh oh. I see an Apple vs. PC flame war coming.

Of course there probably aren't any Mac users here except for me ;-)

Alex Young -- Al Jazeera is the Arabic TV-network, like NBC or CNN. They are the media outlet that Osama bin Laden etc send all their videotapes to. (do I have that right?)

Yep. Sorry Kerm, I'm a PC girl. I think Macs are probably good if you have a complete new Mac system, but not if you're sharing printers or removable media or communicating with PC people. Nothing is compatible and all they did was crash. Then they overmarketed and overcharged for the iMac. "Hey look, don't you want a computer that's ---tangerine?" No, I wanted one with a floppy drive, software that wasn't delayed 6 months after the PC street date, and an OS that didn't crash every day. I called their BS and bought a PC and never looked back.

I can't say the same for their other products. Their iPod is supposedly good (don't own one) and they have stellar high-end graphics programs. Mac is recognizable because they leapfrog their technologies. There's no glamour in an ordinary everyday workhorse computer business, so they dumped it to the backburner and concentrated on new media inventions. I hope they have other new inventions in the pipeline. I suspect that within a year or two iPod will become the everyday workhorse moneymaker, and they will need something shiny new to keep up their shiny image.

Yea .. thats what scares me about Apple. They donate free apples to lots of schools and universities now. Why? So the new generation of kids grow up with them. Scary considering i never liked the system. But great way to market.

They've been milking that particular marketing ploy for 15-20 years. We played with free Apple 2e's all through junior high and high school, and Apple still didn't get the market share. And that's when Mac computers were still on par with PC. The tactic probably backfired even more in the mid-90's when Mac quality slipped. And now, I don't believe Gen Y-ers will rush for the $1800 Mac laptop just because they like the $200 iPod. Gen Y is too computer-savvy.

Times have changed.

You can get a brand-new apple laptop for $1000.

You can get a full Apple desktop for $800 and a headless Mac for $500.

That's without the educational discounts and all that.

yea .. but that was before when the MAC actually did suck .. a lot!!

Believe it or not, it can actually do stuff. little stuff. but it can do stuff.

A Mac can do anything a PC can.

A very good Mac (think dual-G5 with Gigabit Ethernet or an xServe) can do much more than a PC can.

it can't be compatible with everything. all software and programs are not written for the MAC. Plus, they're not upgradeable, and you need to buy the entire system. sigh ..

it can't have an operating system like linux and/or even windows.

The Mac is like a semi-intelligent blonde. Looks great. but mediocre at best.

Also, all software and programs are not written for PC. You can't get Mac OS X on PC, you can't get Keynote on PC, you can't get GarageBand on PC, etc. True, most of the software is written for Windows, but it has nothing to do with Macs per se. After all, you can have the same gripe about Linux, BeOS, etc.



That's simply not true. Every Mac I worked on was upgradeable. HEre is the list of parts you can upgrade: CPU (in same cases, even on the laptops), memory, hard drive, CD-ROM/DVD drive, PCI cards, etc. In short - anything you can upgrade on the PC, without replacing the motherboard.


Yes it can. Macs can run Linux perfectly (there are many distros that support PowerPC architecture). They can even run Windows, if you use VirtualPC by Microsoft.

You know what being judged on looks only is called? Prejudice. I'm sure you've had your share of experience with it.

Ofcourse it does. It matters when you create files in certain formats. You can't just move them from apple to the mainstream PC users. Plus, how much of a choice do you ahve with a MAC?? point is, MacOS is no where close to as compatible as Windows, mainly because most things are designed for it.


Upgradeable how? New processor? Made by who? oh wait .. Apple? Upgradeability in PCs is cool and it again comes back to competition. I can buy any brand, any chipset, any hard drive, ram, IDE cable, CD Rom, burner, floppy .... we all see where i'm going with this.

You got me on the OS thing.




OOoOOoH! BURN!!

What formats are you talking about?

Office? Check - Mac's got it, and supports all the same formats
Zip files?
Graphics?
Music?

Mac very easily supports all the same formats.

So which elusive file formats are you talking about?

What was the trend in PCs in recent years? If you buy an AMD-compatible motherboard, can you stick an Intel processor into it? Didn't think so.



Let's see: no you CAN'T buy a chipset and stick into your motherboard; once you got one, you're either stuck with it or have to get a new motherboard.

Every other thing you mentioned can be easily upgraded on the Mac, and you don't have to buy any of those parts from Apple. In fact, they're interchangeable with the PC parts.




It's the same thing, arsi. You've never upgraded a Mac, while I have done it, and quite extensively so. Yet you think you can judge it on its looks.

dude ... you do realize i'm completely teasing you right?? I was refering back to erendis (ripper was it? dont remember) comments about sparking up a pc/Mac war ... sigh... Mac users .. so defensive...

I've worked on Macs ... its cool enough. i hated it cause i dont like the OS.. to me its all about the OS .. if you get used to something, you just find it better : )


now don't be so touchy ....

Oh Ok, I was playing with you too.

Haha, hilarious

somehow you sound less believable : )

In 2000, Apple ran a whole bunch of commercials saying the iMac was wonderful and that I was supposed to buy it because it LOOKED cool. When Apple itself asks me to judge its computer based on its looks, then don't get all huffy when I do. Ultimately, I chose to judge against Apple, and not on its looks either.

Now, I'll say this again -- Apple is probably fine NOW, but they sucked in the mid-90's. At one point, I'd considered a Mac, but my poor impressionable little non-gizmo-nut mind was so permanently scarred... I'm so afraid... :scared:

Actually, I think Macs look, um, sleeker than PCs...

I still prefer PCs, though. Maybe because I'm just used to them.

The point of Apple is that they sell their products on an aesthetic level rather than a technical one.

The idea that an I-Pod is some revolutionary product is totally nosense. Its very sleekly designed shell for the same technology thats everywhere right now for a relatively lower cost than Apple. Its high price, sleek design and celebrity endorsement has made it the "in" thing to have.

Also, a few paycheques to magazines and newspapers here and there to feature the I Pod in Hot New Products pages.