The Wall Street Journal has the bi-yearly “Why Apple Is Going Down the Tubes?’ article (the article is actually called Is Apple Losing Its Sheen? [sub.]).
As recent Apple convert and follower of all that is business, the article drives me nuts. The first half of the article is how their share numbers continue to slip. This is nothing new is added to the discussion.
They then talk about how people aren’t in a hurry to buy new hardware. I haven’t seen any numbers on this, but I think the lifecycle of an Apple is longer than that of a PC. It will be three to four years between purchases for me versus my old two years. So, again I am not surprised.
The other thing I noticed is that they talk to resellers to get a sense of what it going on in the market. I think the Apple Stores are hurting resellers. When I was buying my PowerBook, everyone told me there was no advantage to buying from a reseller. So, I bought from the Apple store here in Milwaukee.
They also try to bring out the point that iPods will not bring Apple new customers. Wrong. That is exactly what happened with me. I got the iPod, loved it, and when I needed a laptop, I was deciding between an iBook and PowerBook, not between a PC and a Mac.
My last comment(s) is this. For those of you who have been thinking about making the switch, take a really long look at Apple. The biggest thing you will save is time and you can’t know what I am talking about until you have one. My Apple doesn’t crash. Start keeping a log of the number of times you have to restart your PC.
The other thing I love how well everything works together. We downloaded some video from our Sony camcorder the other day. All I had to do was plug the Firewire cable into the computer. iMovie immediately recognized the camera and I could control it remotely through the software. My Nokia 3650 talks directly with PowerBook via Bluetooth. You have no idea how much time you will save.
Thanks for the “Switch” story! I can totally relate, only I bought my iBook first, now I want an Ipod!
Although, I really should get a Powerbook too, my wife seems to have fallen in love with my iBook… …we leave the ol’ PC for the kids.
Great to hear you have switched, Todd. You are so right about the time savings of Macs vs. PCs. Even on the rare occasion when an app crashes it doesn’t take the whole system down with it.
If you are interested in a Mac newsreader I hope you’ve looked at Shrook. I’ve used it for some time and I am happy with it. Nice integration between Shrook and Safari. Just FYI. I am not buzzing for Shrook.
Earlier this week i read an article about a survey conducted by Yahoo in the uk — the net net… the PCs inthe UK take more sick days than employees. I worked on the apple platform exclusively until two years ago when, i switched to a PC because of some online facilitation clients– that PC a sony vaio laptop with docking station is now in the PC infirmary — I call it short term disability — its two weeks and counting.
In the meantime I’m using my daughter’s iBook and enjoying the fact that yes..it doesn’t crash. And before reading your post..I thoought it was just my computer.
Elana
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