i can't see it happening. their market share is tiny but i don't think that bothers them. they've always been more bothered about their high margins recession or not there do seem to be more than enough people willing to be milked.
I'd love to see some price cuts, rumour like this has come around before but it would make sense now more than ever. I'd especially like to see cuts on iMacs, since the entry-level iMac shifted from £799 to £949 (despite the improved specs) the iMac has lost some immediate appeal to certain customers. £799 was most oftenn seen as very reasonable by customers considering the system. Though saying that, even if a price cut were to happen, I can't see them returning to the days of a £799 iMac anytime soon :(
I'm just waiting on new iPhone's and Snow Leopard now!
Hopefully they've not sold anything in the UK since they put the prices up without justification as the prices remained the same in other territories.
Fear of windows 7? Have you tried the Beta? Hardly earth moving is it?
Willing to be milked? Yup, I am!
Makes me laugh. They could put the prices up by 10-20% (probably more) I'd still never part money with a Windows machine. It's worth it to excise those evenings scatching your head wondering why something that did work yesterday doesn't work today, or why is slowed down to a snail pace.
I for one am happy being 'milked', although a price reduction would be welcome also. Maybe then I'd be tempted to treat the TV to a Mac Mini.
Windows 7 may have an impact but not until it is out for a while to see if it lives up to the hype! The price differential between a PC and a Mac has crept up a little too high in the UK (even though the total cost of ownership is probably a little lower for a Mac).
Apple need to respond otherwise their recent gains may all be lost and that would be a shame.
Time for a cross between an Apple TV and a Mac Mini?
Don't get too over enthusiastic about Windows 7! Snow Leopard will be out before Windows 7 hits retail and I think it will raise the bar once again. Given the ongoing security threats to Windows machines over OS X I won't be giving up my Macs just yet!
But it is a warning to Apple not to over-price their excellent products. The integration of applications and ease of use of Apple products still takes some beating. Try restoring a PC after a HDD dies, a lot of hard work, by comparison to Time Machine in OS X where in a few clicks of the mouse you are restored to the condition you were at the moment of HDD failure!
Funnily enough I've been using both Leopard & 7 and I like them equally as much - go on rename me Switzerland :)
For the 90% of Windows users, it's good that Microsoft have finally pulled their finger out, and produced a decent operating system. Of course everything looks pretty good after Vista ;)
@Steve.... very eloquent and some valid points, however your argument fails to convince me.
@Gordon - I respect your opinion, but having used the beta, I still prefer leopard... plus my trust is somewhat scarred from Vista.
I also heard 7 has an XP mode......and they call it progress?
I guess its down to perceptions. I have been an avid PC user for the previous 13-14 years. Dealing with far too many common PC problems that really shouldn't have existed. Leopard isn't perfect, no OS is. But from My experience, for me, Apple has free'd me from those long stressful evenings of woe sorting out a multitude of unneccesary problems and so...(and I guess this is @ilovethemonkey) I love Apple too; for giving me my evenings back.
It will take alot to sway me back to the dark side. But I respect people's opinions to disagree. Incidentally the Apple UK store is down for 'maintenance'. Exciting. I'll get my wallet ready!
Incidentally, I have tonight been round to our next door neighbours house because their XP machine would no longer access the internet (it was fine last night). Mac worked fine, network seemed AOK. System Restore to the rescue! Perceptions furthermore strengthened.
Apple has nothing to fear unless a comparable all in one comes out with Windows 7. People care about design more than software, at least that's my inkling.
@Alan - I would like to respect your opinion but blind faith to a single brand means you're not speaking with objectivity or (in the case of what XP Mode is and why it is there) research. Bashing 7 for Vista is also understandable but makes no sense and as for your Apple UK Store watching, it's just another Apple marketing trick. Nothing is ever announced on a Sunday night... bet ya!
My loyalty lies in the Apple product, its design, its ease of use and its reliability, not the brand name.
And if you have tried the alternative and found it lacking.... thats not 'blind faith' in your favoured choice, its an informed decision. Surely?
security is a mute point in my oppinion sure there is more malware for windows but give it while and there will be equally bad things for a Mac especially as their market share increases, as what's the point writing virus' and key loggers for only ~11% of personal computers.
@Alan Downes
doesn't OS X have a power PC mode for compatability?!
also you can't hold a companies past against them, much like people aren't with the palm pre. as you will find out sooner or later brand loyalty to anyone will come round and bite you in the rear, as I suspect this will deffinitely happen with apple.
ok before we get in to a all out argument of which OS is best, can I just say that it is a very subjective matter as to which OS is best, as where one gets better on another the other has something that is slightly better than the other.
I have used all the OSs and and they all are very good in their own respects, vista is my main OS and I have never had a single problem, crash or complaint about it so I take peoples bad views with a massive pinch of salt, so as you may see at the moment I am leaning toward windows over OS X.
As for the bitten in the rear apple will inevitably do something that will annoy and possibly alienate its consumer base, as to what that will be is hard to say.
"Brand loyalty should be built on deliverance of quality products" - yes and it must be remembered that windows builds just the OS whereas apple you are buying the hardware and software, and as I said, in my eyes, windows did that with vista and now again, so far, with 7, apples products are well built but will always become dated and obsolete because of the 'closed' nature of their products.
It may sound as though I'm a windows lover but to be honnest I couldnt care less, as I will always choose the one that does everything I am looking to do with a computer, what does annoy me is people banging on about one OS with blind faith without weighing up the positives and negatives and coming to an informed conclusion.
I'm not sure I understand that theory Jay, and if I do, I'm not sure that it works out in practice.
The argument is that if you have to build an OS for a closed system then it goes out of date quicker. I actually think that the OS is as outdated and as obsolete, as the company chooses it to be. Apple chooses to bring out new closed systems on a semi-regular basis anyway. So in what way is the release of a new MacBook, so different from one model of a 13" Dell succeeding another?
But I think the crucial point is the most obvious. Apple regularly rolls out gradual iterations of OS X to capitalise on the updated technology they themself have introduced. It's at a much faster pace than Windows' strategy of one major release every few years, that then has to constantly await the next service pack to compensate for its 'openness'.
And lastly, how does the charge of obsolescence actually apply to OS X? It has all the drivers and codecs it needs, and it has a much smaller security burden to deal with, so naturally it has less that actually needs to change to stay operational. It's its very 'closed-ness' that means each iteration of OS X need only focus on extra features and efficiency, and not have its developers' time consumed with the extra security and bux-fix burden that Microsoft has to deal with. That is after all all the trade-off you make for flexibility. And if you think of where OS X is right now compared to how many people have wanted (perhaps needed) to reject Vista and stick with the now 8-year-old XP, I'd be compelled to say Macs are far and away more up to date - particularly since now it can run Windows as well.
You can argue that OS X has been around about as long as XP, but the fact that people draw equivalency between each major Windows release, and each gradual OS X iteration but DO NOT deem it appropriate to draw a parallel between OS X and XP, suggests that the bulk of consumers and critics basically accept it doesn't really need to change that much. Windows 7 may change the game somewhat, but is it really gonna satisfy users for the length of time OS X has?
I was not trying portray an argument rather vocalise points, the OS does not necessarily go out of date (when applied with updates) but the design and hardware will and whereas the same for windows based machines it is far easier to upgrade them and then use them for a practical use.
as for your argument about the smaller frequent updates for OS X - these are charged at a similar price to almost a whole new microsoft OS and remember service packs are then free.
whether OS X has all the drivers - of course it will do though leopard does end almost all support for power pc macs and snow leopard is likey to end this, whereas windows 7 will be able to be used on very basic and low end hardware.
the security is a mute point as the only reason there is not any major malware is purely because of its small user base and not a case of it being 'more secure'.
and then there is the point that the apple products are more expensive and therefore you then do pay for the obsolescence when you are forced to upgrade a whole system or pay for the 'gradual updates'.
the gradual updates are, for all purposes, new operating systems but successfully pull the wool over peoples eyes that it is just an update and therefore has to be compared to whichever microsoft OS is out at the time and is entirely wrong to compare OS X now to XP, whereas vista to leopard or windows 7 to snow leopard is.
running windows on a mac must be a great feature (as it's always argued everywhere) to release people from the mass of programs and games that cant run on a mac - that is exactly what people want - to spend hundreds more on a mac and buy a copy of windows to use programs and games where you could have bought a more powerful pc and run everything out of the box.
standing here now there is very little if anything that will convince me to pay more money for a less powerful system that is less useful to me. obviousley if and when this changes I will happily change OSs like no tomorrow or if I needed the suposed benefits of a mac over a pc for example photo or video editing.
may only aim is for people to weigh up each OS and each system for its own benefits and usefulness to them and not to endlessly lecture to others how theirs is rubbish where arguments can be made for both.
Like your previous post you appear to convey the very bias you condend with, as you haven't recognised any points in OS X's favour. The Windows support you dismiss - rather casually, I'd have to add - is a major benefit.
An example of how useful this is, is when I had to edit two projects simultaneously - one on Final Cut, and one on Avid, but because I didn't have the time to adjust to the Mac version of Avid, I ran the PC version after applying VMWare, and it provided the ease of using the admittedly user-friendlier if more limited FCP on OS X, and the Avid I was used to on the virtual PC. This made for great efficiency, particularly when taking into account the extra amount of time it would have taken to transfer the converted OMFI media files from the Avid project on the PC over to the FCP project on the Mac. That's a demonstrable real world productivity increase OS X could provide over Windows.
I do agree it could be read with bias though I didnt intentionally mean it to be, and I agree with your example and it is a very good way to use both OSs on one system but because I dont do any photo/video editing thats a mute point for me but I agree it is a major positive for mac users editing video.
I do like mac, and apple, and its low security risk due to its low market share is very tempting along with its arguably better standard software like iphoto and time machine if you dont use any of the windows only programs or have an old copy of windows that you can run in boot camp then it's a very good and easy to use OS.
I hate to jump in in the middle of an argument (for the sake of clarity here, I'm with GoldenGuy on this matter) but I do need to say one thing...
@Jay - I'm only going to say this once, and if you've had similar discussions to this before you've no doubt heard this little fact, but it's one of those things that is generally ignored because what it counters is a great verbal weapon in this eternal debate. OS X is NOT more secure JUST because it has a smaller user base! It has precious little to do with the fact. There are currently no virus' for the Mac (do feel free to research the propaganda, but trust me, there are none), do you really think that the people that write viruses stay away from the Mac because it *only* garners 10% of the computing population? A 10% target audience with NO current competition is a gold mine! There are no (seriously, there are *none*) viruses, Trojans, worms, other such stuff for the Mac because it is an inherently more secure system.
For all of my contempt for Microsoft - I was a Windows user up until about 5-6 years ago - I actually can't wait to play with Windows 7. I've read a fair bit and it seems to fix most of the wrongs from it's trail of predecessors. However, that doesn't necessarily make it better than Leopard, and certainly not Snow Leopard (given that neither that nor W7 are out yet...). My assumption, having used Leopard since it's release would be that it is the superior operating system, but until I've tried both I'll willingly hold my tongue... As I hinted though, it's a mute point. As with anything in technology you should compare (do pardon this) apples to apples, that is; Vista to Leopard, and Win7 to Snow Leopard. Or, we could start boasting about how awesome the xBox360 is compared to the PS2...
For the record, I have numerous Macs around my house. Two of which are; a G3 Blue and White Power Mac, and a G4 Cube, both at least 9 years old, and both happily running OS X 10.4 – the Cube *can* be twiddled with to run Leopard – I haven’t, but it can be... So the argument of hardware going out of date quicker than a Windows box is not valid. I don't know *anybody* who's still using the same windows machine that they were even 4 years ago, let alone 9!
I just want to support one of Cub's points that also occurred to me : it really would be the holy grail for those who like to bring OS's screeching to a halt if they could infect OS X with a virus. And the rather anarchic nature of those who do write viruses, won't exactly be susceptible to a numbers game of how many people they can bring down, so much as be enticed by their huge ego of being the first to seriously assault a company the boasts unparalleled security. I still think there's no harm in taking mild to moderate precautions with an anti-virus shield. Wasn't there a solitary security scare for Macs a few months back, that made the front of a Mac magazine, as well as being covered by TR? If I recall correctly, that was just one issue, and true or not, it was taken very seriously.
there have been viruses writen for mac the mac/leap.A virus proves that it can be done, 2 weeks ago there was proof that a botnet had successfully infected macs, there are also vunerabilities giving root access on a mac - which luckily looks set to be patched in snow leopard.
I do not change my perception that mac is more secure and it IS purely due to their low market share that there is barely any malware in the wild.
It could also be argued that keeping apples market share low maintains it as a more secure system. but when they do get a larger market share I prommise you that there will be equally bad things as are on a pc.
Why thank you :) The security scare I think you're referring to was one that was included as part of a torrented download of (I think) an Adobe package... Part of my brain thinks it may have been iWork :-/ Either way, it was an illegal download, and you had to enter your admin password to allow it to do anything of any danger! Something that no sensible user would do with a downloaded dodgy piece of software without knowing why you're doing so.
Even Symantec said that Mac users were still at no risk!
thank you for pointing out that mac are not more secure than windows? - your welcome ;)
the mac/leap.A virus was spread through iChat, the botnet was through the means you mentioned, but my point was that it is possible, and proven, that malware for macs can be created, and using the root vulerability mentioned bypasses the need for the admin password.
dont get me wrong I would be still happy to use a mac, but in the grand scheme of opperating systems macs will work out to be no more secure than windows.
Symantec has said numerous times that macs are at risk, after all they are an antivirus company who are wanting to sell antivirus to macs, and there is a general consensus that malware for macs will, and is, increasing and is only a matter of time before it could be considered comparable to windows.
on another point one of the main reasond of pc slowing down and becoming bloated is because of the neverending virus updates, and I wonder whether macs will sercombe to the same problem - I suspect yes
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