Should I Convert To Mac?
Now, the PC vs Mac debate has been raging for as long as there have been Macs and PCs around and there will never be a clear winner … at the end of the day it comes down to personal choice. Do I buy into the Mac bling or do I stick to value for money/bang for my buck? I have been buying PC simply because I tend to upgrade every two years and I have some pretty decent suppliers that make sure I get really good value for money – the equivalent to my laptop (HP DV9600 17″ Wide Core2Duo @ R17,000) will cost me about R13,000 more (for an equivalent Macbook Pro) or the equivalent to my desktop running AMD Phenom 2.6GHz Quad Core, about the same margin (for a Mac Pro) – so for me a Mac is not an option … sorry. This is, however, not quite the main focus of this post.
Even if the price was not the issue, I can simply not agree with the sheer arrogance of the local official Apple dealer (and more specifically the attitude of RJ van Spaandonk – Director of the Core Group). Firstly there was the fairly biased debate on 702 yesterday morning, followed by a healthy dose of smugness by RJ van Spaandonk himself via the Core Group twitter stream … screen shot here. It is obvious that Core have absolutely no intention of engaging in sensible conversation with their target market/audience and will not stand a chance of converting someone (read: myself) that spends a bundle of money annually on keeping up to date with current technology available in the personal computer market.
I also find it very ironic that I should receive a call from the new Apple iStore in Canal Walk yesterday, offering me discounted prices on a load of Apple products … not to mention that I was fairly distraught at the fact that they had my cellular number and were arrogant enough to cold call me – if they found my number online (which I will assume they found on my website) then they would also have noticed that I loathe spam and am quite verbal about the matter on my blog and via my tweets … cold calling me is obviously the right way to rub me up the wrong way. Further I have to wonder if the sudden price reductions have anything to do with the whole CORE vs CAB debacle.
Given the above, do you think you’d be able to persuade me to convert to Mac?
No dude!
Comment by Chris M — June 30, 2009 @ 12:19 pm
I’m starting to have my doubts about Apple in SA. Purely due to Core’s stinking attitude. Then again, OSX cannot and will never be beaten by any Microsoft Windows release. Ever. That being said, I’d love to try this: http://www.imakeart.net/blog/2008/02/12/how-to-build-your-own-mac/ Build your own Mac.
Comment by Stii — June 30, 2009 @ 12:28 pm
@ChrisM thanks for confirming
@stii – interesting link thanks, I’d be tempted to give it a bash even … only I am an avid AMD fan and the spec calls for Intel only (the rest is already built into my desktop) – might be worth a look for my next PC.
I am a tad concerned still about the cost though – $570 US (before duties and VAT no doubt) is still considerably more than what I paid for an Asus motherboard, AMD 2.6GHz Quad Phenom (9950 X4 Black Edition) and 8GB of DDR2 RAM (@R5,500) which makes for an awesome workstation with no compatibility issues (even running Vista Pro 64-bit).
Ok forget what I said about considering it for my next desktop, I’ll stick to PC thank you.
Comment by Jayx — June 30, 2009 @ 1:02 pm
Ping me for a copy of Windows 7 RC, if you want. It’s niiiiice.
Comment by KathR — June 30, 2009 @ 4:47 pm
@KathR I upgraded that desktop two weeks ago and purchased Vista Pro 64-bit, because Microsoft was very clear about the fact that the free upgrade from Vista to Windows 7 will only apply for dealer installs and I wanted a solid 64-bit OS.
Would love to test drive Win 7 64-bit though, but only if I get to keep the license or it is an official update to my existing Vista license.
Ping incoming.
Comment by Jayx — June 30, 2009 @ 5:26 pm
Hi there
It does depend entirely what you do with your machine. I’m easily one of the most hardcore PC users out there, so take this from whence it comes, but…
i) If you use your machine to play games, stick with your PC.
ii) If you like sticking your hands in, whether to the box or the OS, to tweak and fiddle, stick with your PC.
iii) If you like to work on your machine, and be highly productive, and perhaps aren’t a hardened computer user, maybe even work in a heavily graphics-intensive environment, and you want a machine which is more stable and performs vastly better than even a high-end PC, and of course you have the luxury of being able to afford it, it’s a no-brainer. Buy a Mac.
And yes, given 30 minutes in person, I could convince you of that, if you’re prepared to have an open mind about it, which you probably won’t.
Comment by Russell — July 3, 2009 @ 1:33 am
@Russell that sounds like a challenge – good, clean, well executed psychology right there.
I am cost conscious to an extent, but my feeling is not that we are asked to pay too much for Mac; my feeling is that we are asked to pay more by a larger margin than what we need to.
Commenter number two above also happens to be a very close personal friend of mine whose opinion I value and trust. He would probably have had me sold on Mac a long time ago, were it not for the state of Apple’s affairs in this country.
I think that we should not only be comparing the price differences between Macs locally and abroad, but also the imbalance in price difference between Mac and PC in this country – both are ruled by the same exchange rates and import duties; so I have to conclude that we are being asked to pay more than what could be considered reasonable.
Comment by Jayx — July 3, 2009 @ 1:03 pm