Impulsivity... he's just worried his company might have to start coding ads for something else than just Internet Explorer.

Its not my company...Online advertising in general.  It doens't matter...you made a post that no one really cared about and now are using it to say that people don't read threads. I still think waiting to buy a mac until firesale is on is the dumbest thing I've heard today... If everyone did that macs would had a 0.00002% marketshare or would already be out of business.

Only one biased here is you since you persistantly argue Macs do everything PCs do better...yet you admit that you need Windows for some applications.

Haha, you are a piece of work.

The thing is...half the time you don't know what you're talking about.

A lot of flash ads are designed on macs...but when they send ads to my company they have to send PC fonts as I do final adjustments on the ads and I don't do mac. If they don't have PC fonts, they are our of business...

My company is the largest advertising company in the world btw...no one else is even close. And the ones that are our competitors all work in the same manner...nevertheless, that has no impact on end user using mac or pc...but you were wrong so I had to point it out.

Macs are not for people that care about computers at ALL! Most people that I know who use macs don't even want to hear about computers...then need Apples life support to install programs and they like the fact macs have no fiddling hardware wise. Secondly, other than the rediculoous post about wating for Mac firesale to buy macs...its been proven that same or better spec PCs cost less than macs. So I don't know what you're talking about with macs being for the "hardcore".

Thirdly, my point about mac not playing movies (screw off for calling them illegal...you don't know if they are nor the laws in Canada for backing up movies).  I wasn't saying I blame mac for it...I was jsut busting the myth that macs to everything out of the box...and PCs do nothing without extra drivers and fiddling around. Both are computer machines which require the user to put the time to get some applications to work. Except PC has much more software support than mac and is cheaper...

But you did NOT read the thread. It wasn't until I called you for it that you bothered to do so. And because you didn't read the thread, you spammed the same tired old anti-apple propaganda that, on top of it, happens to be false.

You still do not get the whole thing with apple's pricing schemes, which is understandable because you've got deeply ingrained in your mind the whole overpriced idea. I'll try again: it is not a firesale. It's just buying your apple computer when apple's margins are tighter so you get more bang for your buck - in fact, the same bang you'd get if you bought a regular pc box. It's a smart consumer approach. If you are willing to donate to Job's private island fund, feel free to buy their computers as late as possible. But for the rest of us, we'll take'em early in the revision cycle.

As for whether or not Macs do things better than PC's... in the end it's a matter of personal tastes. But my personal experience, coming from over a decade of being a wintel user, is that they do. The user interface is ace and window management craps all over xp, vista, etc. Both Exposé and Spaces rock. Period. They also tend to hold performance and stability over-time better than windows does - I've heard it's because installing applications on a unix-based OS doesn't involve messing with things like a registry and other backbone process of the OS /shrug, I'm no engineer.

You are right that Mac OS X doesn't have all the software support that windows does - windows holds around 90% of the market, so that's a given. But the key thing is that an apple computer allows you a better computing experience for everything that runs on mac os x (and support for that is growing FAST) and for whatever remains, there's always bootcamp. Meanwhile, a windows box means you are stuck with windows.

To put in another light, the computer will roughly cost you the same money, be it either apple or any wintel box (as long as you are smart about when you buy it). But the apple computer will give you more for the money - a kick ass OS and the choice to use windows, shall the need arise.

edit: as for macs only being for people who don't care about computers at all, boy you coulnd't be more wrong. Apple uses that card because mac os x is much friendlier than windows so it means there's less messing with the machine and more doing whatever you want to do with it. But for the true geeks, below the user interface lies a fully unix-compliant OS. That's way more advanced than windows, more tweakable, etc.

@Bitmap Frogs

Untill Apple comes out and publicly says that everyone needs to buy Macbooks like that link you provided...this cna not be used as an argument. You could buy brand new xbox hard drives off ebay for 70 dollars less...but MSRP is still 149 for a 120 gig.

Though really I'd suggest just getting VLC for Mac instead. It's a great program on all platforms.

You are thick, dude. It's not a firesale or special offer.

Let's see, it's february 2008. Apple launches a macbook with X specs and it costs them 1000$ in components (cpu, gpu, ram, screen, etc). They sell it for 1200$. Out of your 1200$, 1000$ buy you the hardware, 200$ is apple's margin. At this point apple's pricing is competitive because that same specced computer also costs 1000$ to make for Dell, HP, etc.

Now it's august 2008. The bill of materials on that macbook has gone down (intel has pushed a better processor bringing their whole range of prices down, the gpu is cheaper, etc) you know, the standard thing with computer parts - they lose value fast. Now, the hardware on that macbook costs 800$ but apple still sells it for 1200$. If you buy in august, out of your 1200$, 800$ buys you the hardware and 400$ is apple's margin. Meanwhile, to compete in the marketplace the Dell's and HP's are selling that computer for 1000$.

A few months later, it's october. Because of the trickle down in prices of components, that macbook costs apple 700$ to make. Your 1200$ buys you 700$ of hardware and 500$ go towards apple's margin. At this point, the Dell's and HP's sell it for 900$.

See how it works? Companies like Dell or HP trickle down to consumers the savings in order to compete (after all, they are all selling the same product - a branded windows box). That's why when apple releases a revision, its prices are competitive but as time passes you start to see the massive difference in price between similarly specced computers from other makers.

So what do smart users do? They buy apple computers early in the revision cycle.

edit: apple won't talk about this, but if you asked them they'd tell you to buy as late as possible. Which is obvious since apple is a corporation and like all corporations it loves your money.

don't worry, I completely understand how it works. Telling the consumer to wait 6 months till the new cycle begins to buy a laptop is quite and argument.

In any case, in my reply which you acused me for not reading the thread for...I showed a PC computer that is 400 dollars (~40%)  cheaper with better specs that the most basic macbook. And I wasn't even looking, I just picked the first one with similar specs...

I really doubt that 6 months ago this laptop was sold by Gateway for 400 dollars more and was even with apples macbook in price. Technology depriciates but does not lose value that fast. 100-200 dollars more tops...

Hooray! It took a while =)

As I told ya, it's an option if you don't want to pay an overprice. If you don't mind of course, buy whenever you want. But the point remains, you don't need to pay apple a premium if you don't want.

Anyways, we can keep this sort of a perma-thread "the apple price watch" and compare their prices to similar options anytime they revise their products. It might be an interesting exercise. I suggest we compare three prices: apple, big name pc manufacturer (dell, HP, etc), and cheaper parts from pricewatch (assuming user builds it himself/herself - just for desktops, obviously). A few months ago it'd be sorta tough finding what to compare the imac with but since then there's been some alternatives cropping up.

I apologize in advance, but the situation you described is just too good to pass: your Windows crashed, and the problem you have is that you hadn't installed additional codecs to your OS X. I think I'd first blame MS for the crashing Windows, and then make a mental note to get my OS X up to date with codecs. Which, by the way, are not the same thing is drivers, but that's somewhat beside the point.

Anyway, I believe that when it comes to drivers, OS X has vastly more drivers pre-installed or built-in than any version of Windows. I vaguely remember reading something to that effect, so it might actually be true and not just my belief. My personal experience as the unofficial it-guy of a small office with Windows and OS X mixed supports that notion also. Most of the time, it's simpler to set-up the OS X for new hardware (network printers, WLAN, network storage etc.) but there have been exceptions in some cases. On the other hand, in a predominatly Windows-environment, integrating OS X clients can be tricky.