Ratio of PC to Mac Sales Narrowing to Lowest Level in Over a Decade
wired.com
wired.com
a) The sub-par cheap plastic laptops/netbooks that have been thrown out for the last three years at $300. They were barely usable at first, and now the keys have fallen off the keyboard and the speakers don't work. And that advert to renew some antivirus keeps popping up. And the computer whizzkid who used to fix it says he doesn't know much about PCs now - he's moved to an Apple Mac.
b) Windows and IE. People are noticing that Facebook runs like crap in IE. And that their harddrive still needs formatting every year or the computer runs like a bag of shit. What's that Microsoft? Windows 8 has all this fixed. It doesn't matter - there are still millions of computers out there running Vista and Win 7, taking 60 seconds to boot up (standby mode never works - fuck knows why). Everytime I sit in front of one and right click-Exit all that shit down at the bottom right I curse you.
c) The death of desktop software.
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This is one of the two reasons I'm bullish on Apple (the other is that I want to see them move into the living room.)
Now PCs and Linux - that's more like it but there's no profit in it.
Wrong on second point regarding video.
It's almost like when someone walks up to a work of art and remarks that they easily could've done it themselves. Yeah, but you didn't.
Minimalist design is hard, and you're kidding yourself if you honestly think that Vizio's line of computers would've looked the same had Apple never existed.
I think that Apple has done the grunt work of whittling away the bulk material toward a minimal design. It would be stupid of somebody else with the same goals to try to pretend that Apple's efforts bore no fruit (sorry, camp not intended) and ignore them.
"We have always been SHAMELESS about stealing great ideas" ... someone does it back to Apple and suddenly it is criminal (patent lawsuit fun) or laugh worthy because it looks similar?
The Thin+Light machine is yet another Ultrabook that competes with the Macbook Air, keeping in mind that the Macbook Air was introduced in 2008 and the Ultrabook initiative started in 2011.
The All-in-One desktop is clearly a response to the iMac, right down to the Magic Trackpad.
I don't understand the stigma of pointing out these "inspirations".
However, I do admire the simplicity of Vizio's product line. If it were Dell, the laptop would be called something like the "Inspiron 14z Ultrabook™".
I've had two people say to my face "Wow, that's an old computer".
Which is silly since it is the world's coolest looking laptop.
I agree 100%.
Many friends and family have cheap and crap laptops that continually crash, and last only a year or two before being replaced (for another cheap, crap laptop)
As time has gone on, you can see they are slowly realizing this is no bargain, and are starting to look at the expensive end, and towards Apple.
Quality Windows laptops exist. I sold my HP Envy for almost as much as I bought it for after a year of solid use. It cost me $1000 brand new, and there was almost nothing the Macbook could offer besides OSX that could do anything but match it.
Yes, Macbooks are better than $300 laptops. But you know what is also better than a $300 laptop? A $1000 laptop, and the extra $1300 in your pocket. Your Dodge Neon is a piece of junk, true, but before you shell out cash for BMW 5-series, why not take a look at the Ford Fusion?
Excellent point.
I'm not saying people that are sick of cheap/crap laptops need or must go and buy an Apple product. I'm saying they start to realize buying something more expensive works out better in the long run.
When looking at something more expensive, Apple's products come into the picture (but are not the whole picture, obviously)
While we're here, lets not exaggerate too much. Apple makes exactly one laptop for $2300, and it's probably the fastest/most feature packed laptop ever made, without a competitor right now. Lots of their laptops are $1200 - $1700, which certainly is more expensive than the competition, but again, we've already decided we're willing to spend a little more for higher quality at this point.
I am not joking that PowerBooks from 5+ years ago wipe the floor with every single PC laptop I've used so far. Is it really that hard to get the texture and responsiveness right ?
A better graph: two lines, one showing PC sales each year and the other showing Mac sales. It would show that Mac sales are less, and it would also show how much the market has grown since 1984. Even better: the number of machines of each type currently in use.
Even according to the graph, 15x means that one in 16 machines sold is a Mac. Math tells us that's 6.25% market share. That number hasn't appreciably changed in real terms in the last decade. Yes, moving from 4% to 6% is a 50% "growth", if you want to define growth that way. Normally, that's 2% growth.
However, the inability of Mac to grab any significant market share from the overall PC market should be a concern, considering the relative popularity of their other devices.
Not if you look at the labels on the horizontal axis and you know when the downturn actually began.
Wikipedia says:
> The Macintosh ( /ˈmækɨntɒʃ/ mak-in-tosh),[1] or Mac, is a series of personal computers (PCs) designed, developed, and marketed by Apple Inc.
And some random quote from a comment here:
> the computer whizzkid who used to fix it says he doesn't know much about PCs now - he's moved to an Apple Mac.
You mean he doesn't know about windows since the Apple Mac is a PC too.
Porsche and Ferrari come to mind...