Marketing Hype

I posted this at Geek.com in response to story on Intel Mac sales and marketing claims. This will probably out me as far as my online persona goes over there, but since it’s all anonymous as far as screen names goes, what difference does it make? As much as I enjoy Geek.com, the Windows fanatics are bad. Unfortunately, the Mac fanatics are just as bad. Still fighting a war that makes no real difference, they argue to argue.

What is with you people?

First off, die-hard Apple fans. Will you please relax? You knew the windroids were going to use any ammunition available to slam Apple. Where’s the surprise in that? Stop trying to fight an old battle that no one can declare victory in. Who cares? Use the platform you prefer to get what you want to do done.

As far as Apple’s speed claims go, it’s marketing hype to push hardware. Again, no big shocker. So some spec test shows a 400% improvement. It means nothing in real world application tests. The MacBook Pro is certainly much faster with Intel native aps as compared to G4 PowerBooks with PPC native aps. That’s still a plus. More aps are going to be going Intel native soon. If you need or want a new Mac laptop, get one. It is faster than what was previously available.

Need a new desktop? Fine, grab a dual-core iMac and be happy with the speed gains with NATIVE Intel aps. Your PPC based aps are going to be slower until the developers come out with new versions. Get used to it. This is the third transition I’ve dealt with with Apple. personal experience has shown me that waiting for the second gen to come out is a wise move. My G4 tower and laptop still work great for what I use them for, so I’m holding off for a bit. When some ap I want to use is Intel Mac based only, I’ll go ahead and get one. I can afford it and so can most other macguys.

Wintel guys in what has to be the millionth time, Mac people use Macs not because we can’t do Windows, we just prefer not to. Other than games (which is what I have consoles for) and AutoCAD, name a segment or market that I can’t use a Mac for. Please don’t be stupid and name some Windows only specialty software that 1% of 1% use. Everyday tasks that Windows does that a Mac can’t. Anything?

Lastly, I don’t care either (and probably most Mac people don’t either) that you can buy or build some X86 PC for less than we can buy a Mac. We get it, we just don’t care. We’ll buy our Macs and continue to use them productively long after most other people’s Windows machines are rusting in landfills.

As far as hype goes, name one manf or software maker that doesn’t exaggerate. Want to look at some Microsoft claims over the years? How about the one promising safe computing for the masses. Still waiting on that little bit of marketing madness to be true.

TOC for the Mac is lower. Security is better, included software is amazing in what it can do for the average joe. Show me a package for Windows that can do everything iLife can do. I’ll even spot you twice the price. Less than $160. Show me one. Just one. In the meantime, I’ll put the Apple hype the same place I put anyone else’s marketing hype. In a large circular file cabinet. Sheesh.