PC makers, my next notebook is a MacBook
By Stan Beer
Thursday, 18 May 2006 19:06
Whatever else you may think of Apple, it is a company that makes top quality hardware. Now along comes MacBook, an Intel notebook made by Apple, capable of running Windows in dual boot mode, packed with power, with all these plug and play features built-in, and very reasonably priced. I'm in the market for a notebook so what am I going to do?I have been a long time campaigner for mandatory three-year warranties on all PC notebooks. My last two notebooks, an HP and a Toshiba, clapped out on me within two years. I figured I deserved better for $2000. Judging by the mounds of Apple faithful who assure me, I'm fairly certain that a MacBook isn't going to give up on me within three years. Anyway, at a starting price of $1099 plus the cost of Windows, I'm prepared to take the gamble.
I'm not a fan of Mac OSX, mainly because I've got all this stuff stored on my Windows desktops and it would be a real hassle to move over to an alien world. However, if I can also have a Windows partition on my disk, then I can take advantage of all of the nifty things that I've been told the Mac OSX can do without me fiddling around, while doing the work I need to do in Windows. I never thought that would make sense, but now that I'm faced with a buying decision it's certainly a factor to consider.
Given that I have been a DOS and Windows user for 20 years, the fact that I am seriously considering buying a MacBook should be ringing alarm bells and sending shivers down the collective spines of Dell, Acer, Lenovo, HP, Toshiba and all the other PC notebook makers. If I'm considering the MacBook (actually we're probably going to buy three) then so will many other dissatisfied notebook users. I'm not surprised Apple's market share jumped through the roof when Boot Camp was announced.
So the chances are that Apple is going to become a serious player - who knows maybe in time the dominant player - in the notebook market. Can it do the same thing in the desktop space? Probably not. Desktop PCs are really cheap and, in most cases, very reliable. I have four or five sitting around the home that I occasionally upgrade with some extra RAM and perhaps a new hard drive or DVD player. Apple would have to come out with a really super box at a really cheap price to interest me. However, the MacBook floored me, so you never know.
