[news.com.com]

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Aloha, Ken


“I have developed significant attachments to several members even though I wouldn't recognize them if I sat next to one on a park bench. I'm often tempted when in an airport to walk around, hollering "The Løpe", to see if anyone other than the Homeland Security people will acknowledge me. ” - The Løpe

“Human rights can only be assured among a virtuous people. The general government ... can never be in danger of degenerating into a monarchy, an oligarchy, an aristocracy, or any other despotic or oppressive form, so long as there shall remain any virtue in the body of the people.” — George Washington


“in America the law is king. For as in absolute governments the King is law, so in free countries the law ought to be King; and there ought to be no other." -- Thomas Paine

once again, we all know that those numbers are based on units sold per quarter, they have no real bearing on how many units still in service.

Macs typically get 4-6 years (or more) of use, and most PCs in the 18-24 month average. At work we have a 24 month cycle for PCs, but the Macs get replaced as needed. I still have a g3 upgraded 8600 in service, a B&W G4, a B&W G3, and there are a few DA G4s.

There are far fewer BMWs than Chevys, does that make Chevy a better make overall?

Like I tell all my womenses, "it ain't the size of the boat, honey, it's the motion of the ocean."

Wait, we were talking about what again?
Marketshare?

Racer X Wrote:
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>
> Macs typically get 4-6 years (or more) of use, and
> most PCs in the 18-24 month average.

Not to mention the wacky new trend among some home users to throw out an old PC cuz of Windows 'cruft' to simply buy a new one.

(I'm not sure how widespread that actually is, or whether it is enough of a trend to even take into a count, but it is damn sure funny.)

Seacrest Wrote:
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> Like I tell all my womenses, "it ain't the size of
> the boat, honey, it's the motion of the ocean."
>

Do you really say that, seriously, do you?

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Roswell, GA (Atlanta suburb)

rgG Wrote:
-------------------------------------------------------
> Seacrest Wrote:
> --------------------------------------------------
> -----
> > Like I tell all my womenses, "it ain't the
> size of
> > the boat, honey, it's the motion of the
> ocean."
> >
>
> Do you really say that, seriously, do you?
>

Oh, come on.
Don't you people know me by now?



Of course I say that.

That's what I thought. BunBun said no, but I told her that it sounded like something you would say. She owes me a catnip toy.

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Roswell, GA (Atlanta suburb)

There are far more roaches on the earth than there are humans.

But why are most of the roaches in NYC and the South?

actually, I bet they include replacement units as part of the units sold and shipped total. And refurbs as well. Great way to pad numbers.

The article isn't all that bad actually... had to use a grabber headline... and the percentage worldwide of 2.3% is what it is (back up to 5% US Market in 2005 though... that's doubled from a couple years ago). Calling the G4 Cube a 'Cube PC' - ok, know before that he's not an Apple guy.

But definitely some truth in there... For the last 7 years - Apple has been burning a lot of bridges. Wiped out their educational dealer network to take that inside (and that cost them, believe me). Have effectively wiped out a large percentage of the independent dealers they once had - and not just the crappy ones, lots and lots of good ones too. And they work hard to drive all the sales through the Apple store. Even certain marketing incentives spend just a little less than the margins dealers get on stuff.

IMHO, Apple/Jobs would rather every sale happen via Apple - but tolerates over avenues and support vendors because it can't do it all. But where it can, they attack.

And the whole dealer thing - if a store can't sell Macs.... gonna keep the lights on selling PCs if that is their business. That doesn't help any either.

But hey - glad to see Apple is growing again, even if Apple's total computer shipments in a year are less than the additional number of PCs Dell alone grows its PC shipments by - that's insane, dang.

Apple's definitely got the best OS technology for the masses right now and hardware to match - can only imagine if they Jobs made friends and really exploded the OS X distribution. And I don't mean friends like the one sided, Apple high favored deal they had with HP.

Who knows.....

And really dang - this is nuts too:
the inventors of lithium-ion batteries once gave Apple the opportunity to buy the technology, according to VLSI CEO Dan Hutcheson.

Although.... not really in their biz model, but still - should have been given the move to laptops. Then they'd be top of the world and/or control there would have driven additional portable battery development.

Anyway - Apple Rocks, end of story.

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OWC Larry
Other World Computing
[www.macsales.com]

Seacrest Wrote:
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> Like I tell all my womenses, "it ain't the size of
> the boat, honey, it's the motion of the ocean."

Sometimes it IS the size of the boat.

Typical Seacrest-style boat:

Typical Davester-style boat:

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"Man is a little germ that lives on an unimportant rock ball that revolves about a small star at the outskirts of an ordinary galaxy. ... I am absolutely amazed to discover myself on this rock ball rotating around a spherical fire. It's a very odd situation. And the more I look at things I cannot get rid of the feeling that existence is quite weird. -- Alan Watts

OWC Larry Wrote:
-------------------------------------------------------
> And really dang - this is nuts too:
> the inventors of lithium-ion batteries once gave
> Apple the opportunity to buy the technology,
> according to VLSI CEO Dan Hutcheson.
>
> Although.... not really in their biz model, but
> still - should have been given the move to
> laptops. Then they'd be top of the world and/or
> control there would have driven additional
> portable battery development.
>

I think it's a good thing Apple didn't do this (although, I am not a battery expert).
Otherwise they would have had yet another proprietary "Apple" thing that would a.) marginalize them because the other PC makers don't use it, b.) alienate the rest of the market with high licensing fees and ball-breaker terms, which would motivate the others to come up with something better or cheaper -- once again marginalizing Apple.

But what do I know?
I'm just a big guy with a small boat.

Actually, Macs don't get 4-6 years of service. I did a couple of surveys over on the other board and the typical lifespan from users seemed to be about 3-4 years.

People may say that their firm goes on a two-year cycle for their PCs...well, that's their firm. I've heard of other firms that replace their PCs every three years due to some accounting rule. I know that the firm where I worked at last kept their PCs at least 5 years with some machines going way past that mark.

If a PC is still useable (and they've certainly had the power and upgradeability for the past 5 years) then they're going to keep on running.

There are Chevys better than BMWs. Especially when talking about the Corvette Z06. No BMW will come close even at twice its price! Cars and Computer anologies just do not work!

I keep computers running at my place until the cost of upgrading/repairing exceeds the cost of replacing them. Since MS hasn't released any substantial upgrades to Windows in about 5years, there's been no need to upgrade the hardware. Some more memory here and there and the occasional re-install to get rid of bit-rot, but other than that most of the machines just keep chugging along. I tried to convince my boss that we could probably squeeze out another 2 years if we switched to Linux on some of the machines and used terminal servers to run Windows apps, but he wouldn't hear of it.

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**************************************
MacResource User Map: [www.zeemaps.com]#

Analyses that focus on market percentage lose sight of a pretty important point: that a single percentage of computer marketshare is worth well over $1B, and the market is still expanding at a very healthy clip. That means for Apple to gain in marketshare, they need to significantly outgrow the rest of the computing market as a whole. They've done pretty well at that in the last year, and the impact on their bottom line was just huge. But since it's only an additional 1.5 or so percent of the US market, it doesn't seem like a big deal.

As for service life for Macs: I'd say just about any PowerMac G4 is still an incredibly useful machine, and many of those are 6+ years old now. Many other machines in the 5+ year range are far less useful, like, say, <600MHz iBook G3s, or <400MHz iMacs.

The "three year rule" for replacing PCs at many companies is due to IRS rules for depreciation. Or maybe a lot of these companies lease their computers for three years.

which would you rather own, a bag of Kingsford, or a diamond? They're both carbon, right?

I love Apple. I don't give a fig what any of you heathens say!

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3GHz - The clock is STILL ticking Steve.

News from the low end of the pool: I finally talked a friend into taking a B&W off my hands. She didn't bother upgrading because her NINE year old 6500 had never given her "any trouble." Well, until this week, but that's another story.

macone Wrote:
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> There are Chevys better than BMWs. Especially when
> talking about the Corvette Z06. No BMW will come
> close even at twice its price! Cars and Computer
> anologies just do not work!


April Fools! Good one. Seriously...raw power the Z06, but overall performance I'll take a M3 or M6 (the one coming out soon) any day. And I think that would be an appropriate analogy for PC vs Mac. There are tasks that the PC can no doubt beat the Mac on by a few seconds. But for overall ease of use the Mac is clearly the better platform.

>April Fools! Good one. Seriously...raw power the Z06, >but overall performance I'll take a M3 or M6 (the one >coming out soon) any day. And I think that would be an >appropriate analogy for PC vs Mac. There are tasks that >the PC can no doubt beat the Mac on by a few seconds. >But for overall ease of use the Mac is clearly the >better platform.

From Road & Track Feburary 2006

M6(new) M3(Comp) Z06
0-60 4.1 4.8 3.9 sec
0-100 9.2 12 8.8 sec
top speed n/a 155 198 MPH
braking from 60 119 114 109 ft
Skidpad .88 .88 .99g
Slalom 69.56 67.3 69.6mph

Oh, now I see overall your right? I do not think you would be laughing if you were in any of the above BMWs with a ZO6 in front. Nor having an easier time keeping up. Now if you tell me you perfer the BMW than the ZO6, fine. It depends on what is important to YOU. A true racer does not care where they finish if they are not first, even by a microsecond. My original point was analogies between cars and computers do not work. When it comes to cars alot more emotion and passion is envolved. That explains how many different types of cars are available on the market. From Lotus Elises to Hummers. (Prusis to Enzos?) The only computer/car analogy that I wish were true is the Rolls Royce/Computer price analogy. Hello Enzo.