Some questions from a probable switcher..

[Jumbo]

A friend of mine is thinking of getting the 12" ibook.. here are his 2 questions:

1. Is now a good time to buy? If not yet a good time, when is the good time?


2. Is the speed good enough? Same as the P4 PC laptops ?

can someone help me out with their opinions? thanks!

[Arel]

Hi JUMBO!:

Good questions!

Now's definitely a good time to buy an iBook since Apple recently launched the new line of iBooks!

Depending on his budget, he can go for the brand-new 1GHz PowerPC G4 12" Combo-Drive iBook or its predecessor from the previous iBook line-up, whose price has gone down since the new models' introduction.

Being a Windows ignoramus, I defer to the MUGgers who have experience running both a PC & a Mac to answer your friend's other question.

Originally posted by Jumbo
A friend of mine is thinking of getting the 12" ibook.. here are his 2 questions:

1. Is now a good time to buy? If not yet a good time, when is the good time?

[extremyks]

The current iBook 1Ghz lineup would be more than enough to do basic task to advanced appz. The RAM is the key to making it fast.

Jumbo, what are the expected applications he will use on his desired laptop?

[Henjie]

Originally posted by Jumbo
2. Is the speed good enough? Same as the P4 PC laptops ?

In terms of raw performance, the 1GHz G4 chips used in the current 12" iBook G4s are slower than the laptop processors from Intel (Pentium M and Pentium 4-M). Make no mistake about it, the Pentium M chips (part of Intel's Centrino technology) are really fast, faster even than the higher-clocked Pentium 4-M chips.

If your friend is heavily into graphics and video stuff, the 12" iBook G4 might be less than adequate for his needs and he might be better off getting a 1.33GHz 12" PowerBook or better still, a 1.5GHz 15" or 17" PowerBook. But if he's gonna use it mostly for word processing, web browsing, email, etc. etc., with only the occasional (and non-professional) forays into graphics and video editing, then it's gonna be more than enough. Just make sure to load it with enough RAM. ;-)

Ultimately, you buy a Mac for the whole experience. :-)


~Henjie

[weremermaid]

What is your friend planning to use it for?
1. Offic apps stuff, internet and a lil bit of video watching and audio playing?
2. Or is it for processor hungry graphic image/video/audio editing plus #1?

Ask your friend to read The study of why Macs are better than PCs

PC people are like the guys who like to spend lots of time tinkering under the hood to customize a cheap car using cheap unmatched parts, just so they can hack together something resembling a better car but still failing miserably in the end. Think of a Kia masquerading as a Benz. Shiver.

Then there's the trauma of using Bill Gate's buggy operating system with it's gazillion security flaws, which make pcs perfect virus/worm magnets. Why? Mac people are more concerned with doing creative work.

Also, if a pc were ever put together to attempt to approximate the capabilities of a Mac, that PC will cost a heck of a lot more, and have very little built in software. The Mac will of course come out ahead and much more cost efficeint in the long run, think of what you can do with iLife 2004 alone.


Mac people are like the people who buy better quality higher end cars. They get in and drive off in a twinkling, to get to their destinations because they expect the car to perform seamlessly on demand. Macs do that, macs have the speed and capability since all parts work together, having been built to perform to the exacting demands by users.

The PC user will still be tinkering on his franken-pc at this point while the Mac user is already bringing home the bacon. Isn't that cool?

Need more proof? There are a lot of threads in the Newbies and switchers section of this forum your friend should read too, aside from other very useful info in the rest of this site and www.pinoymac.org too. Let your friend know we'll be happy to help him switch!

Cherrie

[Zauber]

Originally posted by Jumbo
A friend of mine is thinking of getting the 12" ibook.. here are his 2 questions:

1. Is now a good time to buy? If not yet a good time, when is the good time?

<snip>

can someone help me out with their opinions? thanks!

The answer to that question is ANYTIME is a GOOD TIME to buy.

Here's why....

Shortly after you buy your Mac, not only is the price of the model you just bought going to drop, but Apple is going to either:

(a) Increase the speed
(b) Add more RAM
(c) Add a bigger hard drive, or more likely...
(d) DO all of the above.

How often does this happen? Almost always. Why does apple do this? Are they out to get you, their loyal customer? Absolutely not. They do it to stay competitive. If they don't keep offering faster and faster machines, at better prices, with more features, there won't be an Apple very long. It's an industry based on more; faster; cheaper.

If you're an early adopter (a person who buys the hot new toys as soon as they're announced), there's a price to pay - you get the cool toy first, but a faster, cheaper, better version is already in the works.

Look at the people who bought the 20th Anniversary Macintosh introduced in the spring of 1997 for $10,000. Once the initial rush died down, and the early adopters all got theirs, Apple started blowing them out for as low as $1,999, 20% of their original price! You can even get it now from eBay if you're interested in having one.

Look at it from Apple's position. Let's say they made 12,000 units (according to Apple back in '97 this was how many units they were going to produce), and they sold 9,000 (I'm just picking this number out of the sky, so don't hold me to it, but whatever it was, it was probably less than they perhaps projected) at the $10,000 price. It's maybe 11 or 12 months later (remember, technology years are like dog years - 111 months in the tech world is like nearly six years in real life) and Apple is stuck with a warehouse full of 3,000 computers that aren't selling. Worse yet, they're no longer "state-of-the-art" because they since they introduced that model, newer models with faster chips and bigger drives are selling like hotcakes. Basically the window of opportunity for that model has passed. But they've got 3,000 of them sitting in sealed boxes, ready to ship. Do they go back to those old models, rip open 3,000 boxes, open the cases to throw away the old chips, install new chips, and update any other parts (fans, etc.) that might need updating because of the new chip? Or, do they just "blow them out" at a discounted price because they already pretty much made their money back, thanks to the "early adopters?"

It's not hard to see why Apple might choose to blow them out. Especially since Wall Street loves to jump on Apple if they have more than just afew days' worth of inventory on hand. (Apple had let inventory stack up pretty seriously on a number of occassions, reportedly as much as 11 weeks or more at one time, so the Wall Street analysis have kept a close eye on it ever since.)

So if you've been stung by the "better, faster, cheaper" bug, don't let it freak you out. The computer you originally bought is stilla great computer. When you bought it, you got it at a great price, and it still does exactly what you bought it for. Besides, if you could return it to Apple for what you paid for it, in just a few months, the new computer you would buy would meet the same fate as the one you returned. It's a NEVER-ENDING cycle, so you might as well be happy with the one you bought (or WILL BE BUYING), because a better, faster, cheaper model is always "coming soon".

Here's a tip: If Apple suddenly slashes the price on a model, you can figure you've got between 30 to 60 days before it gets upgraded at a lower price. If you're cool with that - you're going to get a great deal (at leas you'll feel like it is, for between 30 to 60 days). :beer:

:2cents:

[Edited on 5-12-2004 by Zauber]

[pumpy]

Actually, the cost of a clone with Linux Mandrake is far, far cheaper than that of a Mac or a WinXP box.

A properly managed WinXP will run perfectly and will hardly crash. Just get a properly running clone package (not a branded package) and you will be able to run the system as fast as a Mac equivalent at half the price.

It's also good to learn to tinker under the hood and customize. That way, you will learn more about computers and will rely less on others.

Later, you can remove WinXP and replace it with Linux Mandrake.

[extremyks]

I love to tinker under the hood and customize both for my Mac and WinXP box. Linux is great... but until someone makes a stable and professional NLE/Compositing software for DV and making sure it will work with current A/V capture boards using clones running Mandrake or whatever variants, I'll still bet my projects on OS X and even WinXP OS.

[Edited on 5-13-2004 by extremyks]

[Henjie]

Originally posted by pumpy
Actually, the cost of a clone with Linux Mandrake is far, far cheaper than that of a Mac or a WinXP box.

A properly managed WinXP will run perfectly and will hardly crash. Just get a properly running clone package (not a branded package) and you will be able to run the system as fast as a Mac equivalent at half the price.[/quote]

In case you didn't notice, Jumbo's friend is looking to buy a laptop.

Or maybe you're replying to another post here. If so, try to quote the post-in-question next time so we can get the proper context.

Still, tread lightly. We're on to you.

It's also good to learn to tinker under the hood and customize. That way, you will learn more about computers and will rely less on others.

What makes you think that none of us here "tinker under the hood and customize" our Macs? Don't stereotype us. ;-)


~Henjie

[Jumbo]

Originally posted by weremermaid
What is your friend planning to use it for?
1. Offic apps stuff, internet and a lil bit of video watching and audio playing?
2. Or is it for processor hungry graphic image/video/audio editing plus #1?

I think he would be using it for office apps more than graphics. He's not sure if a MAC is at par with the other laptops in terms of value for money.