Re: The sad Truth about iMac:

["Milind Limaye" <mlimaye@kdsi.net>]

          �   �   �   �   �

 "Mac users often swear by their Macs.
  PC users often swear at their PCs."

          �   �   �   �   �


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In article <PTGD2.160$sY3.559@news12.ispnews.com>, "John Paul Murdie"
<john_murdie@sunshine.net> wrote:

> I'm sorry, but you have no excuse if you bought from the back of the curve to
> save a buck. If you're bright , you learn to buy as forward in the curve as
your
> budget will allow and get more ride for your buck. If your not so bright, you
> try to cheat the curve again, only to regret it next year.

Most of us "tech" people replace our computers fairly often.  Call it being
enamored with the techology, call it tinkering, call it lust for power.  In
the past 12 years since I graduated from high school, I've owned and used an
Apple //gs, a Mac Classic, a 286, 386, 486, and (in my return to the Mac
platform a few years ago) a Powerbook 1400c laptop upgraded to a G3.  In all
honesty, I've owned and used more computers in a decade than most consumers
will in their lifetimes.  It's probably the same in the racing world, where
Nascar drivers drive more cars in a decade than I'll own in my entire life.

Just as a car off the NASCAR circuit isn't going to be something that I'm
going to want to drive to work every day, the iMac is not a computer for the
geek.  That machine for us would be the $3500 loaded up G3-400 tower.

The iMac is aimed at the consumer market.  We all know people who have
bought a computer at some point in their lives.  They don't know a whole lot
about the industry, they don't know much about the technology, but because
"it seemed like a good idea at the time" they go and buy a machine.  Because
it "seemed like a good idea at the time," they probably went and bought a
computer that uses Windows as it's operating system.  They bring their new
baby home, and set it up in the den, or the office, or the living room,
or...And try to wade through the installation manuals.  Eventually, the poor
souls get their machines up and running.  Eventually the system gets
unstable...they get a computer virus...or files get corrupted...or they
accidental type a wrong number into a field somewhere, and the computer
stops working.  How many homes have we gone to where antique computers --
286's, 386's, even IBM PC's have turned into doorstops?

The point is, that from a consumer perspective, a computer is something
vastly different than from a geek perspective.  We probably have the hoods
off our machines 3 or 4 times a year upgrading, downgrading, fiddling with
stuff.  The average Joe doesn't want to do this.  They want a machine that
they can bring home, install, and run...reliably...for a long time.  They
honestly don't care if the version of Quicken they are using is 10 years
old, so long as it does what it is meant to do.  Unfortunately, this is just
the sphere in which wintel machines have been failing consumers for a decade
or more.  Next to exercise equipment, wintel machines may have the dubious
right to be one of the most overbought, underused items in the average
American home.

Is the iMac for everybody?  Certainly not.  Is it pointless?  Not even
close...Unless you own a large share of Intel and have a vested interest in
seeing people trade computers in every two years...the iMac is a consumer
development that everyone should celebrate...