Connect with us

Hardware

That Price Point Decision: One User’s Solution

Published

on

I have  a good friend who just had his Macbook die an untimely death. It is an older Macbook and I don’t know the model or year. Today he took it in for a visit to the Apple Store hoping for the best. Now, he’s not a heavy computer user. Email, Facebook, and some web surfing. He occasionally prints out email attachments that are sent to him. (He’s an actor and an agent will send him script sides for an audition.) So, he’s not a heavy user.

The diagnosis was severe. Apple would have to send it in for repairs (it is probably a logic board issue) and the cost would be anywhere between $500 plus shipping. (He’s not on an Apple Care plan.) So, he said, thanks but no thanks. Now he’s looking at options and according to what he said this afternoon, he’ll be looking at a Windows 7 notebook here in a few weeks when he stacks up enough cash. He’s not interested in a netbook (he has very large hands) and he wants a decent size screen. His theory is that he can get something for $700 that will do everything he was doing on the Macbook without having to spend $1000 for a new machine.

One user’s story for what it is worth.

4 Comments

4 Comments

  1. Damian

    10/26/2009 at 6:08 pm

    Similar story for me… I was a die-hard Mac user starting in 1987 when I bought my first one. I believe it was the Macintosh SE. My last was a PowerPC of some kind (don’t remember the exact model, but it also had a 486 motherboard in it and you could swap back and forth between the two environments). In 2000, when I finally decided I could persevere with the PowerPC no longer, I looked at the available Macs, and realized I couldn’t get anything to do the job I needed without spending well over $2,000. That was when I decided to build my first PC, and I haven’t looked back since. Macs are sure pretty to look at, much more so than they used to be, but when I have to work on my wife’s parents’ iMac, to find the latest photo they think they’ve lost, I never find myself regretting not having one. Maybe I just don’t need “cool” badly enough to shell out the extra green ones.

  2. BBusyB

    10/26/2009 at 9:53 pm

    I believe This is going to be an increasingly important issue over the next few years.

    With Most of us pending most of the Time in the Browser and / or using Multi Platform tools, which OS you Use is becoming less relevant. At that point, a hots of other considerations come into play, especially price.

    While I got a Macbook recently, mainly to get a feel for OSX, I’ve found that while the OS is nice, I can pretty much switch between it and Win7 and keep on working without major issues. As such, while the Macbook is nice, and useful for some of the multimedia work I do occasionally for most of my Daily usage, I really couldn’t care less.

    Apple, Microsoft and the rest are really going to have to think about how they are going to deal with this in the future, especially with what Google’s planning. While Apple’s got the advantage of tying the OS and the Hardware together to provide a better experience, They’re going to have to do something to increase the value preposition, especially for the casual user who doesn’t need the best or the fanciest to do what they need.

  3. Joe

    10/27/2009 at 12:56 am

    He might want to look at the Dell Mini 10v or one of the other very easily Hackintoshed netbooks.

  4. Tai-Pan

    10/27/2009 at 4:20 am

    He’s an actor… sorry but he has to save longer and by the Mac… haven’t you ever seen any movies before? Everyone in Hollywood uses a Mac… its a rule ;)

    The only other possible option is a cheap (but full sized) shanzhai Macbook clone!
    https://www.shanzai.com/index.php/bandit-gadgets/notebooks-a-netbooks/146-macbook-air-clone-full-metal-jacket-edition

Leave a Reply

Your email address will not be published.

As an Amazon Associate I earn from qualifying purchases.