Each passing day brings more people purchasing iPods and iPhones. People seeing increasing numbers of friends sporting those sleek silver laptops. Most of those people eventually ponder whether a Mac might be right for them as well. After discussions of security, stability, efficiency, and user friendliness follows the inevitable deal maker/deal breaker: money.
Despite deciding that a Mac is more secure, stable, efficient, and friendly than a PC, a lot of people pass them up over the price tag. “Macs are just too expensive,” they say. “Think again,” I say. Your decision between a Mac and a PC should not be about the price difference — it should be about the cost difference.
Cost involves more than just money
Rather than simply considering the digits on a computer’s price tag, factor them into the overall cost of using that computer over its lifetime. Ask yourself this question: a week, a month, a year after you have charged the price of that computer, what is the single largest factor that will continue contributing to its cost? The answers is your time. Time is money.
A computer that is more secure and stable saves you the time and money that would be spent on the software and IT manpower required to deal with viruses, spyware, trojans, other malware, and system failures. Whether you can pick up the phone call call your organization’s IT help desk, or you must open your door to a stranger from some retail giant’s home repair service, you have lost time that would have been better spent getting things done.
A computer that is more friendly and efficient works with you to get things done, saving you valuable time in the long run. The less time you spend fiddling with system settings, looking for buttons and menus, and dealing poor interfaces built by people who think design only about flashy colors and graphics, the more time you can spend writing your book, blogging, hammering out code, or constructing a killer presentation.
But what about those über-cheap PCs?
Still hung on dollars, eh? An old adage comes to mind. You know which one I’m talking about. “You get what you pay for.” Top-of-the-line hardware does not come in bargain-priced computers. Considering that it is not unheard-of for some people to get a new computer every two or three years, and considering how fast technology advances, how long do you think it might be before it’s time to upgrade or replace that bargain machine?
I dropped $2,000.00 on a PowerBook G4 in October of ’04 — a lot of money for this then-college student. But what has that PowerBook cost me in the long run? Not a whole lot. Over the past four years I have edited hundreds of photos, blogged thousands of words, and written hundreds of thousands of lines of code on a laptop that has probably cost me less than 24 hours in maintenance and downtime. I am still using my Powerbook to this day, and it has never had a major hardware failure, I have never lost a file, and I have never formatted its hard drive. I call that “getting my money’s worth.”
8 responses
May 1st, 2008
Ben says:
well if you’ve half a brain, keeping your computer problem free is not a problem. But if you are constantly clicking on every spam link you get, opening .exe attachments without thinking, giving out personal information at unsecure sites and so on, then you probably need a mac to protect you from your own stupidity.
May 1st, 2008
Quikboy says:
What a joke. I consider most of your blog posts to be pretty helpful, but this is just plain dumb.
You’re acting as if PC’s are ALWAYS so bad and unreliable. You’re trading ALL PC’s as one group. A bad group.
“Mac is more secure, stable, efficient, and friendly than a PC”. Is this a fact?
I happen to know that the Sony Vaio computer that works great.
1. It’s secure (OneCare AV)
2. I always update Windows, and it’s been pretty darn stable for me.
3. I got great specs in mine. Don’t know about other “PC’s”. Pretty efficient.
4. I think Vista’s been pretty friendly for me. I can pretty much navigate without a problem. Though no matter how hard I try nail OS X down, I just can’t get used to it. I wonder which is more friendlier now.
So is my Vaio considered a Mac?
Truth is, is that PC’s come in a range of sizes, quality, price, brands, etc. Most people buy the darn cheap ones, and they get what they pay for. The problems that you listed.
Now if you buy from a quality brand, and just do a quick look at the specs, you’ve got a great computer.
I just hate it when Mac users have never used a quality PC (outside of a Mac) and claim Macs are the only quality computers left in the world. That’s just plain stupid and ignorant.
My Vaio has been with me for about 4 years as well, and still runs Vista with all the effects. I call that “getting my money’s worth”.
May 1st, 2008
Richard says:
I am not a Mac fanboy. But I like Macs. I use a MacBook Pro. I have many clients with Macs or mixed Windows Mac environments. I am currently installing a Mac Pro running OS X 10.5 Server.
I also use Windows—Vista Ultimate, XP Pro, XP Home, Windows Home Server…
They all have positives and negatives.
The low-end Windows machines are often glorious, inexpensive solutions for most users.
I have been quite impressed with the usability of $500-$700 Windows desktops and notebooks that I have installed in the last year.
I think you need to have more experience with today’s low end Windows machines before you dismiss them.
Also, I disagree with your assertion that Macs are more secure. They were recently hacked more quickly than Vista or Linux at a SF hackers convention.
When clients need me to access their computers I have gotten into user accounts in Leopard where the password was lost or unknown. I have never been able to do this Vista try as hard as I may.
I also feel that Apple hardware is often less reliable than comparable PC components. This is based upon anecdotal experience. However, given the premium that Apple charges their equipment should ALWAYS be rock-solid. This is not so.
May 1st, 2008
Alpay says:
I have been using personal computers since I have known myself. I had never lost data because of viruses or any other malware.
I have switched to a MacBook Pro last August and I have noticed that my time spent on computer maintenance like re-installs have dropped considerably. Even though I do not perform those tasks, my machine seems to be responsive at all times.
Check the second hand prices for Macs, and you will know what I mean.
Cheers,
May 1st, 2008
Igor says:
I cannot speak from an experience encompassing work on many different computers like some of your readers appear to be, however, I work on both win. based PCs and Macs.
Macs here (Croatia) are terribly expensive, as in 40% or more in price what you might pay for them, so the price difference is a very notable factor in the decision for buying a new system.
Studying design, I’m learning to use a lot of different software, both the ones required for class and those I explore on my own to find what best suits me. In short, I found that while there is nothing I do on a Mac that I can’t use on a PC, the same cannot be said the other way around. Like my favorite 3D software in which I am most experienced, and a good deal of open source apps.
Hardware wise, except for my first computer which I was happy to receive around 6th grade, I’ve always built my own machines, which turned out to be the cheapest solution, and, also, aside from that first one, I’ve never had hardware trouble I couldn’t solve on my own. Hardware trouble being something that I know, even though second hand, that not even Macs are vaccinated against, namely HDD failure.
Since Apple likes to consider its products somewhat elitist, perhaps because it has a 5-10% market share, it could explain the high price. However, having shifted to Intel’s CPUs, I no longer see the amazement. Also, I’d like to support Richard’s statement that, considering their premiums, their equipment should be perpetually flawless.
Also, a recent annoyance I have experienced on Macs, they tend to not recognize graphic tablets, plug-and-play style, which somehow negates their theory that everything ‘just works’, specially if you’re on a university computer where you don’t have permissions to install drivers.
PC (Mac or otherwise) speed is something you should strongly consider when you’re a professional, when you’re most likely to cash out top dollar for a high end machine anyway. However, home users who crop their holiday photos in warezed photoshop installation and complain about how a professional-high-end-product, takes a long time to boot, even though their scope of skills ends with adjusting levels, I say, get the cheap-x-tm computers, and learn to use software of your own caliber.
Somewhat sidetracking, but, Linux also doesn’t have a lot of security issues either …
And before someone jumps me for mentioning Linux, I should note that I’m Adobe’s bitch, and even so I’d convert be it not for the lack of user friendly 3D software… but quite frankly, if you code, write blogs, crop and adjust a few photos now and then, listen to music and watch movies on your machine, there is absolutely no reason (anymore) to not switch to Linux. Unless you’re easy on the chrome, but quite possibly that’s what this is all about =)
May 1st, 2008
Of Zen and Computing says:
“What a joke. I consider most of your blog posts to be pretty helpful, but this is just plain dumb.”
My opinions are not dumb. You just don’t agree with them.
“I just hate it when Mac users have never used a quality PC (outside of a Mac) and claim Macs are the only quality computers left in the world. That’s just plain stupid and ignorant.”
If you are implying that I fall into this category, that is an incorrect assumption on your part. I have used a variety PCs day-in and day-out for the past 15 years. I prefer to use a Mac for virtually everything - I get more done, faster and more easily.
And aside from my personal experiences, I’ve put Apple computers in the hands of family and friends whose daily use (abuse?) has previously brought more than one PC to its knees time and again, and after doing so literally forgot what it was like to get calls for tech support.
May 1st, 2008
Packy says:
I used to build my own PCs, partly because I had access to lots of surplus parts (saving a lot of costs) and also partly because I liked to tinker with the innards. That was an option that went out the window for Apple fans once the IIe went off the market. Lately, though, I’ve been using a Gateway that I’ve had for five years on XP with no trouble, no service calls, no reformatting and no system crashes. The worst problem I’ve ever had is an occasional browser crash - maybe I’m lucky.
Two things I’ve noticed about the PC/Mac thing: First, most problems people have with their PCs are the result of ignorance or stupidity (I’m in agreement with Ben about this); second, there are a lot of Mac owners out there who cultivate a smug superiority about their hardware, an impression that Apple itself explicitly supports in their advertising. In these cases, it’s not the apparatus, it’s the attitude that’s annoying.
May 1st, 2008
Quikboy says:
Again, you’re not using a quality computer if you need to go to tech support for everything.
I made strong recommendations to my friends and family, and there’s just ever rarely any problems. And they don’t use Macs.
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