[PCWorld]

Post your comments for Apple Will Rule the Living Room by 2013, Forrester Says here

[mrwarrenzhang]

wow. you pc world people become more apple-fanatical by the day. its pathetic.

[richard324]

this would be to expensive now lets say a nice ps4 with ..... this would be perfect and would be more pc friendly

[cb3431]

No thanks. Apple isn't welcome in this household. No way am I paying the Apple tax when I can get the same thing from Dell, Sony, or HP for a lot less.

My experience working at an Apple store was enough to ensure I will never purchase an Apple product.

[pfletcher]

The only thing to come out of that article is that Forrester Research apparently employs idiots. - all this to happen in 5 years from a single company. Everything they mention already exists and the next move to the home will take an intelligence switch.....

[KellieCM]

As you can see by the byline, this story was written by our sister publication, Computerworld.

[mpheadley]

Give me a break! Most people will always buy the cheapest thing that works. And therefore, it's not going to be Apple!

[rgeiken]

Sounds a little "Pie in the Sky"!!! I have 5 i pods in my house and they are all there for a specific purpose. I don't own any other Apple products though. I don't think that I want any company in my living room that requires so much attention to keep their product running. My i pods hang up so much, I would sure like to get an MP3 player than would be more stable.

[spaul40]

You say Jobs has a "love affair with consumers." That's why he bricked the iphones that had been modified - to please his customers! No - Jobs is a hardware freak. The magic of all Apple products is their UI's; however, they are there to sell hardware - period! If he was really interested in consumers, he would make OS-X available for all PC's. But this would hurt his hardware sales (why should it if the Apple stuff is so much better than everyone else's PC?). Of course, the Billions would roll in from OS-X sales - and, as if they hadn't noticed, software sales has much higher margins than hardware sales (cost to produce a copy of OS-X - about $2; sell it to retailer for $100. That is not a bad margin.

[pfletcher]

Apple makes a lot more than that off their hardware. A typical Apple system is between $150 and $300 more than it's PC counterpart built from the same components

[spaul40]

True; however, I would assume that at least 50% of all of the PC's out in the world would buy a copy of OS-X once it became available for a standard PC. Let's see - that's 500,000,000 copies at approximately $100/copy profit. Hummmmmm. $50 Billion (with a B) and counting. Of course, if Jobs pre-announced to the developers that he was going to make OS-X available for a standard PC, every developer would re-write their application to run on OS-X so that argument goes away.

For profitability, compare M$ to any hardware company and see what profits are available. I worked for a hardware oriented company that had great software (CAD-CAM) back in the mini-computer hayday, and their insistance on selling their software on only their home made Sun workstations instead of the production units from Sun was their downfall. They went from #1 in the industry to doors closed in about 5 years.

[pfletcher]

50% 0f the PC users out there don't even know the Mac exists, of the remaining 50%, 50% could care less. Of that remaining 25% possibly 50% may want to try it. of that 12.5% maybe half would be able to do it, many would procrastinate which leaves around 5% who know and care enough to do anything about. (personally I think any PC user intrigued enough has already tried one of the hacked versions and figured out what a good thing they are on to with Windows)

[bignumone]

Wow, what really angry PC people. I thought only Mac-lovers were so fanatical.
Let's review: You can get the same thing from Dell (and others)...Didn't Dell just lose a case regarding fraud in product service?
I used Wintel products for years along side Mac products. They have their place but really do not compare when it comes to quality and ease of use.
This is a value call, cheap PCs that last a year and you struggle to use, expensive PC (Mac) that is easy to use and lasts for years. I still have a mac from 8 years ago that works as well as PCs that are less than 3 years old. That said, if Apple moves away from easy self service and upgradability (as it appears they are), they are making a mistake.

People just want inexpensive equipment: Il think the living room and such are still up for grabs. Not everybody wants cheap junk that is difficult to use. Remember trying to program you VCR, that is an example of a function that was designed by people that have no concept of usability. MS, Sony, and others still don't get it, Apple does.

The products are hard to keep running: I mentioned I have an 8 year old mac, but I also have a 16 year old mac, a bunch of 10 year old ones, a iPod photo, two ipod nanos and a couple of power books. Never have I had one problem. You are either unusually hard on products or have not learned to use them properly, because I am hard on equiptment, hence the pile of broken PC laptops, desktops and hardware.

I would love to go on, but I have a life to live.

Reconsider your position and look at value...BTW, there are good PC values out there, but it isn't Dell.

[Boscher]

Great reply bignumone! I agree completely.

[pfletcher]

my experience with Apple products differs from yours - and I do try them frequenty - even have to work with one sometimes.

I find the constant nannying and cosseting infuriating - I know what I want to do and I know the system should be capable, but each time it tries to get in the way. No thanks, not in my home...

[spaul40]

Many of the major PC suppliers use cheap components as price is the only thing that many of them can compete on. I like to "roll my own" so the components are on the opposite end of the spectrum. I'd love to be able to install OS-X as one of my OS's as the UI is the best out there. Watch out for Linux though as some of the UI enhancements are equal to or better than Mac. The biggest problem with Linux is the bad rap it has due to its early days when they had no graphical UI. Unix is cryptic for those that are not into that kind of thing. When I show people the flexibility and UI of Ubuntu 8.04 with the available UI, they are amazed.

Regarding Apple products still working after 10 years or more. Fine. It sounds like you have a good start for an Apple museum. I only tend to "use" 3 PC's - my main unit, the one at work, and my notebook. The notebook is the oldest and slowest with a 2.8GHz Pentium. Slow disk, etc. I only use it when on the road and cannot get to my other PC's. With memory becoming cheaper every day, programs are written with that in mind meaning newer versions of programs require more memory than was available on the older personal computers (which includes Mac's, Trash 80, Altair, etc.). The old programs run fine on the old computers but we typically work with the newer versions which are upward compatible from the old versions but never backward compatible. As I said, good museum.

Hey, I don't dislike Mac's. As I said, if I could run OS-X on my homebuilt, I'd do it in a heartbeat. I just like to have control over what I do and use instead of looking to the mighty Steve Jobs to do it for me. Sheep seems to come to mind.

[jonathanp]

I absolutely agree. Apple is like IBM 25+ years ago. I work in advertising and I am confident that eventually consumers will tire of the apple 'look' and brand and will realize that being kept in a cage is neither fun nor cool. The fact that apple has already become completely mainstream and the #1 computer you see around (at least in California) is an indication that trendsetters will soon be abandoning it.

[RDunn]

$o, according to the article, Apple's going to rule the living room because... "It will appeal to a very small and elite audience". They got that right... the audience willing to pay the premium prices. Good products, high pricing.

[doctorphipps39]

Again, one finds Apple in the milieu of the rich. Hey, give us poor guys a break! Oh, yeah, least we forget...we've got Microsoft!

[mrwarrenzhang]

There's no way I'd ever use an apple product in my living room. Apple inc. is the creator of the world's least customizable, most frustrating, and completely un-upgradable software.

I refuse to pay the apple tax. i could get a lot better from dell or hp at a lot less.





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