7 ms·

US consumers flock to Mac laptops

24 points by nickb 18y ago

drawkbox 18y ago
I got one for the sole reason to develop with Unity3D. And the iPhone. A better python environment than windows. To help develop multiplaform games and so many other reasons. It is attractive to developers as well as consumers.
jacobscott 18y ago
Is this just straight contradictory to recent analyst downgrades (and Apple's resulting stock price drop)? I never know quite what to hink of this kind of market data.
- jeroen 18y ago
  "... 20 per cent of retail notebook sales during July and August." These numbers may not have been influenced by the credit crisis if awareness of the situation was not widespread. Or those analysts could be wrong in their predictions.
- laut 18y ago
  No, not contradictory. Apple is going down with all the other stocks. It has had a high multiple (Price of the stock/earnings) and still has IMO. The growth in Mac sales is not news and has been known by the market.
metatronscube 18y ago
I love mine!! Its a real road warrior. Got Windows, Ubuntu and Open Solaris on there and my entire itunes library...and I think for the price points are great too (and I'm from the UK and it was way more expensive than you guys pay for it, so I can see why its top on the list)
- unalone 18y ago
  Out of curiosity: what is the advantage of having Open Solaris on your computer?
  - metatronscube 18y ago
    Some of the work I do involves Cramer and NetCool and its just sometimes easier to test things on that platform. Edit: Oracle too...
jcromartie 18y ago
I have been a regular Mac user since 2001, and had always tinkered with them before. One of the most annoying things I find about the platform is its user base. I mean they types of people who would rail against Windows and Microsoft, and then freely admit that they had never used Windows a day in their life. Now there are hordes of users who are just flocking to the platform because it is so hot right now. A whole new generation of smug Mac users is born. I don't even bother going to the Apple Store unless I know I can get something fixed or exchanged right away, since it is invariably filled with giggling teenage girls that just want to ogle the shiny hardware. Maybe it's the inner hipster in me, but I almost feel like I have to ditch this scene now that it's so popular :)
- James_Johnson 18y ago
  Exactly. Now that I have a Mac, Mac fanboys all assume I'm one of them and come up to me in the coffee shop to say, "hey, aren't we so much better than everyone else because of the computers we bought?" I proceed to rant about all my little pet peeves about Mac OS X and say that as soon as I get around to it I'm installing Boot Camp and putting Linux on it.
  - unalone 18y ago
    Aww, those are the bad Apples. I promise, some of us know that our system is flawed. (Not that we aren't smug, we're just realistically smug.) The college Mac type is inevitable, though. I'm biased, though, since I'm in college and have a Mac, so I don't get Mac Smug from other people.
- unalone 18y ago
  An artsy friend of mine insisted that he couldn't use Mac because it was too popular. He used Vista instead. Kind of silly, IMHO.
TweedHeads 18y ago
I got two dells before my 4-yr-old iBook G4 and let me tell you, quality is king. Dells are now pieces of crap falling apart and my iBook is still runing like new. Nothing loose, flaky or damaged at all. You get what you pay for, I got quality and a beautiful piece of hardware.
- electromagnetic 18y ago
  Being the owner of a 3 year old Dell Inspiron 9400 (E1705 in the US) I would have to agree. There's nothing physically wrong with it, and it performs as good as ever. However, the rubber grips came off the bottom due to excess heat being transferred through them, which is Dell's problem as the fans don't run in it until the CPU temp gets past like 50C so the entire metal case starts acting like a heat sink. Problem two is that with the rubber grips gone (I've replaced them, but I've yet to find any of similar quality so I'll pick up my laptop and the damn things are adhered to the table because it's heated them so much the vinyl surface adheres to paint or varnish) the bottom of the laptop has started losing paint. The plastic shell is fine, sadly it also has metal casings to protect the ram slot, which is now incidentally a nice chrome. There's also multiple other problems I've noticed through prolonged use of the Inspiron. Note these are nothing I'd dump a $3000 laptop over, however the next laptop I buy is going to be a macbook. The most annoying problem is if you don't close the lid properly, like you're just picking up your laptop to move it while still in use, it can turn off the screen but as it didn't fully close it won't turn on without a hard reboot. Another problem is that Dell doesn't supply up-to-date drivers; Intel released updated drivers for multiple things, including an overhaul of the built-in GPU making it compatible with more games and improving the shader emulations making the thing run a whole lot faster. In fact it improved it so much I stopped using my desktop for games as my laptop got better refresh rates. Sadly I had to uninstall the Intel drivers shipped through Dell and install the Intel ones manually. Obviously the few crash occourances Intel patched weren't important enough for Dell to bother testing and it still hasn't been released. So even though I do love my Dell as it's served me extremely well. I would just prefer more quality for the price.
- jackchristopher 18y ago
  I don't mean to crash the party, but notebooks by many brands are manufactured, and even designed by the same few Taiwanese companies. Apple included. But I agree with your point. Apple designs their own stuff, and despite what keep being repeated by some here, design is not just about looks. Apple simply puts more thought into their products. That's what design is all about. [1] http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Quanta_Computer http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Quanta_Computer [2] http://www.appleinsider.com/articles/08/01/17/report_quanta_lands_macbook_air_contract.html http://www.appleinsider.com/articles/08/01/17/report_quanta_... [3] http://www.paulgraham.com/mac.html http://www.paulgraham.com/mac.html
Ben65 18y ago
Being a hardcore geek, I love running on top of a "unix" like environment. I should flock to Linux, but Mac OS X is just prettier, and more stable. I don't know better fonts maybe? For that reason, and I know it seems small, I prefer Mac. BTW. I only use emacs and Firefox most of the time anyway.
- omouse 18y ago
  If you were a hardcore geek you'd try and find a BeBox :P http://www.josephpalmer.com/BeBox/BeBox.shtml http://www.josephpalmer.com/BeBox/BeBox.shtml
  - unalone 18y ago
    I know you're joking, but: when did "geek" become synonymous with "doesn't care about rich user experience?" Can't you be a geek and care about things working beautifully? Because according to some people on HN (not you, omouse, this isn't against you), the minute you start worrying about aesthetic you abandon being a TRUE geek, and that's stupid and demeaning.
    - omouse 18y ago
      Well I just meant to point out that there are other operating systems and other hardware.
      - unalone 18y ago
        Yeah, I know. Sorry if it seemed like it was you I was ranting at.
- sfk 18y ago
  I cannot refute the bold statement about stability, since I have no experience with Mac OS X. However, I have extensive experience with Linux and OpenBSD and I've had zero stability problems with Linux. OpenBSD is a different story. The funny thing is that BSDs have this nimbus of being ultra-stable and bug-free; my experience is just the opposite.
omouse 18y ago
Just curious: so has anyone tried running Haiku, AmigaOS or some other non-mainstream, non-UNIX-based OS on their Mac laptops?

24 points by nickb 18y ago

I got one for the sole reason to develop with Unity3D. And the iPhone. A better python environment than windows. To help develop multiplaform games and so many other reasons. It is attractive to developers as well as consumers.

jacobscott 18y ago

Is this just straight contradictory to recent analyst downgrades (and Apple's resulting stock price drop)? I never know quite what to hink of this kind of market data.

jeroen 18y ago
"... 20 per cent of retail notebook sales during July and August." These numbers may not have been influenced by the credit crisis if awareness of the situation was not widespread. Or those analysts could be wrong in their predictions.
laut 18y ago
No, not contradictory. Apple is going down with all the other stocks. It has had a high multiple (Price of the stock/earnings) and still has IMO. The growth in Mac sales is not news and has been known by the market.

metatronscube 18y ago

I love mine!! Its a real road warrior. Got Windows, Ubuntu and Open Solaris on there and my entire itunes library...and I think for the price points are great too (and I'm from the UK and it was way more expensive than you guys pay for it, so I can see why its top on the list)

unalone 18y ago
Out of curiosity: what is the advantage of having Open Solaris on your computer?
- metatronscube 18y ago
  Some of the work I do involves Cramer and NetCool and its just sometimes easier to test things on that platform. Edit: Oracle too...

jcromartie 18y ago

I have been a regular Mac user since 2001, and had always tinkered with them before. One of the most annoying things I find about the platform is its user base. I mean they types of people who would rail against Windows and Microsoft, and then freely admit that they had never used Windows a day in their life. Now there are hordes of users who are just flocking to the platform because it is so hot right now. A whole new generation of smug Mac users is born. I don't even bother going to the Apple Store unless I know I can get something fixed or exchanged right away, since it is invariably filled with giggling teenage girls that just want to ogle the shiny hardware. Maybe it's the inner hipster in me, but I almost feel like I have to ditch this scene now that it's so popular :)

James_Johnson 18y ago
Exactly. Now that I have a Mac, Mac fanboys all assume I'm one of them and come up to me in the coffee shop to say, "hey, aren't we so much better than everyone else because of the computers we bought?" I proceed to rant about all my little pet peeves about Mac OS X and say that as soon as I get around to it I'm installing Boot Camp and putting Linux on it.
- unalone 18y ago
  Aww, those are the bad Apples. I promise, some of us know that our system is flawed. (Not that we aren't smug, we're just realistically smug.) The college Mac type is inevitable, though. I'm biased, though, since I'm in college and have a Mac, so I don't get Mac Smug from other people.
unalone 18y ago
An artsy friend of mine insisted that he couldn't use Mac because it was too popular. He used Vista instead. Kind of silly, IMHO.

TweedHeads 18y ago

I got two dells before my 4-yr-old iBook G4 and let me tell you, quality is king. Dells are now pieces of crap falling apart and my iBook is still runing like new. Nothing loose, flaky or damaged at all. You get what you pay for, I got quality and a beautiful piece of hardware.

electromagnetic 18y ago
Being the owner of a 3 year old Dell Inspiron 9400 (E1705 in the US) I would have to agree. There's nothing physically wrong with it, and it performs as good as ever. However, the rubber grips came off the bottom due to excess heat being transferred through them, which is Dell's problem as the fans don't run in it until the CPU temp gets past like 50C so the entire metal case starts acting like a heat sink. Problem two is that with the rubber grips gone (I've replaced them, but I've yet to find any of similar quality so I'll pick up my laptop and the damn things are adhered to the table because it's heated them so much the vinyl surface adheres to paint or varnish) the bottom of the laptop has started losing paint. The plastic shell is fine, sadly it also has metal casings to protect the ram slot, which is now incidentally a nice chrome. There's also multiple other problems I've noticed through prolonged use of the Inspiron. Note these are nothing I'd dump a $3000 laptop over, however the next laptop I buy is going to be a macbook. The most annoying problem is if you don't close the lid properly, like you're just picking up your laptop to move it while still in use, it can turn off the screen but as it didn't fully close it won't turn on without a hard reboot. Another problem is that Dell doesn't supply up-to-date drivers; Intel released updated drivers for multiple things, including an overhaul of the built-in GPU making it compatible with more games and improving the shader emulations making the thing run a whole lot faster. In fact it improved it so much I stopped using my desktop for games as my laptop got better refresh rates. Sadly I had to uninstall the Intel drivers shipped through Dell and install the Intel ones manually. Obviously the few crash occourances Intel patched weren't important enough for Dell to bother testing and it still hasn't been released. So even though I do love my Dell as it's served me extremely well. I would just prefer more quality for the price.
jackchristopher 18y ago
I don't mean to crash the party, but notebooks by many brands are manufactured, and even designed by the same few Taiwanese companies. Apple included. But I agree with your point. Apple designs their own stuff, and despite what keep being repeated by some here, design is not just about looks. Apple simply puts more thought into their products. That's what design is all about. [1] http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Quanta_Computer http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Quanta_Computer [2] http://www.appleinsider.com/articles/08/01/17/report_quanta_lands_macbook_air_contract.html http://www.appleinsider.com/articles/08/01/17/report_quanta_... [3] http://www.paulgraham.com/mac.html http://www.paulgraham.com/mac.html

Ben65 18y ago

Being a hardcore geek, I love running on top of a "unix" like environment. I should flock to Linux, but Mac OS X is just prettier, and more stable. I don't know better fonts maybe? For that reason, and I know it seems small, I prefer Mac. BTW. I only use emacs and Firefox most of the time anyway.

omouse 18y ago
If you were a hardcore geek you'd try and find a BeBox :P http://www.josephpalmer.com/BeBox/BeBox.shtml http://www.josephpalmer.com/BeBox/BeBox.shtml
- unalone 18y ago
  I know you're joking, but: when did "geek" become synonymous with "doesn't care about rich user experience?" Can't you be a geek and care about things working beautifully? Because according to some people on HN (not you, omouse, this isn't against you), the minute you start worrying about aesthetic you abandon being a TRUE geek, and that's stupid and demeaning.
  - omouse 18y ago
    Well I just meant to point out that there are other operating systems and other hardware.
    - unalone 18y ago
      Yeah, I know. Sorry if it seemed like it was you I was ranting at.
sfk 18y ago
I cannot refute the bold statement about stability, since I have no experience with Mac OS X. However, I have extensive experience with Linux and OpenBSD and I've had zero stability problems with Linux. OpenBSD is a different story. The funny thing is that BSDs have this nimbus of being ultra-stable and bug-free; my experience is just the opposite.

omouse 18y ago

Just curious: so has anyone tried running Haiku, AmigaOS or some other non-mainstream, non-UNIX-based OS on their Mac laptops?