I had an interesting discussion today with a couple of very smart people about how to setup teams for interdisciplinary project work bringing together technologists and creative people. No surprise that at some point we got to the old Mac vs. Windows discussion as a side topic. But with the release of the Intel based Apple computers the war is not between Apple and Windows anymore, it's between people that can do both and people than can only do one of the two. With Intel Macs running Windows you can switch without having to switch. As this is usually a very emotional discussion and the perspectives on the value of both sides depend highly on personal usage profiles it it useful to look at the following comparison when it comes to the price question:
Apple is not more expensive than Windows: If you compare the 17'' pro models of the leading vendors you will find that Apple is actually the better choice.
| Model | MacBook Pro 17'' | Dell Precision M90 | HP Compaq nw9440 |
| CPU | 2.33GHz Intel Core 2 Duo | 2.33GHz Intel Core 2 Duo | 2.33GHz Intel Core 2 Duo |
| RAM | 2*1 Gig | 2*1 Gig | 2*1 Gig |
| HD | 160 Gig | 160 Gig | 120 Gig |
| Price (USD) | 2'799,- $ | 3'582,- $ | 3'430,- $ |
| Operating System |
Mac OS X |
Windows Vista | Windows Vista |
| SW Price |
+ 250,- $ |
included | included |
| Total price |
3'129,- $ |
3'582,- $ | 3'430,- $ |
Now, must of "us" do not have such a top notch model and in fact, most of the cheap deals that get advertised for a thousand bucks can not compete with these specs. But you can do the same comparison for the standard Dell mobile worker's laptop to the Apple hardware line and end up with a MacBook, which Apple would rather recommend for home and very small office use, but what is actually what has what most of the mobile workers today actually need and will still not be more expensive.
I'm not getting into details about the fact that the Apple hard ware is more beautiful or has additional very valuable features like multiple Firewire ports and Firewire 800 etc because as mentioned above, this is subject to an individuals preference and usage profile. What is not de gustibus and therefore est desputandum is performance. According to Gearlog and PC Magazine the Apple Intel Core Duo was the better one.
So it really seems to be a migration issue than an issue based on fact derivable from a comparison. In fact new research suggests that the number of new users to the Mac platform is expected to continue rising. Research collected from 20 Apple specialist stores by research firm Piper Jaffray reveals that 25 percent of customers are purchasing Macs for the first time, and that this number is expected to continue rising as a result of the theorized iPod 'halo effect' as well as the popularity of Apple's Boot Camp software. Comparatively, Apple stated that 50 percent of customers who purchased Macs in its own chain of retail stores were 'switchers' who had never used a Mac before.
Go get a Mac.
{ 2 comments… read them below or add one }
There’s no way the macbook can compete performance wise. Look at the graphic cards! It might look better, but the engineering quality (layout and build quality) also have no chance against the dell and hp.
But Mac OS is certainly better I’ve you have all your apps you need.
Hm, I might have taken it too easy assuming that two 256MB graphics accelerators with both a 16-lane PCI Express bus interface SHOULD be more or less comparable. Turns out that the nvidia quadro FX1500M out rules the ATI model in the Powerbook by far if it comes to a comparison like http://www.notebookcheck.com/NVIDIA-Quadro-FX-1500M.1415.0.html.
I’m still not sure how you make use of this power (except for gaming) and how that justifies one or the other. But of course for certain needs there are certain solutions. I would like to see Aperture or Lightroom on both platforms or (probably easier to achieve) see PS CS3 apply filters in a batch job to see how they really compare. Hans, any more insight?