I love how the Apple haters are still in denial about Apple's success.

I also know that 75% of you have never given OSX an honest try and probably never will. That's fine, but know that whatever rights you have to bitch about said product are pretty much null and void.

Yes, its more expensive.
Yes, its somewhat proprietary.

Then why is it that droves of individuals are switching from PC's to Mac's? Consumers normally won't drop more money on a commodity (let's face it, desktop computing is a commodity these days) unless there is measurable or perceived value added.

Apple has created a very nice product, not just the hardware or the software, but in the synergistic environment they create across the entire product line. For 90% of the questions 90% of their userbase would ask, Apple has an answer. It may not necessarily be the answer agreeable to geeks like us, but they do have an answer. And that answer is usually geared toward "make it work, make it simple".

Apple's definitely got it's issues, not unlike other PC manufacturers. What they do have is a full head of steam OSX has given them compared to Vista's terrible reputation. That along with excellent customer service (yes I can attest to this personally) and their big picture view of their business are what is driving their success.

Hate all you want, Apple is a successful company with a good business model. Instead of chalking it up to idiots following a cult, why not see what they're doing right and emulate it? Oh, that's right. Doing that would require rational thought. :P

Well, people are like sheep, even the most educated ones. They love being milked. One of my friends dumped 1800 bucks for a MAC desktop. What of waste of hard earned money. I could easily build him an excellent system for half the price, which could draw circles around his MAC crap thing.

I was looking over Apple's 2008 annual report. They had net margins of 14.9%, which is um, good. HP, for example, came in at 7%. I pulled a pharmaceutical company out of the hat, Abbott Labs, and they were at 16%. So Apple can price their products closer to a drug maker's than to a PC maker's. Obviously I'm glossing over a lot of subtlety to make a point, but the fact that Apple nets more than 2x what HP does per sales dollar is pretty amazing.

The Tech Report, PC Hardware Explored and Apple talked about in the corner when no ones looking.

Time to change the site logo! XD

I'm hard-pressed by all this; I used Macs for work and at home for several years, absolutely loved using OSX as it matured, but grew very tired of Apple's "toss it out and buy a new one" approach of not making upgradable computers (except for Pro towers, and even then) and also the dire Apple Tax on every piece of hardware sold at a ridiculous markup when it's available at much less in the generic PC world.

While I assemble my own PCs and love being able to nit-pick every single part I put in, I do hate Windows with a passion; Linux doesn't appeal to me because I don't want to have to "learn" it, but furthermore it's also that I can't get most of the apps and games I use to run on it without any fuss.

Wet dream scenario? Apple sells OSX as a stand-alone product, allowing generic PC users to toss Windows out the proverbial window and just go with OSX instead. Never going to happen, I know.

Apple hardware + Apple OS = it just works and looks good doing it.

Create a cult, your followers will come.

Another thing to keep in mind is that Apple is offering some pretty nice deals to students (as it often does). For example, the 13" MBP education price is $100 lower, and they're offering a rebate for a 8GB iPod Touch ($229), that you can turn around and sell for about as much. Once you take that in to account, it's not all that much more than a comparably speced PC (say, a Dell 14z) and the mac probably has other other things going for it (like battery life).

Could it be pple have had enough with Vista ? I honestly don't know either how come Apple's seeing so much growth in these tough economic times..

Adi

Brand perception. People see buying an Apple computer like buying a Sony TV or a Honda car. A bit more expensive but the product is thought of as being of higher quality and longer lasting. When people are low on cash they try to make fewer purchases but make those purchases higher quality.

In all three of those cases the perception isn't exactly true, the situation is always much more complicated but the general consumer only cares about how they spend their money to a point. It shocks me that even as the economy melts around everyone, people still rather take the popular route than form conclusions from their own research.

Apple makes a good product overall. They make certain decisions as a corporation that are designed to screw their purchasers out of more money... but they do so in such an intelligent way you almost have to admire it.

I work in pricey, high-end antique furniture and we're doing better than ever too. Go figure. The "in this economy" line just works well in a PR statement. It's the "bad economy, we must spend" bandwagon from hell!!! :)

From my little view of the PC market, I can see why it's in a downturn. People have what they need to do what they want. The 'ol Athlon XPs and P4s are still churning fine for people. They power Facebook and iTunes butgood.

Rich people still have money.

I contribute it to.....

1.) Average Windows users flat out tired of dealing with malware and all the BS that comes with it. Granted its their fault probably, no updates, old AV etc, however to them they are just tired of it and on the Mac its a non-issue so far.

2.) Vista sucked.

3.) Console gaming is so much better with the 360/PS3 than with the Xbox/PS2 to the point of muting most of the advantages of PC gaming if not all for the average consumer that gaming on a computer is now a low priority for most people.

It's a value proposition. Most people use their computers for the web, email, and light office work (letters, spreadsheets, accounting, etc.). All things you can easily do on the Mac.

While the Mac is a relative wasteland when it comes to games, the value proposition otherwise is pretty good. You get a well designed OS that is immune to almost all malware, really great industrial design, long battery life, etc. - things that you may or may not get with another computer, unless you know what you're ordering.

A big part of this is that Apple doesn't sell last years tech - whereas you can still pick up relatively slow single core, cache and bus starved machines using last years chips and chipsets from other PC vendors.

All the above combines to a better experience, a longer lasting computer.

Why pay near double the price for a Mac when inside its just a slightly slower version of the stuff we all bought a few years ago?
Ho hum specs in most models that are even reasonably affordable and thousands and thousands of dollars for anything really quick.
Most people say OSX is a better operating system.I don't see that advantage in their hardware performance tho.
They still suck at 3D gaming and uninstalling programs is still a freakin drama.Good luck with your NVidia 295 SLi Mac drivers lol.

People are still locked in the old "Mac-vs.PC" mindset and have a great deal of difficulty remembering that today Macs *are* PCs, and not only that--today's Mac boots Windows (XP or Vista, take your pick) ROOB. Indeed, Apple's BootCamp setup software for Windows is now standard inside the Mac OS. What's happened is that the Mac's traditional Achilles's heel--it doesn't run Windows ROOB--no longer exists, and therefore many people who previously would not look at a Mac are now looking and some of them are even buying. Today's Mac is accordingly vastly more software& hardware-compatible with the general PC markets than it has ever been. I think this explains it all.

I also wasn't clear whether or not she had figured the Mac's ~25% rise in shipments inside the overall 1% growth of the PC market. If so, the Mac percentile increase number is far more impressive than the Mac unit numbers...;)

My 2 cents worth...

the whole PC hardware market is moving too fast. new chips coming out every 6 months... what's the point? At least with Apple, you're getting a set spec.

I don't own a Mac, by the way...

Whether you buy a PC or Mac it doesn't make any major difference now as Open Source + Internet has removed the reliance on Windows as a central hub for home applications. Business is different, it's starting to get like Windows for Work, Mac for play.

iPod, iPhone halo products are pushing Apple's branded items up the wanted list. Plus when you have little money you become more picky about what you buy, Apple is Ascetic, PC is Functional. There's also "it cost more so much be better" attitude some have.

I just purchased an iPhone and I love it, no issues, so easy to use, great design and does everything I need it to do and I like the build quality. While before I wouldn't have entertained the idea of purchasing a Mac with the recent decrease in price, it's a good possibility that I will. If for nothing else to get experience with it as a lot of employers are looking for people with Mac experience.

I'm not part of the Mac vs. PC flame wars, but I am still devoted to the PC regardless of what the trends are. I can only speculate that Vista does not have a great image in the public eye, and we all know now that Windows 7 is only a few months away. I think this is a good part of what is going on right now.

I attribute this to three factors:

• Halo effect - people purchasing iPods or iPhones have changed their perceptions of Apple products.

• Cohort/Boosterism effect - The young "in" crowd has strongly adopted Apple products, and have changed the perception of Apple products.

• Critical Mass - I believe Apple mindshare has reached a point of critical mass, and growth at this point could be exponential.

http://www.dailytech.com/Like+a+Vampire+Sunlight+Causes+the+iPhone+...

I do like their customer service!

Although I am no Mac user, I will say this. I have been mightily impressed when I see the battery life of Macbooks. A handful of my friends up at school have them and I swear, those things can last forever and ever. I've never had any such luck with a laptop.

That and Garageband is the coolest thing ever.

yeah, this makes sense to me too.. when times get tough, generally it's the lower and middle classes that have to scale back their purchasing, while the kind of people who could afford macs last year can still afford macs just fine now.

In my humble opinion, the 17" MBP is the most perfect laptop ever created (when ordered with the anti glare screen).

Availability in a slightly less top end configuration would be an improvement, however.

growth =/= most sales :x
when you are at the bottom you can only go up!

considering they dropped the prices this would be natural as seeing i paid closed to 2800$ for my Macbook Pro with upgraded processor

it doesnt really matter because they are making money on iphone since my family bought three of them this past launch

Two stores ...

~2005 iMac. This sucker had bad capacitors and Apple extended the warranty on this. Mine finally died and Apple's extended warranty kicked in. No need to ship, just bring it to the local Apple store.

September 2007 aluminum iMac (right when the new models launched). It straight died about six months later (no beeps, etc). Well under warranty and just took it to the Apple store (this was a bad experience, diff post). They tried swapping a bunch of parts and after two weeks they gave up and gave me a new one. The new one had all my data copied over, 4GB of ram (original had 2GB) and Leopard.

With a new liver to consume, Steve Jobs' dark energies are once again at full power.

why apple sells more?
most people have heard "we are way poor to buy something cheap"