Bob, Have you confused me with another poster??
In essence the Apple Corporate Policy has been to make computers with no upgrade path as regards changing the motherboards. Minor upgrades on memory, cards, I equate with accessories.
I think that 56% share link is false data, and until verified totally suspect. If Apple had 56% of the school market, then the students must actively avoid Apples after graduation, or we would have 56% in industry/business/home etc. So it is obviously false data.
Any problem can be called an attribute if you have an agenda. Why is Apple where it is, nearly down for the count, if the boxes are great, they sell like hotcakes, they are easy to upgrade, they are easy to use, they are technically first rate??. At some point you must say 'the emperor has no clothes'. Apple is where it is because a bunch of goofs in management forgot their roots, the users, and tried to max margins, ignoring the fact that Wintel had come to town. Managers with billions to spend managed to nearly ruin Apple. The downward spiral has not slowed yet. $800 million lost last year?? some costs cut, but enough??
The ability to upgrade an industry standard motherboards system with new motherboards etc it a real attribute. The rate of change is high enough to make this worthwhile. A three year old Wintel would be a 486-33 with 8 meg and Win3.0. Useable, but a pentium would be better. So up chip it to a cyrix crippled pentium(only 4-5 times a fast?), and keep the motherboard, or change the motherboard to a pentium 200 and go 12-20 times as fast, and keep all the rest except the memory which must be replaced. To what degree can a three year old Apple be similarly upgraded. I hear that the CPU can be changed on some boards?? I do not consider buying another Apple an upgrade path, it is a replacement path. Every year the Apple gives an educational deal to sell Apples at U of T, they sell a few, but Wintel generic clones out sell the Mac by more than 10:1 on campus. The students tell each other what to buy by the grapevine, and that is what they buy.
Bill |
