I think Win-Lose-Draw hit the nail on the head here and I agree with Allen. The profits on a super low budget book computer is all in the software, especially when you don't have to provide phone support.
Costs Apple what about $3 to manufacture a box of installer disks? That's a pretty huge profit margin with absolutely no customer service liability.
Microsoft on the other hand has to support every crappy computer every computer illiterate plebeian installs Vista on, and you KNOW that is costing them a pile of money.
Actually it's pretty ingenious, if it is intentional, and after giving it some thought, I think it's pretty likely it IS intentional. Apple really hasn't done much to stop hackintoshes, if anything. I can't remember any lawsuits or legal threats.
Anyone smart enough to hack a Mac, probably is capable of making enough money to buy Macs, probably has other Macs, and recommend Macs so very little money lost over all. In fact it seems they win any way you count it.
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Personally I know I could put OSX on generic computer, but I'm not going to, because the headache and time lost hassling with upgrades or problems etc would not be cost effective.
Apple's site STILL sucks. I was trying to find out how much they charge for Leopard. Couldn't do it. Still not working with the latest version of Firefox. Even using Safari their search, and organization sucks. |
