I made the plunge last December and purchased my first Macintosh computer from Apple. I had used Apple computers on and off for years at school but was never really *thrilled* with them. However, the biggest factor influencing my decision was the fact that I was sick with Windows. Vista was a huge disappointment for me and every one of my tech-savvy friends that had used it. My desktop computer was unappealing to use, which is a really choking fact with how much money I spent to build that thing.
I ended up buying a 13″ Black MacBook. It is a powerhouse in quite a small package. I got it with the 250GB drive and 2GB of RAM (which I upgraded to 4GB with some after-market OCZ RAM). Right now, it’s essentially the best MacBook I could get of that series.
I love my Mac. Everything on it just works, without any fussing, diagnosis, etc.. You install a program? You drag it to the Applications Folder. All of it’s files are contained in the .app definition. You want to remove an application? Drag it to the Trash. Delete all an applications preferences and reset it to fresh-installed defaults? Drag it’s contained preferences file to the Trash from inside your Library folder. None of this over complicated registry crap, stored in a HUGE .dat file. I’m interested to see how my Mac will age as far as formatting is concerned. I nearly did this every 6 months to a year on my PC and it was getting tiresome.
The Mac has also matured very recently into a platform that caters to computer “Power Users” and IT Professionals like myself. I know I’ve fallen in love with the fact that I have a built-in command line terminal to run applications and functions directly in line with the operating system. Also, the ability to run most *nix utilities out there is a huge bonus and especially in my line of work using linux at work. Having immediate and built-in access to platforms like SVN and SSH is just amazing.
Now my Mac works for me because I needed a laptop with a mobility factor. This was my big reason for making the call to get the 13″ MacBook over the 15″+ MacBook Pro. I found the right Mac for me.
Now lets say for a second I wasn’t looking for a mobile laptop, but rather a desktop. What are my options, Apple? There is the MacMini which is a very tiny marvel, but it’s not exactly a powerhouse and it isn’t much better than a laptop as far as expandability and upgradability. Next up in their desktop line is the iMac. Now this one has the power levels I’m looking for, but again it doesn’t offer much in expandability and it locks you down to built in components like the slot loading SuperDrive and the built-in display. Lastly, we have the top of the Mac desktop line, the MacPro. Now this thing has all the expandability that a techie could be looking for, and it has way more power than most people need. However, the downside is the power comes at a price.. $3200 for their base model + Apple Protection Plan. Add in $700 for their smallest monitor, and that is nearly 4 grand. This makes it prohibitive for many users, including myself.
So what does Apple need? They need a mid-range tower, with similar hardware specs to an iMac, but in the tower form factor like the MacPro. It may take some sales away from their beloved iMac line, but it would also warm up many types of computer users to the idea of moving to a Mac, including my market segment, the IT Professional.
I know I’d be a lot more inclined to buy a Mac desktop if I was able to slap in an extra SATA drive or two, swap out the video card, or even choose my own monitor. These aren’t functions that your regular home users would need to do, but that a guy like me would do and may need to do in a blink to his desktop PC. I know these factors would also play into Steve Jobs’ current strategy to cater more to the business and enterprise market — businesses like to be able to taylor an have more modular equipment that they can pay for only what they need in a particular business situation, and be able to change that in a snap. “Oh, you need a bigger monitor? No problem. More storage space? Done.”
I think it would be a very, VERY good move for Apple to develop a mid-range tower like this. With the gem that is Leopard (Mac OS X 10.5) and the lemon that is Vista, now is the time to hammer into that IT Professional market segment.
Once you go Mac, you never go back. And I have no plans to.
