They Can Be Thankful That Apple Prices Their Macbook’s So Stupid Expensive For Maybe Saving Microsoft From Completely Sinking Down The Toilet With Windows 8.
I don’t know anyone who has touted Microsoft’s huge victory with Windows 7 more than I have. I’m a HUGE HUGE FAN of Windows 7. But Windows 8 and it’s touch interface and Metro UI looks like a complete disaster.
So Apple comes out with an announcement today for its 13 inch Macbook Pro priced at $1,699 and $1,999. The $1,699 model includes a 2.5GHz dual-core Intel Ivy Bridge Core i5 processor, 8GB of memory, and a 128GB SSD drive. And the $1,999 step-up boosts the processor speed with a dual-core Intel Core i7 processor and the option to increase the SSD drive’s capacity to 768GB source Gizmodo
Instead of putting its foot on the throat of Microsoft and crushing its larynx Apple leaves the door open for people to continue on with lesser priced Windows based computers.
I contend that if the iPad mini is priced at less that $275 it will be a knock out punch for Amazon’s Kindle and Barnes and Noble’s Nook. Every kid is going to want one and parents that don’t want to spend $500 on a full sized iPad will put one in the hands of their kids for the holidays.
If they price the iPad mini over $350 to start they will leave breathing room for the android devices of the world to survive. There’s no doubt after using both android and Apple devices that the operating system for Apple tablets is far more user friendly and should command a slight premium.
Follow along on the Gizmodo live blog of the Apple Event now here
Update:
They just announced the pricing of the iPad mini base model starts at $329 which IMO leaves the door open for the lesser Nook and Kindle Fire to survive. This is not to say that the Fire or Nook are nearly as good as the ipad Mini but they are able to be priced considerably less. There is a sweet spot of price that most people would be willing to spend for a child’s holiday present and $329 is higher than magic number IMO.
Sort of like the $9.99 lunch, price it over that and you lose a lot of working folks. looks like Apple let up on squashing its competitors on this one as well.
If money were no option you go full sized iPad obvi.
Good Morning Gloucester 
Don’t forget the Google Nexus 7 tablet for $199!
I used to be a Windows person, but finally abandoned them for Mac when I realized that the Windows OS is just too big to run well on a cheap computer – especially a cheap laptop. You can get them, sure, but if you want to do anything slightly intensive (I make websites, and do graphics and music so I personally need a lot of power), you really need to spend practically as much on a PC as you would on a Mac if you want it to run as well. My last Windows desktop machine was a gaming-level box, and if I were going to get a laptop running windows, I would look for a Thinkpad…but for the same money, might as well have a Mac.
Also, in the “time is money” department, I found I gained with Mac, because Windows laptops never really did the sleep/wakeup thing very well, so at the end of every workday, I would have to shut my machine down, and then the next morning it would seriously take 5 minutes or more for the machine to be ready again. If I ever shut down and forgot to do something, I’d be like “ugh, forget it, it’ll take too much time to restart.” But Macs run successfully for weeks at a time (I actually can’t remember the last time I shut this machine down) because they sleep and wake as they should. So, leaving work, I’d just close it and toss it in my bag, and then when I needed it again, I’d re-open it and get to it immediately. When I did the calculation, I realized I regained a half an hour a week in startup/reboot time! If you add up all the time spent waiting for Windows, troubleshooting, restarting, etc…the Macs become a bit more economical. I don’t drink the Apple Kool-Aid (I have an Android phone b/c I prefer it to iOS), but I really do feel way more efficient with a Mac than I was ever able to be with Windows.
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“crushing it’s larynx”.
I think Joey is safe from Madison Ave. recruiters for the time being…
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Trying to bang out these pieces in between offloading boats and as the news of the iPad mini is breaking leaves many mistakes in my wake. Thanks for the correction.
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I appreciate the comments like this without bias and touting the virtues and weaknesses of each system, thanks. Strange I don’t have such long wait times on start up and I leave mine on all the time.
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Full disclaimer…I actually do have a version of Windows 7 Home Premium on my Mac because my preferred music software only runs on Windows, and Quicken for Windows is way better than the Mac version. It does sometimes not wake up for me if I leave it too long, but since I use the Mac primarily, I’m pretty much just booting into Windows when I need it then shutting down and going back to the Apple side when I’m done. It actually runs pretty well and looks great (love that big Apple monitor!), but I think the big difference is that I installed it myself so there’s none of that other junk on there that you can hardly avoid when you just buy a PC from wherever. The last Windows laptop I had was an HP (bought directly from them) and it was crammed with all sorts of utilities and software I didn’t want or need. That was also the reason I had bought the desktop gaming system – it didn’t come with any pre-installed stuff, and that helps with the bootup time and run efficiency, too.
As far as tablets, I’m slightly obsessed with the Google tablet, even though my household has a first generation iPad. Not sure why, since I hardly use the iPad we have…
Actually, Joey you were right when you wrote “crushing its larynx” – “its” is the possessive case (his, hers its…), where “it’s” is the contraction of “it is” 🙂
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