Dan:

Hm, let's see how long will it take for the rest of the Apple users to realize that Apple is today what Microsoft was years back: a secretive, arrogant, monopolistic and money hungry corporation run by some guy who gypped his best friend?

Given the right budget, there is always a choice of better PCs than Macs. Because Macs are no longer Macs, they're Intel PCs with a nice case. And, if not a lot more expensive, with excruciatingly unrealistic upgrade options.

So why are people buying Macs? Well, people still get STDs, sue somebody else when they hurt themselves or run like hell when the see an Arab with a briefcase. People are stupid, that's why they bought Windows Millennium Edition in the first place. They like to think writing a book at Starbucks while claiming "it just works" makes them creative. It's the case that sells, not the computer nor the OS. For those there are always better and cheaper choices.

Given that, I would hardly call this herd "computer enthusiasts" or "nerds". Nerds tend to own all kinds of machines, with a natural inclination towards those that allow for messing around with components. In fact, head over to Slashdot to see what nerds think, now, of Apple and their products.

Kit:

Because Macs are no longer Macs, they're Intel PCs with a nice case.

Macs are Intel boxes, indeed, but they're running a great operating system built upon UNIX (for Slashdot nerds to play with, you know) and they're part of an elegant ecosystem: iPod, iTunes, iPhone, App Store etc.

That's part of what Microsoft is struggling to imitate. And it simply can't. Vista is a mess, Zune doesn't sell, Windows Mobile is losing ground, Skymarket is still not operating etc. They seem incapable to keep the innovation pace in some areas and the benchmark is now Apple. The tide is changing, and that—for someone who watched 12–13 years ago how Apple almost crashed and burned—is, in a way, rewarding.

And, if not a lot more expensive, with excruciatingly unrealistic upgrade options.

As for the price, just don't compare Apple with garage junk—here's Rafe Colburn's final point from his The Wal-Martification of Microsoft:

As I side note, I just went to Apple’s online store and saw that the 17″ MacBook Pro costs $2,499. Then I went to dell.com and built a Dell Precision Workstation M6400 with nearly identical specs—the total was $2,864.

The expensive Mac is a thing of the past—nowadays Macs are on par and often cheaper than similarly configured brand name systems.

neagr :

and Microsoft's response, sort of ... http://dashes.com/anil/2009/07/apple-secrecy-does-not-scale.html via kottke

iancu:

Very nice and insightful article, thanks :) Microsoft is going down, that's clear. It won't be coming back in force before it hits the ground (more or less) — or maybe it will, if Balmer gets thrown out the window by angry mobs :))

Dan:

I think Microsoft is back on track: Bing was an unexpected success (25% market share with the help of Yahoo! Search), rumor has it that they want to enter the PC market, Windows 7 sales are expected to do very well considering that the jump to Vista wasn't fully made and XP is almost 10 years old. They also got some thumbs up from Linus himself after submitting their first lines of code to the Linux kernel source repository.

But Apple has clearly lost it: http://www.gizmodo.com.au/2009/08/apple-expects-google-voice-app-developers-to-pay-refunds-out-of-pocket/

Closed hardware, closed apps, monopolistic attitude, DRM enabled store, iPhone bricking, third party apps and equipment blocking and now this. This is lower than Microsoft ever got.

Dan:

Also, talking about being innovative: I love the iPhone commercials where they feature their latest discovery: copy, paste. It's almost like a public apology for being several years late with a very basic feature.

So you can paste full articles instead of links. Very nice. Nobody does it on the web, why would anybody do it on the phone?