How Apple Stacks Up Against Regular PC’s
Only 5 years ago when you used the ‘Apple’ name in the average Australian household you were referring to a piece of fruit – how things can change! Apple with their iMac (desktop PC), MacBook (laptop), iPad (tablet PC), iPad Mini (mini tablet) & iPhone(mobile phone) have a significant range of consumer devices which have become very popular in recent times. This popularity has also created some inroads into the sales of the ‘traditional’ computing products that are powered by Microsoft operating systems.
This sudden popularity has also caused a certain polarity between the two supporting camps of users and worse yet, significant confusion for those undecided as to what product to purchase. At Kerr Solutions we only sell hardware that supports the Microsoft operating systems but we also recognise some of the advantages of the Apple hardware. So let’s look at some of the differences in an attempt to shed some light for the undecided out there. For simplicity sake I am going to refer to the Apple camp as “Mac’s” and the Microsoft based hardware (that we sell) as “PC’s”.
PC’s get viruses – Mac’s don’t. False! This was the general rule of thumb however due to the increasing popularity of Mac’s there are enough malicious bast*rds out there to want to also disrupt the lives of Mac users! Now there are plenty of viruses around that also attack Mac’s.
Mac’s are more reliable. True in some cases! Apple has kept the manufacture of all of their products ‘in house’ to a large extent (way more than the manufacture of PC’s) and as a result they have been able to more tightly control the build quality of their products. Unfortunately ANY company is allowed to manufacture hardware components that are used in the build of many PC’s and the resulting quality of these components is questionable.
As an example of build quality – we can buy a Chinese made ‘no name’ PC case, complete with power supply for as little as $25 which I know will likely fail within 6 months. On the other hand we can buy the same thing in a quality brand like Inwin or Thermaltake for around $120 that I know is just as good as any Mac hardware. This is what we do – but many PC builders are too price driven and opt for the cheap and nasty stuff. Obviously the cheap route is false economy in the long run!
Mac’s cost more. True! On average Mac’s are around 20 to 40% dearer for the same specifications. This is easier to compare now-a-days as they are using the same Intel CPU’s and the same ram and hard drives as PC’s – but they come at a price premium. It could be argued that this is justified because of the better build quality (stated previously) however we see premium PC’s put together – like our own desktop brand and the Hewlett Packard Business laptops that we sell which I would easily back to be as well built.
Mac’s aren’t as compatible with software. Still true to some extent! We still see a lot of business software that was developed for PC’s and is still not able to run on a Mac. An popular example here is the MYOB accounting software which will not run on a Mac operating system. There is a crazy ‘work around’ for this – Mac’s can’t run MYOB software by first installing a Windows operating system onto a Mac but this is like first driving to Longreach just to get from Rocky to Brisbane!
Mac’s are easier to use! This is like use telling an American that right hand drive cars are easier to use than left hand drive – it is what you are used to. At the end of the day – you need to be guided by a sales/support company that you would like to use and you need to try or borrow a device to have a ‘play’. Keep away from ‘no name’ budget PC’s and if you are running a business then you have a heap of things to consider before just switching from your existing PC to a Mac.
Future Byte Me topics can be emailed to [email protected] and Bruce is contactable at Kerr Solutions, 205 Musgrave Street or on 49 222 400.
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