Solved In what way mac hardware differs from PC hardware?

[archer]

I was sitting idle on Saturday evening and this thought came in my mind. In what ways PC hardware is different from MAC?

I am aware that Apple makes their software compatible with their hardware and they mostly use other companies hardware in their machines. Then, what is the reason why Mac is soooo expensive as compared to Windows? also, how MAC is able to provide such an amazing OS?

 

[TVeblen]

The base system of an Apple computer is the same basic system as a PC, and since they stopoped using Motorola CPUs and started using Intel platforms there is practically no difference in the hardware.

Amazingly (to folks like me) their newest systems are consistently older in terms of hardware (CPU) platform.

They get a (significant) premium for their brand. People are willing to fork over almost double the money to obtain the real (and somewhat perceived) benefit of a problem and (relatively) maintenance free system.
Apple computers achieve their stability because they are a closed system. You cannot (easily) modify the system or the "BIOS", and the operating system is designed only to run in that strict environment. There is not an awful lot you can do to tweak and reconfigure an Apple OS. If someone hasn't written an Apple approved program to do what you want then you just can't do it.

PC's by design are highly user configurable. The Windows operating system is also extremely configurable, being capable of running on thousands of different PC hardware configurations, running thousands of different specialized, independently produced programs, etc. This complexity and configurability comes at a price: more user maintenance and knowledge needed.

People are willing to pay a lot more to avoid doing any work, or to have to learn anything about computers. Windows has always been the SUV of computer systems. Mac has always been more like a 2-seater sports car.

 

[archer]

Very well put TVeblen. My question..(I know this for the public) As you mentioned that Mac cannot be tweaked or modified as the users want. Even then, why do customers go for MAC?
What is that one special thing which makes MAC stand out of the rest? If we just talk about OS from Apple, then I agree the fine quality for sound mixing and graphics is amazing. But, Microsoft has also came up with Win 7 and Win 8, in which a user can have the best quality for sound and graphics.

So, why to pay almost double the price for MAC when a consumer can get that same hardware (or even better) for almost half.

 

[bobafetthotmail]

Mac has better looks.
Mac is status symbol.

For the same reason you can find shoes whose value is around 50 bucks sold for more than 100. Put on a sign, turn that in a way to make everyone else envy you, you can keep price higher.

 

[archer]

so bobafetthotmail you are saying that MAC is Gucci and Windows is like some cheap brand.

Oh my god! Admin, you should also start MACforum....(just joking)...

no matter MAC is beautiful, still I will always be fan of Microsoft.

Ciao.

 

[bobafetthotmail]

Yep. Some companies started to realize this detail though.

You can now find "Ultrabooks" from various manufacturers that do their damn best to copycat MacBooks, with mixed results (hardware is far inferior to a Mac)

 

[archer]

Yep. Some companies started to realize this detail though.

You can now find "Ultrabooks" from various manufacturers that do their damn best to copycat MacBooks, with mixed results (hardware is far inferior to a Mac)

I agree....it was Steve Jobs, who gave the idea of "touch screen" mobiles and now all the other companies are making them. But, we have to agree on this that other companies are not doing so bad either. Mac has the best finish and quality on their softwares. But then my thread was for the hardware and MAC is using the same hardware as Microsoft. Case solved.

 

[bobafetthotmail]

well, just hardware-wise, MAC still leads in screen quality and touchpad. You can do pretty amazing things with their touchpads, a "multitouch" touchpad in a laptop is just a pallid ghost in comparison (again a case of "let's ripoff Mac").
And finding a laptop with a good screen is not as easy as it sounds. Mac always have a good one, even if not a Retina.

Then they helped Intel making and pushing Thunderbolt technology, that now is reaching usefullness.
And they also were a strong push behind the creation of decent IGPUs (from HD2000 onwards) from Intel.

 

[kbrady1979]

Apple has copied or flat out ripped off just as many designs from other people, as there are people trying to copy them. The only thing I can see they have going for them in the computer market is their Macbook Pro's and the fact that they have excellent build quality. Does that mean their laptops are worth $2000? No. They charge that much because that is what some people will pay unfortunately. They buy parts from other sources and jack up the price of components, and you can't replace, or upgrade those components without having a Masters Degree in engineering and then if you manage to do that, you've voided your warranty. Yeah, they work and they are pretty.........save your money and learn how to use a real computer. That is what I recommend when someone mentions buying an Apple computer.

 

[Layback Bear]

Apple controls everything. Hardware, software, operating system ect. If Microsoft did such a thing they would be dragged into court.
In my opinion it is a status symbol which some people are willing to pay for.

 

[archer]

So, all in all..the discussion has come to the conclusion that MAC does not use any special H/W. It is just a brand name that is selling and people are buying it.

 

[TVeblen]

Correct.
To be fair, Apple takes the lead in innovating those standard parts:

• The Macbook Air was using SSD drives before any PC laptop manufacturers
• They eliminated the optical drive from their designs first.
• And as someone else has mentioned, they were early in the use of expanded-use touchpads.

They innovate design, not hardware.

 

[archer]

They innovate design, not hardware.

Very well said....for design innovation we give Apple 3 cheers...but not for hardware....

 

[Barman58]

What apple does have, is a, (nasty), habit of non conformance to established standards - they take a standard item, change a minor aspect of the design and then register/patent the change. This means that they can licence the item to OEM manufacturers and thus gain their "pound of flesh" for sales.

One example is the humble wired headset - the industry standard 3.5 plug and socket used to connect to devices is different in apple devices from the accepted standard - the microphone and volume control connections are in slightly different places, meaning that although you can use items interchangeably for basic listening purposes, the Mic and remote control functions will not work. you have to buy the Apple version for your apple device and a regular version for all other devices - this raises prices and lowers choice for the consumer.

Apple are not the only OEM to use this "trick", Dell for a long time used a bespoke mounting system for the power supplies in it's desktop PCs - This caused serious issues for industry who found they could not locally sourced components in an emergency situation and was phased out

 

[Lady Fitzgerald]

Correct.
To be fair, Apple takes the lead in innovating those standard parts:

• The Macbook Air was using SSD drives before any PC laptop manufacturers
• They eliminated the optical drive from their designs first.
• And as someone else has mentioned, they were early in the use of expanded-use touchpads.

They innovate design, not hardware.

Eliminating optical drives is not really an innovation and definitely is not an improvement. There are a lot of people who still use optical drives. One of the reasons I upgraded from a netbook to a notebook was to gain an optical drive.

 

[TVeblen]

I agree with you!

It is the army of conformist hipsters that are shedding the optical drive for sleek, thin design. To match their pants I guess.

Mmmmm. Use a 75 cent DVD, or a $10 flash drive?
Why, the flash drive, of course!:sarc:

 

[Lady Fitzgerald]

I agree with you!

It is the army of conformist hipsters that are shedding the optical drive for sleek, thin design. To match their pants I guess.

Mmmmm. Use a 75 cent DVD, or a $10 flash drive?
Why, the flash drive, of course!:sarc:

The vast majority of my optical drive use is for ripping content. Much of music is only available on CD. Same for my movies; many are available only on DVD. I also don't see the sense in buying music and movies I already have just to change media.

I occasionally will burn a photo CD to mail to someone who doesn't have the computer chops to download them from a sharing site. I also burn mp3 disks for the 6 CD changer in my "little" truck but that application will go away with my next truck.

For any other kind of temporary file storage or transfer, SD cards and thumb drives work quite well and can be reused indefinitely (usually).

Granted, shedding the optical drive permits a slimmer (and thus, lighter) computer. I suspect cutting costs is also a big factor.

 

[Barman58]

I've got one system left with a Burner - a Blu-Ray player / DVD writer, plus I have an external DVD burner which can be useful on site visits, but I must admit I will use a USB stick by choice these days.

 

[bobafetthotmail]

To match their pants I guess.

More like to fit in their pants. Afaik, optical drives were removed only from devices supposed to be very portable (and the cheapo ones), outside Apple stuff.

Optical drives need around 1 to 1.5 amps to run while a thumbdrive usually doesn't go beyond 0.2 amps (at 5 volts of course). This is significant for devices with small batteries.

But yeah, if someone didn't dump a ridicolous amount of cash in developing BluRay and the next generation DVD tech, I suspect that switching to downloading and thumbdrives would really take over that segment too (movies and music).