I think you misunderstood what I was saying. I meant that you can get a much cheaper, more powerful PC based system that will be compatible for business 100x more over an apple system for a quarter of the price. Being in IT as a consultant, and also working within IT for several companies over the last 13 years, apple products in an enterprise business infrastructure are not considered worth it. One for the compatibility issues with software, and two because of the price. They are geared toward the marketing/design teams and thats where they are dominate. But now they are "Trendy" and everyone has to have one not for business but because they already have an iphone and ipad, so now they need the complete set for when they are sitting in starbucks. There is no need for this for anyone. A well optioned PC can do what these do at any level for half the price and less headache. Thats all Im saying. And with that being said, unless you are a skilled graphic designer or a pro tools engineer, there is absolutely no need to buy a $3k apple notebook.
No I get it... I guess I just don't consider it a pleasure or luxury item as much as you do. I use a 15" Macbook Pro Retina... I've had (or looked at) pretty much every Windows offering under the sun and nothing comes close as far as total package. Some have the build quality but not the screen size, others the screen size but not the thinness, others screen size but not the build quality or low resolution... the list goes on.
For someone that works on their computer all day and needs a laptop for travel, I just can't fathom having anything else. It's light, it's the best build laptop out there, it has amazing battery life, an amazing display, great processing power and is built like a tank. If I had to run a windows computer for work related reasons I'd still get a Macbook and put windows on it.
And I say that as someone who has only been using a Mac for a couple years now and also someone that sees Apple losing their dominance in a lot of ways. I just still haven't seen anyone step up to the plate and offer up something that as a total package is equal to the MacBooks, at least in the 15" size. There are admittedly a lot of nice 13" ultrabooks available but I can't get by with that size.
Yes they're expensive as all getup but after getting 4 months out of a $2000 Dell before the screen hinges broke, owning an Asus that got 1.5 hours of battery time on a good day and weighed 10lbs... the MacBooks have been a breath of fresh air.
Then again, I guess I
could do all that stuff with a windows computer so I suppose you're actually right. It is a luxury but one worth paying for.
Fuck that was a lot of paragraphs of debating just to end up agreeing with you.