Sunday, December 05, 2004
Consumer Reports & Apple
The cover of the December 2004 issue of Consumer Reports had a sub headline that caught my eye: "Unspectacular results for Intel's new processors. Plus 59,940 reasons to reconsider Macs." Could it be? Did Consumer Reports have an article about computers that didn't say something stupidly negative about a Mac, such as "they don't have floppy drives"?
The answer, my friends, is yes. But they still aren't getting their facts straight.
Apple has led Consumer Reports ratings for tech support & overall reliability for several years now ("Apple Computer has actually raised its support satisfaction for desktop computers over the past three years to levels way above all competitors, while offering the most reliable desktop hardware."), so it's still a bit puzzling that they so easily make misstatements about Macs, their features & how they work.
One example near the beginning of the article is how CR says there are about 60,000 viruses for Windows PCs & only 60 Mac viruses, but fails to mention that NONE of those 60 will run in Mac OS X. Pretty big omission if you ask me. They do correctly note the veritable non-existance of spyware on the Mac, however.
Another misstatement made is this: "(An Apple) computer costs more than a similarly featured Windows PC." Looking at their own comparison chart, the only PC that comes with a display that even compares to the iMac G5 17" widescreen is the Sony Vaio VGC-RA910G Media Center PC, which costs almost $200 MORE than the iMac. They also fail to mention the extra anti-virus & internet security software that you must buy to protect your PC. That right there pretty much wipes out the price advantage (ignoring features) that the "Windows Workhorse" computers have over the iMac G5 & the "Windows Budget" computers have over the eMac. Taking features into account, it's even better for Apple. The iMac G5 has a better display & doesn't have the cable clutter of the PCs, & the eMac has a larger display, no cable clutter, and FireWire (IEEE 1394).
Overall it was nice to see that Consumer Reports has finally stopped harping on Apple for the lack of a floppy drive, but they still make statements without backing them up: "Mac users also have fewer choices in software". How many word processors do you need, for pete's sake?! For a better analysis of the article, read Adam Engst's TidBITS:
Consumer Reports Almost Gets It.
The answer, my friends, is yes. But they still aren't getting their facts straight.
Apple has led Consumer Reports ratings for tech support & overall reliability for several years now ("Apple Computer has actually raised its support satisfaction for desktop computers over the past three years to levels way above all competitors, while offering the most reliable desktop hardware."), so it's still a bit puzzling that they so easily make misstatements about Macs, their features & how they work.
One example near the beginning of the article is how CR says there are about 60,000 viruses for Windows PCs & only 60 Mac viruses, but fails to mention that NONE of those 60 will run in Mac OS X. Pretty big omission if you ask me. They do correctly note the veritable non-existance of spyware on the Mac, however.
Another misstatement made is this: "(An Apple) computer costs more than a similarly featured Windows PC." Looking at their own comparison chart, the only PC that comes with a display that even compares to the iMac G5 17" widescreen is the Sony Vaio VGC-RA910G Media Center PC, which costs almost $200 MORE than the iMac. They also fail to mention the extra anti-virus & internet security software that you must buy to protect your PC. That right there pretty much wipes out the price advantage (ignoring features) that the "Windows Workhorse" computers have over the iMac G5 & the "Windows Budget" computers have over the eMac. Taking features into account, it's even better for Apple. The iMac G5 has a better display & doesn't have the cable clutter of the PCs, & the eMac has a larger display, no cable clutter, and FireWire (IEEE 1394).
Overall it was nice to see that Consumer Reports has finally stopped harping on Apple for the lack of a floppy drive, but they still make statements without backing them up: "Mac users also have fewer choices in software". How many word processors do you need, for pete's sake?! For a better analysis of the article, read Adam Engst's TidBITS:
Consumer Reports Almost Gets It.
