[petri]

I know NZ has plenty of excellent apples but what about Apple?

Are Apple's gaining any market share or approval in the NZ corporate world?

Over here in Finland a lot of people are choosing Apple's laptops for convenience, some people even run Windows on them -- you don't need to work in creative industry. Even corporate policies are getting mac-friendly. People and companies have realized that the hardware cost is the smallest part of the equation.

I broke my travel laptop in Antarctica and bought a new one earlier this year in New Zealand -- the price was pretty good. Today they've adjusted prices to the currency exchange rates but they're still comparable to Europe.

PS. I'm not looking for a Mac-job but just curious what NZ thinks if an employee wants a MacBook Pro instead of a plastic Dell.

[cabso1]

I was reading this yesterday: http://blogs.nzherald.co.nz/blog/mac-planet/2009/7/1/why-bother-getting-mac/?c_id=1502175

Personally, I like the mac community being tiny because that limits viruses and other nasties that exist in Windows.

[Chiba]

We're a Mac only house, and I see plenty of people around in Welly with Apple laptops. To be honest it surprises me, given how much they cost here. I'm not looking forward to replacing our ancient iBook, but that time is approaching.

For example, a base Macbook converted into NZ Dollars:

US: 1560
Japan: 1758
NZ: 1999

$400+ Kiwi tax. It's a rip off, sadly, but it has to be done because there's no way I'd buy a Windows machine. I've tried very very hard with desktop Linux, and server side Unix was my job for years so it's not like I'm a newbie, but it's still miles away from OS X. Maybe I'll give it yet another go...

[KelvinAng]

Since my iBook got stolen I've been thinking about replacing it. I too couldn't make desktop Linux work the way I'd like it to be (and I work with Unix and Linux servers too). The Mac OS X is probably the best *nix-based GUI system created in my opinion. The only grip I have is the price - it only (officially) runs on a Mac computer, and Mac computers aren't cheap :wah

At my last workplace (a printing company) they had several Macs. I suppose it's there out of necessity. The newer Macs run dual-boot, but the default OS is Windows XP (and MS Exchange for email... of course...). On the whole I'd think most companies here are pro-Microsoft in technology.

[petri]

For example, a base Macbook converted into NZ Dollars:

US: 1560
Japan: 1758
NZ: 1999

$400+ Kiwi tax. It's a rip off, sadly, but it has to be done because there's no way I'd buy a Windows machine. I've tried very very hard with desktop Linux, and server side Unix was my job for years so it's not like I'm a newbie, but it's still miles away from OS X. Maybe I'll give it yet another go...

Euro-zone: 2090 NZ$
UK: 1920 NZ$

Back in February when I purchased my Macbook in Queenstown, it was cheaper in NZ than in the US or Europe (.. exchange rates). UK price is also on the rise as they're adjusting to the drop of the pound.

I'm pretty much in the same boat. A server in the basement runs FreeBSD but the house is otherwise all-Mac. I could live with linux, I guess, but I don't want to run my desktop machine as a hobby. Eventhough I've had my share of problems with Apple hardware, I think the Apple hardware and OS X combo still saves me a lot of time and trouble -- and justifies the price, even here in the euro-world.

But nice to hear NZ isn't all dominated by the boys from Seattle.

[James 1077]

We've got a MacBook and an iMac G5 at home.

When we got the G5 I wasn't convinced but OH wanted one ('cos it was pretty). It ran WOW so I didn't mind too much!

About a year later I bought the MacBook and can never see me going back to a PC unless there was something that I seriously wanted to do that I couldn't use a Mac for!

The extra cost is easily saved by the time that I no longer have to spend ensuring that the computer is running at optimal performance and spending on upgrades to keep it there!

[Chiba]

A server in the basement runs FreeBSD but the house is otherwise all-Mac.

Good combo. :nice1

One thing I will say is that I wish Apple would pull finger and bring out a tablet Mac. My work machine is a Toshiba tablet, and even though it's running XP it's still a fine toy.

[Flutterby]

i noticed that the NZ price was cheaper than the UK price while i was visiting last year.
Personally i get so frustrated with Windows based machines, so its well worth the extra pennies just to keep the blood pressure down!

[Tesall]

I was reading this yesterday: http://blogs.nzherald.co.nz/blog/mac-planet/2009/7/1/why-bother-getting-mac/?c_id=1502175

Personally, I like the mac community being tiny because that limits viruses and other nasties that exist in Windows.

If you are a fan of macs then that column will make good reading, the guy is a huge fanboy of apple, sadly that gets in the way of good comparisms as he is very blinkered. It is like reading a microsoft website to find out windows is better.

And your second point is very valid!

[dbonnett]

To the OP's question - I haven't seen many macs in corporate settings around here, but the schools are almost exclusively Mac in my experience. I volunteer at my daughter's school and help out with some of the IT issues, but their part time consultant seems to have plenty of work to keep him busy.

Personally, we have a very ecumenical household - two macbooks, one XP laptop, one Vista desktop (long story) and one linux server (music via Squeezecenter, samba file server, web/db dev platform etc etc). All were bought in US and shipped over, so I can't really speak to pricing comparisons.

[Duncan74]

The extra cost is easily saved by the time that I no longer have to spend ensuring that the computer is running at optimal performance and spending on upgrades to keep it there!


Somewhat offset though by every mac owner I've known spending so long banging on to everyone they ever talk to about how great apple computers are :D

The virus thing isn't as much as people claim, there are Mac viruses, and ESET has kept my PCs free of viruses for goodness knows how long with none of the slow down of the Norton crud.

I've used macs for publishing before, and found then mediocre and £££. A lot of the criticisms of PCs arise due to people buying low spec machines with unreliable components (you can't buy a 'cheap' mac) and then throwing every bit of pop up download spamware onto it they can find. It's not really the fault of the PC, but the owner in my view.

Still must be cheaper to just buy a dell and a copy of a Jean-Paul Sartre book to carry around with it to get the same effect as an iBook. :) TFIC

[Chiba]

So what you're saying is... Macs have a better class of owner? :cool:

[Leo]

Someone once told me, " Once on a Mac... there's no going back! " :nice1 :nice1

[Duncan74]

So what you're saying is... Macs have a better class of owner? :cool:

Not quite, but happy to agree on that if it keeps us all friends :D:D:D

[victoria24]

i love all my apple products and will defend them against the evil that is pc's!

[Tesall]

i love all my apple products and will defend them against the evil that is pc's!

Tellingly you wont have to, as most PC users couldnt care less. It is mac owners that have a chip on the shoulder and seem dertermined to attack PC's. Just look at Apples marketing campaigns.
Inferiority complex maybe?

[Chiba]

Tellingly you wont have to, as most PC users couldnt care less. It is mac owners that have a chip on the shoulder and seem dertermined to attack PC's. Just look at Apples marketing campaigns.
Inferiority complex maybe?

More likely is that the majority of people simply don't care about good design in general, and the people that do care about design tend to talk about it more. Why do or use anything you don't care about? What a waste of time and effort!

[Tesall]

More likely is that the majority of people simply don't care about good design in general, and the people that do care about design tend to talk about it more. Why do or use anything you don't care about? What a waste of time and effort!

Thats pretty condescending attitude dont you think? Most people care about what thngs look like and work and hence design, otherwise everyone would wear plain black sack clothes and live in square houses with no gardens or ornaments.
A lot of people just dont agree with what a small group tells them is good design, they know what they like and what they want and go for it.
Which all gets back to only mac people caring about the 'feud', everyone else has better things to do I guess.

[Chiba]

Thats pretty condescending attitude dont you think?

Pshaw. I'm a Mac user! What did you expect? :D

But seriously, if people genuinely did care about design there would be no jokes about programming VCRs, you'd never break a nail (or worse) trying to open a piece of packaging, you'd never fail to immediately get the right temperature in a shower, etc, etc.

Every purchasing decision is an opportunity to vote on good design. The majority of the time people don't bother. I often do it myself - I allow myself to compromise for some reason (cost, availability, immediate need, etc.). For the most part that just leads to things that are occasionally irksome in some way.

With operating systems you only really get three options, so with experience of all three it's a relatively easy decision to make. I've used Windows pretty much every day of my working life for 20 years (and by "use" I mean "write applications on"). I spent 7 years working on Unix and Linux writing Java. For me, neither would be acceptable at home. The Mac has a UI design that's way ahead of its rivals, it's built on rock solid OS foundations, and it all sits on beautiful hardware.

Mac all the way. :nice1

[Chiba]

...and if anyone can tell me why Puppy Linux will run in live mode on this old laptop, but boots to a black screen after being installed, I'd be eternally grateful. All I want to do is get it running so my kid can have his own computer. Maybe I should try that Sugar on a Stick (http://wiki.sugarlabs.org/go/Sugar_on_a_Stick) thing, but I thought Linux would be handy for GCompris (http://gcompris.net/-en-).