“We surveyed nearly 3500 readers and shopped 15 stores and sites to find out which ones have the smartest salespeople, lowest prices, and widest selection,” Anne Kandra writes for PCWorld. “We decided to test the tech savviness of retail sales staff and Web sites, to find out how helpful they are at giving you the information you need. So we surveyed customers, interviewed store managers and employees, studied retail sites, and did some undercover shopping. Our goal? To help you locate the advice you need to make an informed decision–without quitting your day job or resorting to prescription painkillers.”
The verdict? What do you think?
Kandra continues, “Mac fans, start gloating. If there’s a clear winner in our survey results, it’s Apple. Some 63 percent of survey respondents who had visited The Apple Store rated the overall quality of its buying advice a 6 or 7. (The next-closest brick-and-mortar retailer in this category was Circuit City, with ratings of 6 or 7 from a relatively meager 35 percent of visiting respondents.) Apple Store shoppers rated the retailer particularly high in ease of finding buying advice (nearly 70 percent rated it a 6 or 7), and over 70 percent gave it top marks for providing sufficient information to make a buying decision. Apple’s Web store fared nearly as well as its retail outlets: About 69 percent of its shoppers rated its technical information easy to understand, and almost 60 percent said the site provided enough information for them to make a buying decision. From my own experience at an Apple Store, I can easily see why the company did so well.”
Much more in the full PCWorld article here.
MacDailyNews Take: You know that storm brewing on the horizon? That really dark, big one that started forming over Redmond? It’s spreading and getting worse. And it seems like its growing thunder rumblings are causing a lot of people to wake up after a long, unproductive slumber.
Great! When is one coming to Salt Lake City?
Open the floodgates! I’ve got my Mac raft (er…make that a yacht. G5 tower you know.)
We Mac fans never gloat, we gleam.
” width=”19″ height=”19″ alt=”wink” style=”border:0;” />
So how would PCWorld people even know what Apple store people are talking about? I mean they own PCs!
A better question to the PC World people would be to its PCWorld readers: “Have you ever bought anything (like a computer) in an Apple store?” If not, why not?
And PCWorld readers – do they even care how good Apple stores are? The only thing that could be of interest is an iPod. PCWORLD readers own PeeCees for gosh sakes!!!
(That would be as interesting to Mac owners if a magazine said PC repair places get high marks! Who gives a ratz tail!?!)
Mr. PeeCee,
You are a typical PC owner. Clueless.
Get a Mac and get enlightened.
There are those who lead and those who follow. Those who follow usually use Windoze PCs.
Although everyone thinks of themself as a leader, few are.
Whatever “it” is, Steve Jobs has it and has surrounded himself with an incredible team. Just imagine what Apple could be now if the “Professional” Businessmen hadn’t run him out of Apple 20 +/- years ago.
Think Different
http:/www.lp.org
NoPCZone says: “Just imagine what Apple could be now if the “Professional” Businessmen hadn’t run him out of Apple 20 +/- years ago.”
I give up….what?
Last time I checked, the Mac was a personal computer. So PCWorld readers who own, or are interested in owning, Apple-branded PCs might well be interested in this article.
PCowners: Their eyes just glaze over when they see an Aple computer, then head to the $500 and under budget pcs at comp usa or circuit city….
Quote from the PCWorld article to all PeeCee readers:
“The downside? Well, The Apple Store doesn’t sell PCs, which rules it out for many Windows-centric business users. Apple offers a decent assortment of Mac-compatible tech toys, but if you want to look at a wide variety of products and manufacturers, you’ll need to go elsewhere.
And while Mac systems are sleek and sexy, they’re also pricey: A basic EMac desktop with an integrated flat-screen CRT monitor starts at about $800, and an IMac system with a higher-end CPU runs at least $1300.”
Pitty price is overpriced, and components are not very flexible to use.
Trippah said – ‘Pitty price is overpriced…’
What do we have to do to kill this persistant MYTH?
Macs are only more expensive if you want to spend under $500. At virtually every other price point, when you configure similar computers, Macs are LESS expensive. Don’t believe me? Go here – http://www.systemshootouts.com and compare for yourself
‘…and components are not very flexible to use.’
Hmmm. Are those components like industry standard IDE/ATA hard drives and optical drives? Or are they like the thousands of industry standard USB devices? Or perhaps industry standard monitors? Or industry standard video cards? Keyboars? Mice! That’s it! (only 1 button, ya know!)
Maybe it’s the software. That’s right, Macs only run Mac OS X. Less flexible right? Well only if you fail to realize that Macs also run Unix, Windows, and Linux. And with virtually every major software package available for the Mac platform, (as well as 15,000 others) it couldn’t be the software.
Perhaps Trippah is just trippin’
i think pc in this case means personal computer, rather than the colloquial expression for a computer running microsoft windows. nice try though
I can type but Apple makes me slow down by using the Mouse.
Dru, look how many lines your typing to try and get your point across. Do you work for Apple? A walking advertisement perhaps?
Why is it necessary for these “new” OS to be user friendly? I personaly blame the users.
trippah, what Web browser are you using? Does it have interface features that you find useful, like a “Back” button or anything else?
That’s called the “human interface”. Apple uses human interface guidelines that are more stringent and more user-centric rather than data-centric. This generally forces programmers to create software that is easy to use and therefore useful.
Some nerds studying aesthetics came up with this idea that if it takes longer to understand what you are looking at than it takes to perform a task, you are being inefficient.
Apple decided to follow this premise and designed a human interface that is more relaxing to use. Mac users enjoy talking about their niche market computers because they are pleasureable to use in comparison to every other human interface on commonly-available computers.
Microsoft creates data-focussed interfaces that are difficult to understand. They may be good for programmers, but what percentage of MS’s users are programmers? If you cannot design an easy-to-use human interface then you probably shouldn’t be in the business of creating them. A better system should naturally take its place.
If that better system costs less for a full system, is easier to buy because the purchase experience is nicer, and it performs all the tasks you require, then the market is prime for a new leader. Complete Mac systems cost less than the market leading PC vendor. The newest systems run almost every piece of quality hardware and software that run on a PC and many more that don’t run on PCs.
It really comes down to looking at computer hardware and software packages as a platform. If you are a gamer, get a gaming platform like X-Box. If you are a manager at an enterprise-level company, then Windows would suit you best and for everyone else, Apple Macintosh will almost always to a better job with less maintenance and lower costs and down-time than a PC.
Mac zealots are excited because they hope that even you will have the opportunity to share their joy. It is physically painful (this is proven) to see someone you like do something stupid or careless. It is funny to see someone you don’t like do the same.
Feel good that these Mac-zealots want to help rather than laugh. Their actions say much about them.
We won’t think you are bad for not trying, but we will feel like we let you down if you still feel so negative about your computing experience even after trying a Mac. Good luck.
One of the great things about going to an Apple store is that not only are the employees well informed and really helpful, but I have found that other customers are a wealth of information and help also. Just say to the guy next to you, “what do you think of this?” and see the usually very well informed and incredibly helpful responses you will get.
Yep, it is nice to be a Mac user.
Alt-leftcursorkey is my “Go back” for browsers.
My hand is naturally on the keyboard from the word “OSX Login”. Why would I want to reach over to the mouse? Apple still gots LOTS of work to do too.
Whats the deal with drop down lists? I cannot access them in OSX without a mouse.
Large corporates target the “majority”. Yet again I blame the majority of users for the rubbish OS’s thats out there at the moment.
Apple Macintosh will almost always to a better job with less maintenance and lower costs and down-time than a PC.
PLEASE!
trippah:
System Prefs -> Keyboard & Mouse –> Keyboard Shortcuts –> check “Turn on full keyboard access”
PC Magazine has already published that Mac is number one in reliability, and there are ZERO viruses on Mac OS X, so there’s your lower maintenance and lower costs.
You are not a smart person. Get a Mac. Get smarter.
trippah
“Alt-leftcursorkey is my “Go back” for browsers”.
For Mac its apple key and right/left cursor
Also we have system wide spellcheck that would flag your “leftcursorkey” error which I believe you meant to be “left cursor key”
Shortcuts are FAR better on the Mac, how do you get a � on a PC (two keys on a Mac) or a em dash�
or do you just use double hyphen LOL.
BTW users are not to blame for crap software, software developers are.
But they are to blame for perpetuation of poor software, tell me what’s your excuse for using Windows?
trippah: Wow! I can do everything using the keyboard, including moving & clicking the mouse pointer itself. However, for me, using the mouse is just plain easier.
Before you make unfounded comments about Mac OS X try using it first. No, I do not mean a 10 minute test drive at an Apple Store either, (although, that pretty much seals the deal for most). Yes, OS X is far different than Windows, and ever prior versions of the Mac OS itself. If you prefer a full GUI interface, OS X is the best (meaning most intuitive) commercially available now. If you prefer a command line interface, well that is entirely possible too, right out of the box. If you prefer somewhere in between, then there are numerous things to be adjusted either with Apple’s own tools, or 3rd party tweaks (most of which can be accomplished at the command line with the right know how). If you prefer another flavor of OS, well go at it, you can do that too, although most eventually find themselves setting aside their vim and vigor and maturing back to OS X.
If at the end of your test drive, you still feel the way you do now, then at that time come back and post some constructive criticisms we would love to hear them. Mac OS X is not perfect. But Apple’s commitment to it: by ongoing and frequent updates, have put it in a class by itself. Contrast XP which has not been updated in years, and is not likely to be updated until 2006. (SP1 and SP2 were stability/security updates, and not very good ones at that.)
zac
Just an FYI– Trippah is the new Sputnik, just here to get yout goat. Nobody says things that are that stupid and actually mean it. Well… nobody except George Bush. Can’t wait for round two of the debates tomorrow!
Macs are PCs (‘Personal Computer’)
When I speak about a “PC” I am talking about the x86 architecture. I have been exposed to Windows, Apple OS, IBM OS/2, Unix, Linux, BeOS .. etc in the past.
Since then I have really only gone back to Unix and Linux for the simple fact that I can change anything and everything I want. Flexibility. It kind of makes me think of driving a manual car to an automatic one. You get to learn the car, what its capable of and not. With automated systems, everything is in a controlled environment, and is just not flexible enough for me to use. I talk on both hardware and software levels. Sure enough there is a few variants of *nix around for PPC, but the variety of choices compared to a PC is next to nothing.
Bob I see nothing smart about being able pay $2000+ for a computer that is ready to go out of the box. Do you really know whats going on in your computer? ignorance is bliss but definatly not smart or wise. Its not how new your computer is or how much it costs, reality is what YOU can do with it.
Mark software developers in corporate offices have next to no power or input when it comes to the design and architecture of the software. They are purely there for reference and data entry.
I have nothing against Windows or Mac. They are great for people like my Grandma and Grandpops. It is when people start to rely on these type of technology and have no idea about anything else that causes problems. I have been working with Windows and Mac users for 7 years in the IT industry. Most of them end up with no real clue and can get very frustrating at times. Don’t get me wrong, I’m still learning myself, but the difference is, I have a will to learn.
I would look into Apple products again if and when they are more flexible. For now, I fear the fact they want to keep so much control over what I do on my computer.