“What today’s business people and entrepreneurs are quickly beginning to understand is that Apple’s iMacs (desktop computers) and MacBooks (notebook computers) can not only handle virtually every business application a PC can handle, but also provide a more stress-free computing experience,” Jason R. Rich reports for Entrepreneur.com.
MacDailyNews Note: Apple also offer Mac Pro towers and Mac mini for the desktop and MacBook Pro and MacBook Air as additional notebook options.
Rich continues, “Today’s Macs are more intuitive and stable than PCs running Windows Vista or XP, and they can even run Windows applications. Mac users also worry less while surfing the web, since the Mac OS X operating system is not susceptible to spyware or viruses… Apple also now offers a free service that will transfer all of your existing PC data to a new Mac when it’s purchased at an Apple Store. For an additional $100 a year, Apple will provide one-on-one training on any Mac to get new users up to speed on the differences between the Windows and the Mac OS X operating system.”
“Recent hardware upgrades now allow Macs to run Windows XP or Vista, meaning that if a Mac version of a popular business application isn’t yet available, the user can run the Widows version without experiencing slow processing speeds or other hassles,” Rich explains. “While Macs and PCs still operate differently, Apple and its software developers have overcome many data compatibility issues, meaning that data from a Mac can now be exchanged with a PC. Plus, Macs can be connected to office networks.”
Full article here.
MacDailyNews Take: While there are some inaccuracies and over-generalizations in the full article, it’s very good news for Apple and the Macintosh platform that articles like this are appearing in business publications.
Steve Jobs said that there is some clients that they “Choose not to serve”, But I think that may be, those clients CHOOSE apple and not vise verse… and I’m very glad to be one of those who choose apple.
I just help a friend of mine to make his PCMCI 3g card to work in his Dell Latitude laptop and it is a real pain in the …. to work with windows computer. The weir thing in here is that he is a Wintel Enhineer that came to me (apple Eng) for help with his computer…..
Not to offend any body, but people who chose Mac over Wintel, are people who really has the power to chose and not people that pick a computer because it is the only computer they can afford or is the only computer that they know or their job has impose them to use that kind of computer, but they never had a option.
What’s up with that, MDN? Are musicians not “business people”?
Get off the lame FireWire crap. 95% of consumers don’t even own anything that uses it. Seriously.
“…the user can run the Widows version without experiencing slow processing speeds or other hassles…”
The Widows version? Is there a Widower’s version, too??
The tide is turning, thank the iPhone.
My wife is an instructional designer/manager at an old guard, international chemical company. Not surprisingly, the whole company is Windows/PC, until recently.
The wife reports that iPhones are popping up everywhere at the office. Over half of her department has switched to iPhone. The head of IT has switched to iPhone. The CEO has just recently switched to iPhone too. These are PC stalwarts. To them, the iPhone is not a Mac, its just a cool little ‘smart-phone’.
To me, it appears as a ‘Trojan Horse’, AND it replicates itself, AND it casts a halo (effect). Enterprise can’t resist the Siren’s call. Soon the Windows based servers will be dashed upon the rocks and abandoned forever, except as a dark and wicked footnote in human history.
14561 signees at the online petition and 21,000 viewers at the Apple Discussion forum would beg to differ with you.
“Soon the Windows based servers will be dashed upon the rocks and abandoned forever, except as a dark and wicked footnote in human history.”
No major IT department is going to expose itself to the risks of a single vendor OS/Hardware strategy. Most remember the bad old days of proprietary OSes tied to proprietary hardware.
So your cool smart phone company goes out of business tomorrow, or stops making a suitable unit, or charges more than you want to pay, no big deal, you buy a different smart phone.
You can’t order new desktops or servers, or don’t like the price you’re being quoted from the only vendor of that type of machine? Or they switch their focus even more to the consumer side. or drop a port you need. Or you find that they just switched processor or OS AGAIN? That’s a real problem.
While I applaud the article overall, “some inaccuracies” is being extremely kind.
The guy makes it sound like Office, QuickBooks and Qucken are NOW AVAILABLE on the Mac, where they’ve been available for over a decade or more. And don’t even get me started with FileMaker Pro.
Idiot.
14561 signees at the online petition and 21,000 viewers at the Apple Discussion forum would beg to differ with you.
Lemme see:
Apple user base: ~20 million (low estimate)
Whiners: 14561
%Whiners to Buyers 14561/20,000,000 = 0.07%
Would you burden 99.93% of your customers with the cost of a useless port to pander to the needs of 0.07% of them?
> Would you burden 99.93% of your customers with the cost of a useless port to pander to the needs of 0.07% of them?
If that 0.07% was a highly influential group of creative users that has historically evangelized Apple and has given them free publicity, placement and visibility for more than 20 years? In a heartbeat.
But you are missing the ‘future’ effect….as musicians and film schools face having to buy the MBP or get a windows machine for 1/3 of the cost, they are going to go cheap.
.07% may be an insignificant number now, but the reason I’m still a Mac user is that I was taught on the Mac. I would think Apple would have a harder time switching people entrenched in Wintel hardware (who need specialized ports for music/video), than keeping FW in the MB (it is Apple’s technology — I have no reason to think that would have driven the cost of a MB up significantly….at least enough to ‘burden’ non FW-users. And, who is to say that switchers wouldn’t ‘discover’ FW benefits and help grow the protocol?
USB2.0 is a standard, for sure. But it does not compare to FW at streaming speeds and sustained speeds.
If USB3 is the end-all-be-all, then fine — we’ll all move to that. But USB3 isn’t here yet, so the removal of FW left a lot of us (I’d guess a lot more than .7%) with no upgrade path (except for the pro).
Also, because this also sticks it to the makers of these audio interfaces (who just had their prospective buyer field slashed), why should they stay with the Mac platform?
It is very shortsighted to say that most people don’t use FW, so it shouldn’t be there. I’ve never used the audio input on my Macs, but that is there.
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The idea isn’t me whining about ME ME ME, as much as worrying about the future of this whole artistic community on the Mac…and that is a LOT more that .7%, I can promise you.
Peace,
D
Sorry, my .07 became .7 later in my post…but the exact number is not the issue…
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@Different Criteria
You are correct that no major IT department SHOULD expose themselves to a single vendor OS/Hardware strategy, but that is exactly what many end up doing. Dell hardware and Microsoft AD. Let’s replace those pesky Unix servers and people with more MS-centric stuff as well. So much simpler when we don’t need to negotiate price and such, just bend over and take it.
Gotta love those government contracts!
A Mac without Firewire is like Black Forest Gateaux without the cream.
It’s not just musicians and video people. IT professionals in educational systems are very upset about the loss. They depend on TDM and Firewire for ease of maintenance.
If lack of Firewire makes the Macbook unacceptable for school environments — and we know schools can’t afford MBP across the board — then you’re going to see a swing to Windows laptops in education. People tend to stay with what they learned on. The cumulative effect over years is going to be highly damaging.
Everyone seems to want to sweep this discussion under the rug. But the fact is that the people who are most affected by this — audio and video creatives, plus educational IT pros — are extremely well-positioned to influence future Mac purchasers and users. These are solid, longstanding members of the Mac user community. It doesn’t make sense to ostracize them just because they had the guts to speak out and make their dissatisfaction known.
My 0.02 worth.
Do they really need the Apple in front of Mac?
I HATE it when someone refers to a Mac as an Apple. I always give my smartass reply – “What? You want an Apple ][ from the early 1990’s?”
I always confuse them with the Timex Sinclair Macs and the Radio Shack Macs.
And I’m sure your listeners are overcome with your wit.
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@oh on my shorts
The pulled one feature out of one Mac model and you guys can let it go.
Mac mini
iMac
MacBook Pro
MacPro
All still have firewire. But the consumer level portable MacBook doesn’t, and you suggest a commercial like that?
I already bought band new MacBook, granted I don’t do audio or video work on it at all, that is why I bought it. If I did, I would have purchased a MacBook Pro.
I do 3D animation and rendering, so that is why I did not get an iMac. In it’s place I got a MacPro. Do you see a trend?
Besides, what makes you think that all schools and professional musicians exclusively use MacBooks?
Back atcha, Cubert.
The only scenario in which we will see return of FireWire to MacBooks would be if MacBookPros were redesigned (again) to be significantly different than MB.
Before this refresh, they were noticeably more powerful, especially with the dedicated graphic card. After the refresh, MB and MBP are practically the same. Other than two inches of screen space and Expresscard slot (with fewer people use than even FW), the only difference was $700. If there was FW on MB, nobody would buy MBP. So, it is not about the cost of putting it in (saddling the buyers with the interface almost nobody uses); it is precisely the functionality that the former MBP buyers want.
I know a number of MBP pro users who would have refreshed their MBPs with the new MBs, if it had FW, now that there is a dedicated graphic card. Apple cannot afford that.
FW is the primary and most meaningful differentiator today between MB and MBP. Until a more meaningful one reappears between the two lines, FW will remain a MBP item only.
Luckily, for smart business people (the subject of this article), FireWire is a non-issue.
It’s a trend, Mac-nugget.
Look, I’m all for Apple’s growth. I’m a stockholder.
But if you think there aren’t a sizable number of people with Firewire-only video cams, hard disks, or audio interfaces who won’t buy a Macbook because it’s not compatible with existing equipment, then you’re looking at the world through Apple-colored glasses.
When things (other than the stock market) have been going so well for Apple, why would they feel a need to do ANYTHING that could be perceived as a barrier to entry or conversion?
Predrag — certainly, it’s a means of differentiating the Pro model from the base model. But a $700 differentiation? Come on, it’s a $1 part.
> Luckily, for smart business people (the subject of this article), FireWire is a non-issue.
Oh, I get it. People who have a need for Firewire aren’t smart business people. Thanks for clarifying that.
In a related headline:
“Stupid Business People Continue to Choose Windows”
We now go to our intrepid reporter, live and on the scene, Dick Lipsynch, for a full report …. take it away Dick
Thank you Andy Anchor … This is Dick Lipsynch, intrepid reporter, live and on the scene.
According to reports from other reporters, who are not live and on the scene, we have a large number of stupid businesses who continue to choose Windows.
I’ve tried to find some of those businesses, but seems many of them are going OUT of business at this time, so we’re not able to determine if they really ARE stupid, or just stuck with Windows, and whether or not their choice of Windows had anything to do with them going out of business.
But we will continue to stay on this story, and as soon as we have further updates, we’ll bring them to you first.
Live and on the scene, this is your intrepid reporter Dick Lipsynch …. now back to you in the studio Andy Anchor.
Thank you Dick for that insightful report, live and on the scene
In other news, according to government figures, 99% of all businesses that failed in the last quarter used one particular computer software system …..
@all the whiners for FW on MB on every thread:
please, go sign the petition, print/copy the online page for your personal collection, start a support group in the meantime, declare solidarity with the bring-back-Newton/ADB/MacTV etc. groups, or plain a switch to windows (please do) – meanwhile, if you would, just leave the forums to their respective topics and see if your hyper sensitivity concerning all things Apple can withstand that withdrawal.
Regardless of the rationale, nobody likes a constant whiner, even if they sport an Apple BFF pin on their lapel for 20 years straight.
Folks, seriously consider switching to MACs-are-pricey-Dell-AlienWare-rul3z-OMGBBQLOL3rSkat3z fan club. All whine all day special, FW buffet on Tuesdays.
@midlotv Apple has always had favorable pricing for educational institutions unlike camcorder companies and music shops. If you are going into these trades you should be using the proper tools to perfect your craft. A lower cost consumer note book is not it. Any school that is that cost conscious can get Mac Minis and use recycled CRT for monitors.
bobchr:
You are absolutely correct on the points that you make. And so is the other poster who thought my ‘commercial’ was a little far fetched….
BUT — this all hinges on what Apple does with the refresh of the mini and iMac (rumored).
If they remove FW from all the consumer/entry-level lines, then I think my commercial is more ‘valid’.
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Thanks to everyone for their spirited responses!
Peace,
D
@oh no my shorts
Apple primary reason for existence is to turn a profit. As a shareholder you must appreciate this.
Their decision was not based on anything else then on the premiss that the MacBook and the MacBook Pro are already extremely similar as far as horsepower and feature sets.
The MacBook is more then capable computationally speaking to be used in a professional setting, completely obliterating the need for a MacBook Pro.
Any videographer or audio professional would be hard pressed not to consider the consumer level MacBook and saving a buck.
This has nothing to do with the installed base of peripherals. It has everything to do with not having overlapping products that would cannibalize the viable market of a more expensive product.
Sure, as a consumer, I am with you. It sucks, but as a shareholder, you ought to be happy Apple did this.
Wow all this complaint about firewire and throughput on a laptop – it is meant to be portable not to be tethered to a wire whether that is a firewire or USB the key is NO WIRES
Lets see here I want to buy a computer that will hook up to my old ancient Firewire camcorder – or for the same money buy a MacBook and a new AVCHD camcorder that runs with USB and SD memory for the same price? I think that I would like a new camera WooHoo
“If that 0.07% was a highly influential group of creative users that has historically evangelized Apple and has given them free publicity, placement and visibility for more than 20 years? In a heartbeat.”
That group already buys the MacBook Pro.
“Come on, it’s a $1 part.”
Or maybe it’s a few bucks by the time you count connectors etc.
Or in other terms, assuming say a million 13″ Macbooks sold a quarter, a few million dollars of profit a quarter gone, straight off the bottom line to keep 14k users happy. Apple would be better off to send them all a coupon to get a Pro at a MacBook price, or a free USB hard disk or Camcorder, Or an email pointing out that Apple still do a $999 Mac with FireWire.
“But it does not compare to FW at streaming speeds and sustained speeds.”
Actually it does, for most purposes it’s close enough and USB3 is much faster.
Q: What uploads video faster, a FireWire tape based camcorder or a USB based HDD camcorder?
A: The USB HDD based camcorder is much faster because it transfers a digital file rather than streams and captures video.
Q:Which results in less frame loss in the transfer process?
A: The USB based camcorder because it sends a digital file rather than re-capturing data being streamed from the camera.
Q: But don’t some crappy low end flash based cameras overcompress that data and lose it before they even store it?
A: So buy a better camera. The camera’s you’re talking about are not prosumer cameras.
Q: So which seems like a better architecture, one where the camera captures and stores the data and uploads what it stored with no further loss faster than real time, or one that streams the data out of the camera real time and loses some of it on re-capture even with FireWire?
A: You tell me.
Q: So there’s a technical reason that FireWire is going the way of the dodo? That it’s actually not superior once you start talking about Flash or HDD based cameras?
A: Yes.
Q: So why do people still think FireWire is a better choice?
A: They’re thinking about the old days.
“Also, because this also sticks it to the makers of these audio interfaces”
They’ll push Apple to fix their bugs with isochronous USB2 data transfers. The audio bandwidth requirement is tiny compared to the bandwidth of either USB2 or FireWire.
“But it does not compare to FW at streaming speeds and sustained speeds.
Actually it does, for most purposes it’s close enough and USB3 is much faster.”
Real Answer: No. In Real World Experience, FW beats the pants off USB, and USB3 is still vaporware.
“Q: What uploads video faster, a FireWire tape based camcorder or a USB based HDD camcorder?
A: The USB HDD based camcorder is much faster because it transfers a digital file rather than streams and captures video.’
Real Answer: This is an absurdly bogus comparison which is pointless because it is between different kinds of cameras and has nothing to do with FW vs. USB speeds.
“Q:Which results in less frame loss in the transfer process?
A: The USB based camcorder because it sends a digital file rather than re-capturing data being streamed from the camera.”
Real Answer: In Real World Comparisons of equivalent equipment, using FW results in few, if any, dropped frames. Unlike USB.
“Q: But don’t some crappy low end flash based cameras overcompress that data and lose it before they even store it?
A: So buy a better camera. The camera’s you’re talking about are not prosumer cameras.”
Real Answer: Yes, they do. The recommendation to buy a “better,” “prosumer,” camera is ridiculous in light of the fact that non-prosumer cameras are exactly the kind you’ve been talking about as being better. You know… those with USB and without FW.
“Q: So which seems like a better architecture, one where the camera captures and stores the data and uploads what it stored with no further loss faster than real time, or one that streams the data out of the camera real time and loses some of it on re-capture even with FireWire?
A: You tell me.”
Real Answer: Again, bogus comparisons.
“Q: So there’s a technical reason that FireWire is going the way of the dodo? That it’s actually not superior once you start talking about Flash or HDD based cameras?
A: Yes.”
Real Answer: No. Flash and HHD cameras would be even faster with FW than USB, because FireWire IS objectively, technically better than USB.
“Q: So why do people still think FireWire is a better choice?
A: They’re thinking about the old days.”
Real Answer: Nonsense because USB and FW are the same age, technology-wise. Both have been improved and updated since their original appearance, but FW is still faster and technologically superior.
“Also, because this also sticks it to the makers of these audio interfaces”
They’ll push Apple to fix their bugs with isochronous USB2 data transfers. The audio bandwidth requirement is tiny compared to the bandwidth of either USB2 or FireWire.”
Real World Answer: Sorry, but no. Apple didn’t develop USB. Any bugs will have to be worked out by those who did, and considering the niche market represented by the number of audio pros, it is highly unlikely Intel will bother.
” FW beats the pants off USB”
If by that you mean when compared with equivalent disk mechanisms comes in about a third faster, OK. I’m not sure that that qualifies as “beating the pants”.
“between different kinds of cameras and has nothing to do with FW vs. USB speeds.”
It goes directly to the USEFULNESS of a firewire port to achieve a goal and to the quality of the customer experience. Are you trying to say that FireWire is the best, fastest way to do something 10x slower then you can do it by adopting another technical approach?
“using FW results in few, if any, dropped frames. Unlike USB.”
But as you admit, it does drop some whereas you are wrong about cameras uploading via USB off digital media (as opposed to streaming off tape) They don’t drop any frames at all due to the transfer.
“non-prosumer cameras are exactly the kind you’ve been talking about as being better”
No, my comparison would cover higher end prosumer HDD units and professional HDD units too.
“Flash and HHD cameras would be even faster with FW than USB”
Yes, but camera vendors, having already achieved such a vast speedup by using USB to upload digital files instead of streaming video real time over FireWire probably can’t bothered burdening the cameras with a port not every PC has for an extra few percentage points gain in transfer speed that uploading digitally over FireWire might give.
“Apple didn’t develop USB. Any bugs will have to be worked out by those who did,”
But Apple did develop their drivers, and that’s where the bugs are, not in the spec itself.
“considering the niche market “
You said it right there. Which is why no-one in the mainstream is mourning the death of FireWire.
First, I’m not going to get into a point by point refutation. My initial reply was aimed at comments based on strawman arguments instead of honest comparisons.
Second, I have no idea what this “transferring vs. streaming” point is that you keep bring up. Unless you are saying that a HHD camera acts like an external drive when connected to a Mac and you can just select files on the camera’s drive and drag them to your Mac. Well, guess what? That can be done over a FW (iLink) connection also, and it will be much faster than USB. And there won’t be any dropped frames because it’s FW. If you’re losing frames, it’s probably because of video editing software.
Third, excepting low-end Flip-type, USB flash cameras, I have yet to see a single consumer (let alone “prosumer”) grade video camera that doesn’t also come with FW (iLink)… and usually a couple of other connectors as well as HDMI.
“Which is why no-one in the mainstream is mourning the death of FireWire.”
From a pro user standpoint, the “pro” mainstream most certainly will mourn FW. Excepting keyboards, mice, and a few low-powered devices, USB is considered a joke as a connector.
As for the “consumer” mainstream, well, as they say… ignorance is bliss.
windows wil always be better in gaming! A true gamer will always choose a windows-pc!