1) They closed the box.

What made the Apple II great was the ability of third party makers to build cards that were compatible with the Apple II such as memory boards, the Mockingboard sound card, etc. It set the standard that still exists in the Intel-based PC world.

By closing the Macintosh, Apple made themselves the sole source of both hardware and software. With their high prices and lack of software options, not to mention the bugginess and black-and-white only screens, people moved to PCs for both cost and flexibility. Apple has still barely recovered from this, and only since they allowed users to add on external components.

2) Deliberate obsolescence of software.

If you buy an Intel-based machine and use Microshaft’s lousy OS, it can do one thing that Macs are deliberately designed not to do: run old software. Some people still use older software for specific reasons (e.g. custom made POS programs, internal accounting packages, etc.) and the idea of being prevented from using programs integral to their business is horrifying. Add to that, there are a lot of people who still use old programs simply because they like them: Word Perfect 5 is still considered “the best word processor ever” by some (not me), and many others are nostalgic like to use old games, whether their own or “abandonware”.

An Intel machine made today can run software in a command window that was made for an 8086 4.77MHz PC, or sometimes old CP/M software. (Why anyone would need to, I don’t know.) With a Macintosh, however, trying to run anything designed for more than one previous OS generation is near impossible. Today’s OS X seems to be deliberately made to be incompatible with anything designed for Mac OS 8. Who would want to buy a computer that forces you to also buy overpriced software every year or two?

The inside of MACs and PCs are very similar, similar chips and board manufacture. Hell, an HP quality wise is just as good as a MAC, just look it up on the net.

I like MACs, they are nice machines, but you are paying a large premium for the operating system. The money doesn’t go into the hardware.

I bought a quad core HP for $600 on special. You can’t get that deal with a MAC, no way.

I have one and I have experienced two of those bugs. Both of those bugs were fixed within’10 minutes of updating my system after purchasing. Don’t believe everything you read off google my friend.

No where did she (i.e. Microsoft) claim that Apple wasn’t a good buy in general. Just that there is a segment of the market not currently well served by Apple, a segment of the market made more popular currently by the condition of other markets.

The old saying ‘You Get What You Pay For’is a truth one learns over one’s lifetime. One only has to buy enough cheap JUNK at Wal*Mart over the years to learn when quality doesn’t matter for certain things, and when it does for other products. And when it does, you gladly pay more knowing why.