MacDailyNews - Where Mac news comes first

Jan 13, 08 - 12:05 am Comment from: silverhawk

Another non-reason for an article.

There's a huge difference between an OS that's updated/improved and hardware. What applies to both is that you have a choice to buy. If the product you bought serves your needs, then there's no need to upgrade other than to say you have the latest and greatest.

Upgrading the OS every year or so doesn't lead me to buyer's remorse. I still have the choice to upgrade, and my current OS (Tiger) doesn't stop working just because the new one comes out.

Kind of a stupid article.

Jan 13, 08 - 12:09 am Comment from: Macmac

Same can be said about Dell, Sony, HP, or __ . Apple dose a good job of making you want the next system not just putting it out. Look at the iMac or ibook they were on the market for years with only internal updates before case changes. How about 8 core Mac pro looks just like the g5 Power Mac. I say Apple should run like Hell and don't look back. As a consumer buy when you need it and can afford it.

Jan 13, 08 - 12:15 am Comment from: DRM sucks

Thank god for the rotary phone...and the Edsel.

Nick Wingfield the anti-Mossberg. The best part:

"Apple users may feel the sting of obsolescence more acutely than those of other companies' products. In recent years, Apple has averaged about one major new release of its Mac operating system a year. In contrast, about five years passed between major releases of Microsoft Corp.'s Windows XP and Vista operating systems.

"Given the fact that the pace of Apple product improvements is between two times and four times faster than PC-based products, Apple buyers will always have a higher degree of buyer's remorse," says Gene Munster, an analyst at Piper Jaffray.

Some Apple watchers have come up with elaborate methods of reducing the risk of badly timed purchases. MacRumors, an Apple news site, has a buyer's guide (http://buyersguide.macrumors.com/) that discusses the probability of imminent upgrades to Apple products, based on historic product announcements by the company.

The site's recommendation for people interested in Apple's MacBook Pro laptop: "Don't Buy -- Updates soon.""

This pustule actually brings up the the half a decade between XP and Vista as a positive!

Jan 13, 08 - 12:20 am Comment from: Lurker_PC

And the author's point is??? I know many people who purchased Vista and had buyer's remorse - even AFTER the 5 or so years between releases.

Peace.

Jan 13, 08 - 12:25 am Comment from: LorD1776

The only buyer's remorse I've ever had concerned a Dell.

Jan 13, 08 - 12:27 am Comment from: qka

Duh!!!!!!!

Welcome to the world of technology!

(Written on a G4 PowerBook. It was the hottest thing from at the time I bought it, and it is still going strong and kicking Windows' ass. I don't on replacing it anytime soon.)

Jan 13, 08 - 12:29 am Comment from: Harry122

So, I'd be completely contented had I continued using my Apple ][e? I guess that Micro$oft is just plain thrilling its customers by abandoning Vista and re-embracing XP.

Jan 13, 08 - 12:29 am Comment from: iDon't

There is some truth in the article.

That's crazy as an ashtray on a motorcycle.
I liked my iPod. I didn't get buyer's remorse because Apple came out with a better one later. It still does what I wanted it to do and even more. Plus the upgrades are primarily driven by the software now.

Jan 13, 08 - 12:41 am Comment from: R

Every car maker in the world does the same thing. Next year, next model. Just because people expect the MS model of 10 years with the same ol' crap doesn't mean everyone should be happy with it.

If you want to buy-- considering everything that may limit you-- buy. Afterward, when new stuff comes out, stay quiet. Ugh.

I had an opinion... once.

I've bought several iPods, a Macbook, and an iPhone. I haven't had buyers remorse with any of it. Although, a new iPhone could give me a little buyers remorse, but not too much. I found out about MacRumors from one of my professors and I'm very glad i did.

I've been extremely satisfied with ALL of my apple purchases. (Including my AAPL stock).

Never buy anything- ever. Insulate yourself from disappointment.

Also, never set foot outside your house- you might get hit by a truck.

CONSTANTLY REDESIGNING - say what?
Yes, I understand Apple general IMPROVES every 6 months.
BUT - re-design, does this guy know what that takes?
Maybe, Nick Wingfield is speaking about IMPROVEMENTS?
Ohhhhh - I bought an iMac Extreme - it was great... perfect for my Apartment. But, I needed the Power.

The MacPro line hasn't changed it's design appearance since mid 2003 with the extremely well engineered G5. It's 2008 and basically the components have been updated as needed to stay at least above or equal to the competition.

The MacMini still looks like a MacMini, has had a run since 2005. The XServe still appear to be the same since mid 2002 - again cosmetically. Component changes are natural. So this author ain't talking about FACE VALUE.

Since Apple has had the Intel processor inside there has been less of changes on the outside.

"if you buy products from companies that support them well, like Apple tries to do, you will receive years of useful and satisfying service from them even as newer models are introduced."

I will confess - that this is absolute the truth.

I suggest to buy machines to last you FOUR to FIVE years.

I still keep several machines running. Just part of my collection. A G3 laptop Pismo. And it runs 10.4.11 beautifully. A iMac G3 slot loading, running 10.4.11 just fine. A Macintosh PowerBook 145 running System 7.1. A Macintosh LC with sytstem 7.
And two brand new MacPro 2.8 Ghz 8-cores with 10.5.1.

Apple use to build MILITARY grade... and they still make rock solid machines. THEY last!!!!!

-------

"In contrast, about five years passed between major releases of Microsoft Corp.'s Windows XP and Vista operating systems,"

THIS is a non issue. Apple has made well and stuck to supporting older machines. You can't compare an OS. Specially since, MacroSloth doesn't make PCs. Besides, Vista is a failure!
Lets talk service packs.... hmmmmm well I am no Winblows user so I can't speak about that.

The corporate businesses still run Office 95!!!! And XP. That's 13 years of FEAR - locked to junk. If they upgrade a machine it isn't running to it's maximum potential. AND then, there are those bleeding edge PCs OVER priced... FRANKENSTEIN custom jobs out there - powerful machines by far. But have TONES of issues with 32bit / 64bit versions of VISTA. The support isn't there.

WHAT is MacroSloth doing? Do they not see our PASSION? Do they not write software? SO where are these drivers.
NO - I think people have been left in the DARK on the WindBlows side. AND they are PISSED off.

----

Like what should Apple have done? Stuck with Motorola?
Steve returned and had a plan. Its paying off.

"They push the human race forward."

One example, please. Oh, don't have one example, then please just shut up.

Jan 13, 08 - 01:03 am Comment from: Zune Tang®

Dougless,

Your post is far too brief. Please expand on your ideas further. I think I speak for all of MDN's readers when I say we're eager to read more from you.

Your potential. Our passion.™

Jan 13, 08 - 01:07 am Comment from: It's About Time

Apple is the master of creating remorse. You'll know the feeling in about 3 days.

I have read many times, from different sources, that PC users toss out their old model and buy new every 18 months to two years. Yet, I have a PowerMac G4 that is - at this very instant - busy converting old VHS into mp4. It's always running, and although slower than my Santa Rosa MBP, does it's job very well and without complaint.

My point is PC users toss out perfectly good systems just to avoid the hassle of wiping their hard drives and re-installing software. Macs have long lives and they are still in use far beyond their expected life.

My mother is still using an orange iMac! It's 8 years old and has been upgraded to 10.4, still going strong just like her.

The master showman takes the stage, all the faithful go swoon, swoon, swoon and numbskulls all around call it changing the world.

It is indeed buyers remorse to the nth degree. And, all because Steve has you in his spell. That's all. It's simple and giving it an explanation of some higher calling is just laughable.

He set it all up with the credo MDN has again cited and it's absolutely amazing how so many have fallen into his grasp.

Owning 3% of the world's pc market with your product doesn't qualify you as some master of the universe.

Having a prettier phone that does the same thing as a dozen others and a masterfully marketed tunes player that is one of several dozens doesn't make you special.

He does belong in the Huckster Hall of Fame, but that's about it.

Jan 13, 08 - 01:33 am Comment from: alansky

Apple has averaged about one major new release of its Mac operating system a year.

Not exactly. OS X 10.3 Panther was released October 2003, OS X 10.4 Tiger was released 18 months later in April 2005. OS X 10.5 Leopard was released 2.5 years after that in October 2007.

Jan 13, 08 - 01:38 am Comment from: alansky

The risk is in disappointing consumers who feel their new purchases are instantly outmoded. Someone who got a Mac laptop over the holidays, for example, could feel bitter if Apple, as expected, introduces a new portable Mac at Macworld

Meaning what? That Apple should just keep making the same old thing year after year so their customers don't feel cheated? That's one thing PC users definitely don't have to worry about. No matter when you buy a PC, next year's model is certain to be pretty much the same.

No matter when Apple introduces a new portable, some people are bound to wish they'd waited just a little bit longer. Isn't that a shame! Life's really tough, isn't it?

Jan 13, 08 - 01:40 am Comment from: alansky

The master showman takes the stage, all the faithful go swoon, swoon, swoon and numbskulls all around call it changing the world.
—Amazing. Just amazing

Were you always a moron, or did it happen slowly as you grew up?

Even though I may have buyer's remorse in 6-12 months when buying an Apple product, It's probably still the best thing going at the time.

I'd rather have buyers remorse with an Apple product, than buying something like a Windows product and wishing I bought an Apple.

The author confuses buyer's remorse with buyer's envy. Buyer's remorse is when the buyer regrets buying a product because he spends more money than he should or because the product doesn't work as advertised. Seeing a new and improved product a year after a purchase, wanting that new product but being unable to buy it is not a remorse. It's an envy at how the new product is available to others but not him.

therefore buy it as soon as it's released

apple rarely discounts their products, with the exception to the iphone.

in any case, consumers always never research when buyng... if they had, they'd be looking on MDN and waiting for macworld before buying

Jan 13, 08 - 03:01 am Comment from: ericdano

Gee, my 2002 Quicksilver runs the latest OS and stuff just fine. Oh, and my 89 Mustang is working great too.

So, buyers remorse? No. I think they were wise purchases.

My Windows XP machine, which I put together in 2004 is going out the door soon. Viruses, strange XP things like losing network settings, and just general system slowdowns. That is buyers remorse there.

Here's one - OSX.

Can you answer four questions for me please -

1) How do define ... pushing the human race forward?

2) How and what is your personal contribution to this objective?

3) Why are you so angry and full of self loathing?

4) What's it like living in the dark-ages?

@Steve : "... ... you will receive years of useful and satisfying service from them even as newer models are introduced."

Like suitable garphic cards to upgrade older MacPros, for instance?

Please Steve, do something about having the "futur obsolete" machines to be still usefull for, at least, the next 3 years... My MacPro "was" a top of... You know.

Jan 13, 08 - 04:15 am Comment from: gagravaar

"WSJ: Apple’s rapid pace of innovation could lead to buyer’s remorse"

Translation: "Apple’s rapid pace of innovation could lead to anti-Apple tech writers finding it increasingly difficult to come with anything negative to say about Apple."

It is amazing, just amazing that you were not put down at birth - now that would have pushed the human race forward.

It is amazing, just amazing that you are even allowed access to a computer at the asylum.

It is amazing, just amazing that you have not yet achieved a "Darwin Award of the Year" (FYI - The Awards honour people who ensure the long-term survival of the human race by removing themselves from the gene pool in a sublimely idiotic fashion.) but hey! hang in there ... anytime soon we suspect.

It is amazing, just amazing that I am responding to the inane drivel of a knobhead.

Jan 13, 08 - 05:18 am Comment from: ken1w

This would be true if the product being replaced sucked, and the new version was much better. With Apple, that is seldom the case (at least not recently). Because the older version of Apple products is usually great, I often find myself regretting not getting it while it was still available new. For example, I like the old (first gen) iPod shuffle USB stick design more than the current clip-on version.

A bit sad if people would rather be in the situation where they are saddled with old technology, like it or not, than a real choice of either staying with something or moving up to something at least potentially better, should they choose to do so. If they are happy with what they have then why be upset with choosing not to update- its simply called being adult about your decision making. Obviously if people want to be shielded from the opportunity to use better technology because not having it will make them depressed is not a good indication of their ability to deal with life generally.

Of course one could stick with the Microsoft concept of doing your best to prevent anyone doing anything better by controlling the market place so that their customers are deluded enough to accept what they have as at the forefront of technological achievement thus reducing costs and maximising profits so that the big white chief can promote himself as the most generous man in the World. However that way someone some where who you cant snuff out or buy off WILL eventually take away your markets with a better alternative. History tells us that.

Jan 13, 08 - 07:38 am Comment from: LinuxGuyAndMacProdigalSon

Another FUD spew. A load of kaka. An jerk journalist spins Apple's innovation machine into a negative.

Well, the ever ending new line of intel chips every six months or so helps to give this feeling.

Remember the power pc days? You'd buy a powerbook or a powermac to find out that in eight months they upgraded your model ..from 1.33 to 1.42 ghz!

Make no mistake, I'm glad Apple chose the road it did. It's just that the 'six months later, my machine's obsolete' feeling is a natural consequence of that. And before you flame me, I said it's a feeling.

...too much change isn't good.

1: Glossy screens
2: OS insecurities
3: iPhone insecurities
4: "Stacks"
5: Employee burnout
6: Long lines at the Genius Bar
7: Over complicated OS
8: Lack of corporate space in Cupertino
9: Third party developers not making a return on their investment because the OS changes, thus they have to provide too many updates which costs money.
10: Boot Zune Tang off of MDN.

On the other hand, since the US economy is headed for a recession now, it's perhaps best for Apple to introduce something new for those who can pay.

Because most people won't be able to afford anything except essentials in the near term and Apple still needs to make a buck.

Oh, and just like anything else, the decision to upgrade or not is still common sense: if the machine you've got does what you need it to do, keep using it. If it doesn't, or if a new machine will pay for itself in increased efficiency or productivity, upgrade.

Jan 13, 08 - 08:12 am Comment from: cptnkirk

The Amish have the solutions.

So let's be a little more accurate in posting Microsoft garbage. The truth of the matter is that Microsoft began working on "Longhorn".... remember Longhorn, vintage 1996? Just because they changed the name of the project from Longhorn to Vista, doesn't mean they worked on it for 5 years, because the "reality distortion field" FACT is that Microsoft worked on their "next generation" operating system for 10 years.

Apple, on the other hand, began working on Copeland around 1995, purchased NeXT and rolled that OS work into the OS "X" project. Not quite as long in development as VISTA, but one would have to go back to NeXT to find out how long the OS had been worked on before the Apple acquisition. Bottom Line is that no matter how long it took, Apple beat Microsoft to market by several years with their respective "next generation" OS.

Damn it... a spade is a spade!

Hahahaha - buyer's remorse. My Macintosh Cube from 2000 is still running strong (on Tiger), and my old 60 GB color iPod still gets me through workouts. I'm so broke up with remorse I can hardly stand it.

This asswipe is trolling for hits. MDN - you need to post your disclaimer "Think before you click".

Jan 13, 08 - 09:02 am Comment from: Mac4lfe

Do journalists actually get paid to write this nonsense. I hope car manufacturers don't come out with better brakes because I'll have buyers remorse. Such stupid thinking or is this just pure paid FUD.
All my Apple products still work the the same or better due to software updates as the day I bought them.

Jan 13, 08 - 09:03 am Comment from: MacRaven

HA, Welcome to my world switchers!

Don't turn us into Microsoft because YOU can't handle "the ride."

That's a price I've paid being along for the fast paced ride (since the 1980's) with Steve & Co.----the coolest innovating company on the planet! Is it aggravating at times? YES. Would I want to change that scenario? NO NO NO.

Jan 13, 08 - 09:39 am Comment from: ron

Smack that

@Sometimes...

You are about to be trashed. No matter how dead center on target you are, around here YOU have just become the target. Don't you know, his Steveness can do no wrong. NO WRONG. Do you hear me? Moron.

apple rarely discounts their products, with the exception to the iphone.

Which is good.

Look at so many automakers: they don't offer discounts to be charitable, they offer discounts (in part) to create artificial demand & move overstock self-caused by brain-dead supply chain management.

I'd rather see Apple make money, not lose it.

On the other hand, since the US economy is headed for a recession now, it's perhaps best for Apple to introduce something new for those who can pay.

Apple-branded soup bowls?

Good idea Nick! Let's all go with MORE MEDIOCRITY. That's what we need.

It'll be really really good for us and we'll all be happier!

Stick with Dell and Windows then old boy!

Jan 13, 08 - 09:59 am Comment from: BiZarRo BaLlmEr

I can't believe people get paid for this stuff. One year Apple is getting criticized for not updating the ipod in a whole year and then Apple gets criticized for rapid change.
Apple hasn't changed the "this or that" in so long and then BOOM, Apple sucks because they upgrade too often.
Anyone of us could be writing this crap. I read more informative blog posts than supposedly well respected magazine articles.
So, keep up the god work posters.

Buyer's remorse has always existed with technology and Apple isn't contributing anything new to consumers.

This WSJ author is just writing FUD.

I agree. I'm stupid. Sorry!