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Part I: Informed Switching Starts Here
Getting top-notch products
Apple makes money on the products it sells. Unit for unit, Apple is the most
profitable company in the industry. How does the company do that with such
a small share of the market? The same way that Mercedes-Benz or BMW or
Armani does: by branding. Apple doesn’t sell products that are interchange-
able with products sold by half a dozen other companies. It sells unique
products — products that are sufficiently superior that customers willingly
pay a bit more for them. The benefit to you, as a Mac buyer, is the simple
reality that no company can keep such an enviable position in the long run
without delivering top-notch goods. You do get what you pay for.
iPad, iPod, and iPhone
Apple’s runaway success with the iPod personal music player, introduced in
2001, has given the company the kind of market dominance in mobile com-
puting that Microsoft has enjoyed in the PC market.
The iPhone has been hailed as a revolution in personal communications.
It comes in two versions: a four-band phone that uses the worldwide GSM
standard, allowing its use anywhere, and a version compatible with the
Qualcomm standard used by Verizon in the U.S. Both versions include iPod
music, a pair of cameras, and video technology and direct Internet access via
Wi-Fi or cellular phone links. Apple includes a version of its operating system
called iOS in the iPhone, iPad, and iPod touch, with a well-integrated and
easy-to-use interface, all in spectacularly elegant packages.
Apple gives away a version of its iTunes music software that runs in
Windows. The company is betting that iPod, iPad, and iPhone customers
who use Windows will be impressed by iTunes’ ease of use and will give the
Macintosh a closer look when they’re ready to upgrade their computers. You
find out more about iTunes in Chapter 11.
Switching Sides Can Sting
The Mac-versus-PC debate ranks as one of the great divides in the modern
world. Just because these feelings are whipped up by marketing departments
doesn’t mean that they lack emotional impact. Your computer choice forms
part of your personal identity. Mac users have a reputation for a certain
smugness. (“You just got a virus? You mean, like a cold?”) Much of that atti-
tude is defensive, of course. It’s no fun being a minority in a PC-dominated
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