Apple loses its polish

Two weeks ago we talked about how Apple is transforming itself from being a computer company to becoming a consumer electronics company. They've taken the word "Computer" out of their corporate name, and will not attend MacWorld., the developer and Mac fanatics' coven of annual Mac excess.

Just to show we aren't prejudiced in your selection of articles, here is another one that says the love story between Apple and its fanatic customer base ins falling on hard times. Here follow a couple of quick excerpts to give you the flavor of the article, then the link at the bottom will take you to the complete story published by ZDNet Education.

Just for "full disclosure," in reading the article I noted that the author talks about how the Acer Aspire One notebook replaces the Apple. We carry the Acer, in case you want one . . .

The End of My Love Affair with Apple?
By Christopher Dawson

Since the moment I purchased my MacBook, I’ve sworn it was the best computer I’ve ever owned. It’s light, durable, elegant, the screen is bright and crisp, the built-in iLife software works brilliantly, and OS 10.5 is stable and fast. What’s not to like, right?

Apple makes some great products, but they are not exactly key to getting the most bang for your buck. As more teachers and students have a chance to play with the Acer Aspire One netbook that I’ve been floating around, most find, even if they don’t care for the form factor, that it does everything they need it to do.

Apple is losing its luster for me. I’ll always feel warm and fuzzy inside walking into an Apple Store, but the other night we were talking about how to meet the computing needs of our family of six. Three out of four kids are using computers all the time for school now (and are far more likely to pop onto a computer than watch TV, a trend that I welcome happily). My youngest rarely “needs” a computer for school, but can easily make use of one (and is frequently bumped from a computer by his older brothers who actually need them to type papers, create presentations, conduct research, etc.).

I no longer need a Mac at home and I’m struggling to see it in the schools, either. For our last refresh in several of our elementary schools and the middle school, we stuck with Macs since an Apple infrastructure and a fair amount of software and staff expertise was already in place. As I try to engineer additional refreshes over the next few years, though, I’d rather spend the money on interactive classroom appliances and moving us closer to 1:1 instead of on Macs, no matter how easy/pretty/elegant the interface.
-30-