Apple Continues To Condemn The Mac To Niche Machine 3160

This is a fairly whacky claim. There isn't even going to be a noticeable difference unless the user is recovering hundreds of megabytes of files, which is sufficiently rare that using an internal vs. external drive for Time Machine will probably save, on average, no more than a few minutes a year for most users.

Anyway, it's safer to have your backups on an external drive. I mean, ideally you want real off-site backups, but if you can't have those, at least having your backups in a device which has a separate power supply (so it's less likely to get fried if your power supply dies messily) and is physically a bit separated (in case something, you know, catches fire) is a good idea. Plus, if your house is burning down, it's much easier to grab an external drive on your way out the door than an entire computer.

Yet, despite this trend toward using computers for media tasks, notebook sales have grown at 25%-year for the last three years, desktop sales at only 10%.

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Getting paid $40-50 for an OEM license for 95% of the computers shipped in the world.

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But Apple has to consider cannibalization of sales of more profitable products. And there are also opportunity costs to consider. Keep in mind, it would require a *major* investment to write OS X drivers for a decent subset of the hardware out there in the generic x86 world. Are there other ways Apple could invest the same resources to get more (or more profitable) new customers? Probably.

No, it doesn't. The average price of a consumer notebook is right around the price of the MacBook.

Apple does do market research, you know.

Gaming enthusiasts. Who aren't going to buy Macs anyway.

Why would I want to spend $75 or whatever to save two minutes a year?

-- "Those who enter the country illegally violate the law." -- George W. Bush in Tucson, Ariz., Nov. 28, 2005