New Apple Users Everyday

When attending a large lecture recently, I counted a total of 16 computers in the room, 11 of which were MacBooks. From this statistic, it is safe to say that PC users are changing their operating system at a fairly substantial rate. A good friend recently just purchased a new MacBook Pro and is ecstatic with it. Last year she had made fun of me for purchasing my own, saying that they were too much money for what you were getting. She apparently no longer feels that way because she told me that her Dell (which was only three years old) had crashed and burned. It is true that you may be paying more money for an Apple computer than another product that runs on the Windows OS, but that old adage, "you get what you pay for," holds true. Apple computers are more reliable and run without contracting those nasty viruses that PCs are so notorious for. As students, we can not afford to lose valuable information that we have stored on our computers, or time for that matter, as deadlines are a must. I am not saying that Apple computers are perfect, but the satisfaction rate of their users is heads and tails above that of the competition. The proof is in the pudding.

AppleCare

Recently, Apple has been adding new retail stores. This is good news for most because sometimes they are few and far between and this presents potential problems for users who live far from the store where they bought their Mac. If you buy AppleCare, which extends service and warranty three years to after the date of your purchase, you will not have anything to worry about. The plans are $250 to $350 dollars depending on whether or not you have a MacBook or MacBook Pro. This service provides you with access to Apple experts to ask questions about software or trouble shoot. In addition, if anything should happen to your computer, you simply call, give them the number of your registered service plan and they will send you a box. You put your computer in the box and send it back out and they send it back good as new. There is no postage you need to pay and the service is nearly faster than the mail can deliver the computer to California and back. My roomate recently had to send his computer to Apple and it was back in about five days or so. So if youre not extremely computer saavy and often need to ask an expert about software, or you run your computer non-stop (which may lead to overheating or other problems) the protection program is a great option for new buyers.

100,000 and counting

The App store for the iPhone and iPod touch has now reached over 100,000 applications. These range from games, to map services, to programs that will find the best local restaurant. This makes Apple's application store the largest in the world. Users can be in any of 77 countries and have already downloaded over 2 billion apps. There is no sign of the use slowing down, as more people are turning to Apple and AT&T's 3G network. New competitors are emerging however, but new devices, such as the Droid, do not have nearly as large of a store with around 10,000 applications. Until another provider can offer the wide range of apps that Apple's store offers, I can not see anyone choosing a different handset device, no matter what features the phone itself offers. With devices today doing very similar things and having similar features, the App store is one thing that manufacturers can not reproduce and puts Apple heads above the competition.

Apple T.V.

Although released in 2007, Apple TV last year got a free software upgrade that may make it more appealing to some users. The new software upgrade allows users to directly access to iTunes store via the small console, rather than selecting what you want to watch from the computer. You are also able to rent videos for prices starting around $2.99. As long as you have a high speed internet connection, you're in business. This is one Apple product I would not buy myself, however. I own an XBox, through which you are now able to subscribe to Netflix. With this subscription, you only pay $8.99 per month and have access to tons of content. All one needs to do is go to the computer, add to an instant queue, and the content will transfer over onto your Xbox. In addition, for this price you are able to check out on DVD at a time through the mail. You can keep it as long as you want and get another when you send that one back. With the Apple TV, you must pay for every rental and also must watch this movie within either 24 or 48 hours of renting it. After that it is gone. I would much rather personally may a rate per month to use all of the content I want. Apple needs to restructure their system so that a user may be able to pay a monthly rate to access all the material they want and not have to worry about fees for every view or struggle with time constraints.