Good to hear at least you make enough to buy a computer.
On Apr 6, 2009, at 11:30 AM, snctln <[email protected]> wrote: I used to own a iBook G4 (back in the PowerPC days and the 4:3 screen aspect ratio, 2004). I enjoyed the machine, but at the time I was a student in Computer Science and about 90% of my classes were Unix based, so having the underlying Unix OS with me everywhere I went helped tremendously when it came to doing projects. I thought the laptop worked well for my purposes, coding and web use basically, but I was always annoyed that I didn't have the option to play games. After having that iBook for 2 years it was time to upgrade, I wanted to get a new MacBook with Intel processor and use Boot Camp to get into windows, but was waiting on Apple to release a Core2 Duo version of the MacBook. They didn't release it soon enough so I bought a Dell Inspiron laptop. The Dell has served me fine for 2.5 years as my sole computer, but it is now time to upgrade. Using the money I have made from the Android Market I am going to purchase a new laptop this week. I have a budget constraint and 1 main requirement, currently my laptop has a 1280x800 resolution and this will usually give me a very small amount of vertical space for my editor window in Eclipse and Visual studio, so my new laptop must have something larger than 800 lines vertically. The MacBook is out, and the next step up would be the 15" MacBook Pro for a minimum of $2000 USD, but that would only give me 1440x900 which is not too much of an improvement. The 17" MBP would give me the full 1920x1200, but costs nearly $3000 USD. I would prefer to buy a Mac laptop even though I would spend the majority of my time using Boot Camp to directly boot into Windows XP because: about 10% of my day job requires me to use Mac OS X, it would be nice to have the option to program for the iPhone, they have smaller dimensions and are generally lighter than the PC based laptops that I am looking at, and I think the build quality is pretty good even if the aluminum body is likely to get dents in it. The problem is that as far as the features that are important to me (screen size, decent processor, at least 4Gb Ram, a capable discrete graphics card) I can get a windows based laptop that I would consider better than MBP for far less money. I am currently thinking I am getting a 16" laptop that has a 1920x1080 resolution, 2.4 GHz process, 4Gb Ram, Blu-ray drive, 7200rpm hard drive, a decent keyboard, and all of the other standard goodies. This laptop that I am looking at will only cost me $1300 USD, I know it is not a direct comparison to the 17" MacBook Pro, but it has the features that I must have for less than half the price. So the windows laptop is going to win this battle, I just can't justify spending twice as much for specs that won't make too much of a difference for now. If possible I will get a new MacBook Pro when the Clarksfield based processors are starting to be used, but of course that requires me putting back enough money from my Android Market earnings, as well as any earnings I will get from the upcoming "Windows Market for Mobile". Enough with my ramblings, to the original question, "Will prices of mac vs. pc's encourage devs over to Android?", I don't think it will make too much of a difference for developers. I generally feel that developers have a decent idea about the computers they buy and they will buy an Mac if they want a Mac, and they will know that they are spending up to nearly twice as much money to buy that Mac. Most developers that I have talked to see developing for the iPhone as a path to instant riches so I think that may sway the decision. snctln On Apr 6, 5:53 am, "[email protected]" <[email protected]> wrote: This weekend I had what I thought was a pretty good idea for a product on Android. But then I figured I didn't want an iPhone dev to steal the idea and cash in so to speak, so I figured I'd look into a simultaneous release on both platforms. But I got a shock when I researched the cost of Macs this weekend. I have recently purchased a top-spec PC laptop for under £500 ($750). For the same price I couldn't even get the lowest spec MacBook and if I was looking at a higher end MacBook Pro, I'd be looking at 3 to 4 times the price! And ultimately the Mac is just another development tool that lets me browse the web, send emails and view pictures. I have read so much on Mac forums about better build quality, security and quicker setup times, but I have had no issues whatsoever with my new PC and I set it up in about 10 minutes! Is it just me or are the Mac brigade trying to make themselves feel better about how much money they are burning on 'superior' Mac hardware? Anyway, back to the point - could this be a driver in helping the Android market to eventually outperform the iPhone market? After all, once the momentum builds for Android and devs can see that they can use Java, make a minimal investment on hardware and make the same returns on their apps, why even consider the Mac route? Also the economic recession could have an impact on Mac where casual users / developers cannot justify spending the extra money on a machine that ultimately does the same thing. --~--~---------~--~----~------------~-------~--~----~ You received this message because you are subscribed to the Google Groups "Android Discuss" group. To post to this group, send email to [email protected] To unsubscribe from this group, send email to [email protected] For more options, visit this group at http://groups.google.com/group/android-discuss?hl=en -~----------~----~----~----~------~----~------~--~---
