Archive | 12:39 PM

Enjoy an iMac for an additional Rs 11 / day

30 Aug

I divorced my PC and got an iMac

My first experience with a PC was in 1989 during my 2nd year at engineering when we were working on Fortran Programming on an AT 286 system (1 MB Ram / 40 MB HDD). I started my career selling PC’s at Wipro and over the last 21 years have seen the evolution and growth of PC’s & laptops closely.

Over the last few months I have been observing a silent proliferation of Apple products – whether its the ubiquitous iPod or the iPhone a lot of people I know seem to be flaunting Apple products.

This week when we went for lunch at Khansama ( UB City) we walked into the Apple Store and immediately fell in love with the iMac (All of us including my 3 year old were enchanted) – there were no Ads , No offers , No tele callers coaxing us to buy – but the allure of the iMac was so enticing that it was almost irresestible.

The sales guy did a great job of demonstrating the product and clarifying all our “compatability” issues and within minutes we had paid 83 K ( that hurt… but see below how I justified to myself) for an iMac ( 21.5 ” Monitor , Intel Core 3.2 Ghz, 4 MB Cache , 4 GB memory , 500 GB HDD, 3 Years of Support). I always thought Apple used to run on Power PC – didint know that they had changed to Intel.

Back home it took me 30 minutes to dismantle all the wires of my HP Desktop and less than 5 minutes to install the iMac. The 1st use is WOW. Its so easy. No drivers to install , No software to be loaded , no configurations to be done ( it autosenses your broadband once you plug in the RJ 45 ) – this was TRULY plug & play.

The best part of the iMac is it has only ONE wire. Everything else is integrated – wireless mouse , wireless keboard , inbuilt speaker , inbuilt camera…. . (They could have kept the power on button and some USB ports infront instead of all of them being the rear) http://www.apple.com/in/imac/specs.html

The Kids wanted to watch ” Waka Waka ” on the screen from You Tube – and the quality of image / sound is superb. I was also told that the OS is so robust that you do not need any Anti Virus protection

iMac

We still need to figure out how we can use all the great features and utilities of the iMac – I have told my daughter that she needs to do a lot more than just browse the net.

Change normally hurts – but this change looks cool.  I am sure a lot of families will now look at the iMac – its indeed the ultimate upgrade to the Home PC.

Few Points

1. Migration of data is not a problem – Apple sends an engineer home to help if required

2. You really cannot an iMac on price with a HP / Dell – its not an “apple to apple” comparision.

3. Justifying the cost of an iMac

  • Costs Rs 20,000 more than a PC
  • Has a life span of 5 years  ( 1825 days)
  •  Incremental cost / day for using an Apple – 11 Rs ( 20,000 / 1825)

So for an addition Rs 11 / day enjoy working with an iMac.