04-21-2009, 06:18 PM
rz wrote:
[quote=DharmaDog]
I didn't mean to suggest they are the same, or address the same market. I have an iPhone and I figure it does do about 80% of what a netbook does. It's good enough for me.
I'm just interested in how big this hackintosh market is relative to the iPhone market amongst Mac users.
80%?? Really? Can your iPhone:
Do video chatting?
surf websites that use Flash?
Run iPhoto/iMovie/iDVD/Garageband?
Allow you to hook up external drives and printers?
Hook up a real mouse and keyboard?
Then hook to a real monitor to run programs like Photoshop?
Easily create/edit documents, spreadsheets, etc and save those files to disk?
Create and update a website?
You know, the things most people do on their mac.
Don't get me wrong. I own a MacPro, a MacBook,an iPod Touch and a Dell Mini 9. I had hoped the iPod Touch would be able to be a good substitute for the Macbook in cases where I just needed email/web access. But it really hasn't been, especially because of the Flash thing. People complain about typing on the Mini. Compared to the Touch, it's heaven. The Mini 9 is a WHOLE LOT closer to a Macbook than the Touch is.
I've seen people say "The Mini is NOT a substitute for the Macbook!". I beg to differ. They say things like "The screen is too small" or "The keyboard sucks". True. But it HAS a screen. It HAS a keyboard. It WILL run pretty much every piece of software a Macbook will.
For me, yes. I have an iPhone and a 12" G4 PowerBook and a PowerMac G5. I pretty much use the PowerBook and the iPhone similarly. I don't do much actual work on my PowerBook (Office apps). I do video chatting, video editing, photo editing, Office apps and more demanding work on my G5.
Granted it's easier to do somethings on the PowerBook because of the keyboard and larger screen. But I'm quite confident when I say I do about 80% of what I do on my PowerBook on my iPhone. I'm not talking about comparing feature sets, but time spent using the most frequently used features. For me, it's email and web browsing on either the PowerBook or iPhone (not counting using it as a phone).
If I got a netbook, it would most likely just replace my PowerBook. Maybe I'd occasionally use the webcam or open Excel, but but I'd say that 90+% of the time I would not. It would be primarily email and web browsing - like my iPhone.
I wouldn't store music or photos on the netbook, just have it access my G5 that acts as a multimedia library. I like having my content centralized and remotely accessible. I use Simplify Media for this, so my iPhone can access my iTunes library remotely.
These devices are merely tools. And they are flexible enough that we don't all have to use them the same way. For my usage style, a netbook isn't a game changer, but I agree they are neat.
Again, this wasn't meant to be a netbook vs. iPhone post. I'm just curious to see what kind of traction Hackintoshes are getting in the market and how people might be using them.
I'd be more curious to know how Hackintoshes are impacting Dell's (and to a lesser extent other companies') sales of netbooks. Is it a significant percentage of overall netbook sales? What kind of business is Apple losing?
Even if the revenue is substantial, the margin isn't there and maybe people are legitimately buying more retail copies of OS X and other apps like iLife & iWork. Is it in Apple's best interest to look the other way?