Poll:Do you own any Apple products?

[W2R]

Been using Apple products since the IIe.

Me too, but I haven't owned any, personally.

Right now I am perfectly happy with:

* Dell desktop and Toshiba laptop
* Sandisk mp3 player
* Kindle 3 and Kindle DX
* Motorola flip phone that isn't a smartphone

Works for me. I don't have anything against Apple but usually their prices seem comparatively high and my needs for features in a device are not.

 

[Sarah in SC]

Count me as another not-a-Mac fan, but I do own several iPods and the rather brilliant Airplay dohickey that lets me play music from my computer through my stereo and use the iPod as a remote.
I don't care for their computers, but it is just because they are unfamiliar to me and I don't think I'd fully use their benefits to justify the additional cost over a PC.
The iPod is an amazing product, bar none. If iPhone's had better coverage here, I'd have gotten one of them instead of the Blackberry.

 

[Moemg]

I don't have any Apple products but I've given enough as gifts . If I was going to own one it would be the IPAD .I'm just not a big gadget lover . I recently bought an ereader and frankly it is fine but I prefer library books except for travel than the ereader comes in handy .

 

[dfdski]

About 10 years after I bought an Apple IIc in 1985 this CS grad became a certified Microsoft Solution Developer. At that point I never would have expected I'd be saying this:

PowerBook G3
iBook G3
PowerMac G4
White MacBook
Black MacBook
Unibody MacBook

iPod Classic 2G
iPod Nano
iPod Shuffle 1G
iPod Shuffle 2G
iPod Touch 1G

iPhone 1G or EDGE
iPhone 4

AppleTV
iPod boom box or whatever the brand name is

So yeah, I'm one of the five who checked off the last poll item!

Two notes. First, I actually like that boom box - it sounds MUCH better than my Bose radio. Second, I've been overweight in both my Roth and taxable account in AAPL with an average price of ~60 (in my taxable account it's probably under 40). Right now I'd have to say there are times I feel like Apple is giving me money!

 

[tmm99]

iPod Nano, Mac mini, iPad.

 

[ikonomore]

The only I have nothing against Apple, it just seems there stuff is high-end and my budget is not. They don't offer a single product that I consider a necessity and can't get somewhere else for less so I don't spend my hard-earned money on any of their stuff.

One thing people don't realize is that almost all of the apple products have great resale value. I've spent thousands on pc's and was never able to sell any of them. Always gave them away.

Every apple product I've bought, I've sold for between 60% and 90% of it's value after 3 years.

I bought a lampshade imac in 2002 for $900 new, ran it for 7 years and sold it in 2009 for $600. I bought the first gen unibody macbook 2 years ago for $1k and sold it after a year for $900.

 

[FIREd]

One thing people don't realize is that almost all of the apple products have great resale value. I've spent thousands on pc's and was never able to sell any of them. Always gave them away.

Every apple product I've bought, I've sold for between 60% and 90% of it's value after 3 years.

I bought a lampshade imac in 2002 for $900 new, ran it for 7 years and sold it in 2009 for $600. I bought the first gen unibody macbook 2 years ago for $1k and sold it after a year for $900.

True. I sold my 2-year old iPhone 3G to Nextworth for $110 (I could have sold it for more money on Ebay, but I didn't want to deal with it) so my new iPhone 4 cost me only $89.

I intend to do the same in 2 years with my iPad.

 

[HFWR]

And we already have better, more feature rich mp3 players (non-apple) that we don't use a whole lot. Also, I HATE being forced to use proprietary software to get data to mp3 players. Our sandisk brand mp3 players are drag and drop just like a flash drive (actually you can use them as flash drives) without any software at all.

+1

 

[neihn]

I have an iMac, iPod touch 2nd generation, and an iPad. DD has an Macbook Pro, iPhone 4 (I bought both for her

 

[ERD50]

Also, I HATE being forced to use proprietary software to get data to mp3 players. Our sandisk brand mp3 players are drag and drop just like a flash drive (actually you can use them as flash drives) without any software at all.

+1

I'll +1 that also.

Although, after using an iPod for a while, and then switching to a 3rd party unit, I realized that I missed all the little features that syncing with iTunes provided. iTunes always knew which podcasts I had listened to, where I left off etc. It made it easier to find & delete the ones I had listened to, and then replace with more recent ones. You don't get that with drag & drop.

Less of an issue with music I guess, but I found it useful for podcasts, which are usually listen once, replace. I think you can get 3rd party SW to do drag and drop on iPods too, but I agree, it should be a built in thing.

-ERD50

 

[jayc]

Bought a used eMac G4 ($45) that is used for virus free internet access.

 

[tommca]

I've got a MacBook Pro, a Time Capsule for automatically backing up my computer, and an iPod Nano.

I've got long experience with both Windows machines and Mac, and the Mac just works way better - hardware and software.

The Time Capsule is THE best technology investment I've ever made. My MacBook pro is automatically backed up via wireless network every time I walk into the house, and hourly while I'm home. I've restored several files that I lost and did a complete restoral of my system from the Time Capsule when I upgraded my hard drive. You can do something similar with windows machines, but not with the ease of installation and ease of use of the Time Capsule.

The iPod Nano + iTunes + Apple music store work wonderfully together.

And I've gotten great free in-person service a number of times on my equipment from the staff at the local Apple store.

 

[harley]

I'm sure it is a decent piece of equipment, just not worth the price. And we already have better, more feature rich mp3 players (non-apple) that we don't use a whole lot. Also, I HATE being forced to use proprietary software to get data to mp3 players.

Other than the stock (bought in 91), the only Apple product I currently own is an iPod. I tend to agree with Fuego and the others who object to the cost and to being forced to use the proprietary software. In my case, however, I bought a refurbed previous generation Classic with 80GB for under $100. And I have used various iTunes-less interfaces with great success (Floola, MediaMonkey, Winamp, etc). Never once installed iTunes, although I've messed with it on DDs PC for her iPhone. I hate it, with a capital H!

But I love the iPod interface much better than any of the other mp3 players I've ever had or seen. Apple is great with UIs, they just have major control issues.

But I'm glad that everyone else is so happy with them. I put a couple thousand dollars of DDs college fund money into their stock in my brokerage account back in 91. She didn't go to college, so now I'm using the proceeds to fund her Roth for probably the next 15 years or so. It's a nice deal, especially now, since I can gift her some of the stock, and she can sell it at 0% cap gains and put it in the Roth. Goooooo, gov't tax loopholes!

 

[WhoDaresWins]

I have a MacBook, an iPod, and a Shuffle.

 

[audreyh1]

I've got a MacBook Pro, a Time Capsule for automatically backing up my computer, and an iPod Nano.

I've got long experience with both Windows machines and Mac, and the Mac just works way better - hardware and software.

The Time Capsule is THE best technology investment I've ever made. My MacBook pro is automatically backed up via wireless network every time I walk into the house, and hourly while I'm home. I've restored several files that I lost and did a complete restoral of my system from the Time Capsule when I upgraded my hard drive. You can do something similar with windows machines, but not with the ease of installation and ease of use of the Time Capsule.

Yeah. We've been using Time Machine since it became available, and it's great!

 

[tmm99]

When I got the first generation iPod (was a gift), I thought it was nice, but I was like it wasn't THAT nice. (It could only play music and it was nicer than a Walkman but I wasn't that impressed.) When I got an iPod Nano (ruffle prize), I thought it was really nice - it was small, very light weight and I could put tons of stuff on them including movies. I watched Lost episodes on a long road trip, but when it got to the episode where Sun and Jin started speaking in Korean with subtitles, the subtles were too small to read.

The same year, I bought a mac mini (only because my SO is a mac person and he can fix any problems with mac's - He was an Apple guy even before Apple became popular) I guess it's been OK. I only use it for the internet, some DVD making and photos, so for someone like me, there is not a huge advantage in getting a mac over a PC (except for the support advantage I get from my SO.)

I don't have an iPhone because I have a blackberry from work, but I recently got an iPad and now, I know why people like their iPhones so much. I am now realizing that iPhone isn't really a phone. It has a phone capability, but it is so much more than that, so comparing an ordinary cell phone with an iPhone is like comparing apples and oranges.

I am really excited with the iPad I got. I've only had it for a few days, but with all the apps that are available (for very reasonable prices for most), it can do sooo much. I actually feel awed by what it can do. I heard someone say long time ago "Someone could like Microsoft products, but nobody LOVES them the way people LOVE Apple products." and I have to agree. I am totally sold on this iPhone/iPad thing. Me coming from the PC world, iPad is MAGICAL, and I have only discovered just a little bit of what iPad can do.

 

[kcowan]

I own no products. But my youngest son has macs and iPods and iPhones.

I have the stock which I purchased for an ACB of $8. Does that count? Did some profit-taking at $75 a few years ago.

I believe that the Macs will benefit from all the iStuff that works so well with them. That is why I continue to hold.

 

[WanderALot]

I have a jail-broken iPhone
DW has a refurb 2G shuffle
We also have an Airport Extreme that was given to us.

Their stuff does just work better, but I understand the misgivings that people have. The Airport Extreme is an example. It works great, never needs a reboot, has great connection speeds and I've never shared a printer as easily as I did with it. However, every single router that I've used had a web interface, which for some strange reason the AE does not! The AE uses a program (Mac or Windows only) to configure settings. Now, it's very easy to setup because of this, but I don't know why Apple didn't at least include a web interface! This means I can't configure the router with a Linux box or on a machine that doesn't have the Airport utility installed.

I think Apple's success is based on excellent, well-tested, hardware and software along with a great interface. I just wish their software wasn't as restrictive.