Are you against sales?

[crazedACD]

I have no use for 'status'. I bought a $120 coach purse with some extra money a few years back..because I liked it. I like the brand. It's held up well for years. It was on clearance, but that is a little more money than I usually like to spend on my own attire. I found another purse a few weeks ago I liked, it was kind of an off brand, $40..I bought it because I liked it. I don't really expect it to last through years of daily use though. I don't really care who has those purses, but I know what I am paying for. If I could get the coach purse for $40, then so what? I'm ecstatic because it's good quality.

I don't really like how people brag about their purchases though. I was chatting with a guy in a bar one time and he got onto the topic of his 'Spyder Wear' shirt and how it was $250 and you would never find them on sale..blah blah blah. I don't like superficial people.

[SizzleDog]

Originally Posted by CaliTerp07

Apple might be different to you, but the bottom line is their computers do the same things as a $400 PC does, just for 3-5x the price. It might look/feel a little different, but every computer has word processing, connects to the internet, edits photos, etc. You might think it's worth it, and that's fine--but the reality is that there are other products that would be just as effective for you to accomplish the tasks you need to accomplish. They've managed to sell people on the idea that they're different enough to justify the $1000 difference in price tag, the same way Burberry convinces people that their product is $1000 better than the coat you'd find in Macy's. For some, it is. For enough, it seems to be. That's a successful marketing strategy.

In business school we studied oodles of case studies on companies and their strategies. It is a very well known strategy to attempt to create an air of exclusivity by never allowing your products to drop below a certain price threshold. Apple was the big player in that field while I was in college, so their name came up a lot.

Apple is different to me - granted, I don't have an iPhone or an iPad or any of that... but I do have an Apple desktop and an Apple laptop - only because they're the gold standard when it comes to graphic design. And to me, being able to do my work with ease is definitely worth the "markup" on Apple products.

.. but my laptop I use when I'm on the road to check Facebook and forums is a $400 Sony running Windows. But then again, it's a machine with a dedicated use - piddling around on the internet.

I've designed on a PC before. It was awful. But 90% of Apple customers are not producing magazines with their macs. I do have to laugh though, when people who are not graphic designers say doing it on a PC is exactly the same. It's not. But it may take 4-6 years of college and a degree to truly understand that.

[mkj2013]

That just sounds snotty to me lol

[CharlieDog]

Oh god. Here we go again. Apple is very very good at marketing their "exclusive" brand. That's what they do and they, obviously, do it well.

The problem is everyone who likes apple sounds brainwashed into believing it's superior. It's not. You could build a computer that does the same thing, better, for less. Why buy Apple except for the superiority/exclusivity?

[Romy]

Originally Posted by CharlieDog

Oh god. Here we go again. Apple is very very good at marketing their "exclusive" brand. That's what they do and they, obviously, do it well.

The problem is everyone who likes apple sounds brainwashed into believing it's superior. It's not. You could build a computer that does the same thing, better, for less. Why buy Apple except for the superiority/exclusivity?

The thing is, not everyone who is into graphic design and illustration wants or knows how to build their own computer. They don't all know how to or want to piddle around with it when something breaks and they have a two day deadline to finish a project for a big client. There is a huge advantage to having a machine that you just turn it on, it works and well, and has teams of highly trained technicians at your beck and call you can shove it at if it's not working for whatever reason.

I'm saying this as someone getting into the illustration field and working on digital illustration. There is something about the Macs that is waaay better for digital graphics work. I don't know what it is exactly. But I do know that my Macbook pro handles photoshop and everything MUCH better than my pc did. They had the exact same/size of intel processor and everything. Actually, the pc had a better video card. Somehow it still lagged when working on large files in photoshop, it was really frustrating.

Cornish College of the Arts requires all of their students to have a Macbook, no regular PCs. And it's not a snobby school either.

[SizzleDog]

Originally Posted by Romy

The thing is, not everyone who is into graphic design and illustration wants or knows how to build their own computer. They don't all know how to or want to piddle around with it when something breaks and they have a two day deadline to finish a project for a big client. There is a huge advantage to having a machine that you just turn it on, it works and well, and has teams of highly trained technicians at your beck and call you can shove it at if it's not working for whatever reason.

I'm saying this as someone getting into the illustration field and working on digital illustration. There is something about the Macs that is waaay better for digital graphics work. I don't know what it is exactly. But I do know that my Macbook pro handles photoshop and everything MUCH better than my pc did. They had the exact same/size of intel processor and everything. Actually, the pc had a better video card. Somehow it still lagged when working on large files in photoshop, it was really frustrating.

Cornish College of the Arts requires all of their students to have a Macbook, no regular PCs. And it's not a snobby school either.

THANK YOU, FINALLY someone who understands!!!

For all you PC/other lovers - we are NOT dissing you - but we see many Apple products in a completely different light than the hipsters. They're not fashion accessories to us... they are essential tools.

[CharlieDog]

Oh boo

[Romy]

Originally Posted by CharlieDog

Oh boo

There is some truth in that. But you know, when you HAVE to get work done that HAS be completed by a certain date at a certain level of quality, well, you do what you have to do. It's not down at the training wheel level though, lol. More like this:



The PC is by far a better gaming system. If anything because more games are written for PC than Mac.

[CaliTerp07]

Originally Posted by SizzleDog

Apple is different to me - granted, I don't have an iPhone or an iPad or any of that... but I do have an Apple desktop and an Apple laptop - only because they're the gold standard when it comes to graphic design. And to me, being able to do my work with ease is definitely worth the "markup" on Apple products.

Oh, I can totally see it if that's your field. Same way I'd be shocked if anyone in engineering was coding on a mac. The thing is, I'd wager that over 95% of mac owners aren't graphic designers.

I've been thinking about this a lot this afternoon. You know who's the best at marketing exclusivity? Car companies. Look at Honda & Acura, or Toyota & Lexus. They're the same companies, just different "levels" of luxury. There is no way it costs $20k more to build the luxury brand of the car, and often times the cheaper version is just as reliable/efficient/what have you, but people pay for the exclusivity of the higher label. I would love to study the psychology behind it.

[Cthulhu7]

Originally Posted by SizzleDog

Apple is different to me - granted, I don't have an iPhone or an iPad or any of that... but I do have an Apple desktop and an Apple laptop - only because they're the gold standard when it comes to graphic design. And to me, being able to do my work with ease is definitely worth the "markup" on Apple products.

.. but my laptop I use when I'm on the road to check Facebook and forums is a $400 Sony running Windows. But then again, it's a machine with a dedicated use - piddling around on the internet.

I've designed on a PC before. It was awful. But 90% of Apple customers are not producing magazines with their macs. I do have to laugh though, when people who are not graphic designers say doing it on a PC is exactly the same. It's not. But it may take 4-6 years of college and a degree to truly understand that.

Absolutely agree. Macs are industry standard for a reason. And not just because we designers are incredibly picky about the stuff we own.