Intel Corp (INTC)

[spokeshave]

Incidentally, I do not believe that it is processor speed per se that is hurting Apple. As I see it, there are two significant drawbacks to buying an Apple.

1) Cost. Up until a couple of years ago, an Apple system was only marginally more expensive than a comparable PC. The Apple faithful convinced themselves that the extra cost bought them better quality, ease of use, and membership in an "exclusive" slightly esoteric club. Now, with the bottom having fallen out of the PC market, I believe that most consumers cannot justify the $2000 it costs for a 800MHz iMac just because it is cute, when the same money will buy the fastest computer made with 3 times the memory, twice the drive space, and a much bigger monitor and still leave you money for software.

2) Software availability. I don't mean how many titles are available. There are plenty for the Mac, and you can do just about anything on a Mac as you can on a PC - some would argue that you can do even more. But, let's be honest with ourselves. How many of us have software installed on our home PCs that we "borrowed" from work or a buddy? There is a much smaller "borrowing" base for Macs.

Of course, the commercials that basically say "I'm too stupid to run a PC, so I bought a Mac" don't help matters much. Man I hate those ads.