It seems Apple truly is recession proof.

I spoke with a friend “in the know” about the Mission Viejo Microsoft and Apple Store renovations. Apparently the Microsoft store was about 10 feet bigger than the Apple Store before renovation. After renovation, the Apple Store will be about 15 feet bigger than the Microsoft store. This only gets better.

Apparently a shopping mall about 15 minutes from MacSparky headquarters, The Shops at Mission Viejo, is ground zero of the looming Apple vs. Microsoft retail battle. First Microsoft boosted the whole Apple Store concept (“Guru Bar?” That is the best they can do?) and started trying to poach Apple store employees for their big opening. Apple has now joined the fray by closing its store in the mall for renovation. Of course I will go down and take pictures when the new stores open but I can’t help think Microsoft’s retail chain will fizzle. People don’t get passionate about PC’s the way they do Macs. It just seems like Microsoft is playing the game on Apple’s terms which never seems to work out. Maybe I’m wrong but it will be interesting to be there at the beginning.

Judge me by my price do you?

My good friend, Darren Rolfe, pointed me to a Technologizer article comparing the pricing of the new MacBooks with a similarly configured PC. The author concludes:
The MacBook is close in price to the laptops I looked at which it resembles most closely, all of which target what I think of as the low end of the high end of the notebook market; if there’s a Mac Tax here, it’s not worth worrying about.
While this article is very good, I think it misses a very large point with respect to bundled software. Specifically, the inclusion of the iLife software and exclusion of crapware you find on most new PC’s is another huge selling point in my mind.

Just when I thought I couldn’t give the Apple Store any more money…
My wife, along with her partner, runs her own internet business where they sell paper crafting and stamping supplies. I am very proud of her. Anyway, she has been running her store on a PC box that has given us nothing but problems for the last year. I’ve replaced the video card, the sound card, the hard drive and just about everything else but the motherboard and the darned thing still blue screens despite our best efforts through re-installing windows and routine maintenance. Well everytime it dies on her she finds herself on my daughter’s iMac and it has made her a believer. So tonight she joined the growing legions of Mac users with her very own MacBook.
It is funny because the sales guy who set us up was the same guy who sold me my first Mac. I really like the great people at the Irvine Apple Store. It is of note how much easier this purchase was. When I bought my first Mac I was a bit worried about making a mistake. I need a computer every day for my work and Apple was a big leap for me. Buying my wife’s computer was not stressful at all. It is actually a relief to be free of all those PC blue screen problems.
I’ll spend this weekend tricking it out for her. She bought one of those red plastic protective cases on which she plans on doing some serious customization. I can’t wait to see what she does with it.