This is one thing I don't get. Why is there so few "premium" Windows PC manufacturers that try to compete on quality (I can think of one, maybe, Lenovo)?
Is it because they're all running the same OS and making better hardware doesn't offer enough differentiation?
Some are competing on quality (Panasonic Toughbook is an example.)
Some even try to compete on product design (HP Envy?), but they fail to match up to the attention to detail that Apple is known for. My guess is that they have outsourced most of the process to their suppliers, which means that they have less of an influence on the design details. Apple spends a huge amount to keep an in-house design team that not only does the superficial design, but also the layout of components, figuring out which materials to use and how to use them, etc. From the film Objectified: http://vimeo.com/7827217
For instance, all PC laptops have a big external power supply with long cables with some kind of velcro strip on order to tidy the cables It's been like this for 20 years. Apple probably uses the same internal components in their power supplies, but they've designed one with a nice magnetic connector, a detachable power cable and nice "hooks" for winding the cable. They've had this design for at least 10 years. This is probably not a deciding factor when people buy a laptop, but it's a nice design detail that Apple decided to spend the money on developing, whereas other laptop manufacturers never thought about it. Or, more likely, a lot of designers have thought about it and has have had their ideas axed by the business CEOs.
I always thought the magnetic connector was patented; otherwise it's shocking that more manufacturers don't use it - I've seen laptops ruined by a single "tripping" incident. Also, I have to sheepishly admit that the magnetic connector was what pushed me over the edge into buying a MacBook.
I'm pretty sure that they would have been able to come up with another non-magnetic solution if they wanted to. But it would take a lot of money and manpower to come up with a good alternative and test it.
A less elegant solution is the breakaway cable used on the original XBox controllers, which would detach while leaving the "main" connector still in the laptop.
Yep, this is why I always buy Lenovo notebooks. Great customer service, no bloat added on (except Thinkpad line), and I can diddle around quite easily with out any gotchas like other manufacturers.
They run Linux and FreeBSD kernels really well with all hardware components working out of the box as well. Compared to my last experiences with Dell and HP, I'm sticking with Lenovo and Apple for good.
It's also odd because the various PC makers add all these "features" to their machines to try to differentiate them from their competitor's machines, when at this point the best way to differentiate themselves would be to just sell a plain-jane machine with no proprietary "features".
When you compete in what is viewed as commodity business, many people simply check it has their minimum features and buy on price. Apple is viewed as selling something different. I would guess that someone could build a brand around Linux and do the same thing, but "build my own" tends to conflict with "premium". Check any comparison of a hackintosh to an actual Mac and then see how it would work if instead of OS X you were talking Linux.
Apples and Oranges. Apple do not let other manufacters sell OSX. If they did, surely you'd see people adding little apps to the preinstall image and undercutting Apple. Apple clearly don't want this, so they disallow it.
Windows and OS X are substitutes, that’s what makes this a fair comparison. You would have a point if Windows wouldn’t even be an option for those who ultimately buy Macs and if OS X wouldn’t even be an option for those who ultimately buy PCs.
Also: What stops PC manufacturers from creating their own OS? (Obviously not from the ground up but they could create a Linux distro ála Ubuntu.)
