Are Bargain PCs Worth the Price?
Last year, Microsoft introduced both a new office suite, Office 2007, and operating system, Windows Vista. To date, neither of these has seen mass adoption despite the fact they are both great products. Over the next weeks, I will examine these systems in greater detail listing benefits of these software products and some suggestions to get the most out of them for current users. Today, I would like to address the main reason I feel the adoption rate is slow – inadequate hardware.
Many people praise Apple products because they “just work.” This is due in no small part to the fact Apple has complete control over both the software and hardware. This makes it easy to ensure the hardware is adequate to provide a pleasurable software experience. This also produces machines that are fairly expensive, $600 for a desktop computer without monitor and $1100 for a laptop. Macintosh users are willing to pay this much for a good, albeit limited, experience with a Macintosh computer.
Windows users, however, are not accustomed to paying this much for a computer. Therefore, since Microsoft has limited control over the hardware on which their software is installed, many users experience with Windows Vista and, to a lesser extent, Office has been tarnished by a computer that is not robust enough to run the applications well. This leads to the new features being lost to the fact the computer runs them so poorly.
I still hold by the recommendation to upgrade to Windows Vista when new hardware is purchased, but I would like to emphasize the importance of purchasing adequate hardware. Bargain computers may work for a while, but usually lead to disappointment. If you are looking to save money, purchasing a desktop computer instead of a laptop or refurbished systems over brand new systems are two good ways to get more computing power for less money while not sacrificing experience.
What do you think? Is the bargain PC worth the money or does it just lead to frustration? I look forward to your comments.