OK, I actually leased it, but still, this is me we’re talking about. I like Macs, but I’ve never been particularly bullish on their value. And who likes Steve Jobs and Apple’s Draconian control over everything, anyway? Give me open source or give me death, right?!?!
As I discussed earlier this month, Macs seem to be everywhere, especially on college campuses. Not only did I actually need to buy one of these for my son for his own college program, but as I configured a system for him I started wondering if Apple equipment just might not satisfy my own needs for my fledgling consulting business. They offered business discounts, for example, that were greater than the academic discounts my son would receive at his school, they were quick to approve me for great lease rates (despite being a new business with minimal credit history), and I was able to include both software and hardware in the lease costs. Fortunately, my son will also be my videographer, podcast producer, and general AV guy for my business, having several times my creativity, making his computer eligible for the lease and a legitimate business expense.
Since the minimum lease amount was $5000, there was no better time to pick up the items I’ve been holding off buying: a laptop, a new router, backup equipment, and a decent printer/scanner/copier/fax. And yet while my initial interest in Apple (at least in this case) was to meet my son’s needs, the utter simplicity of Time Capsule backups (I needed both a wireless access point and a backup solution) and the thin, light, rugged MacBook Pro that could run Adobe CS5 without breaking a sweat ended up being too much to resist.
p align=”right”>Next: Yeah, but a Mac? »
