2009/08/14
Pretty much everyone at Adaptavist now uses Apple hardware including Macbooks and iPhones, plus various peripherals. The Total Cost of Ownership is not what you'd expect...
Macbooks
Costing between £800 GBP and £1800 GBP, these things aren't cheap. However, they just work - unlike Windows machines where you're constantly faffing with updates and reboots, Macbooks start doing what you need them to from the moment they're switched on.
In our experience all Macbook Pro computers break within 1.5 to 2 years, so you need to make sure you've got AppleCare insurance on them to extend their life to almost 3 years (with at least one set of repairs).
Primary causes of death: Overheating (eg. graphics chip meltdown), battery failure, keyboard failure (on older models), CD/DVD drive 'collapse' (on older models).
Time Capsules
Your Macbook Pro will die within 3 years, so you need a good backup solution. We use Apple's Time Capsule solution which is superb. Costing roughly £230 GBP they are worth every penny:
- Super-easy to set-up - plug them in and tell your Mac to use them as backup device
- Fully automated backups - it just works, really well!
- Very reliable restore process
- Stores up to 3 years worth of backups (depending on how many file you have, etc)
- Multiple macs can use the same time capsule for backup
If you need to restore a few files it's as simple as opening the folder they were in and then entering the Time Machine - the software that manages backups. You can then go back in time in that folder to find the files and restore them. Absolutely awesome!
If you're restoring a complete backup to the computer from which it was taken, that's also straightforward and reliable. Things get a little more complex when you start restoring to a different machine though (see later).
The average life expectancy of a Time Capsule is 1 year - again the primary cause of death is overheating. Again, AppleCare is worth considering here.
iPhones
Almost all staff now have iPhones (a few have Android-based phones, everyone avoids Windows ME based phones). It's difficult to define the cost of an iPhone because it depends which provider you get it from and what tariff you sign-up to, as well as the capacity (RAM) on the phone. Costs can be anywhere form £800+ GBP for a pay-as-you-go or developer edition, down to something like £30/month GBP + up-front cost of £80 GBP for a subscription service.
Again, the iPhone just works - really easy to use, insane number of apps and games, all with the trademark Apple 'polish' that makes everything really shiny.
The iPhone backs up to your Mac (or PC) via iTunes so that's another reason to have reliable backups of your laptop.
Primary cause of death: Unknown - so far we've not had any iPhones break but we expect their life expectancy to be something like 3-4 years (guesstimate).
Moving to a new Macbook
When your Macbook dies, and it will, you're going to need to restore to a shiny new Macbook. This is where things start to get a little more tricky...
Hardware and Software
First, Apple make sure that every edition of a Macbook has both software and hardware incompatibilities with other editions.
For example, if you get a Macbook Pro 17" in 2007 the chances are that the operating system and various hardware won't be compatible with the new Macbook Pro 17" that you'll need in 2009. You have to make sure that you keep the CD/DVDs with the Macbook that they came with. Otherwise you're going to be spending hours trying random CD/DVDs to find the one that works.
Things like the display port (for attaching second monitor) also change regularly and from model to model. Over the past 2 years I think there's been something like 3 different types of connector used - DVI, Mini-DVI and one other that I can't remember the name of. Likewise, the Firewire port has also undergone changes and on some models is now phased out. Never buy anything that uses Firewire - in the battle of USB vs. Firewire, USB won hands down.
Restoring Backups
Because of the operating system changes between different models (eg. 15" vs. 17") and editions (eg. 2007 vs. 2009), you can't just 'restore' a Time Machine backup to your new laptop. Instead you have to 'import' the settings. The process takes anything up to 24 hours (depending on how much data you have and how you connect your Mac to the Time Capsule - network cable is faster).
While the import process is somewhat less friendly than the normal restore process, it does work. You end up with all your applications, files and settings on the new computer!
An alternative, if your old computer isn't fried, is to use Firewire (for which you'll need to buy the correct cable) and use something called 'target' mode. This allows you to basically clone the old computer on to the new one, however there can be problems if they are different models and editions as stated earlier.
iTunes
One key thing to be aware of when moving to a new Mac is that you'll need to re-authorise your iTunes library. You can do this up to 3 times if I remember correctly. After that, any items in your library that have DRM (mostly the applications) are dead. This means that your iPhone backup effectively has a life expectancy of 6 to 9 years - by that time you've probably moved to a new phone and new apps, so it's not really worth worrying about.
Downtime
It's not economical, for us at least, to have a stockpile of spare hardware - because the warranty would be running out by the time it gets used. Instead we buy new hardware (laptops and time capsules) as problems arise.
For this reason, we encounter some downtime. If you've got AppleCare then the downtime can be as little as 1 day - just take it in to the local Apple Center and they fix it or replace it. But getting in to the Apple Center is in itself disruptive - it could be a few days before you are able to go visit them.
As we've always got new staff joining, we're getting in to the habbit of buying a new piece of hardware while we wait for the old hardware to be fixed or replaced. The old hardware can then be given to the next recruit to join the company.
Normally old hardware sucks - but with Apple it doesn't. So long as it's operational, it's pretty much as good as when it was new.
Mac Software
For work use, you'll need to install some office apps - you've basically got 3 choices:
- Open Office (free) - it works, but it sucks (apologies to the developers, but seriously just compare it to MS Office). Spend some money and make life easier for yourself.
- iWork - Apple's office suite. You need this primarily for Keynote - their presentations tool that makes PowerPoint look silly.
- MS Office - You need this for MS Word and Excel. I hate Microsoft, but seriously there's nothing better on the market than Word and Excel.
So, with iWork and Office you're looking at about £300.
Most other Mac software is relatively cheap, even project planning tools like Merlin and virtualisation software like [Parallels]. You'll find that you don't really need to buy much software to become really productive on a Mac - it's not like Windows where you seem to be always installing new apps to get things done.
3 Year Cost
Disclaimer: This is a rough calculation. It's not taking everything in to account - such as any other software that might be needed. I'm not including cost of iPhone or any iPhone apps (which are generally super-cheap). Also, I'm assuming that the Macbook lasts for the full 3 years of warranty (AppleCare required). I've not had time to go check the current pricing for stuff.
- Macbook Pro 17" - about £1,800 GBP
- Time Capsule x 3 - about £250 GBP
- AppleCare - about £120 GBP
- Software - about £450 GBP
Total: About £2,600 GBP.
You're looking at roughly £1,000 GBP per year when spread over a 3 year period.
Is it worth it?
So, this begs the question: Is it worth it? You could buy 3 Windows laptops for that much money.
Well, when Macs work (which is most of the time) they work really well - you turn them on, you get stuff done, you turn them off.
Pretty much everything is automated in terms of day-to-day maintenance. Most updates don't require a reboot - you might need to reboot once a month, and even then only if you want the update to take immediate effect (otherwise just choose the 'Not now' button and it'll be installed next time you reboot).
Software is generally exceptionally reliable and even after a few years of use the only slow-down you'll experience is on start-up (because of all the apps you've set to auto-launch after logging in!).
Because the applications are simplified, you don't spend ages faffing around trying to find buttons or items in menus. You don't spend ages fiddling around with useless functionality - on Windows 90% of the functionality is pointless, but you waste time using it because it's there. Most Mac apps do about 10% of the stuff their Windows counterparts do - and it's just the 10% that you need, not loads of cruft that's been added in a desperate bid to get you to upgrade.
All of this results in high productivity - you're not constantly distracted by the computer, it just does what you tell it to without any hassle.
But perhaps more importantly than productivity is the quality of work you can do on a Mac. Because you're not expending brain power faffing and fiddling, you focus much more on the task at hand. You're much more likely to output higher quality work, and not feel stressed out doing so.
In PC vs. Mac comparisons, I don't think anyone ever factors in the 'quality of work' metric. It's this metric, in my opinion, that justifies the higher price tag of Apple hardware. If you're just as productive as the competition, but outputting better quality, you're going to win.
An of course, there's also the kudos of owning shiny Apple devices - looking stylish and professional in a sales pitch wins business, and Macs are great perks for staff too.
