There is a hardware "tax" today, but for how long? The more popular Apple systems are, the more the sell, and the cheaper they'll get. It's certainly no reason to be lax. It reminds me of when Apple was just a blip on the radar (think back to 2000) and was largely ignored by Redmond for years.

Quoted: As reported by Todd Bishop of TechFlash, Ballmer offered his theory as to why Macintosh sales fell 16 percent in February, according to stats from market-researcher NPD Group:

Quoted: "The economy is helpful. Paying an extra $500 for a computer in this environment -- same piece of hardware -- paying $500 more to get a logo on it? I think that's a more challenging proposition for the average person than it used to be."

Quoted: The Mac vs. PC argument is an old one, certainly, and Ballmer's hardly an impartial observer in the debate. But does Steve have a point? Take the MacBook, for instance. The white 13-inch model with a 2.0 GHz Intel Core 2 Duo chip, 2GB of memory and a 120GB hard drive is still $999. Compared to similarly-equipped Windows notebooks, that's awfully pricey.

Interesting comments and perspective from Brad Brooks. I like the "i" way vs. the "you" way juxtaposition. Windows "without walls" is an effective campaign against the walled garden Apple offers. Still, it's hard to compete in certain scenarios with the elegant, reliable and deterministic Apple experience.

Quoted: Ahead of what many expect to be the introduction of cheaper Macs, a top Windows exec says Apple users pay hidden costs.

Quoted: There really is a tax around there for people that are evaluating their choices going into this holiday season and going forward. There's a choice tax that we talked about, which is, hey, you want to buy a machine that's other than black, white, or silver, and if you want to get it in multiple different configurations or price points, you're going to be paying a tax if you go the Apple way.

Quoted: In the world of technology, success is linked to perceptions. Microsoft demonstrated its multi-touch technology in a Windows 7 demo at the D: All Things Digital conference this week, and the software giant may have hoped to overcome the perception that Apple owns touchscreen interfaces. Instead, some observers are wondering if Microsoft is making the same mistakes that now plague Windows Vista.

Love this Scobleizer post...

Quoted: ...people started talking about my Apple problems. Everyone at the table is a Macintosh user. What was fun is that at one point people started telling me about the problems they have had with their Macs. Many with far more serious problems than I have had.

Quoted: ...they all blamed themselves for the problems of their Macs and I think they also bought into the “Apple cult” which says that if you use a Mac you must be cool.

Quoted: We believe Apple’s marketing so deeply that we aren’t willing to question it.... it’s MY FAULT that my Apple machine is having trouble.

Quoted: See, on my Windows machine I’m willing to accept this. After all, I know that Microsoft can’t really test every combination of hardware out there. My Windows machines can take dozens, if not hundreds, of different video cards, sound cards, hard drives, memory configurations, etc. The thing is on my Mac I didn’t load any third-party RAM — Apple’s brand promise is that you never will need to open your box to customize it. Heck, the iPhone goes further. You CAN’T customize it and if you try you have to “break” into it.

Nice to see the tables turn sometimes...

Quoted: Updated: Leopard's firewall is a mess, say researchers, shutting off by default and allowing connections even under "block all."

Quoted: Security has slipped backwards on the evolutionary ladder in Apple's latest Mac OS X release, security researchers say, with Leopard's firewall having more holes than its namesake cat has spots.

Quoted: "The short answer is the Leopard firewall is ... ugly and a step backwards from 10.4," said Rich Mogull, an independent security consultant and founder of Securosis.

Agreed. This crosses the line.

Quoted: ...this is an example of the worst thing about Apple. There is simply nothing less attractive than a person who is both flawed and smug, and apparently one of the few plausible justifications for treating corporations as legal persons is the fact that this holds true for companies as well. And Apple is a smug company.

Quoted: Now, I'm all for a little sense of humor in the world of technology. But the image here deliberately uses an aged-looking monitor and a crashed computer as the illustration of your other computers.

This is a new one. Why would anyone want to run OSX on nasty old PC hardware?

Quoted: Well its been only a day since the Mac OSX Leopard was released officially by Apple and the hackers have managed to create a patched DVD that everyone like you and me can use to install Leopard on PC’s without having to buy a Mac.

Surely the iPod + iTunes craze contributed to a halo effect and subsequent Mac sales.

Quoted: The iPod often gets the credit for increased Mac shipments, described as the "halo effect" over past years. The thinking is that iPod customers, having enjoyed their iPod experience and having seen Apple in a new light, might be more inclined to pick up a Mac while shopping for a new iPod case and realizing their old PC is woefully out of date.

This was another genuis move by Apple... switching to Intel and making 'the switch' simple.

Quoted: I think more people are buying Macs because there is no longer a penalty for switching to a Mac. After all, you can run Windows on a Mac, open and edit Word documents in Mac OS, and you probably spend most of your time on one Web page or another that doesn't care what operating system is in control.

You have to credit Apple's marketing too. Wow. They are good.