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Gateway slams iMac with ad

updated 08:45 pm EDT, Mon August 26, 2002

Gateway today unleashed an aggressive ad campaign that seeks to derail Apple's recent marketing efforts. The new Gateway television ads, which the company expects will be viewed by 83 percent of Americans an average of 14 times in September, challenges the iMac's performance and value. Taking on the iMac, is the Profile 4, an x86 PC that is built around a 17" flat-panel display. Taking its assault one step further, the ad ends when the Profile 4 "spits out" its drive drawer at the iMac in mocking fashion.

by MacNN Staff

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Madison
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08/26, 09:01pm | report spam | close Reply |
Gateway?

Of all the companies to mock Apple, Gateway has been dying on the vine for over two years and can BARELY keep their head above water, all the while shilling cheap c*** to people at their stores. It only took those nitwits how many years to realize that when people come into a computer store, they may actually want to take a computer home? Wow, what a revelation. Honestly, where do some of these people get their nerve?

Tom King
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08/26, 09:01pm | report spam | close Reply |
why target Apple?

shouldn't Gateway be focusing on Dell or someone? Apple has got 5% market share- even if Gateway took ALL of Apples business, how much would that increase their marketshare vs. Dell? seems like a waste of marketing money to me. but then again, the iMac is THE standard to beat, and Gateway apparently realizes that!

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08/26, 09:06pm | report spam | close Reply |
PC

A friend of mine (a PC user who is planning on switching) sent me an email this morning regarding the new Gateway PC's, describing it as "yummy" (barf)

Here is my reply to him and to Gateway and their ripoff:

The Gateway is a PC (Poor Copy of an Apple ][ ).

It uses a PC processor (a Poor Copy of a RISC processor).

It runs a PC OS (a Poor Copy of MacOS).

It's made by a PC company (a Poor Copy (Dell) of a Poor Copy of Apple).

It's just another Poor Copy of the real thing.

You should buy it. And eat it...

> On Monday, August 26, 2002, at 12:47 PM, xxxxxxxxx
> wrote:
>
> Here is a side-by-side comparison between the
> Gatewacker and the iMac:� http://
> www.etestinglabs.com/>main/reports/gateway.pdf
>�
>�
> Wow.� I dunno.� This Gateway is looking pretty yummy!� > ;-)
>�
> http://zdnet.com.com/2100-1103-955300.html

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08/26, 09:13pm | report spam | close Reply |
Re: PC

Silly. Your friend gives you a reasonable side-by-side comparison, then asks your opinion, after which you insult him by peppering him with stupid acronyms. If you really want him to choose Mac, why don't you give him some real reasons based on his computing needs instead of meaningless slogans?

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08/26, 09:13pm | report spam | close Reply |
Stupid

d

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08/26, 09:16pm | report spam | close Reply |
Not really a comparison

I just checked the specs of the Gateway machines vs. the Apple machines. The Gateways come with smaller hard drives, no DVD-writing option, and no software near the likes of iMovie, iDVD, iTunes, etc. They cost less because they come with less. Gateway also paid to have a test done that shows the iMac as being slower -- at opening a 104 page PDF file, browsing a JavaScript intensive page, and turning on. You know, stuff that matters to the average person. :)

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08/26, 09:18pm | report spam | close Reply |
i agree

The Poway, Calif.-based PC maker also plans a series of magazine ads that pit the two computers against one other, capped with the headline: �It�s a close contest. Until you turn them on.�

Yeah, because once they're on, you see that one is running one of the best OS's ever, while the other is running XP....

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08/26, 09:23pm | report spam | close Reply |
I hope Apple responds

I would really like to see Apple respond to this with an ad of their own. It would be great to see an ad that really shows the capabilities of the iMac instead of it just dancing around. It can talk about iMovie, iTunes, iDVD, iPhoto, iChat, OS X, and all of the other great software that it comes with. I think that would be great.

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08/26, 09:27pm | report spam | close Reply |
iMac 17" vs. Profile 4:

http://www.aapltalk.com/shootouts/imac_vs_gateway.html

Bottom line: Yup, the high-end Profile 4 has much beefier hardware specs in most categories...

But ooops! No DVD burner, crappy software, & worse video card.

In other words, you can't do much, but you can sure do it fast!

Plus, the performance comparisons were using OS X 10.1, not Jaguar 10.2 (which features a pretty hefty performance improvement).

An excellent try by Gateway, but I don't think Jobs & Co. will be sweating this particular offering too much.

--BlueDjinn

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08/26, 09:29pm | report spam | close Reply |
Feel complimented.

Rather than snide comebacks or suggestions of retaliatory ads, Mac folks should feel gratified that a PC maker feels compelled to compete directly against a Mac. Seriously, this is a high point for Apple. How long has it been since they've been shown on such an equal footing? Don't be snooty toward Gateway, their ads are no more biased than the Switch ads. Quite a bit less, actually.

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08/26, 09:30pm | report spam | close Reply |
Whoop-de-doo

What a great test Gateway did. Like I really care about javascript and PDF files.

Plus, you all probably remember the guy who took his gateway computer into the store, and smashed it to pieces with a sledge hammer to show publicly how much he hated it, and how poor their customer service was. I've never heard of anyone doing something like that in an Apple store. And if someone tried, the in-store jaguar would surely pounce on him before he even tried!

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08/26, 09:34pm | report spam | close Reply |
It's a compliment, peopl

For years, no developer of PC hardware or software for the consumer has bothered the least little bit to consider Apple a competitor for their market. Now, Gateway has prepared these ads, tantamount to saying "Hey, these iMacs are poised to steal marketshare in the consumer computer market. We better do something."

Relax and enjoy: PC manufacturers are worried Macs will still their sales; now THAT is a new twist.

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08/26, 09:35pm | report spam | close Reply |
It will sucker some...

Heck, there are still millions who think the Mac is no easier to use than Windows XP systems! Of course that is because they have never tried a Mac and even if they tried one it was pre-OSX, iMovie, iDVD, iTunes, Office X, iPhoto, amd more. So they don't really know what they are missing. SO those who aren't thinkers, who take things as presented, who weigh sound bites to make a decision instead of their own needs assessment and option analysis, will probably go for the Gateway in droves...unless Apple retaliates--which they should--with very clever spoofs of the Gateway ads. I can hardly wait.

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08/26, 09:35pm | report spam | close Reply |
I think I had one once?

I think I had one of those Gateway's once, but only part of it. It's a GE space saver radio attached to a screen.

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08/26, 09:37pm | report spam | close Reply |
No Modem?

I just looked at the Gateway site. The $999 "iMac crusher" doesn't even come with a modem. Last time I checked, most people still use dial up. A minor point but you get what you pay for.

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08/26, 09:39pm | report spam | close Reply |
It will sucker some...

Heck, there are still millions who think the Mac is no easier to use than Windows XP systems! Of course that is because they have never tried a Mac and even if they tried one it was pre-OSX, iMovie, iDVD, iTunes, Office X, iPhoto, amd more. So they don't really know what they are missing. SO those who aren't thinkers, who take things as presented, who weigh sound bites to make a decision instead of their own needs assessment and option analysis, will probably go for the Gateway in droves...unless Apple retaliates--which they should--with very clever spoofs of the Gateway ads. I can hardly wait.

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08/26, 09:44pm | report spam | close Reply |
heh...

You don't see people driving hundreds of miles and waiting in hour longs lines every time a Gateway store opens, do you? Oh, wait. They're all closing. ;)

Gateway is a dying cow that's soon going to be put out to pasture.

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08/26, 09:46pm | report spam | close Reply |
Re: Whoop-de-doo

does anyone here honestly believe that the 2.66GHz P4 w/ a 533MHz FSB in the Profile 4 wouldn't absolutely massacre the SP G4 800MHz w/ a 100MHz FSB in the iMac (in *any* test or benchmark)?

�and if so why is everyone referring to these tests like they are rigged?

This is actually good news -- it's been a long time since someone has directly challenged Apple on their own turf. The competition should hopefully spur them on to produce even more competitive products.

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08/26, 09:48pm | report spam | close Reply |
i find it hard to believe

that a geforce 2mx can triple (in some "tests") a geforce 4mx.

but then i don't play games so i may be clueless.

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08/26, 09:49pm | report spam | close Reply |
Why not take on Dell?

I wonder why Gateway doesn't take on Dell in it's ads too? Could it be they might just get their f****'s kicked all over the place?

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08/26, 09:50pm | report spam | close Reply |
Specs Still Impressive

Although it Lacks the iApps, and more importantly, it is still impressive that you can configure one with a 2,533Mhz Processer and a 533Mhz Systems Bus and 256MB DDR and Microsoft Office & Quicken for $1,800, while the iMac still tops out at a 800Mhz, 133Mhz and PC133 Respectively. There is simply no reasonable way to delude yourself that the Mhz myth isn't blown into irrelavance when the clock speeds / systems bus speeds are more than 3X greater than the comparable Apple offering. Adding Office & Quicken brings the non iApps software bundle up to Apple's software package. offerings. My $1,800 version only included a fast combo drive, but you still have nearly $200 spare under the cost of a 17" iMac to go out and get a DVD Burner, $300 if you stick with the CD-RW instead of the Combo drive.
The sad point of this ramble is that I can't justify spending $3,500 on a basic PowerMac system with a 17" LCD & MS Office, and I feel like a sucker to purchase an 800Mhz iMac and Office (which I have to have for business use) for $2,350, when it is clear it is obsolete hardware - though it is packaged quite nicely. Looks like I will continue to be stuck with the POS Dell lap top I have now, continually yearning to be able to use OS-X, until Apple is willing or able to provide a reasonably powerful and full featured consumer system and a reasonable price. PLEASE!

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08/26, 09:52pm | report spam | close Reply |
lol

its nice that gateway has joined the mac bashing farm. guess dell was the only peecee company to actually implement apples quality rather than gateway and microsoft still touting better products with cheap quality. im touched that microsoft has been pursuing osx and linux and thier markets more. thier markets are coming to us. gateway is simply trying to copy apples success with design on the peecee. if they can market that thier computers are semi s*** and just as fast, and dell can market that thier computers are becoming more dependable then maybe they can keep osx in its box. still imagine all those gateway ads that mention apple. all those microsoft bouts that mention osx. all those dell dependability tests that rival APPLE quality. all in all thats some great advertising from the best biggest peecee companies around all touting competition with lil ol apple.

sniiiiiiiffff........ahhhhh. smell that? thats hundreds of gateway bashing desktops and articles being cooked on the apple bbq. on the other side of the fence we have gateway. all alone. no fan base. no love. all alone before they die in a field with a stoopid talking female cow that has the voice of a male. all the while touting apple as the company to beat by every major peecee manufacturer out there.

plz enjoy.
http://daveswerks.com/davesite/html/berserkappleseriesfive18.html

berserkintosh

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08/26, 09:57pm | report spam | close Reply |
Random b**** About Office

Can anyone tell me why Apple doesn't have some sort of OEM upgrade option for MS Office like every PC Maker does? Gateway / Dell, etc... allow you to upgrade to MS Office Small Business Addition (Same Basic components as Office X, less Power Point and adding Publisher)

I would think that the majority of people would need Office to do work from home (And not just Word / Excel 'file compatibility' - that just isn't gonna cut it in most office environments.) Therefore you have to add $350 to the price of every Mac ($450 Less $100 rebate.) I think Microsoft would sell a h*** of a lot of copies of Office by allowing a reduced price bundle with a Mac. I understand the smaller Mac market justifies a higher price for the mac version of Office... but this seems extreme.

Does anyone know if Microsoft refuses to do this? Or perhaps Apple doesn't want to?

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08/26, 10:01pm | report spam | close Reply |
Mad cow

I think apple will do to gateway in sale what we do to cows with the mad cow disease
KILL EM
Poor suckers

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08/26, 10:03pm | report spam | close Reply |
Mad Cow

I think apple will do to gateway in sales what we do to cows with the mad cow disease
KILL EM
Poor suckers

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08/26, 10:05pm | report spam | close Reply |
competition is a good...

I do agree competition is a good thing. And Gateway is going for Apple because they're an easier target: I mean, everyone KNOWS Macs are all sizzle and no steak, right? :P Sheesh! It's so stupid, first the rip it off, then they actually condemn what they steal.

But, honestly, those things are butt-ugly. And I'd say most PC users are used to seeing butt-uglier so it would actually be an improvement for them. I do hope Apple decides to fight back with their own campaign, and not just lay back saying "we think our present advertising all ready speaks for itself." Their chip is faster, but ours does a lot more, with better storage. And speed is one of those things that the average user thinks he wants the fastest, but he wouldn't know the diff between fastest and average.

At worst, Apple can fight Gateway on their own turf: Steve Jobs can grow his own middle-aged ponytail to distract from his receding hairline!

BTW anyone have any sales numbers on those little color iMac ripoffs that eMachines (was it them?) made a while back? I know at least one couple who bought one -- funny looking little thing. And the memory came with 96mB and wasn't even upgradeable at all. (!) But if those sold well, maybe this Gateway thing will take off too. Heck, dare I hope for a little price war?

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08/26, 10:08pm | report spam | close Reply |
Re: Random Office b****

Actually what Apple really needs to do is get MS to port MS Works Suite 2002. For like 50$ you'd get the full version of MS Word v.X, MS Streets and Trips v.X (excellent app), MS Picture It! Photo Edition v.X (great consumer level photo editing application), MS Money v.X, MS Encarta v.X and the full Works Suite 6.0.

Most OEMs provide it by default almost for free and it would be cool if Apple could too.

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08/26, 10:09pm | report spam | close Reply |
Joe Wilcox the ANTI MAC

Joe Wilcox is the ANTI-MAC Evangelist. Read his articles. they are all anti-mac. Everyone one of them!

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08/26, 10:12pm | report spam | close Reply |
Buy a Gateway...

....And a 10-Pack of hard drives because you'll go through them pretty quick. Every Gateway owner I know (over 25 of them) has had a major hard disk crash within the first year that required replacement. For a discounted price, Gateway did the replacement (not free). Too bad they could not replace the data.

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08/26, 10:15pm | report spam | close Reply |
i used profile4 today

i was in a gateway store this afternoon and got a chance to check out the competition first hand. must say that i was a bit underwhelmed. first off, the the thing comes across like every other pc i've ever tried - with exception of a few sony's - that is having the feel of a mass produced commidity. the design is blah. the materials are blah. the computing experience in general was blah. not bad, just boring. unfortunately, part of apple's problem is that the sophistication of their computers can not be appreciated until you are up close and personal and actually get a chance to experience the refinement of the apple computing experience. too many users never make it that far, because they are swayed by the superficial arguments or boosted specs on the pc side.

that said, i must say that the 1499 price point for an all in one with 17 inch lcd was enticing. even if it is a bit boring.

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08/26, 10:19pm | report spam | close Reply |
geoforce

2mx and a geoforce 4mx are nearly the same thing, they are crippled versions of the geoforce 2, and the geoforce 4 cards. If it has MX in the name, it is the cut down, less performance geared version, i.e. CHEAPER card. Price a geoforce 4 mx series card agains a geoforce 4 (non-MX) series card and the price is about 1/3 the cost because its a less capable card.

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08/26, 10:19pm | report spam | close Reply |
Re: competition is a good

This isn't an iMac rip-off, the Gateway Profile series (AiO w/ built in LCD) existed long before the new iMac surfaced. Maybe you could call it a 20th Century Mac (released 1996?) rip-off but certainly not an iMac rip-off.

What they are trying to rip-off though is some of the "cool" associated with Apple's branding. The idea is to take advantage of all the people who have been intrigued by the iMac but never bought one (which would be most people).

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08/26, 10:51pm | report spam | close Reply |
Point of Comparison

Gateway: Pretty people selling ugly machines.
Apple: Ugly people (Switch ads?) selling pretty machines.

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08/26, 11:00pm | report spam | close Reply |
Its a good thing

The new Gateway iMac copy will sell well and probably will cut into Apple sales. This is a good thing. A little competition might get Steve Jobs off his a** and get faster chips into Macs and cut back on stupid revenue ideas like .Mac and Jaguar upgrade prices.

In reading the posts, it seems that a lot of people are somewhat defensive. Why would you worry about a stylish, faster computer that is a little cheaper. It just goes to show you that it can be done.

thjonas
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08/26, 11:10pm | report spam | close Reply |
Lets crush the gateways!

I see a great opportunity for apple to bash gateway in a bunch of ads:
Ad 1: Three gateways attack the imac. They try to jump over the imac but then the imac raises it screen and the gateways trip on it. Then the imac spits out a fresh dvd disc that it just burned, the disc hits the gateway and they blow up in pieces.

Ad 2: Its a close competition until you turn them on -The gateway shows up with the blue screen of death while the imac is shown starting up X and its beautiful user interface.

Ad 3: Any ideas?

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08/26, 11:20pm | report spam | close Reply |
Give Me a Break

Gateway come on. No one has mentioned the fact that the base $999 computer has a Intel Celeron chip on it. Far as I can remember that chip is as stripped down as Intel will make processors. I would pay the extra 300 for the extra muscle in the G4 chip on the base iMac.
The only thing the 1499 model has going for it is the 2.4 P4 but I would never want to use a 32 bit processor as compared to the 64 bit G4 Velocity Engine G4. Not mentioning the fact that the profile4 1499 version does not even read DVD's
Now comes the 1999 version. the iMac has a super drive in it cdr/cdrw/cd/dvd burner in it, that fact alone in my view makes the iMac a better value. I have priced one of these drive for my older 466 G4 and they run around 500 a pop. The faster processor and larger hard drive are little improvement if you look at the one offering Apple has for 1799 you only get a 15 inch screen but you have a super drive. You have a slower processor in theory 700 PowerPC=Around 1.4P4. The larger hard drive is not enough to win anyone over how much room does a person need to save e-mails and word documents. One thing that we must remember is Apple's orginal intent for the iMac to bring ease if use and connectivity to the interent for your average new computer user.
Nice try Gateway no real value other than the speed of the processor but that gap is not as large as some of these readers make it out to be. There is nothing for Apple to respond to with the current issues of the iMac period.

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08/26, 11:25pm | report spam | close Reply |
Look at REAL Prices!

I just went to Gateway's own web store and Apple's online store and here's what I found. When you attempt to match the systems spec for spec (and I tried to as much as I could), the iMac still costs LESS and has MORE....

Gateway Profile 4
15" TFT Flat-Panel
2.0GHz Pentium 4
128MB DDR SDRAM
40GB Hard Disk
16x10x24 CDRW Drive
MS Works
GeForce 2 MX w/ 32MB DDR
Keyboard and USB Optical Mouse
Integrated Sound and Speakers
One Type II PCMCIA Cardbus
USB, FireWire
56k Modem
3 Year Parts/Labor Warranty

iMac G4 15" CDRW
15" TFT Flat-Panel
700MHz PowerPC G4
128MB PC133 SDRAM
40GB Hard Disk
24x10x32 CDRW Drive
AppleWorks
GeForce 2 MX w/ 32MB DDR
Keyboard and USB Optical Mouse
Integrated Sound and Speakers
Integrated AirPort Wireless Slot
USB, FireWire
56k Modem
3 Year Parts/Labor Warranty

Gateway -- $1,468
Apple -- $1,448

Hmmmmm... iMac Killer??!

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08/26, 11:47pm | report spam | close Reply |
re: give me a break

32-bit: ummm, both processors are 32-bit (and both have SIMD).

superdrive: try $225 -- see pricewatch

Your comparison of the high-end models is flawed... you can price a Profile 4 with a P4 2.53GHz, 512MB of DDR, an 80GB ATA-100 HDD and a combo drive for $1869. If you dumb down the features closer to the 17" iMac it's much cheaper. Anyway, the above Profile 4 has the following advantages over the 17" iMac:
- drastically faster processor 2.53GHz P4 vs SP 800MHz G4
- Significantly faster system bus, 533MHz vs 100MHz
- much faster RAM PC2700 DDR vs PC100 SDRAM
- twice the RAM
- Faster IDE interface ATA-100 vs ATA-66
- 6x as long internet access, 6 months vs 1
- Word 2002 (Word v.X is another $369.95 from the Apple Store), Picture It! 2002, Streets and Trips 2002, Encarta 2002, Money 2002,Works Suite 6.0 and The Sims.
- More external ports w/ more legacy options: 6 USB, Parallel, Serial, 2 Integrated IEEE 1394 (FireWire) and 2 PS/2 ports
- And a Floppy Drive ;-)

[The iMac obviously has its own slew of advantages most notably design but it's certainly not as one sided as the above poster made it out to be]

testudo
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08/26, 11:50pm | report spam | close Reply |
But...

But YOU ALL are missing the key feature. Forget chips, speed, FSB, screens, price, etc. The Gateway has a FLOPPY DRIVE!!! It's a REAL computer. You'd have to pay over $100 to put a floppy on a iMac. When is his Steve-ness going to get off his high horse and put back the most important part of the computer back on his machines!!!!! He doesn't know how many sales he's losing. I'm telling ya, I know about these things!!!!

OK, let's say its cheaper. And let's say its faster. You're still left with a Gateway. Which, in general, means one thing. It'll spend as much time with the UPS guy and in South Dakota (or wherever they are these days) as it does in your office.

testudo
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08/26, 11:53pm | report spam | close Reply |
Re: MS Office/Work

Gee, I wonder why Microsoft hasn't ported MS Works, Money, etc to the Mac. Or why they don't offer an Office.X OEM version for cheap sale like they do on the PC. I mean, either or both of these would help sell the Mac users, and may even help switch PC users over to the Mac. And isn't that what MS wants? Oh, wait, its not. Never mind...

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08/26, 11:54pm | report spam | close Reply | delete
and besides--

That PC makes the iMac look even more sleek.
There's not a PC designer out there that can come close to the design team in Cupertino.
The only thing Gateway has to sell its machines is the price. You get what you pay for!

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08/26, 11:55pm | report spam | close Reply |
Re: Look at REAL Prices!

Umm, why do you have 3 years parts and labor when you didn't include the cost of Applecare w/ the Apple? If you redo your comparison with a more comparable processor and the right warranty here's what you get:

Gateway Profile 4
15" TFT Flat-Panel
2.0GHz Pentium 4
128MB DDR SDRAM
40GB Hard Disk
16x10x24 CDRW Drive
MS Works
GeForce 2 MX w/ 32MB DDR
Keyboard and USB Optical Mouse
Integrated Sound and Speakers
One Type II PCMCIA Cardbus
USB, FireWire
56k Modem
1 Year Parts/Labor Warranty
$1,159

-or- with just the fixed warranty and keeping the P4
$1,289.00

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08/26, 11:56pm | report spam | close Reply |
Re: Look at REAL Prices!

^ The first example in the above post should have read:
Celeron� Processor 1.7GHz
instead of 2.0GHz Pentium 4

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08/27, 12:01am | report spam | close Reply |
why, gateway?

why does gateway feel threatened by apple? apple's adds are against EVERY windows maker. so they are primarily aimed against dell, since they have the majority, and so on. guess gateway is scared that ANY loss in their marketshare is bad. but really, i thought gateway would like to see windows get its come-uppance. it might give gateway more flexibility int he future. but what do i know...

testudo
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08/27, 12:12am | report spam | close Reply |
Re: give me a break

First off, the FSB is NOT 533MHz. They don't run that fast. Since DDR RAM is designed to be accessed on the up and down on each clock cycle, they do what they tend to do on the PC, fudge the math by saying the FSB is twice as fast as it is, 266MHz (and for all I know they've gotten it so the RAM can be accessed four times per clock cycle, whereupon it'd be running a mere 133MHz). But that's how the PC world does things. "Hmmm, on our 133MHz bus, we can access RAM twice per cycle, so let's call the bus 266, even if it really isn't.".

Second, as has been written many places, many times, since the bottlenecks on hard drive accessing is the drive itself, and they don't even fill up the pipe on ATA-66, saying ATA-100 is somehow better is a simplistic view (the same as just coming out and saying the processor is significantly faster).

Finally, you can't get the "full" version of Windows XP on the low-end system, you have to go high-end, and spend another $100 to get winXP Pro (XP Home lacks several features, one being no support for NTFS, which means no directory permissions, which means, if you have others using your computers, say your kids, you can't actually prevent them from reading or deleting your personal files).

Finally, its a fixed screen machine. You probably can change the tilt angle, but I don't read anything about swivel, let alone changing its height to match your needs.

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08/27, 12:28am | report spam | close Reply |
Gateway

It is a sure sign of complete and utter last-gasp desperation when you feel threatened by APPLE'S marketshare.

I hope the suckers who buy the Profile 4 enjoy them, because the company will not be around to support them in a year or so.

PS. To make up for the sales Apple may lose to Gateway due to this poor knock-off, I went out and converted a Gateway owner to the Mac. Boy was she grateful, too! Yesterday I did the same thing. Instead of bitching about it, why don't you all do the same?

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08/27, 12:29am | report spam | close Reply |
Whoever they are

They are not sioux, and that makes them less.

:-)

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08/27, 12:31am | report spam | close Reply |
Re: give me a break

Do a little research -- the FSB is independent of the memory bus on most modern PCs. In the case of that P4 it's a 533MHz FSB (133MHz x 4 [QDR = Quad Data Rate]) and the memory bus is DDR. It's going to get even worse very soon when intel rolls out their 667MHz FSB.

You're also wrong about Windows XP Home. It supports NTFS and it defaults to using it (it won't even allow you to format larger partitions in anything but NTFS).

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08/27, 12:32am | report spam | close Reply |
Hey testudo ?

If you don't like macs, why are you posting on a mac based, mac friendly site?
Don't you have anything better to do? Like tweak your faggoty little pc?

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08/27, 12:32am | report spam | close Reply |
Re: Look at REAL Prices!

Hey Smart Guy

Yes, I DID indlude the price of AppleCare with my iMac I chose for comparison.

The iMac I used for comparison is the base CD-RW iMac ($1,299) PLUS AppleCare at $149.

Now do the math (assuming you can add) and you will get $1,448.

My comparison was as close as possible. I had to increase the HDD on the GTW to 40GB, add a modem, etc. Both machines were given 3 year warranties (who wouldn't get that? and with the GTW, you'll DEFINITELY need it)

I figured the GTW would at least need the lowest end P4 available vs. the weak Celeron they were pushing. I upgraded from CD-ROM to CDRW (the iMac's mechanism is better/faster, BTW).

Oh yeah, the iMac lacks a floppy drive.

Why not actually do some research before popping off such a stupid rebuttal?

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08/27, 01:08pm | report spam | close Reply |
Gateway?

Sadly Gateway is taking on 5% of the market with a 9 month after the fact wintel clone of the iMac. Smart business! What Gateway doesn't realize is Steve Jobs can have a ball with this. The fact the iMac is such a threat to Gateway, when Dell and Compaq are their real threats, only shows that Gateway's attention span should be focused on the iceberg on starboard bow! Way to go gateway, what's next? you have already cheaply copied the Tibook, and iMac, badly! What's next? Gatepod, 1000 errors in your pocket?

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08/27, 01:27pm | report spam | close Reply |
COMMERCIAL

MY COMMERCIAL:

Some text on screen that reads somethign like: "Go ahead Gateway, slam the iMac. (But we think customers know better).

Switch alternate images of Apple stores with long long lines waiting for Jaguar, etc. compared to Gateway stores with Liquidation Sales, Store Closing signs, adandoned Gateway stoes and end with a dead cow/butchered beef. Moo.

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08/27, 01:29pm | report spam | close Reply |
The school Bully

Gateway reminds me of a school bully, one that has been beaten up by bigger bullies, (Dell, HP, Compaq)so he then moves on the "weaker" kids to feel that superiority still, that his psychology depends on to survive. Sadly enough, Gateway has taken on the Mac? I say buy the new the Gateway, it will be a collector's item, swapped and sold like everything else on ebay. It will be the machine that leads to it's destruction, or in this case, just finish it off. Gateway's lousy tech support, garbage hardware, and true lack of originality, started it's descent to bankruptcy. Their new "iMac crusher", and ad revenue their are wasting, will be it's undoing. They just brought a knife to a gunfight. Let's get ready to rumble! Will be interesting to see how Steve Reacts to ads. I think his stockholder's are wondering. Gateway's Board of directors should start selling off stock now! Competing with the 5% market, is not good business. BTW, Gateway, how many people flocked to the midnight premiere of your new IClone? I think it could be counted on one hand...
Thanks Gateway, you just reminded me why I switched in 2001. Larry larrywheeler@mac.com

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08/27, 01:41pm | report spam | close Reply |
The Profile ads are great

They put iMacs in front of people and Gateway is paying for it.

They give Apple carte blanche to strike back at Gateway, and since most people don't know the difference between GW and Dell, it'll be taken as a strike at Dell too.

Apple can do an ad with a student editing DVD's on his iMac and the student next to him playing solitaire on his Profile and looking over the iMac students shoulder, then the iMac student swivels the iMac screen to the other student and asks him what he is doing. The Gateway guy says "Look I won a game." and tries to swivel his but it won't.

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08/27, 01:42pm | report spam | close Reply |
Gateway Tv ad should read

Here is my script for new Gateway iClone.

Voiceover guy:"Check out the performance of the Gateway Iclone versus the Apple Imac..."

Show scenes of user hitting CTL-ALT-DEL, configuring networks, Throwing away bad CD burns, etc.

"The new gateway gets to blue screens, and restarts up 75% faster than the imac..."

Show user reading manuals, searching for new drivers for XP on Net...

"The new Iclone downloads bug fixes, security updates, and hardware drivers 25% faster than iMac..."

(you hear second lawyer like VO guy:" Tests not verified, no way to test speed of errors on iMac, no errors found...")

"The two machines are close when you first look at them...
Until you use them for more than an hour...."

Gateway- "We restart faster than the other guys!"
Show cow with CTL-ALT-DEL on head, going "REBOOOOOOT" larrywheeler@mac.com

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08/27, 01:50pm | report spam | close Reply |
Addition: Profile ads...

The iMac student can eject his DVD and say: "Hey you wanna see the DVD I just made?" The GW guy could say: "Yeah, but put it in your iMac because this won't play DVD's."

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08/27, 02:35pm | report spam | close Reply |
seen the ad?

has anyone actually seen the ad? is it up on the web somewhere?

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08/27, 02:40pm | report spam | close Reply |
No sense in bickering

Funny how huffy people get in both directions about computer specs in situations like this. Sure the Gateway is faster (processor/memory bandwidth wise), and quite a bit. A 700-800Mhz G4 isn't shamefully slow vs a ~2Ghz P4 (probably in the 1.2-1.5GHz P4 range, very roughly speaking and depending on what you're doing), but that's not the point at all.

The point is that a midrange G4 is fast enough for almost any home user. If a dozen people can run a reasearch laboratory, including major CAD work, a lot of fancy Word business, and all the e-mail and websurfing you can shake a stick at on a bunch of G4 450s, I'm not too worried about the difference between an iMac and a faster Gateway. What counts more is what they can do.

And whether configuring your Gateway with a Superdrive-equivalent DVDR is cheap or not, you can't buy iMovie or iDVD for the Gateway. Period. There are things that are closer, but you can't buy iTunes either. You also can't buy the elegance of OSX for the Gateway. Period. You might need to buy office, but the same folks (we're talking consumers, not office users) who are happy with MS Works should be perfectly happy with Appleworks--I know plenty of people for whom it gets the job done. And when you factor in the fact that the iMac looks a heckuva lot better, I personally don't even see the comparison.

On the other hand, I'm kinda glad to see a PC company lashing out at Apple--shows that they've registered on somebody's radar, anyway. And as they say, any publicity is good publicity.

(Incidentally, how ironic is it to headline an ad comparing a PC and a Mac with "they're the same until you turn them on", when you're trying to sell the PC?)

Clive
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08/27, 04:54pm | report spam | close Reply |
bars don't add up

If you check the document the bar graphs represented don't actually reflect the figures printed in the back.

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08/27, 05:41pm | report spam | close Reply |
response commercial

First off, the rumor for the 'trouncing' the imac gets on the quake 3 test is that the timedemo was run on the classic app instead of the native app. The fact that it can get nearly 50 fps under *emulation* is pretty damn good in my mind.

second part is that the gateway won't have a dvd/r drive for months...they use a laptop drive in it, and they don't yet make a laptop dvd burner...so....

Heres my idea for the commercial:

Gateway machine is bouncing around, doing flips and such, then sticks its tongue out.

The iMac sticks its 'tongue' out.

cut to reveal: a dvd-r in the drive - perhaps the 4.7-gig label highlighted.

voiceover..."the new iMac....ours is bigger"

end shot: gateway machine's drive goes all flaccid and it whimpers away.

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08/27, 06:28pm | report spam | close Reply |
I saw it

during MNFootball last night. What's up with Madden being on MNF?

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08/27, 06:51pm | report spam | close Reply |
READ THIS!!!!!

I called Gateway.

They lied (or at least were very stupid) about many points.

But the funniest thing is:

THE PROFILE IS LIQUID COOLED! HAHAHAHAHA

That's right. It uses distilled water. I can't right any more, this is too funny.....

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08/27, 06:55pm | report spam | close Reply |
Ok I can write

Ok all you spell checkers, you got me.

I wonder what the warranty is? You know damn well it's going to leak or corrode. I wouldn't touch this thing with a 10ft pole (unless it was filled with water!)

I love it.

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08/27, 07:06pm | report spam | close Reply |
I can't buy one...

I'd consider recommending one for a client who MUST have a PC, but...
"Gateway regrets to inform all our customers that it will no longer actively sell its products in the Asia Pacific or from this website."

Bad for my boss who has a Gateway laptop. He's been quoted $2000 to replace a $10 plastic bit. They want to replace the entire shell :-/

fabfourever
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08/27, 07:24pm | report spam | close Reply |
iMac warranty limited

The previous poster's comparisons are good but he made one error-the iMac's standard warranty is only one year. For an additional $149 you can purchase the AppleCare warranty for an additional two years. Other than that, there is NO comparison-the Imac is the better machine.

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08/27, 07:46pm | report spam | close Reply |
anything

is better than an imac. yuck. . .

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08/27, 09:34pm | report spam | close Reply |
B.S. Startup times tests!

Has anyone noticed the fine print in the lab tests .PDF? Specifically, the reboot times, where the testing methodology is as follows:

> We timed the systems from the point of initiating a boot/re-start by hitting the power on button, to
> the point when the systems reached a usable condition, *defined as the instant a ready cursor returned
> to the screen.* [my emphasis]
> [...]
> Press the power button to power on the system, starting the timer simultaneously.
> Stop the timer the instant the cursor icon changes from an hourglass (PC) or spinning color wheel
> (iMac) to an arrow.

Well, sure, 'cause everyone who's ever used a Windows PC knows that it's ready for use IMMEDIATELY after the desktop and the pointer appear. COME ON! This is STILL one of the major differences between the Mac OS (either one) and WinDOS (any version): the ENDLESS wait for all the System Tray/Startup c*** to load and allow you to actually "*use* your damn PC. 95, 2000, XP all do the same - especially when they come pre-configured with AIM-this and MSN-that, let alone NAV, AIO/printer software, etc.
Forget the "I have to reboot way less in x OS" claims - give me an OS that lets me actually WORK when it looks like it's done starting up!

And look at the times graphed - from .4 minutes (24 seconds) for the Celeron (SE) down to .25 (15 seconds) for the P4 (XL), so apparently processor speed is inversely proportional to startup time at "eTesting Labs"! This is simply a bald-faced lie! Man, this c*** pisses me off.

I would bring up the MUCH lower 10.2 boot times (under 30 sec. on an 867 I used at the Jaguar promo), but to be fair, there's no way the could have tested that.

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08/28, 12:08am | report spam | close Reply |
watched it on tv

LOVED IT! Favorite part is when it sticks its tongue out at the imac! Rock on!

I think it looks better than an imac, they stink!

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08/28, 04:48am | report spam | close Reply |
DVD RW

Seems like GW's going to offer DVD-RW upgrades for people who bought the Profiles. They say "Currently we don't have a DVDRW option but we will be offering upgrades for current users and you don't even need a tool to replace. The DVD drive just slides in and that's it!"

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08/28, 07:29am | report spam | close Reply |
re: rebuttal ads

I love a couple of the "rebuttal ad" concepts here... very creative! That's what we Mac people do best, is be creative.

I really think Gateway is misdirected to tag it's print ads with "It's a close competition until you turn them on". First of all, if both machines were turned off, it would NOT be a close competition. The iMac wins on good design hands down! Secondly, after you do turn them on, the iMac offers you a standards-based, *innovative* operating system. We all know what the Profile will be offering... that same old proprietary, privacy-invading, unimaginative, wanna-be operating system spawned from the depths of h***.

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08/28, 09:18am | report spam | close Reply |
Quake 3 Tests are Fake

All I can say is that the Quake 3 benchmarks that were run on the iMac were run in Classic mode. So yeah, it will be a bit slower, since it is running 2 OPERATING SYSTEMS AT THE SAME TIME!

Thanks....thought you all might want to know that.

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08/28, 10:11am | report spam | close Reply |
Ummmmmmm...

You guys are in here comparing specs between the two. What you should really be discussing is why in the h*** Gateway would square off with Apple. It makes ZERO sense and is a very very poor marketing strategy. Gee, lets fight for Apples 5% when we should be going after Dell. Who do they have running their marketing up there?
They us completely different Operating Systems. Gateway, get a freakin clue!!

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09/08, 12:14pm | report spam | close Reply |
Here we go again

Boy this looks familiar. PC world copying Apple. The PC world did this a few years back with the original iMac. Once they saw them flying off the shelves they scrambled to colorize their boring beige machines. Well guys it didn't work for you then and it won't work now. Sounds like Damage control, for Gateway, to me.Remember, you get what you pay for. I happened to notice a few posts by obvious PC users here. Looks like future switchers to me. Why else would they be hanging around a Mac site.

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Gateway slams iMac with ad

updated 08:45 pm EDT, Mon August 26, 2002

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Re: give me a break

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Gateway?

COMMERCIAL

The school Bully

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Gateway Tv ad should read

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READ THIS!!!!!

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Here we go again

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