AS HEARD ON NH Today WGIR-AM 610: What Laptop Should You Buy

Welcome,

Craig Peterson here.  This morning I was on with Chris Ryan on NH Today. He wanted to discuss what is the best technology to buy.  We got into some details of the benefits and drawbacks of each. Here we go with Chris. 

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- CraigPeterson.com

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Automated Machine Generated Transcript:

Craig Peterson: [00:00:00] Hey, have you thought about whether you should get one of these Chromebooks, maybe Android tied into it, or a Mac or a Windows, computer laptop, or surface tablet or otherwise. That's exactly what I talked with Chris Ryan about this morning. So here we go with Chris. A little bit of insight on computers and the whole market behind it. 

Chris Ryan: [00:00:23] I am Chris Ryan. Appreciate you joining us for the show. Craig Peterson joins us right now in the program. He hosts tech talk on Newsradio 610 and 96.7. 

Craig Peterson: [00:00:32] Hey, good morning. Doing well. 

Chris Ryan: [00:00:34] Good. Thanks for  joining us for the show. I want to talk to you today about decision-making in regards to what tech to use. Whether it's a cell phone, whether it's a Chromebook versus a Mac and this off of a story from geek wire.com, which indicates that Chromebooks outsold macs worldwide in 2020. So in your view, why did that take place? How do you go about if you're a consumer differentiating using a Chromebook versus using a Mac versus using another type of tablet? 

Craig Peterson: [00:01:09] Apple is moved to their own chips now really indicates what's going on in the marketplace.

Many years ago, there were just a few different chips that were competing manufacturers. Motorola was winning this game. IBM had their chips for the mainframes. Then along came this little startup, known as Microsoft and helped Apple out. In fact, in the very beginning and moved on from there to really focus in on one hardware platform  and that's the Intel platform.

For years it was known as Wintel monopoly, meaning Windows and Intel. Those two were in lock step, went hand in hand. The default for people to buy was always Windows because that's what they knew. That's what they might've used at work. Although it might be a different version. So they just go ahead and use it at home.

Now we have options. Intel has been falling by the wayside for years. Even 64 bit chips, Intel lost the whole lead on that. AMD advanced micro devices beat them. So when we're looking at it, as a consumer, now we have more choices. We can decide that we want a simpler machine, a more secure machine and get something like a Chrome or web based tablet. This is an operating system that is designed for mobile devices. 

We can get a chromo S based laptop, a desktop. There's even rumors that there's some more phones in the work. The Chrome OS will even  run android and it's way cheaper because you don't have to use that expensive Intel chip, which is part of the reason Apple has decided to ditch Intel as well.

Now we're going to the real benefit of Unix machines. Unix has been around since the early seventies. It's what I've used in data centers and all big businesses use in data centers. The real benefit to Unix, Chris, is it will run on anything. So now you can go out for $150, buy a half decent little tablet or laptop using Chrome OSwhich of course is coming from Google.

Have that thing updated for you all the time, just automatically. It has all of the features on it you probably want, you can go online, obviously, you can edit document and it is cheap. Although, you can get more expensive ones. It's secure. Chrome OS is what many security researchers use. As you mentioned for the first time ever Chromebooks out sold Macs. That's a little misleading because it's not eating into Apple's market share. It's eating into Microsoft market share and along with that, of course, Intel.

Chris Ryan: [00:04:05] I want to ask you about. Where Google kind of caught up to to Mac. Most individuals purchased what the optimal item was the Apple phone.  It was the different Apple products. That was pretty much seen as being the market's view of things. 

Now, it seems that there's been a change and a lot of that has to do with, as you referenced, Google's technology and products and the alignment with Android and other types of phones. So at what point did Google get to the stage where they were on par with Mac, in your view, or perhaps surpassing it? 

Craig Peterson: [00:04:38] There's really two different things here. The on-par right now, as far as sales go is in the Chrome OS side. When we're talking about phones it's a different thing. These smartphones smart devices. There are many more mobile, sometimes more android based smartphones out there, then there are I iPhones. The main reason for that has to do with price. Google made the operating system, the Android operating system, available effectively for free for any developer that wanted to use it 

Chris Ryan: [00:05:13] The public perception is that the iPhone was the thing and kind of still is.

Has that changed at all? Or is the technology with obviously the Chrome OS different? Has the technology with Google caught up to where Apple is in the view of the public, and in actuality, 

Craig Peterson: [00:05:28] In the view of the public, it's hard to. Say a lot of people you start using Windows, you say, you start using Android, you stick with it, et cetera.

That's a little hard to tell, but I can tell you what Google thinks, obviously, Google's beta right now for the Android operating system is trying to copy more and more features from Apple's iOS, which is their operating system for their smartphones. 

Google thinks that Apple is still the market leader. They are still playing catch up. They are nowhere near, orders of magnitude, nowhere near Apple, when it comes to security. Android is far behind, still. 

Justin McIssac: [00:06:06] When it comes to actual Chromebooks versus Macbooks. Do you think a lot of this on the sales side, Craig, is driven by schools? For my school system in Rochester, if they're looking at $300 Chromebooks versus a $1,700 Macbook for their students, no contest.

Craig Peterson: [00:06:19] Yeah, and that's absolutely true, Justin. The cost is something that a lot of people consider and it's a legitimate consideration. In the case of, should I get a cheap Windows machine or should I get a cheap Chromebook? The Chromebook is a much better option for most people. When you're talking about schools who have widely adopted the whole Chromebook and Chrome OS operating system. Schools, it's just a huge win. It's so much less expensive. It's much easier to tell Justin to buy a $300 Chromebook that the $1,800 Mac.

Where the Mac comes in useful, let's run through those three platforms really quickly. The Mac comes in useful when you want something secure, easy to use that can run bigger applications. If you have an app, like you're trying to do video editing, maybe more photo editing, you might want to use a Mac.

Windows is great, if the app that you need to use only runs on Windows. Or you only know Windows and you just don't want to bother learning an even simpler operating system. Then Chrome OOS is wonderful when you need primarily to go online. You're going to use a web browser. You need some simple applications. Maybe you want to edit some Word documents or Excel from time to time, nothing terribly fancy. That's where Chrome OS comes in.   That's why it's been such a hit in schools, too. 

Chris Ryan: [00:07:44] Well, Craig has always I appreciate you joining us for the show and we shall chat again soon. 

Craig Peterson: [00:07:48] All right. Take care, Chris. 

Chris Ryan: [00:07:49] All right. That is Craig Peterson joining us here on New Hampshire today. You can hear him on Saturday and Sunday on news radio 610 and 96.7 with tech talk. Always good to talk with him about what's taking place in the tech marketplace.

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