Wednesday, June 09, 2010

On Prestige

In Indonesia, the price of branded goods are much higher than in the USA, part of if is due to the luxury goods' tax, another part of it I just dont get why. What I find fascinating, the culture of showing off in this place making it normal to pay the exorbitant prices, some even gloats about paying it because it's a prestige. I remember an old colleague bought a black macbook because of it's prestige, and ended up using Windows on it. I found out about this when he said he couldnt open a pdf file he needed because he didnt have a pdf reader to open it. I told him that's BS, but he was very adamant about it. So I opened his Macbook, and logged into MacOs to show him he could read a pdf without the need of downloading a reader program under his bewildering eyes. I mean really, I thought he was using windows on it because he needed some applications only available in Windows, but no, after more than a year owning a macbook, he just didnt know it came with MacOs which is more suitable for him who was not a computer savvy.

Logically, why on earth spending more money buying a Mac, but you use Windows all the time other than for showing off that you have the purchasing power to get one?

3 comments:

colson said...

Though not as crazy as this bloke, I have to admit the Apple design is beautiful and tempting. I have been wavering, but ultimately I did stick to a very common Siemens desktop.

Probably I'm too stingy ( or, to put it nicer to myself: common sense) to fall for the lure of conspicuous consumption.

triesti said...

My dad's last gift for me was a mac, because I needed a computer and had enough dealing with viruses on a Windows PC.

I suggest my elderly acquaintances to get a Mac if they have the money, because it's easier to use than a PC/Windows.

Unknown said...

iirc all of osx's graphics and text etc are displayed using postscript which was the forerunner of pdf... kinda ironic!