PC User Buying a MAC

[Andy]

Shock horror, I plan to buy a Mac Mini - the cheapest Mac computer (about $600). The main reason is so that I can develop iPhone applications. Unfortunately you are required to do the development on Mac hardware so it is costly to get started. You would think that they would provide an emulator and tools for the PC to get more developers on board but it seems like they are more interested in forcing people to buy Mac hardware. Or maybe they hate the PC so much that they won't have anything to do with it?

The fun factor of writing code to work with a camera, GPS, phone, sound, video, email, accelerometer and touch screen though is worth it I think, even though I may not sell any Apps.

[donecweb]

Why not buy used? Maybe a refurbished from Amazon or such.

[Andy]

I bid on a used one on eBay but it fetched a high price even though it used the older, slower G4 processor. The newer ones can dual boot and run other OS's too. Since it should last me 5+ years I may as well get a new one. It can be a Christmas present since I don't recall buying much else this year apart from food and drink and a couple of domain names

[Mikey]

If you are in college you can probably qualify an educational discount.  I myself have been interested in trying out a mac.  I use to use them when I was in Jr. High School.  I was on the tech team and was responsible for going around the school troubleshooting and fixing them.  But that was quite some time ago.  Before OS X was around.

[Tofayel]

I think MAC would be fine, but I don't prefer buy used computer. One of my friends told that don't buy old women as don't want to buy used computer.