After a long period of unfortunate corporate decisions and failed marketing strategies, Apple was reunited with its dynamic cofounder Steve Jobs. By refocusing the company on new, high performance, low cost computers and a modernized operating system, Jobs has turned the company around. Apple has been profitable beyond expectation for each of the past six quarters, and since its introduction, the iMac has been the hottest selling computer. With approximately one million iMacs sold to this point, it is interesting to note that 45 percent of these buyers are new to Macintosh computers and 13 percent made the switch from Wintel computers. It is also worth noting that since the introduction of the iMac, 1,600 new software titles for the Mac have shipped.

The important question for an anesthesiologist in the market for a computer is: "Should I consider a Macintosh?" The answer depends on a thoughtful appraisal of the machine's intended use. If the computer is for home use: word processing, finance, spreadsheets and Web surfing, then a Macintosh is a good choice.

The new, very popular iMac is a nearly ideal machine for home use. This computer was designed for non-technical consumers which is obvious from the clean, colorful design of the case to its remarkable ease of setup. This computer is literally ready for use after lifting it out of the box, plugging in the mouse/keyboard and the power cord. During that first start-up, a software "wizard" will ask for Internet access information; if you have already signed up with a service provider and have the information, plugging the computer into your telephone jack will get you connected to the Internet, otherwise the wizard will tell you how to get an account and even provide local service recommendations. At the center of the iMac is the top-of-the-line central processor known as a G3 Power PC running at up to 333 MHz. For a given clock rate, the G3 chip is significantly faster than an Intel Pentium II for most tasks because of the G3's advantageous architecture and its cache memory design. The all-in-one box contains a CD-ROM drive, a large hard disk to store your programs and documents, 32 megabytes of RAM memory (enough to run several programs at once, although more is always better), a fast ethernet adapter (for local networks) and a hardware accelerated graphics system. The iMac eschews the older SCSI, serial and parallel external device ports for the new high performance USB (universal serial bus) and a very high speed "FireWire" port. In a design move considered controversial by columnists and pundits, the iMac does not contain a floppy disk drive. Steve Jobs says that floppy disks are obsolete. While diskettes are inexpensive, they are too small to hold modern programs or be used for hard disk backup, and e-mail or local networks are a fast means to transfer a few files to another computer. Almost all commercial software is now distributed on CD-ROM, if not electronically downloaded via the Internet, because CDs are more reliable, hold about 500 times what a diskette holds, are cheaper to produce and distribute and transfer data to the computer many times faster than a diskette. For people who must have a small removable storage device, either the "Super Disk" from Sony or the Zip Disk from Iomega are available for about $100 and each hold about 100 megabytes or about 70 times the capacity of a standard diskette.

Another exciting new product from Apple is the G3 desktop computer. This line of high-end computers has recently undergone a complete redesign. Like the iMac, the new white and blue case is strikingly different from other desktops or workstations - it is translucent, opens without any tools and is designed so that new memory cards, disk drives or PCI expansion boards (the same as current Wintel computers) may be quickly and easily inserted by the owner. The G3 desktop computers are designed for power users like creative professionals, or for use as server computers. As such, these computers incorporate the latest, fastest technologies including processors clocked at up to 400MHz, a very large cache memory, Ultra Wide SCSI disks internally (four times faster than regular SCSI drives), and the new ATI Rage 128 video processor which accelerates all kinds of graphically intensive applications ranging from drafting or modeling programs to Photoshop to games.

The new Apple G3 PowerBook has also received rave reviews in the trade magazines because it sets new benchmarks for speed and capability in laptop computing. The review in the May 1999 issue of Consumer Reports gave the G3 Powerbook a tie for highest overall score.

Apple software continues to innovate and evolve and stay several jumps ahead of Microsoft. The latest version of the Macintosh operating system is version 8.51. Speaking as one who uses Apple, Microsoft and Linux operating systems every day, my opinion is that the MacOS has a superior, more intuitive and consistent user interface. An exclusive innovation known as Sherlock is a built-in, multimodal search system. Whether you are looking for a local disk file called CallSchedule, a file on your disk which contains the word "ropivacaine" or Web site about Medicare billing regulations, Sherlock will find all the sought documents quickly and accurately.

The next generation of Apple operating system is OS-X, a complete ground-up rewrite with a central core of Unix, fleshed out with the Macintosh user interface. The Unix core will provide those features that the current MacOS lacks such as protected task memory and pre-emptive multitasking. The server version of OS-X was released this spring, the desktop version will be released later.

Buying a Macintosh for work may depend on the local information technology service, as some institutions are more flexible or consumer-oriented than others. If you wish to use an Apple computer in a Wintel-oriented institution, you can raise the issue of "total cost of ownership." The cost of computer ownership includes not just the initial purchase price of the computer, but the cost of maintenance and future upgrades, the cost of training and technical support and the cost/productivity of the people who use the computer. Several studies have demonstrated that Macintoshes have significantly lower training and technical support costs and that Mac users have higher productivity.

It has often been said that Wintel computers have a much larger selection of software available. This is true, but is it actually still relevant? For example, the Wintel world has perhaps 15 word processing programs and the Macintosh only four, but the overwhelming majority from both camps now use Microsoft Word. Similar concentration of market share to a single Microsoft product can be seen in spreadsheet programs, presentation software, etc. The Mac versions of these programs have full feature parity with the Windows versions. It is ironic that Microsoft's marketing success had led to the erosion of software variety as a rationale to buy only Wintel computers. In the realm of graphics software, there has been a consolidation as well with Adobe and Macromedia, and here too, software for the two platforms generally have feature parity. Game software was, until last year, a weak point for the Mac. However, with the introduction of the new computers listed above, Apple provides a very attractive platform for game developers to work with and they have responded enthusiastically. Most of this year's hottest games are available for the Mac or scheduled for release in the near future. If you own a Mac and must occasionally run a Wintel-only program, there are two very good PC-emulator packages available. These allow Wintel software to run, albeit slowly, on a Macintosh.

In summary, Apple computers should definitely be considered when buying a new computer, particularly if you do not have easy access to a computer expert, or if you simply want to spend more of your time doing your work, rather than working on your tools.

Disclosure: The author has no financial interest in any manufacturer of personal computer hardware or software. The opinions expressed here are those of the author and not necessarily those of the American Society of Anesthesiologists.

Ira J. Rampil, M.D., is an Associate Professor of Anesthesia and Perioperative Care, University of California, San Francisco, California. He has been a computer programmer since 1968.

return to top

FEATURES

• The Closed Claims Project: Looking Back, Looking Forward
  
  
• Behind the Scenes at the ASA Closed Claims Project
  
  
• Obstetric Anesthesia Closed Claims Update II
  
  
• Malpractice Claims for Nonoperative Pain Management: A Growing Pain for Anesthesiologists?
  
  
• How Much Professional Liability Coverage Is Enough? Lessons From the ASA Closed Claims Project
  
  
• Distributing Anesthesia Information Via the Web: Lessons Learned by the Closed Claims Project
  
  

ARTICLES

• Insured But Not Covered: The Emperor's New Clothes - Part II
  
  
• ASA at a Glance

DEPARTMENTS

• Ventilations
  
• Administrative Update
  
• Washington Report
  
• What's New In ...
  
• Practice Management
  
• Residents' Review
  
• ASA News
  
• Letters to the Editor
  
• FAER Report
  

The views expressed herein are those of the authors and do not necessarily represent or reflect the views, policies or actions of the American Society of Anesthesiologists.

NL Archives

Information for Authors