By CHANG CHIN LIANG
WE are approaching the end of the third quarter for the year 2009 and the economy is slowly but surely making a comeback. The public is, however, still travelling less and spending less.
Everybody out there is clinging hard onto his or her piggy banks and far from splashing money the way they did back in 2006 and 2007. Certainly, less budget for our daily needs and those necessities that are so crucial in our daily life, etc, computers, handphones, and iPods. I thought it might be necessary to mention so just in case you have not left your bedroom in months or have gone to the extent of cutting the Internet broadband so that you can save an extra RM100 to cushion the 10% paycut that you suffered a few months ago. Maybe.
Anyway, let us get to the main point, which is how and where you can save an extra ringgit or so in your next purchase of IT equipment, especially when it comes to software and hardware.
No, I am not talking about going to Chow Kit road and getting that pirated CD for RM5 or so. Robbing your little brother of his new PSP also is not a solution. Let us dissect this issue and see how saving money on software and hardware is much easier than you think.
My favourite topic for hardware would be none other than the PC. When a PC is needed, first, write down clearly the main reason and task that you will be carrying out with this new PC. More often than not, the average person would just need a PC to surf the Internet or just do basic word processing. Well, and the old school Solitaire for those retirees.
Most of the PCs that are on the market today have more power and capacity than is needed to do all this basic work. There may be other secondary functions that you will carry out but rarely.
So, the question is, why pay more for the extra power and amp? Let’s take a basic branded laptop from one of the main manufacturers in Malaysia.
For RM2,000 from our little piggy bank, we will get a laptop equipped with an Intel Duo Core Processor T5670 (1.80GHz), 1GB DDR-2 SDRAM memory, 160 GB hard drive and a 14-inch Wide HD Display monitor.
For those who have been under coconuts for quite some time, HD stands for High Definition. In comparison, the requirements to run the basic Words, Excel and Powerpoint is only a 500 megahertz (MHz) processor, 256 MB of memory and a 1.5GB space in your hard drive. In short, you are getting a computer capable of launching the next space shuttle for NASA into orbit while your main objective of getting the computer is just to achieve a perfect Pac-Man game by achieving the maximum possible score on the first 255 levels.
Another point to observe is to refrain from getting the hottest and latest products in the market. It’s a sure no-no for me, a massacre to my wallet. The price is cut throat and it will take a 67% dive a few months after hitting the market. Well, just like a pizza piping hot, fresh from the oven, it gets cold after some time. Thumb drives are a classical example. A 128 GB pen drive now costs RM1,200. (wow, that’s half the price of a laptop, which comes with a built-in 160 GB hard disk). I’m looking at a 50% discount to the price one year from now for this 128 GB tech piece. A good cooling off period for most tech stuff to come to a reasonable price would be 1-1½ years after the product hits the market.
Software options
Unlike hardware, where the prices waterfall down after some time, prices of software, unfortunately, do not budge much. This one area needs deep evaluation and study. We are subconsciously drawn to the need to use traditional software products that has been there ever since. It has been so predominant and has become a standard, that we presume and assume that we can’t live without it. When you sit at your table and do your fair share of homework on the current software you are using, especially the licensing cost, you will soon know that your assumptions and presumptions have cost you a bomb.
There are certainly other alternatives, and the numbers, depending on which field or sector you are talking about, can vary from a few to hundreds of alternatives. Take for example our operating system. The slow but steady decline in the market dominance of Microsoft’s Windows from 98% a few years back to 93.06% as of last month shows that there is certainly life outside Windows. Web browser newcomers, or should I say, now true dark horse challengers, have sliced Internet Explorers pie from a comfortable 95% a few years back to a worrying 77% last month.
That would surely raise eyebrows. One of the reasons why such shifts in paradigms take place is because market leaders tend to sit too comfortably on their couches, relying on yesteryears’ technology and utilising old practices. And in the current economic downturn, where price and budget is a very tight and sensitive issue, it makes perfect sense for users to opt for more affordable solutions, and in a few rare cases, even better ones in terms of functionality and also user friendliness. In other words, value for money which is what everybody would ideally go for. Minus the branding.
Take a look at the word documents arena. OpenOffice.org from Sun Microsystems and Google Docs are a couple of alternatives which raise eyebrows but certainly have the juice and dynamite power to blast the current market leaders out of its office. These products offer an alternative to the traditional office applications and have word processing, spreadsheet and presentation software.
OpenOffice.org also offers a database and graphics program. The functionality is no doubt impressive and will seem very familiar where one even claims to be able to read and write traditional file formats. The biggest difference, and certainly the most interesting one, between these two products and the traditional office suite is the price. OpenOffice.org and Google Docs are free of charge.
So what’s stopping hundreds of millions of such users from jumping boat and shifting to the other two products? Fear to change, fear to lead.
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