Asus to surpass Apple in notebook sales: TrendForce
My girlfriend got a Zenbook a couple of weeks ago. It&#x27;s a really nice machine -- not quite what I need for development purposes, but very very good. Put me in mind to see what kind of Zenbook might suit my needs. So I headed down to <a href="http:&#x2F;&#x2F;www.asus.com&#x2F;zenbook&#x2F;" rel="nofollow">http:&#x2F;&#x2F;www.asus.com&#x2F;zenbook&#x2F;</a> to see what kind of machines they had and how much they cost.<p>That&#x27;s how I discovered one of Apple&#x27;s secret weapons, which it seems nobody is talking about: <i>purchasability</i>.<p>My expectation was that Asus&#x27;s site would allow me to:<p><pre><code>  1. Browse their catalogue of computers.
  2. Compare their pricing and features.
  3. Buy one.
</code></pre>
These are expectations which Apple&#x27;s online store has given me, and I don&#x27;t think they&#x27;re extravagant. But with ASUS I could do exactly <i>none</i> of those. Nowhere on the site could I find a simple list of Zenbook models. Instead, there&#x27;s <i>so much flowery copywriting</i> about how smart and sexy and popular a Zenbook will make me. Jesus Christ, it goes on forever. Are they using an infinite scroll? Anyhow, eventually I reach the bottom of the page: no list of available computers with specifications. WTF.<p>Okay, let&#x27;s try &quot;Find Your Zen&quot; -- maybe, um, that&#x27;ll help me pick a machine per the features I want?<p>No, it&#x27;s some kind of personality profile, asking me what my aspirations are in life. My aspirations are to buy a fucking 13&quot;-14&quot; notebook with a decent CPU, an hdpi screen, an SSD, 8gb of RAM and a real HDMI port. Fine, let&#x27;s pick some random options and see what it gives us.<p>Oooh, it says I should by some kind of flip-book! Actually I didn&#x27;t know that existed and it looks pretty cool. The UX360UA. Yep, I&#x27;d go for that I guess, but it would be nice to see it side-by-side with other options. Anyhow, how much does it cost?<p>No idea. Doesn&#x27;t say anywhere on the site. WTF?<p>Okay, let&#x27;s go to <a href="http:&#x2F;&#x2F;currys.co.uk&#x2F;" rel="nofollow">http:&#x2F;&#x2F;currys.co.uk&#x2F;</a> to find out. Search for Zenbooks. 78 options. Damnit, no, let&#x27;s narrow down the screen size. WTF, it says they doesn&#x27;t have any 13&quot; models? Oh, no, I see -- their search filters are just completely busted. Fine, let&#x27;s search through the whole list until we find what we want.<p>Hm. They don&#x27;t have the UX360UA, but they have something that looks identical called the UX360CA. Er.... what&#x27;s the difference? Is that like a different model number for the UK market? No way to tell.<p>...Spend 5 minutes Googling, since there&#x27;s no way to search for anything or compare features on the ASUS site... finally find a comparison which makes it clear that the UX360CA is has a down-rated CPU, definitely unsuitable for my work. Looks like Curry&#x27;s just doesn&#x27;t carry the machine I want.<p>Okay, let&#x27;s try Amazon.<p>Searching for UX360UA pulls up scores of options, most of them having nothing to do with the UX360UA. Finally, however, I can see a price -- a mere half an hour after first looking for it on the Asus site -- but it&#x27;s out of stock! Alas. Oh, it&#x27;s also available from other vendors for a bit more, but still a good deal... let&#x27;s do that!<p>And, hey, this is thing is <i>loaded</i>! It&#x27;s got a 256gb SSD <i>and</i> a 512gb HD. I admit: I could make use of that.<p>I get as far as putting it onto my wishlist before I notice that it&#x27;s actually a UX310UA rather than a UX360UA. Just one character difference: can&#x27;t blame Amazon for thinking that the Levenshtein distance was close enough to make it a match. But WTF, I now have no idea what kind of computer this is or whether it would be suitable for me. Still have no idea how much a UX360UA that I can actually <i>buy</i> would cost, nor have I been able to do a side-by-side comparison of it with any other options.<p>So how the hell am I supposed to purchase this thing??? Had to give up for the day; I&#x27;ll come back to it when I have more free time.<p>In contrast, Apple&#x27;s retail experience (both online and physical) is... well, there&#x27;s a lot of it that&#x27;s extraordinarily polished, probably to the point of superfluousness, but they&#x27;ve got the very most basic mechanism figured out:<p><pre><code>  1. Here&#x27;s what we&#x27;ve got.
  2. Choose what you want.
  3. Buy it.
</code></pre>
This allowed me to buy my current Macbook Pro at the Apple store on Regent street in under 12 minutes. I deeply appreciated the straightforwardness of that purchasing experience (in contrast to my girlfriend, who, when picking up her Zenbook from Currys, had to spend 15 minutes in a back room turning down upselling offers etc). Is this really so hard for others to accomplish?<p>And no, Dell isn&#x27;t any better at this. Nor is HP. I haven&#x27;t checked with Silverfish^H^H^H^H Lenovo yet but am not particularly interested in their machines. In any case, this is one area where industry needs to get better at aping Apple.