[Toutgood]

Friend of mine does aid work in Africa (Specifically Rwanda, but has moved around a bit from Liberia, to Chad, to Burkina Faso, to I don't know where.) She LOVES Apple products (specifically the powerbooks/ibooks and iPod) but is obviously worried about support in those countries.

She's looking to me to help her buy a new laptop, and has always looked to me for advice on this kind of thing.

I know Apple has service providers and resellers in South Africa, but would that really be enough? Does anyone here have any experience dealing with Apple support in Africa?

Should I in good faith really recommend Apple products to this person?

[Nicko]

Originally posted by Toutgood:
Friend of mine does aid work in Africa (Specifically Rwanda, but has moved around a bit from Liberia, to Chad, to Burkina Faso, to I don't know where.) She LOVES Apple products (specifically the powerbooks/ibooks and iPod) but is obviously worried about support in those countries.

She's looking to me to help her buy a new laptop, and has always looked to me for advice on this kind of thing.

I know Apple has service providers and resellers in South Africa, but would that really be enough? Does anyone here have any experience dealing with Apple support in Africa?

Should I in good faith really recommend Apple products to this person?

I'm living in Nairobi and they have TWO! count them, TWO Apple stores here. Impressive stuff. One of them is a service centre (main one for east africa they say). When I was in there a few weeks ago I saw a new G5s sitting on a counter.

So basically, it would give her a good excuse to take a little holiday and go to Nairobi if her powerbook broke.

[Toutgood]

Holiday and Nairobi shouldn't be uttered in the same sentence! But yeah, that's good new for East Africa.

[Nicko]

Originally posted by Toutgood:
Holiday and Nairobi shouldn't be uttered in the same sentence! But yeah, that's good new for East Africa.

It's not so bad as long as you don't inhale.

[theolein]

In most of Africa computer support does not really exist. There is no such thing as a local representative for Dell, Apple, IBM or whoever in most of Africa. Sure there are computer shops and internet cafes, but almost all of them use or sell computers built from parts. Laptops in Africa are a rarity, for the most part, because of the above problem and because 95% of <Africa does not have the money for a computer let alone a laptop.

The exceptions are South Africa, where most computer sellers have a presence, including Apple, and where the infrastructure is very good (you can use your GSM cellphone on the main road in the middle of the Karoo desert between Cape Town and Johannesburg if you have roaming), Namibia because of its good links to Germany and South Africa, and Kenya to a certain extent and perhaps Senegal.

If your friend is going to be travelling a lot or in out the way places with no regular electricity for long stretches, she will have to have a laptop if she really badly needs a computer. She will need a laptop with a really good reputation for reliability and a backup battery at the very least. To my mind that leaves exactly two options open: an Apple iBook (The powerbooks' metal surface will probably scratch too easily) or an IBM Thinkpad. Both have fairly solid reputations (the problems with hardfreezing on your and others computers notwithstanding) and have fairly high prices, although the Thinkpad R series is now quite cheap (under $1000). Both have models available in 12" screen size, which is probably what she needs.
iBook 12"

Pros: Robust hardware and OS. (I doubt she'll have your problems, but she should do a clean install if she buys it). Good battery life. Very quiet. OSX is probably better at wear and tear than WinXP, ATi 9200 Graphics card, the software that is built in to the OS is worth a lot for someone on the road, such as IPhoto, Itunes, iMovie, Mail (no virus worries), iChat, Appleworks for basic office stuff . Built-in modem (no wireless in africa and almost no ethernet)

Cons: No PC card slot (although I don't know if she'd need one), in Africa no one knows Macs or OSX, so she'll need to do service stuff, if needed, on her own or over the internet. She might need MS Office if she needs to make complex spreadsheets lists and tallies and stuff in Excell, and Word for letters, writing etc, compatibility with Office on PC etc.

Thinkpad X31:
Pros: Very Robust and the excellent reputation of all Thinkpads (Shock absorber for HD, Titanium shell under plastic coating of case). Good security system (see below in Cons). Good battery life, Excellent built-in recovery software (one button to restore Win sytem and data). Built-in modem. Night light at the top of display that shines down and illuminates keyboard. Comes with anti-virus software (Norton, needs to be subscribed to for more than 90 days of use). If anyone can help with software problems, more likely with Windows than with OSX.
Cons: More expensive than iBook, Dark display, Bad graphics (Intel onboard or radeon 7500), Comes with no built-in software (MS Office can be bought at discount online, but multimedia software needs to be bought extra). usual Windows Security awarenes needed.

The case is probably equal for both machines in the long run. She'll be quicker off the mark and running with the iBook, since it really has everything she needs, and I doubt she'll have the freezing problem since it's not like every second user has this. On the other hand she might need to run special windows software (ask her). If she has a hardware problem with either laptop, she'll be out of luck unless she's in South Africa, Kenya or able to get there or back to the US. She'll have to watch out because laptops often go for unintended walks in Africa. With the iBook she'll probably be able to sort out any software problems thar occur, including a restore if necessary (she should make sure she has some CD's to save data on with her), and she should have not too many problems with the Thinkpad either.

My recommendation would be the iBook, because, as I said, getting support in Africa is nigh on impossible in most places, regardless of what machine you have, if it's a laptop, and fixing windows bugs can be a major show stopper.