If we had to pick the one thing we miss most by being Mac users instead of Wintel slaves, we'd have to say it's the constant reminders that mediocrity makes the world go 'round. No, wait, scratch that-- even worse is the fact that we're pretty much missing out on the ongoing PC price war. As Mac users, we aren't affected nearly as much by the violent and bloody tussle caused by starving Wintel manufacturers clawing each other to pieces in a desperate attempt to claim shreds of the ever-diminishing PC market in today's lackluster economy. Sure, when Wintels drop in price, Macs tend to follow (hence the sub-$1000 iMac), but you don't see nearly as much carnage on this side of the fence.

See, after Steve retook Apple's reins and nuked the bewilderingly ill-conceived Mac cloning program, the company has been free to keep its profit margins hovering near the 30% level. Compare that to the Wintellians, who are duking it out over razor-thin margins of just 5 to 10%. Like we said, they're hungry, and they're willing to kill for food. So the question is, who's going to emerge from this slaughter still clinging to life? Enter pundit Tim Bajarin, who ponders that very issue in his latest ABCNEWS.com article.

The way Tim sees it, the consumer market is a virtual bloodbath right now. Dell is still making money by virtue of its massive volume and direct-sales model, while Gateway, with its direct-sales-plus-retail-presence strategy, continues to hang on-- albeit just barely. In the retail space, Hewlett-Packard and Compaq are the only major players with enough weight to have survived thus far, and who knows how long that'll last? Once the dust settles and the blood dries, Tim figures that most of the big boys like Compaq, Dell, and IBM will have high-tailed it out of the consumer sector, focusing almost entirely on enterprise sales to survive and thrive. So who's left to rule the home market? Due to well-established brand recognition and a focus on the "digital lifestyle," Tim's picks are "Apple and Sony."

So there you have it, folks: thanks to the shifting landscape and the changing economy, within "the next 10-15 years," what PC manufacturers remain may only be peddling beige boxes to big business, while it's going to be Apple vs. Sony duking it out for the hearts, minds, and wallets of consumers the world over. Now there's a post-apocalypse mutant battle worth tuning in for!