Poll: How should Apple spend their money?

[MacRumors]

Vote: Poll: How should Apple spend their money? (http://www.macpolls.com/?poll_id=290)

[Pappy Wappy]

All of the above?

[kb9000]

this was a tough one... I voted software because I think that innovation in that area can go a long way... Exposé for example...

Hardware, of course, is very important... maybe if the money were put towards getting a G5 into a Powerbook (which it undoubtedly is...)

[Pappy Wappy]

i chose hardware over software and then said all of the above because you really can't pick one over the other. not to mention all the things required to make a business run. maybe it's hard to come up with a new poll everyday, but this one doesn't really say that much does it?

[MoparShaha]

Advertising is by far the most important. A good saleman can sell a piece of junk to almost anyone. Apple's products are the antithesis of junk, in fact, they're probably the best you can get in the world of computing. Problem is, people don't know this. You have to get the word out, let people know. I think Apple has been doing a pretty good job so far, especially with the iPod. But, more marketing never hurts. The more people hear and see Apple, the more they'll be interested, instead of seeing it as an inferior product to Microsoft and Intel.

[Bunzi2k4]

i think hardware, software and advertising are the key 3 in this poll (no duh) but i think hardware is the most important... but ya know, paper clips sound like a great idea...

[chickengrease16]

i chose advertising because yeah, apple needs to let people know they aren't inferior. all the pc-using lemmings out there keep following microsoft because everyone spreads these myths that apples are too expensive or wont work for them or whatever. apple needs to *attempt to* prove these wrong, while still not having to cop out and use lowlife marketing techniques, which to my knowledge they never have so far. the software research & development would be next on my list, then definately paperclips. :-)

[Waluigi]

Bottom line is that apple needs to sell more machines, which would lead to more money to invest in R&D. The only way to sell more is to advertise more and better. They already have the best product on the market.

--Waluigi

[punter]

I don't think advertising. Selfishly, I don't care if windoze people aren't aware of how nice macs are. I don't care that apple only has at most 5% market share.

So I'd like to see more research and development. Keep bringing out cooler stuff for me, and stuff those that aren't open minded enough to see the light.

[theipodgod16]

i voted for hardware R&D. as the poster above said, i would like to see more great things like ipod come my way.

BTW, I wonder how many paper clips they could afford to buy....

[nagromme]

1. Drop prices--and here's how: Mac prices always drop over time anyway. So look ahead to predicted pricing in 6-12 months, and drop to that level now instead. Then, don't drop again--so Apple ends up back where they would have been anyway--NO long-term revenue effect--they simply dropped prices a little earlier. That gives a short-term boost to sales, so choose the timing wisely: I think when Panther, new eMacs, and new iBooks are out, this holiday season would be good timing. The positive effect on perception of Mac pricing would outlast the "sale" itself--because it wouldn't BE in the form of a "sale" or "promo."

2. Slash prices even more--permanently--on the bottom iBook and eMac (headless please?) to give Apple a new entry level. And entry-level machines should have CD-RW, not just CD.

3. Extend education pricing to proven users of Windows ME and XP. A logistical challenge, I realize. (Trade in your Windows CD? But people ought to be allowed to ADD a Mac, not be forced to switch cold. Maybe gather Windows serial numbers as proof?)

4. Cut major deals with elementary and high schools--lose profits now, invest in the future.

5. Work with a few BIG enterprise clients to get them to implement massive top-to-bottom Mac solutions, which can serve as examples to others. (VA Tech is not a bad start! Bring on the Xserve G5s.)

6. Yeah, advertising too. Clear up some myths.

7. Donate dual G5s, Cinema HD Displays, and PowerBooks to the Nagromme Institute!

[Awimoway]

price cuts!

[airbag]

I voted retail stores. Why? Because here in Europe (Norway to be exact) places where you can see, touch and try a Mac are too far between! This is, in my view, the best way to get more people to make the switch, which in turn is important for Apple's long term survival.

Apple already spend more money on R&D than any other company in the business.

I'm in the advertising business myself, and let me tell you: advertising can be very effective when it's skillfully done - but when it's not, it can be a total waste of money. So, it's better to focus on a few, but effective campaigns. Just spending more money isn't gonna do any good in itself!

On the other hand ... more paperclips would be nice too! :D

(by the way .. did you folks know the paperclip is a Norwegian invention? Yup!:) )

[scem0]

The correct choice is obvious.....

paperclips, lots of paperclips.

scem0

[bennetsaysargh]

go paperclips! you can never have too many paperclips:)

had paperclips not ben there, i would have voted for software because it can do a lot of stuff not yet developed.

[C14ru5]

Originally posted by scem0
The correct choice is obvious.....

paperclips, lots of paperclips.

scem0 That answer seems like it's come straight out of As The Apple Turns (http://www.appleturns.com/) Vote Early Vote Often :D

[Deggy]

You missed the obvious choice -

spend it all on me :)

[Jerry Spoon]

I'm suprised by all the votes for advertising. I think apple spends enough on advertising right now. I see their print ads all the time...much more than I see pc ads. With the "pods unite" commercial, I've seen much more tv time, not to mention the tv time when they're on different tv shows. Of course, one could argue that the quality or focus of the ad should be changed, but that probably doesn't largely affect the amount of $$ spent to create the ad in the first place.

I voted for hardware. Even though the G5 is an amazing computer, we waited much too long for it and the perception of the speed of a mac has been damaged. Continuing to push forward faster than their pc counterparts would be my move of choice...

Of course, then you have to advertise it. Great. I've written myself in a circle.:rolleyes:

[SlowX]

rebates for loyal Apple owners?

Something like $10 for every year you used/owned an Apple Mac (sorry clone owners)?

HA!

Well, that, or maybe Apple could have used it to bribe people to NOT vote for Arnie, but that's a WHOLE 'nother post, eh? ;)

[Dont Hurt Me]

you all hate this black white thing but im throwing it at you again, untill you can walk into a store and buy apple stuff & software apple will continue this sliver of the market. you have to have a product on the shelf and apple doesnt. i should be able to walk into any large store and buy a mac and mac software. here in south carolina not one apple store and i cant get anything mac in sears,walmart,kmart,staples etc etc. so what do you think joe consumer does? he goes into these stores and comes home with a pc with windblows. untill apple figures this out they will remain with that sliver. forget advertising if you dont have a product out there on the shelf that people can get to.

[Kid Red]

Yea, they spend all their cash on R&D for products no one outside the core buys because they don't advertise. Slightly exaggerated but come on, you need to advertise to sell your products. Spend on advertising, sell products, make cash from selling products due to advertising and use that earned cash on R&D. If Apple had 20% of the market share, how much better of a position do you think we mac-heads would be in? Apple is already at a certain level of innovation well above everyone else, now it's time to pick up some market share. The only way to do that is to advertise.

[Lanbrown]

Of the 86 people that voted for them buying Motorola semiconductor business, not one of them posted.

My vote was for software R&D, which undoubtedly includes hardware as well since they mainly sell both as a package. If there was just an R&D category, I would have placed my vote there.

I do disagree that you need to advertise to sell products. Some products yes, other do not require it as word of mouth and reputation go a long way.

[Dont Hurt Me]

you all must live in some sweet little towns with apple stores. but as long as they dont have their consumer line in consumer stores they are stuck. I know many pc users who dont even know their is a mac and thinks the whole world uses windows. well so does 90% of the market. my first mac was bought in a wal-mart!! i cant even find the word mac in walmart now except on the mcdonalds menue. this goes for almost every other store that use to sell consumer macs? I remember the first time i saw a imac was in Sears. As long as Apple chooses not to sell consumer models in consumer stores they will be as lost as Bustamante & Davis who were looking for ways to tax those lucky californians some more. They both just dont get it!

[wdlove]

A very hard decision to make. All of the above is not the answer. Advertising is important, but the Apple Stores are going a long way in getting the product noticed. I voted for software R&D, bus I think that both hardware and software R & D are important!

[Phil Of Mac]

Originally posted by MoparShaha
Advertising is by far the most important. A good saleman can sell a piece of junk to almost anyone.

Yeah, the Edsel sold great!

Originally posted by Dont Hurt Me
you all hate this black white thing but im throwing it at you again, untill you can walk into a store and buy apple stuff & software apple will continue this sliver of the market. you have to have a product on the shelf and apple doesnt. i should be able to walk into any large store and buy a mac and mac software.

The solution is more Apple Stores. Think about the Gap. You go the the Gap, and you buy Gap products. Apple wants to be the same way, which is why the CEO of the Gap is on their board.

[bograt]

Never bought a paper clip in my life, though have always needed them. Therefore chose paper clips- can probably never ahve enough.

[1adonis1]

Isn't marketing or lack of marketing the reason why Windows took off and left apple in the dust. My vote goes for a better marketing strategy.

[Dont Hurt Me]

no, & yes they sold windows to every i want to be a computer company & presto companies were building computers and using bills OS, it has become mainstream so when you walk into any store you see Bills Os on someones computer. You have to locate an apple store just to see a apple product. its out of sight,out of touch, and not even in any store you walk in as are windows machines & software. so who ends up with 90% of the market? Apple is painting themselves into a smaller box.

[1adonis1]

I live in a city of about 350,000 people, there are only TWO stores that sell apple computers, that's just sad.

[zamyatin]

Like Adobe!

Or, perhaps even better, contribute to the Open Source projects that directly compete with MS' bread-and-butter. Chief among them is OpenOffice.org. Make its GUI as good as Apple standards, and share that code with all the major platforms, and get the Mac OSX version of OpenOffice finished!

So many universities would jump ship from MSO forever if OOo were available on what is usually their largest or second-largest platform (and Linux is big in the University, too). Having a top quality Office suite on all three major platforms would force MS to make a Linux version of theirs, or totally lose the Education market for MSO.

In either case, free and ubiquitious OOo would eliminate the monopoly profits MS enjoys on the Office suite (about 85% profit). This would eliminate the monies from Office that MS uses to muscle into other markets or to bribe consumers when they look ready to flee the MS mothership.

Sun Tzu and Machiavelli would approve.

[Dont Hurt Me]

Originally posted by 1adonis1
I live in a city of about 350,000 people, there are only TWO stores that sell apple computers, that's just sad. hard to increase market share this way. If apple wasnt opening stores they would be really hurting. they need to market and advertise and have in every walmart,sears,bestbuy,KMart,staples, etc a consumer line of products and software and other helpful stuff. emacs,ibooks ipods etc. a consumer line that cnsumers can go see touch feel and buy anywhere in america and elsewhere rather then the go hunt for that apple store in tim- buk -too!

[Sun Baked]

While people may say the lack of HW and SW R&D spending is a bad thing compared to the amounts spent in Apple's past.

Jobs vision for the future means that Apple isn't researching everything and the money is being better spent.

The old days had fragmented design teams brining competing machines and technology to market, with some machines lasting only months.

Then there is the software which would come out and die quickly.

At least Apple is bringing software and hardware to market together, and even a lot of the new software widgets are integrated and useful now. As opposed to something Apple releases and hopes the market will adopt, but may not.

They're a lot more directed, but it still means Apple will miss the boat on some hardware and software.

[mms]

hardware. G5 PowerBooks sometime soon would be nice. ;)

[Phil Of Mac]

Originally posted by Sun Baked
The old days had fragmented design teams brining competing machines and technology to market, with some machines lasting only months.

Most product cycles should last only months, unless you really want years to pass without upgrades.

[Sun Baked]

Originally posted by Phil Of Mac
Most product cycles should last only months, unless you really want years to pass without upgrades. Not really, speed bumps and revisions should come frequently.

But when the competing classes of machines are coming out and being replaced in months, the machines R&D effort for the dead machine is a wasted effort.

If the TiBook 17 came out and was replaced by a AlBook 17 three months later, it would be a waste of $'s for the consumer and engineering.

Heck people are complaining over the Panther issue, imagine what would have happened if Apple had introduced a 1.33GHz MDD G5 Yikes2 instead, and announced shipment of the single & dual G5 PowerMac today.

[Cochrane]

Originally posted by nagromme
1. Drop prices--and here's how: Mac prices always drop over time anyway. So look ahead to predicted pricing in 6-12 months, and drop to that level now instead. Then, don't drop again--so Apple ends up back where they would have been anyway--NO long-term revenue effect ...

No long-term revenue effect? Only if everyone bought his mac just after the price-drops. The extra-money they get from the people who buy their computers before the prices start dropping will be lost if I'm not completely mistaken.

[tazo]

Originally posted by MoparShaha
Advertising is by far the most important. A good saleman can sell a piece of junk to almost anyone. Apple's products are the antithesis of junk, in fact, they're probably the best you can get in the world of computing. Problem is, people don't know this. You have to get the word out, let people know. I think Apple has been doing a pretty good job so far, especially with the iPod. But, more marketing never hurts. The more people hear and see Apple, the more they'll be interested, instead of seeing it as an inferior product to Microsoft and Intel.

I concur....advertising is the key for apple to succeed

[yamabushi]

Software.
1. Create an OSX application for supply chain management - and use it!:mad:
2. AppleOffice professional office suite, including an excellent database client. Offer it on the cheap or for free with new hardware purchases. StarOffice is getting there, but still runs in X11 and isn't as user friendly as Apple products tend to be.
3. Push for more ports of win32 apps, even if they have to do it themselves.
4. Fill up the Apple Stores with all of this lovely new software so that new users and potential switchers realize it exists.:D

[manitoubalck]

Originally posted by Waluigi
Bottom line is that apple needs to sell more machines, which would lead to more money to invest in R&D. The only way to sell more is to advertise more and better. They already have the best product on the market.

--Waluigi

Yes Apple does need to sell more units so why not lower overheads and drop the price.

[matthew_goldin]

Apple should spend their money to create faster, smaller, and more affordable computers. I was reading about how diamonds might replace silicon in computer chips because scientists are making artificial diamonds. That would be start.

[Phil Of Mac]

Originally posted by manitoubalck
Yes Apple does need to sell more units so why not lower overheads and drop the price.

Any substantial price drop would have to be accompanied by a substantial jump in market share, more than a price drop alone would cause. There wouldn't be much point.

[wdlove]

Originally posted by matthew_goldin
Apple should spend their money to create faster, smaller, and more affordable computers. I was reading about how diamonds might replace silicon in computer chips because scientists are making artificial diamonds. That would be start.

There is a company in Boston that is making artificial diamonds in the lab. So now maybe it won't be long before this finds it's way into computer chips. The cost is definitely less and the quality is equal.

http://forums.macrumors.com/showthread.php?s=&threadid=40326&perpage=25&pagenumber=1

[Sayhey]

In this order:

1 - Hardware R&D - if Apple loses the race for the best technology it loses its reason for existence.

2 - Software R&D - Apple has always led the way in ease of use - it has to stay that way to be successful.

3 - More stores - people have to see a mac to make the decision to by one. Letting Sears and Walmart market their products is just plain stupid.

4 - Advertise - A lot of folks just don't know about macs, so you have to let them know in order to get them to buy. The Pepsi and MacDonalds promotions of iTunes is a great start.

5 - Exorcising SATAN - with a few bucks left over they should help MacRumors get rid of the devil. ;)