one day, give us the $999 ibook and $499 starter machine

[jefhatfield]

1) when do you think apple will give us a $999 ibook?

2) do you think apple will ever have a $499 starter desktop, like compaq? and if so, when?

i say give us the sub-grand ibook this coming january and the $499 starter machine, a crt imac, or something else very simple, in january, 2004

let's capture some market share back!

[SilvorX]

:eek: never be comparing apple to compcrap :p
hmm i doubt apple will have a low end model for 499 any time soon, the only way of that happening is if apple keeps the g3 imac and decreases the specs even more (instead of a 40 gig drive, a 20 gig drive) since they dont have cd-rw drives anymore... but thats really doubtfull...
if apple brings the low end ibook to 999, it'dd probably be the specs it currently is, but there would probably be a huge diff in prices, going from 999 to 2099 or so maybe if that was ever to happen, but the only way apple would ever do this is if the prices of hardware decrease by ALOT, and they would still be able to get a large profit out of these computers

[solvs]

You can already get a good used or refurb from places like PowerMax and SmallDog.

500 MHz iBook for $1000.

But new, we'll see. Be nice though.

[backspinner]

a $500 entry level machine would be great

well, not for anybody wanting to do real work but for getting some market back, and even make profit because all the buyers would buy a real model after a month :-)

I think such a system should definitely be upgradable because that attracks buyers, so lets put this together:
- mini tower alike, but smaller than PC counterparts, but steel ice painted case against EMI
- simple power supply (on motherboard?), normal power entry and cable
- lowest grade harddisk and CD-rom, no options here (people will go to local shop and replace it if they need)
- slow and simple memory, enough to work, one free slot
- VGA output, so that people can use their old crappy 14" monitor
- ethernet, firewire, usb, standard keyboard (windows keyboard won't do it...) and cheap mouse
- two free PCI slots, will never be used for consumer extensions (can you figure one?) but VERY good selling point for bussiness things like electrical IO possibilities
- OS X of course included
- no fan (cube-like and good for long time use)

Target audiance: new computer users, uneducated switchers, bussinness users who need a simple computer with IO (like National Instruments cards)

[Megaquad]

this would be perfect
eMac
G3 700 or 800 MHz (sahara)
GeForce 2 MX
40 GB HDD
CDRW
for..lets say,699$!

[mac15]

that would be insane,

but I would like to see

667mhz g4
256mb ram
40gig
CDRW or DVD
for $799US

[ftaok]

Originally posted by jefhatfield
1) when do you think apple will give us a $999 ibook?

2) do you think apple will ever have a $499 starter desktop, like compaq? and if so, when?

i say give us the sub-grand ibook this coming january and the $499 starter machine, a crt imac, or something else very simple, in january, 2004

let's capture some market share back! jef,

Still dreaming, huh? Apple's not gonna have a $999 laptop or a $499 desktop until Dell/Compaq/Gateway have $599 laptops and $299 desktops. Apple is not about cheap econo-box computers. They are about high-quality computers.

It doesn't seem like market share is Apple's main focus right now. They're more in love with profit margins. Can't say I blame them.

On a separate note, how's the jefhatfield minimizing program going? I don't see the number at the bottom.

[jefhatfield]

Originally posted by ftaok
jef,

Still dreaming, huh? Apple's not gonna have a $999 laptop or a $499 desktop until Dell/Compaq/Gateway have $599 laptops and $299 desktops. Apple is not about cheap econo-box computers. They are about high-quality computers.

It doesn't seem like market share is Apple's main focus right now. They're more in love with profit margins. Can't say I blame them.

On a separate note, how's the jefhatfield minimizing program going? I don't see the number at the bottom.

oh, i think i might have touched on 168 lbs...he he

i am a big time dreamer since my entry level ibook which cost me 16 bills* in 1999 is now a much superior machine now offered at 12 bills...so what's the big deal of lowering it to 10 bills
*1,000 US

but dell will have a 299 machine and when that happens, somewhere in the future, then apple could give us that 499 machine that offers, as usual, more quality than any pc...but i still think toshiba and sony offer almost as good quality...but they run...windows

[topicolo]

I hope you mean $100US when you mean a bill because you got sorely ripped off if you paid $16,000US for an ibook. lol :)

[Rajj]

Uhhhhhhhh...... No:p

[topicolo]

<sarcasm>uhhh... That's the most witty and intelligent comment I've ever seen </sarcasm>:p