Let's suppose. . .

Re: Let's suppose. . .

Originally posted by Shrek
Are "low" prices on Macintosh computers really important to you?

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Until the day that money does start to grow on trees cost will allways be an issue with everything, so yes, it is important to me and to everyone IMHO.

Of course I would buy more macs but it's never going to happen.

if the price goes down, they'll sell more, thats simple. For me though, I'm going to be spending a lot > $5k regardless, so it would have to come down significantly for me to buy something now. I'm waiting for the next generation processor or a quad machine.

D

i'd probably pick up an ibook. or at least when the ibook hits g4...

too bad it won't happen....


as for apple listening to customers... that's got nothing to do with this... i mean, you dont think apple knows that people want to pay less??? of course everyone knows that.... doesn't mean they'll drop prices. as we've seen

apparently you also can't stand rational people or realists....

them dropping prices 50% because their customers wanted it.... ok


i'd rather pay 10 bucks for a new bmw. maybe they'll hear me and respond...

Originally posted by Shrek
There is one thing I can't stand and that is pessimists.

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I also don't think that income taxes and gas prices will drop %50. I'm not being pessimistic, with rising component costs and waning profits on Apple's part they can't afford that drastic a price cut. Apple can listen to their customers but they also can't go bankrupt. It's just that simple.

Yeah, that's possible. Line up for your rectangular, grey box. "Next please"

iMac, eMac, PowerMac...same grey box.
iBook, PowerBook...other grey box.

Prices would drop greatly. Innovation costs.

Call me a pessimist...I dare you.

If Apple would drop prices significantly the first thing that is going to happen: Every kid on a block would have an iPod

Now do you honestly think good ol' Stevie would do that? "Hey guys, a year from now our prices will have dropped 50%! So you may as well wait until then and get the best price!" Apple wouldn't have any incentive to make any hardware advancements between now and then! (Not that that's any different from today. )

lets make a poll.

How much a Mac costs has absolutely no bearing on how many I purchase.

I make my decisions on need. If my need exceeds my current equipment, I'll buy a new one, and not before.

I'm probably going to buy the dual-867 tower with a Radeon 9000 and an 80GB HD and no Superdrive. I already have a 19 inch Viewsonic CRT monitor.

Cost, yes, does matter to me, but I have been working all summer long and should have enough to buy it by October.

Although I have been wondering if the $100 price increase is due to the inclusion of Jaguar...

I don't understand why apple isn't charging less for their pmacs. Don't tell me that it's to supply their R&D groups with cash, that's not it--apple has about 3.5billion in cash and securities. I guess the shareholders have them by the balls and they just love their fat profit margins too much to abandon them. Apple, especially now, should be concentrating on expanding marketshare, even if it is at the expense of losing money because they can afford it.

Originally posted by topicolo
I don't understand why apple isn't charging less for their pmacs. Don't tell me that it's to supply their R&D groups with cash, that's not it--apple has about 3.5billion in cash and securities. I guess the shareholders have them by the balls and they just love their fat profit margins too much to abandon them. Apple, especially now, should be concentrating on expanding marketshare, even if it is at the expense of losing money because they can afford it.

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No one can afford to lose money. Sacrificing profit margins for market share is a risky business indeed. Quite often, it doesn't work. Especially in a market that is generally a commodity (or at least becoming one).

Right now, I think that Apple is in the sweet spot (in terms of margin vs. share). Maybe a little bit skewed to the profit margin side.

Originally posted by topicolo
I don't understand why apple isn't charging less for their pmacs. Don't tell me that it's to supply their R&D groups with cash, that's not it--apple has about 3.5billion in cash and securities. I guess the shareholders have them by the balls and they just love their fat profit margins too much to abandon them. Apple, especially now, should be concentrating on expanding marketshare, even if it is at the expense of losing money because they can afford it.

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1. As a public company, they are compelled to make a profit.

2. Their R&D needs are higher. You can't just discount that in looking at Apple. Don't forget that they make hardware, software, and the OS.

3. Macs cost more to manufacture than your standard PC.

4. Reducing their profit margins (which are high,) isn't necessarily the answer. Even if they lowered them to 10%, or even to 0%, they would still be more expensive than the PC's out there, and their long term health would be in question. If we can learn anything from the tech bubble bursting, it's that sacrificing profits for marketshare is not a sustainable business model.

So you're saying that apple should stay a niche player? Macs should be stuck at 3.47% of the market, held down by bill gates' pinkie finger? I dunno about you, but I think this is one case where sacrificing margins to gain marketshare will work. Apple has demonstrated it before with the original imac, and I believe that they can pull another one of those capers off if they desired.

I don't think the iMac was about lowering profit margins, but about producing a less expensive computer targeted specifically at the consumer market.

As far as whether Apple should stay a niche player or not, I don't think there is anything wrong with that. There have been many companies that have operated with small percentages of the overall market, and have been good to their customers and their stockholders. That said, I not am saying that that is where Apple is heading.

My interpretation of what Apple is doing, and how that fits into a computing industry in flux, is way too long to get into here, but I will say that I am generally pleased with their efforts of late. I will be happier when they punch up their pro line of course, but I expect Apple's marketshare to jump significantly in the coming year.

The original iMac's margins were around 20%, while apple's overal margins were ~25%, suggesting that Apple had to have some much higher margin machines to increase the overall margins to the 25% number. Article here.
According to Apple's annual report for 2001, their margins were 30.7% (I think, I'll have to double check that). I think Apple could afford to reduce their margins a bit. The increase in demand will more than offset the lowered margins.

I think there's quite a bit of value in the PowerMacs compared to the big volume machines.

You rarely see any of them with Gigabit Ethernet, for instance. Dual processors certainly cost more than a single processor. Of course, RISC processors are supposed to cost less than CISC processors. The more expensive PCs have digital video connections, but the value-oriented types tend to have VGA only. The same with FireWire although USB 2.0 is now a giveaway with Intel chipsets.

If Apple truly thought that consumers would buy PowerMacs in droves rather than iMacs or eMacs (or PCs, I'd bet that they would offer them for less. For the professional market, especially UNIX professionals, they're amazing values. Look at small Sun or SGI machines and compare with PowerMacs.