Originally posted by SPG
To a consumer what would the difference between a hypothetical G4 iBook and the existing G4 tiBook amount to when you factor in the price difference? I don't think the ti would be twice as good at twice the price.
c'mon,
Consumers are stupid, but they're not that stupid (well, except the ones that shop at Best Buy and think the salespeople there know what they're talking about). When consumers see something that looks similar (on the surface), but has a huge price differential, they investigate.
For example, when they look at a G4 iBook 600 priced at $1800 and a G4 TiBook 800 priced at $3200, they're gonna think, "why's that one cost so much more?" Then they'll see that the TiBook has MORE memory, MORE hard drive, MORE video stuff, MORE pixels, MORE screen, MORE metal, MORE L3 (whatever that is), MORE PC Card slots, and MORE CD speed. "Oh, that's why it cost so much more."
Seriously, just look at Dell. They offer the Ghz+ P4s on two lines of laptops. The 8200 series costs so much more that the 2600 (I think). But the price differences are can be easily explained by the amount of stuff that the two laptops are equipped with.
If Apple does decide to put the iBook @ G4 levels simultaneously with a G4 TiBook, they have to be smart enough to include in enough "features" into the TiBook to justify the price differential. Or they could exclude enough "feature" out of the iBook to do the same.
Bottom Line: Consumers aren't as dumb as most people want to believe they are. No one (except the extraordinarily stupid) goes into a $1000+ purchase without having done some research into the purchase.
