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Apple to Drop Prices of Notebooks?
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I found pictures of a possible new macbook design
Looks quite realistic!
Also backlit keyboard
Comment says: "2 weeks to go"
Look for yourself
http://flickr.com/photos/33559336@N00/2675984634/in/photostream/
http://flickr.com/photos/33559336@N00/2675984626/in/photostream/
I hoop this will be the real deisgn
me like a lot!
No, it's called trust. If Apple says that they are going to keep the same quality if not better quality of products than I expect that they keep there word. If not and the products become worse than I may consider different products. If a company does not deliver on their word then why would I waste my time listening to them and therefore not buy their products, it's as easy as that. I'm not being ignorant, just trusting.
No but would you expect Apple to start releasing crap products? That doesn't seem to be in a companies best interest.
True, it's not ignorance, it's naivity.
Well, cutting corners and using marketing to make up for "crappiness" is much cheaper than actually delivering. It's not anything new. Hell, go take a look at Coca Cola and McDonald's – what do they have besides their marketing?
Lenovos are achooley very good laptops and Vista sp1 is working very well. But don't let that spoil your hysterical performance.
Great brands. Decades of great earnings. Billions of repeat customers. Millions of happy shareholders. Tens of Billions in wages paid. Billions of taxes paid. They really suck.
Great brands. Decades of great earnings. Billions of repeat customers. Millions of happy shareholders. Tens of Billions in wages paid. Billions of taxes paid. They really suck.
Ehm, that's my point exactly: Crap products selling by way of marketing. The mere notion that it's in a company's "best interest" to make "quality products" is laughable and utterly naive at best.
Are you thinking like a share holder or a consumer when you go to buy that computer? You can use sarcasm all I want, but computers should be "nutritional" (i.e. they should work and be quality products, as one tend to use them for work), especially if you pay a lot of money - or even a premium - for them.
Now, tell me that McDonald's make good quality products.
Oh, wait, I got it: "Many people buy something, and as a consequence it must be a quality product"
Btw (and merely a footnote) McDonald's have never paid a single DKK (our currency) here in Denmark. Apparently the danish branch never made any money – funny how that works when they by way of creative book keeping can do that. Granted, the people working there pay their taxes, but still.
Something tells me I doubt the screen resolutions of those PCs are any higher than 1280·800 the same as the 13.3" MacBook.
The price points are at the level of Education discounts....I wonder if they are going to get rid of those after the price drop??
Why is always about market share? Sure these companies dominate the market, but they make crap products. Just like windows dominates the market and makes ***** on a disk. I mean seriously, I'm all for dropping the price a little bit, but there is no way in hell that apple would drop prices that much. Apple doesn't want to compete in the 'low end" PC market, leave that to dell, toshiba, hp, and gateway (are they even in business still?), and let them continue to make computers that you might as well have crapped out of your a$$.
Don
I seriously doubt they will drop the price. Its more likely they are adjusting for just less of a profit margin because of a higher priced part in the Macbook. Such as LED backlight, aluminum casing...etc.
Why does these happen after one buys something new. Hehe
For the same reason it always happens BEFORE someone buys something new. It just depends on whether you were a before or an after.
Here's a question for you in response to your comments / questions ...
If you were running a company, which was growing in in size, building large reserves of capital (cash) for continued design, development and growth (not to mention money in your pocket as the owner), and successfully increasing your sales, all the while maintaining 33% PROFIT MARGINS (Dell is about 7% by the way), would you cut your prices just so you could work harder and sell more pieces?
Example:
MBP 15" (mid pro model) = $2499
estimated profit $624
(approx. 33% of an $1875 actual cost ... $1875 + $624 = $2499)
Now say you sell 1 million of these per quarter ...
Then ... lower the price by $500 to $1999 for the same computer to become "more competitive".
estimated profit $124
(6.6% of $1875 actual cost ... which would remain the same ... $1875 + $124 = $1999)
BUT ... $624 divided by $124 (old profit divided by new) =
5.032258
CONCLUSION:
Apple would now have to sell approximately 5,032,258 MBP 15" mid range notebooks per quarter to make the same profits they had been successfully making on 1,000,000.
Do you really believe lowering the price of Apple products (to 7% profit margins or lower) would increase their sales by more than 5x? That would mean Apple would INSTANTLY go from 8.6% marketshare to 43% marketshare, thus overtaking Dell and HP and becoming the largest computer company in America, and one of the largest (if not the largest) in the world. Anything less than 5x sales on the example above, Apple would be losing money from their current business model.
I love the products Apple makes. Would I like to see more sales? Yes. Would I like to see more marketshare? Yes. Would I like to see lower prices? If I said "no", I'd be an idiot. But ... I would not like to see these things at the expense of the company that designs and manufactures the products.
Apple successfully keeps their R&D, design, etc. on the edge of technology because of the way they do business ... meaning ... building quality products that consumers want with profit margins that allow them to continue to develop/design newer and better products. And I hope they continue.
Could they sell more by lowering prices? Indeed, but then you'd just be buying another Dell or HP and not a Mac. If you want a $500 laptop, go to Wal-Mart. Trust me, you'll get what you pay for ... and you'll get Windows as icing on the cake.
So because you just got a MBP which didn't have a Blu-Ray drive, you would actually HOPE that Apple doesn't add them for the benefit of others who might like them and buy the computers in the future? Now there is logic for you.
Hey Apple ... don't add anything new to your computers after someone buys one, because they might feel left out.
Wait, that would mean we would still be using Mac IIs.Honestly, I hope that the day after I buy my new MBP or MB or MP or MBA or any product, that Apple announces that they have something better on the horizon. Why? Because I will know that with my next purchase, I will be able to do more. Meanwhile, I will sit back and enjoy my current purchase.
Excellent question. When other PC makers pay less for components, they often drop their prices within days. Yet Apple is able to hang onto their higher prices for months, and people seem to pay. Case in point: look at the retail price of 8GB flash memory sticks. In the last year, they've dropped in price from $100 to under $40. Yet, Apple still charges $199 for an 8GB ipod. Why? Well, why not?
Lenovos are achooley very good laptops and Vista sp1 is working very well. But don't let that spoil your hysterical performance.
Achooley? Phonetically (or close), I might assume you meant "actually" ... but perhaps there is an "achooley" in Birmingham.
At least Apple's fat is in the shape of $$ ... for Apple that is.
Underserved markets
There is plenty of room for Apple to drop their prices and still maintain healthy profit margins. OK, let's add the "Apple Premium" into the price and say they sold basic $500 laptops with larger screens, for, say, $800. Or, a $700 laptop for $999. Here's who Apple could sell to better:
1- The casual laptop user. Takes it to Starbucks or a friends house maybe once a month tops. Or never, but wants the flexibility to do this. So, the smallness of a MacBook is not a benefit, but the larger screen is a benefit. Doesn't need the power of a MBP and won't pay for it.
2- The basic user. Mostly internet and email, a little music and pix from a digital camera. Doesn't really need a lot of computing power. The current "Apple Premium" of $600 ($1100 for a MacBook vs. $500) is a bit steep.
3- The couch potato. Rarely takes the laptop out of the house. Just wants to surf from the couch. Again, the bigger screen on the cheaper PC laptops is a plus.
4- The over 40 crowd. The eyes are not as sharp, and a bigger screen is a huge plus. The baby boomers are the least sexy demographic to sell to, but they have discretionary income and there are lots of them. They can afford the Apple Premium, but many don't need an MBP.
There is plenty of room for Apple to drop their prices and still maintain healthy profit margins. OK, let's add the "Apple Premium" into the price and say they sold basic $500 laptops with larger screens, for, say, $800. Or, a $700 laptop for $999. Here's who Apple could sell to better:
1- The casual laptop user. Takes it to Starbucks or a friends house maybe once a month tops. Or never, but wants the flexibility to do this. So, the smallness of a MacBook is not a benefit, but the larger screen is a benefit. Doesn't need the power of a MBP and won't pay for it.
2- The basic user. Mostly internet and email, a little music and pix from a digital camera. Doesn't really need a lot of computing power. The current "Apple Premium" of $600 ($1100 for a MacBook vs. $500) is a bit steep.
3- The couch potato. Rarely takes the laptop out of the house. Just wants to surf from the couch. Again, the bigger screen on the cheaper PC laptops is a plus.
4- The over 40 crowd. The eyes are not as sharp, and a bigger screen is a huge plus. The baby boomers are the least sexy demographic to sell to, but they have discretionary income and there are lots of them. They can afford the Apple Premium, but many don't need an MBP.
This irks me. Larger screens often equate to higher resolutions which means smaller icons. Those fogies that want the bigger screens for 'bigger text and icons' are often mislead simply under the notion that 'bigger=better'.
We have some 19 and 21" flat screens at work here running 1280x1024 (not native) because people squint at 1440x900 (16:9) or 1600x1200.
Anyone who feels that Macbooks are overpriced should just buy the $500 Windows machine and use that. Then they can have their cake and eat **** too.
Anyone who feels that Macbooks are overpriced should just buy the $500 Windows machine and use that. Then they can have their cake and eat **** too.
I'm feelin' the love! Can we hold hands and sing Kumbaya? Oh, hell, thoughtful, insightful, and non-judgemental comments in a forum are way overrated, anyway, and totally out of place.
Do you think the quality of the MPB of the last couple of years is anything to brag about ? If I were going on build quality I'd say Apple should knock off about $500 off the price even before these rumored price cuts.
Interesting comment about the riff raff.
He says RIFF RAFF yet fails to see:
Not you the person you were replying to...˚
˚
Anywho, the non RIFF RAFF used to be the PRO MARKET...
So what does Apple do inlight of all the years of loyalty?
Hmmmmmm..
Well for starters, we all know you could never play a openGL game on a MINI, or MACBOOK right? Its a dedicated GMA thing, but barefeats reported that the new MACBOOKS would, while not officially supported, run Aperture, MOTION well, so well in fact that the OPENGL benchmarks went from 70%-171% (compared to a dual G5), so what did apple do, knowing you still couldn't play a GAME and that the only people affected would be the PRO market? They released a new X300 which brought the bench mark down to 70%, hows that for loyalty!?
And to boot, the PRO market by the time the machine reached 171% were all iPODS and iPhone users with the pro making up a little portion of the share.Then they replaced the ever so standard Texas Instrument FIREWIRE on the iMAC and Macbooks so it would cause all sorts of problems with PRO AUDIO and PRO VIDEO GEAR
READ MORE HERE
http://www.gearspace.com/board/musi...ets-can-troublesome-okt-07-till-feb-08-a.html
Lastly of course, is doesn't take a rocket scientist to figure out that the iMAC used to be in PRO situations all the time, now they are a consumer device with there OH SO PRETTY NON USEABLE GLOSSY SCREEN FOR GRAPHICS work...
So who's the RIFF RAFF? The market that keeps apple profits up with their macbooks, imacs, iphones, or did you mean Apple and how they shafted the less than 1% user base. Nice. Talk about RIFF RAFF.
LOL
