Yup. Every single mac has defects.
Funny. The only device on the market that can be described like that, really is XBOX360 - shipping faulty as 'by design'
Anyway, I don't see Apple suddenly selling budget computers.
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Apple to Introduce Cheaper Macs?
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Funny. The only device on the market that can be described like that, really is XBOX360 - shipping faulty as 'by design'
Anyway, I don't see Apple suddenly selling budget computers.
It's way too early for that. MS started running the "Laptop Hunters" ads near the end of March this year (approx. 5 weeks ago). If Apple plans to release cheaper computers it's something that's been in the pipeline for many months.
Well, they tend to "fake" cheap machines by stuffing them with components so old that they're not even in low-end PCs anymore, and sell them at a lower midrange PC price. One example would be the original Mac Mini. It shipped with absolutely none of the things you get when you buy a cheap PC (no mouse, no keyboard, no screen, nothing except the power brick), and inside it was a 4200 RPM, 40 GB drive (most PCs shipped with 5400 RPM drives at the time), 32 MB video RAM (PCs had 64 MB or more) and 512 MB RAM. So I guess their definition of cheap is: Extremely cheap for them to make. As opposed to the traditional definition, cheap for the customer to buy.
Why would I think this again?
Keep your expectations low nonetheless.
This price issue comes up every week because it's a big issue for Apple. They are overpriced. OS X helps them boost it a bit, but they're going overboard, plus you can't even get a blu ray drive on one if you wanted it.
Apple got a big boost because Vista was such a colossal F up. Sure, they got to make a lot of money for a while, but now it's a different world and they have to compete. People have less money, they're not on PPC anymore so the tech nerds who can afford overpriced macs can build their own macs cheaper and custom, and Windows 7 is about to change perceptions. Obviously they've done a good job of making money lately, but when Windows 7 hits they can talk about their margins all they want, they just blew an opportunity to grow market share and forever win repeat buyers with this Vista debacle.
If they'd just built a $1000 headless xmac that people have been asking for for years, they could just make one or two models and sell millions.
Apple got a big boost because Vista was such a colossal F up. Sure, they got to make a lot of money for a while, but now it's a different world and they have to compete. People have less money, they're not on PPC anymore so the tech nerds who can afford overpriced macs can build their own macs cheaper and custom, and Windows 7 is about to change perceptions. Obviously they've done a good job of making money lately, but when Windows 7 hits they can talk about their margins all they want, they just blew an opportunity to grow market share and forever win repeat buyers with this Vista debacle.
If they'd just built a $1000 headless xmac that people have been asking for for years, they could just make one or two models and sell millions.
Damn those clueless heads at Apple, they should hire you right away.
LOL at Steve Jobs being a failure, I guess the dude's life ambition is to make a dent in Microsoft's marketshare.
Looks like I have to repeat myself again.
In my humble opinion, Apple cannot continue to buck the trend in regards to the prcing of their Mac notebooks and desktops. Given the poor economy worldwide, people are not as thrilled at buying a Mac, especially once Windows 7 comes out probably late this year. I've tried Windows 7 and frankly, unlike Windows Vista it is very fast, easy to use, and most importantly will run on everything from Intel Atom-powered netbooks all the way up to the latest high-end desktops with Intel's latest Core i7 desktop and Gainestown-core Xeon CPU's.
That's why I think Apple needs to seriously look at building a small tower case desktop costing somewhere between US$750 and US$1,100 depending on options, with a DVI-D and/or Mini DisplayPort video connectors. The price of the all-in-one iMac has reached frightening levels, especially with the circa US$2,000 cost for a 24" iMac in some higher-end configurations!
Damn I wonder why PC sales are falling more than Macs even though they are dropping prices through the roof.
Macs are a success whether you like it or not. They are the only surviving company offer an integrated solution for consumers and are making a killing of it, along with the industry's highest satisfaction rates. Apple is the only major company offering an alternative to Windows and still alive. I guess in the ideal world for some of you everyone would be using Windows with no other alternatives.
Damn even with all this quality issues, Apple has the industry's highest satisfied customers.
What about PC sales that are also falling even with them lowering prices, how is that even possible?
floor?
The clichés are that prices
Thanks for the morning smile!
Although, some of Apple's recent price hikes, especially internationally, do get the "through the roof" tag.
Apple's making a killing with its gadget and related businesses.
If Apple Computer were a separate business, the financials would not be as good.
The clichés are that prices
- go UP through the roof
- drop DOWN through the floor
Thanks for the morning smile!
Although, some of Apple's recent price hikes, especially internationally, do get the "through the roof" tag.
Apple's making a killing with its gadget and related businesses.
If Apple Computer were a separate business, the financials would not be as good.
Of course they wouldn't be as good because they are losing a large segment of their business but they would still be a profitable business unless Apple is losing money on the Macs they sell. That's like saying Microsoft's financials would not be as good without Windows, well duh.
You mean knockoffs? We already have them—they're call Psystars.
The clichés are that prices
- go UP through the roof
- drop DOWN through the floor
Thanks for the morning smile!
Those are idioms, not clichés
I didnt say they werent a success and i would appreciate if you wouldnt put words in my mouth with the intention of misinterpreting them.
have you heard of Canonical? Sun Microsystems? They offer an alternative to Windows and are doing quite well considering they dont tie it down to overpriced hardware.
Might i suggest that next time you lose the overly-defenseive tone and take my words at face value instead of assigning your skewed interpretation to everything in order to defend your fanboy lust.
Thought so, you got no point. As for the rest of what you wrote, what OS is Sun offering for consumers that I can buy at Best Buy and which machines have Ubuntu on them at Best Buy, doing quite well indeed, lol.
Those are idioms, not clichés
No, I think cliché is appropriate....
http://dictionary.reference.com/browse/cliche
http://dictionary.reference.com/browse/idiom
Redefining the price points
I feel that Apple is actually trying to redefine the price points for it's line up. Not only is the recession having an effect, but also Netbooks and it's own iPhone and iPod touch are educating people that a full fledge laptop or desktop is not as necessary as before.
The fact that the drop in sales of Macs in general didn't drop precipitously (over 10%) indicates that people are still ineterested in buying into Apple, but not as before.
Since profit margins were improved in the last quarter, Apple can afford to reduce some profit on their computer business. The drop in profit should not be too big as raw material prices are still decreasing and their unibody process should be more productive now with the experience they have, so that should also yield cost improvements.
The way I see it, these should be the new price points that Apple will try to hold:
Mac Mini: $549 $749 (a drop of $50 from current prices)
MacBook: $899 $1199 $1499 (a drop of $100)
iMac: $1099 $1399 $1699 $2099 (a drop of $100)
MacBook Air: $1599 $2299 (a drop of $200)
MacBook Pro: $1799 $2299 $2599 (a drop of $200)
Mac Pro: $2299 $3099 (a drop of $200)
These drops represent an avg. of 10% of the retail price, but considering that component pricing has dropped, the profit margin should only be affected by 3-4%. The decrease in pricing could potentially translate into a 12-15% increase in sales (look at how Apps in the App store increase sales when they drop prices).
Is Apple going to reduce them to this amount? doubtful. But it would create a great deal of buzz.
I feel that Apple is actually trying to redefine the price points for it's line up. Not only is the recession having an effect, but also Netbooks and it's own iPhone and iPod touch are educating people that a full fledge laptop or desktop is not as necessary as before.
The fact that the drop in sales of Macs in general didn't drop precipitously (over 10%) indicates that people are still ineterested in buying into Apple, but not as before.
Since profit margins were improved in the last quarter, Apple can afford to reduce some profit on their computer business. The drop in profit should not be too big as raw material prices are still decreasing and their unibody process should be more productive now with the experience they have, so that should also yield cost improvements.
The way I see it, these should be the new price points that Apple will try to hold:
Mac Mini: $549 $749 (a drop of $50 from current prices)
MacBook: $899 $1199 $1499 (a drop of $100)
iMac: $1099 $1399 $1699 $2099 (a drop of $100)
MacBook Air: $1599 $2299 (a drop of $200)
MacBook Pro: $1799 $2299 $2599 (a drop of $200)
Mac Pro: $2299 $3099 (a drop of $200)
These drops represent an avg. of 10% of the retail price, but considering that component pricing has dropped, the profit margin should only be affected by 3-4%. The decrease in pricing could potentially translate into a 12-15% increase in sales (look at how Apps in the App store increase sales when they drop prices).
Is Apple going to reduce them to this amount? doubtful. But it would create a great deal of buzz.
Lots of vitriolic apologists in this thread, that's for sure. I love my Macs. Have for years. But they're overpriced, and frankly, no longer as desirable as they once were (but that's a topic for another thread -- loss of firewire, glossy screens, etc). Any lower priced offerings or price reduction will be a good thing, period. Especially in this economy. No one can argue with that.
Get that in the pre-nup, or else expect more than just DELL-HELL.
Here's hoping they lower prices across the board ... even if just a little bit.
yep sure do....
What about the $599>$399>$199
I would be pissed if one month I paid $3200 for an MBP and the next month Someone else paid $2800 but in the end the person buying the $3200 is most likely a fan of mac where the $2800 person could finally see some justification for spending that much vise a PC.
To me the MBP is about $800 to $1000 overpriced, JMO hence going with Dell on my last purchase. I gave up an inch on the monitor but more importantly got everything else I wanted in a laptop. Go ahead read me the riot act about TCO and all the other things but with a 4 year FULL in home warranty with accidental care when it came right down to it $1800 was reasonable to me.
If the MBP was $1800 and had blu-ray I would have plopped down the cash on the MBP but it wasn't.
So lowering the price may piss off some but bottom line it just might entice some on the fence to go Apple's way.
"Overpriced" is not my word, but it's the word we hear all the time in these discussions, including many times in this thread. It comes into use when technical specs are laid side-by-side, and the claim made that the more expensive product with the same technical specs must be "overpriced" -- even when the person making the claim voluntarily bought the more expensive product. I never understood how anyone could make that argument, when it's obvious that hardly anybody, themselves included, buys anything on the basis of technical specifications alone.
In the race of life, unfortunately pretty much every Japanese car outperforms the BMW. When you car is constantly in the shop because its reliability is null and its engine is a POS it's pretty hard to boast. It's as if some crappy PC maker prided themselves for having the fastest PC on the market all the time but which are always lagged down by viruses making them pretty much slower than any other PC maker including Apple (sure they can charge you to always have those viruses serviced but that kind of defeats the purpose doesn't it?). The thing about Apple is they provide quality, performance and reliability. It's the package that matters not just the bare specs offered at the time of the sale. I'll take a Lexus over your M3 any day.
It's fine if you believe that but I'll just continue using my budget conscious and powerful Windows tower.
And what in the hell does that have to do with the point of the thread (lets just ignore the fact that millions upon millions dont know how to "use a PC properly).
I've felt since the unibody revision that eventually the whitebook will be dropped and the low end unimacbook will take its place. I think we may see that at WWDC.
Just a feeling though, nothing to back it up.