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This might be one of the reasons Apple is looking into making the own chips and more of the parts that make up a Mac. Very good idea. With a lower price, no one can catch up to them ;)
 
This might be one of the reasons Apple is looking into making the own chips and more of the parts that make up a Mac. Very good idea. With a lower price, no one can catch up to them ;)
What parts again?

An ethernet, audio or FireWire controller? What about non-OS X drivers?
 
Microsoft had a chance to break themselves with vista and they did. they just had their first quarterly loss in something like 20 years.

that is right they reported a $2.3 billion profit. How is that a loss???:rolleyes:

Perhaps you meant it was their first quarter where their profits dipped
 
I don't see this happening. But if they do lower prices the cause will likely be from cheaper hardware.

I don't mind paying a premium price for premium hardware.

Please before you post, think a little. It is all the same hardware!!!!!!! Apple does not go out and only pick the best hardware on the market. It is just the case!!
 
Me and a few others here thought that the loss last month might do it combined with the new MSFT ads, however, remember that Apple is painted into a corner by themselves. Many know the apple profit margin can be from 80% to 400% (at least what I have read online) with the Mac Pro actually being the fairest of them all price wise, however, also note that it uses PREMIUM EEC RAM as well as higher end CPU's, Apple could have used CHEAPER MEMORY and CHEAPER CPU and had a machine that is faster, then it's present offerings, again, this is by Apple design.

With regard to netbook, without shooting themself in the foot with Macbook and Air, I don't know how they can do it.

The logical step would be to refresh with 4 core laptops, same prices and reduce the 2 cores down by 25% or more, that would move these machines and the higher end can be the faster GPU and CPU, problem is, the 4 cores aren't really out there yet for mobile computing. They could also offer a i7 desktop and laptop configs in a desktop - that would reduce price too, and more so once they get the OS on a chip design completed, if ever.

I would not worry though, apple will figure out a way to make it profitable as well as make a machine that is limited, you will not be able to do everything you want without paying for it. In other words, they could release a macbook pro for example (cheaper than ever as the unibody is cheaper to produce), that is faster and for less money then the machines out now.

Its all good from a consumer point of view and stops with the APPLE making CHEAP stuff comments, as the MACBOOKS for example, some say the real cost can be seen in the APPLE CARE PRICE as this covers the motherboard, CPU, memory, hard drive, or close to it.
If that's the case, Apple already makes cheap but since their profit margins are so high, we don't see it as so.
 
Silly talk. Apple is a premium product. Premium products demand premium pricing. There's no such thing, nor will there ever be, a "cheaper" Mac. When it comes to Apple, you will always get what you pay for, and you pay for and get a premium computer product.

Apple's consumer-level hardware (i.e., excluding the Mac Pro) compares unfavorably to that of other manufacturers, especially when price is considered. The only justification for calling a Mac a "premium" product is OS X, and despite that it is getting harder to make a case for the whole package. When Windows 7 comes out, Apple will find much stiffer competition from the Windows world.
 
is that the resale value of any product with an Apple logo on it is vastly superior to any other similar product from different vendors!

I always buy my Mac's used/referbished and within 1 year old, add Applecare if needed and use it until my heart is content to buy another. I then sell it for nearly what I paid for it! I've done this with nearly each product in my signature.

This means I only needed to spend a few hundred bucks to upgrade every few years. This is something most PC users do not get.

I compare it to my 99 Hyundai that I bought brand new for 20k and today it's 1k and my used 04 BMW that I paid 27k for and could easily sell it for 20k anytime I want!

Lower prices... raise prices... doesn't matter because I(we) will still make out in the end.

Come on guy! A computer, just like a car, is not a wise investment. And let me know what market you are selling a used car that retains close to 85% market value. Lets get serious and leave out all the fake numbers ok.
 
Dropping the price to $1,150 "puts a considerable dent into the cost of owning or switching to a Mac"? You're kidding me, right? That's still twice as much as it would cost to buy a more powerful PC. Absurd. Apple needs to start allowing 3rd parties access to its hardware configurations, then maybe we will see some real price point drops.

Never gonna happen. Apple had 3rd party vendors selling machines before Jobs was re-hired (the whole imac thing). It nearly killed the company. With the success of the ipod and iphone, loosing control of the hardware would drive the value of the brand to zilch.
Strangely enough Apple makes money because their products are more expensive than just the sum of their parts and labor.
Welcome to the wonderful world of capitalism, people have more faith in a perceived "premium" product.

Hi,

If Apple puts a FireWire port in the MacBook that would definitely add value.

s.

There isn't any room on the logic board for fw. It will never come back unless they redo the entire unibody line, which won't happen. Its time to get past the denial stage of mourning fw :p.
 
Doubt it!!

Although it would be nice since I'm hoping to get my fiance a Macbook sometime later this fall after we get married. Her Dell is going to hell right now and I told her that if she wants my tech support she needs to have a mac. I don't offer my services for pcs anymore!

Well good luck there! Ya know she just may not want to provide any of her services to you with that attitude!--)))

Just remember Forest Gump when he said " Marriage is like a box of chocolates, you have to buy the whole box just to get one little piece! "

Good luck, your gonna need it dude! ;):D
 
If Apple wants move to the next level, they have to lower their prices. Perhaps, they have convinced 10 to 15% of Americans and 5-10% of the world to have a Mac, but if they keep the same prices they will never dominate the computer market. They'll keep doing well, but slowly. Furthermore, linux and Apple had a chance to break Microsoft during the Vista period. It is going to be a lot more difficult for some people to go mac when they can have Windows 7, which is very good, by the way.

I agree, although Windows 7 isnt as good as OSX it's still very solid and a step in the right direction for MS. Apple wont have alot of ammo to fire off on the Windows OS front but will probably still say "Hey our stuff looks prettier at least".
 
If it's true it's only the so called apple "net book"

They won't drop the price of the macbook or the macbook pro nor will they release a product that competes with them.

My guess is it will use a modified version of OS X, not quite the full version but still enough to use the ilife suite, browse the net, use iwork etc but in a smaller, easy to use portable form.

If we look at how Apple went with the iphone & their pricing from the original to 3G, I would guess that the next version will be even cheaper.

So the release of a "net book" type device in the bracket between macbook/mac mini/imac and the iPhone would make sense as it won't directly affect any of the markets they already have as it won't be enough to bring macbook users to buy it for the performance drop, iphone users won't because of the portability but it's a nice device that a lot of "consumers" will buy if it's at a affordable price for the ease of use but also the fact it's a "mac" and the instant "cool" factor that comes with it.

There is definitely a market for a very portable, easy to use computer that isn't a "computer" as we know it but a cross breed between the iphone & your generic mac. If they could nail the software part of it, make is usable with everything and have all the things your average user needs it has the potential to be a massive revolution in how users think about the computer.
 
These price points are somewhat more palatable.

Someone paying Apple's retail prices isn't trying very hard to find a better deal. Those are prices on current hardware.

Not True! At least for the Mac-mini. I just checked that web site and the mini for that price is OLD stuff with a combo drive!
 
Microsoft had a chance to break themselves with vista and they did. they just had their first quarterly loss in something like 20 years.

They are going to recover with Windows 7. Even the hardware makers are waiting for it.
 
I agree, although Windows 7 isnt as good as OSX it's still very solid and a step in the right direction for MS. Apple wont have alot of ammo to fire off on the Windows OS front but will probably still say "Hey our stuff looks prettier at least".

What I mea isn that OSX looks better when you come from Vista. it is a little less attractive when you have tried Windows 7.
 
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