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Apple to Introduce Cheaper Macs?

It is about time, the 15 inch plus Macbooks are way to expensive in UK £. However i do doubt this Rumor, unless the proliferation of "Free" netbooks is seriously worrying them, or they did get there Market research wrong WRT the latest generation of Macbook, in which case why don't they just drop the price, (oh i forgot they chose to machine it out of solid Aluminum Billet).

I am also not a fan of the Netbook or Mac tablet idea, what do you do with a Netbook, its to small for serious work, apart from bit of text editing same for the tablet, Apple makes products that "do Something" ie iPod is a music player, iPhone is a telephone, Macbook is a personal computer.

The only thing vaguely useful could be a 3G, GPRS, GPS, motion sensor, always on iPhone with a keyboard, even so you still have to have a Phone and a laptop so why would you bother?

No for me unless there is a new plastic macbook to prop up the range at the bottom this rumor is bunkum
 
skellener said:
October 2008
http://www.businessinsider.com/2008/10/apple-q4-earnings-analysis
Jobs: "There are some customers that we choose not to serve. We do not know how to make a $500 computer that's not a piece of junk, and our DNA will not allow us to ship that."
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$500 is one thing but I think Apple can make a $799 computer that would be of good quality and profitable for them.
Let's hope this rumor is true cause it will be good for all of us.
Who doesn't want a less expensive Apple?
 
Lower parts cost = lower price

Apple could do this easily.

Traditionally Apple locks themselves into long term contracts at fixed prices to guarantee supply of parts. This is the reason why you never see a Mac drop in price, even when it's almost a year old. Apple is locked into component costs that may have been below market rates when production started, but are surely above market rates months later.

All they need to do is play the same game the PC makers do and adopt a policy of shorter term contracts and playing multiple suppliers against each other to drive prices down.

Then as component costs drop, as they always do, Apple would save money. They would then be able to lower prices without sacrificing margin.

Prices go down, but profit per unit remains the same.
The lower prices drive higher volume which means total profit goes up.
 
OceanView said:
$500 is one thing but I think Apple can make a $799 computer that would be of good quality and profitable for them.
Let's hope this rumor is true cause it will be good for all of us.
Who doesn't want a less expensive Apple?
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We all do, but a less expensive Apple means junk computers. Im happy with my 24 inch iMac and its super sexy too. :D
 
Pika said:
47620707.jpg


+
vintage-apple-stickers.jpg
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Hahahahahahahaha ROFL! :D

Funniest post in this entire thread.
 
Pika said:
You do realize that Apple's gross margins are lower than RiM and MS
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MS makes software, not hardware. Of course MS has higher margins.

and I would suspect lower than Dell and HP's comparable machines where they try to make a solid buck.
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In 2005, Dell's gross margin was 18% and Apple's was 36%. Dells net profit was 6%, Apple's was 9% (I don't know what Apple did with the 27% that disappeared along the way but for starters, developing OS X isn't free).

If you look at a high-end professional line Dell like the Precision, a Mac with identical specs costs much more. Plus, a Dell Precision includes 3Y CompleteCare with on-site repairs. Apple charges extra for 3Y AppleCare and it still doesn't include on-site repairs. So they're clearly hoarding money in an anachronistic manner, and at some point they're gonna grow tired of their 3.32% worldwide marketshare and do something drastic to make it grow. If the stockholders don't like it, too bad.
 
tedhogan said:
There is no $899 iMac for schools that I can see.

I work for a large public school system and we've given up on Macs due to the high cost. No way iMac's $899... try $1150 to start. I just checked it.

$899 would be a good price and maybe we could populate a lab. $1150 I'll go with Windows.
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Are you looking at the education store prices? There are 2 stores on the apple site (2 that I know of, there might be more).
 
bry223 said:
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".
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Don't worry, this is Windows (By Microsoft (TM)) after all. All the crap will slowly float to the surface (as crap tends to do) after the public gets its hands on it after release.

I recall the Winbots had fairly high praise for Vista during its development as well. I think we all know how that turned out. ;)

Though the more rabid members of the Redmond Horde still refuse to admit that Vista is deeply flawed (or flawed at all, for that matter). Why, some of them are commenting on the MacRumors forum every day (you know who you are).
 
LagunaSol said:
And thank heavens for that. I don't want the malware and virus worries, thank you very much.
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Meh. After 18 years with zero viruses on the platform that has 90+% of the market, I wouldn't lose sleep if the Mac's marketshare went up to 20-25%. Mac malware will be just like Windows malware, it's not something the machine will catch by merely existing, the user has to be fairly clueless and careless as well. And I'm sure there will be third party paranoia software to lessen your worries.
LagunaSol said:
I recall the Winbots had fairly high praise for Vista during its development as well.
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Some did, but they were a small vocal minority. The Win7 reception is very different. It's kind of like going from Bush to Obama. Sure, even Obama's approval rating will drop, but even at its low point it will still be decent. Vista was Microsoft's Phantom Menace. Win7 is their Empire Strikes Back.
 
Anuba said:
I wouldn't lose sleep if the Mac's marketshare went up to 20-25%.
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Personally, I think that would be the sweet spot for Mac market share. I'd love to see 25% someday, but I wouldn't want to see 40-50+%. Let the idiot masses deal with the idiot problems caused by their idiot OS (speaking of which, I'm getting another cryptic WTF memory error message in SharePoint again on my work machine).

I...LOVE...THIS...COMPANY!!! YEEAAARRRRRRGGGGH!!!! *sprays sweat on everyone*
 
Bubba Satori said:
It might be their mantra, but use seriously need to check out the hardware forum for the latest hardware horror stories with the new iMacs and MacBook Pros. :eek:
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Yes I'm sure these hardware forums represent the majority of users. :rolleyes:
 
LagunaSol said:
Don't worry, this is Windows (By Microsoft (TM)) after all. All the crap will slowly float to the surface (as crap tends to do) after the public gets its hands on it after release.

I recall the Winbots had fairly high praise for Vista during its development as well. I think we all know how that turned out. ;)

Though the more rabid members of the Redmond Horde still refuse to admit that Vista is deeply flawed (or flawed at all, for that matter). Why, some of them are commenting on the MacRumors forum every day (you know who you are).
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We're Here .................
(but they never seem to learn)

If the W7 Control Panel layout, for starters, is an indicator of things to come...
 

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mr.steevo said:
If Apple puts a FireWire port in the MacBook that would definitely add value.
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Oi! Still sore about the alu MacBooks dropping FW, eh?;) I was too, until the white MacBook got nVidia chip.:)

Adrien24 said:
but a less expensive Apple means junk computers.
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:confused::confused::confused: Why would less expensive computer = junk computer? Mac's and PC's uses components from the same few manufacturers. Some Macs are even assembled by PC makers (MacBook components manufactured by Asus and so on.).:eek: The only--and the most important--difference is OS X. I don't care much if the box it comes in is pretty or not, just so long as it runs OS X.:cool:
 
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