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Do you think notebooks such as HP's "Envy" will drive down the cost of Macbooks?

petrucci666

petrucci666

macrumors 6502a
Original poster
Apr 30, 2009
714
14
Los Angeles, CA
It is obvious that HP was looking at a Unibody MBP when they were designing their new "Envy" notebook series. Since the two are so aesthetically similar, do you think this will ultimately drive the price of Macbook's down?

I know a lot of people, and I'm sure there's many more out there, who buy Macbooks and Macbook Pro's just because they look nice...hell, we all buy it because of their appealing aesthetics to some extent...

But, in the future, it wouldn't be surprising to see Dell, Toshiba and others to follow Apple's design innovations...how do you think this will reflect on the actual prices of Macbooks in the future?
 
petrucci666 said:
It is obvious that HP was looking at a Unibody MBP when they were designing their new "Envy" notebook series. Since the two are so aesthetically similar, do you think this will ultimately drive the price of Macbook's down?

I know a lot of people, and I'm sure there's many more out there, who buy Macbooks and Macbook Pro's just because they look nice...hell, we all buy it because of their appealing aesthetics to some extent...

But, in the future, it wouldn't be surprising to see Dell, Toshiba and others to follow Apple's design innovations...how do you think this will reflect on the actual prices of Macbooks in the future?
Click to expand...

At it's current pricing, no.

Reviews that I've read were not that happy about the Envy. Specifically the touchpad.
 
Too early to tell. If HP can fix the touchpad software and Windows 7 turns out to be a solid OS that's well received by the general public, then yes, to a point. I don't think it will ever drive the price down a lot though, as the value of the mac is OS X. No, if anything is going to drive the second hand market down, it'll be Psystar.
 
Edit : I changed my mind on my original comments. While I applaud HP and Dell at trying to capture the ultra premium PC market, I don't think it'll happen very well, sort of like when Hyundai and Volkswagen slapped some chrome and leather in one of their cars and started charging over $50,000 dollars without a luxury moniker. They were good rides, don't get me wrong, but the community thought they were nuts. They'll have to provide a premium experience with that premium price tag. I don't see why a PC manufacturer hasn't gotten this right already. For your high end machines provide up to date drivers for ALL of their components (that come preinstalled) or perhaps even track which ones they add, and maybe build an inhouse antiviral solution so the customer doesn't have to worry about that on their own accord, along with a local network of providers available to assist with any issues free of charge, instead of the "send it in nuke and fresh install" technique i've seen.
 
While I would appreciate if Apple did lower prices even further, not in a rude way, I'm kind of tired about people comparing Apple to other manufacturers and how they should lower prices or they'll lose out on customers because of netbooks, Windows 7, some next great innovation.

Apple has always been more expensive than the competition, call it the Apple Tax or whatever. It hasn't stopped their sales and business has thrived regardless of what Apple does or doesn't do. Apple already lowered the price and people are still complaining and regardless of the bad economy, it hasn't phased Apple in one bit. As long as Apple sells, I don't see the competition affecting their business practices. Truth is, to the average consumer, Apple is that "in club" that everybody wants to be in and at and are willing to do anything to become part of it.
 
It probably won't do much. I think the example is sony, They're into macking high end laptops, and if you've looked at any of the prices, they're comparable to macs. I do wish that sony would bring some of the overseas stuff here like the VAIO G. I also wish panasonic was in the market with the R and W series here in the US. That would actually give apple something to compete against in terms of hardware... but not price.

I don't think apple's model of being a premium company will allow them to have a low price product. It's why you'll never see a 50$ rolex, omega, Tissot, Tag Heuer etc. Those companies do not want to cheapen their brand with low cost products. The want their product to remain somewhat exclusive (bringing up desirability) and maintain value.
 
As pointed out by others, premium PC laptops already exist. The premium which is i.e. the Macbook Pro is not simply the design of the laptops, it's the Apple brand and experience. Windows 7 is an excellent OS, but it's not OS X, which means these laptops can never be perfect substitutes. I hope it puts pressure on Apple's prices, but competing is a bit more complex than simply designing an excellent laptop with a beautiful look running a capable OS.
 
I don't think anything will ever drive Apple prices down unless it is Apple themselves deciding the prices should be driven down. Apple prices are what they are because they get away with it. Even with their QC woes people will continue to pay out the ass for their products, I am one of them.
 
i think if apple continues cutting up pro features, like no expresscard, few ports, exotic video outputs, no matte screens... sadly people will be forced to buy PC's like the Envy, even if they don't like it very much.

Apple used to offer a great balance between quality engineering and design in their PRO series... Desing is still very cool, but engineering and technical specs are falling to mid consumer level-sadly.
 
I'm waiting for some pc manufacturer to do a stealth psystar: design a machine to be extremely easy to hackintosh and let that 'secret' slip on a couple of osx86 forums.

Hackintoshability working well in selling dell, hp and msi netbooks, why not for real notebooks?
 
clyde2801 said:
I'm waiting for some pc manufacturer to do a stealth psystar: design a machine to be extremely easy to hackintosh and let that 'secret' slip on a couple of osx86 forums.

Hackintoshability working well in selling dell, hp and msi netbooks, why not for real notebooks?
Click to expand...

That would be awesome, I had OS X on my acer aspire one netbook but the wireless didn't work so I resorted back to Windows, but a cheap 3-400 dollar pc that ran OS X perfectly would be awesome
 
clyde2801 said:
I'm waiting for some pc manufacturer to do a stealth psystar: design a machine to be extremely easy to hackintosh and let that 'secret' slip on a couple of osx86 forums.

Hackintoshability working well in selling dell, hp and msi netbooks, why not for real notebooks?
Click to expand...

dell mini and adamo
 
rodo said:
i think if apple continues cutting up pro features, like no expresscard, few ports, exotic video outputs, no matte screens... sadly people will be forced to buy PC's like the Envy, even if they don't like it very much.

Apple used to offer a great balance between quality engineering and design in their PRO series... Desing is still very cool, but engineering and technical specs are falling to mid consumer level-sadly.
Click to expand...

One thing I don't understand and this is in reference to cutting up the pro features such as the expresscard slot, is that Apple sell 3 different models of the 15" and they are all basically the same except for processor and hard drive (these can clearly be customised later on). Surely the top end 15" could have kept its express card slot and Apple could gage the buyer reaction, they could also make the top end 15" with a higher res screen. It's sad that the resolution has stayed the same all these years.

Oh and just offer 2 versions of the 15" instead of 3.
 
CrackedButter said:
One thing I don't understand and this is in reference to cutting up the pro features such as the expresscard slot, is that Apple sell 3 different models of the 15" and they are all basically the same except for processor and hard drive (these can clearly be customised later on). Surely the top end 15" could have kept its express card slot and Apple could gage the buyer reaction, they could also make the top end 15" with a higher res screen. It's sad that the resolution has stayed the same all these years.

Oh and just offer 2 versions of the 15" instead of 3.
Click to expand...

I agree with you on the notion that Apple should have kept the express card slot in the high end 15" to gauge customer reaction, as well as making the resolution higher. It would've made much more sense. Then those that don't want to go 17" could get a comparable machine in a 15". That's good marketing.

I don't agree with only having 2 15" models though. By offering 3 they in essence gave people who wanted a 13" machine's setup with a 15" screen an option. Very smart. But I don't think they should advertise it like they dropped the price of the 15" MBP. They didn't. They just created a new cheaper 15" model, or in other words an "in between" model.
 
CrackedButter said:
One thing I don't understand and this is in reference to cutting up the pro features such as the expresscard slot, is that Apple sell 3 different models of the 15" and they are all basically the same except for processor and hard drive (these can clearly be customised later on). Surely the top end 15" could have kept its express card slot and Apple could gage the buyer reaction, they could also make the top end 15" with a higher res screen. It's sad that the resolution has stayed the same all these years.

Oh and just offer 2 versions of the 15" instead of 3.
Click to expand...

The most important changes between the 15" models... GPU.
 
the macbook had no firewire or expresscard slot, this has no optical drive or ethernet port.

I'll stand by IBM, where if I pay $1200 for a laptop, it has the basic essentials I need to utilize it as a professional machine. F this nonsense.

Also, this would only drive the price of a unibody down if it were in the same price range.

If I cost $200 to cater a party, my price isn't being brought down by someone else who pops onto the scene doing what I do for $350. If he starts doing what I do for $180, then he may be an influencing factor in me bringing my price down. But not if he charges more.
 
Apple has never really gone by market prices. The current MacBook Pro is more or less what the Powerbook G4 sold for in it's day, the Powerbook G3 sold for in it's day...

They charge near the top end of whatever the market will bear, and people continue buying laptops.
 
rodo said:
Apple used to offer a great balance between quality engineering and design in their PRO series... Desing is still very cool, but engineering and technical specs are falling to mid consumer level-sadly.
Click to expand...
Especially the CPU.
 
CrackedButter said:
One thing I don't understand and this is in reference to cutting up the pro features such as the expresscard slot, is that Apple sell 3 different models of the 15" and they are all basically the same except for processor and hard drive (these can clearly be customised later on). Surely the top end 15" could have kept its express card slot and Apple could gage the buyer reaction, they could also make the top end 15" with a higher res screen. It's sad that the resolution has stayed the same all these years.

Oh and just offer 2 versions of the 15" instead of 3.
Click to expand...

I agree. One of the first things His Steveness did when coming back to Apple was to simply the product line and avoid confusing buyers with a myriad of options. It's already too diffused now with the three options for the 15" mbp. I'd cut the integrated graphics 15" mbp, but leave the improved resolution for the 17".
 
alent1234 said:
dell mini and adamo
Click to expand...

I was reading gizmodo's new how to article for putting 10.6 on a dell mini 10v. I may have to get in on that action. But when all is said and done, you're still looking at netbook features and performance.

But I still stick with my original point: I'd much rather have an easily hackintoshable $5-700 laptop that has a performance and feature set somewhere between the current macbook and macbook pro lines.
 
clyde2801 said:
I agree. One of the first things His Steveness did when coming back to Apple was to simply the product line and avoid confusing buyers with a myriad of options. It's already too diffused now with the three options for the 15" mbp. I'd cut the integrated graphics 15" mbp, but leave the improved resolution for the 17".
Click to expand...

I'm an intelligent person and a geek, try going to Dell's website, I don't know whats going on there in their laptop lineup!
 
No. Although the 15" Envy had some very impressive specifications, it was an overall disappointment. The 13" is hardly worth mentioning.
 
From what I've read, this computer costs 1,999-ish USD. I can't believe that someone would want to buy this piece of crap (every review I've read has been way in the negative) and not buy a macbook or something similar. It's ludicrous.
 
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