Originally posted by jayscheuerle
Aaaaargh!!! I'm so sick and tired of people mentioning the eMac!! It's a swell machine if you don't mind having a 50 lb. box on your table, but my machine's hidden in a closet (it's a beige G3, wouldn't you hide it? 
) with the keyboard and Sony lcd (black) monitor cables snaking through a wall. The keyboard's hidden on a pull-out drawer and the mouse is wireless. It's the most inobtrusive system I could imagine. Is making an affordable tower really so difficult?
Actually, speed IS about how fast a window pops up for me, how quickly I can click on a file and rename it or switch between open apps. Sometimes, silly as it may be, I want to focus on one little task and I want it done quickly. My beige box is fine for my tasks right now & I'd rather not have to replace it. These elements of slowness of which I complain are visible in every machine now running OSX. Whether you see them or not is more a matter of tolerance than performance and the combination of 10.3 and the 970 had better put this issue to rest for even those of us who are accused of imagining the slowness (even at the Apple Store!).
The eMac is like a turbo-charged minivan. Everyone wants to push them as being such a great practical bargain, but nobody wants to own one.
Really, this can't be this difficult... - j
This is a cynical viewpoint, but hear me out. Apple has provided a machine for your needs and your pricerange. IF you want the luxury of a less obtrusive system (it is a luxury, really, as it has nohing to do with how well it works) you have to pay more. Apple wants to make money. Not just for R&D for better products and not just for advertising for biger marketshare. This is a business.
It is a profitable business (very rare right now), it has a big stack of cash in the bank. Share price has gone up 30% in the last two weeks! (good for me and my stock). That's the key. It ain't marketshare, its shareprice. Admittedly Apple loves its users more than most companies, but it loves its shareholders more.
Mercedes will charge you a hundred grand for a car. IF you want a still good car with less bells and wistles, they'll charge you thirty grand for a car. They won't charge you sicteen grand for either of those cars and if you don't have the money, they don't want your business. Sad but true, luxury good are luxury goods. If you can afford the ground floor, be happy with that, most can't.
From a shareholders perspective, the company is running just fine. Apple is not going to bak away from its pricing scheme as long as the market yeilds it.
All of that said, the prices have actually been comming down. As these lower prices and some performance increases with the 970 become more visible, they will probably lower there margin some more. Jsut keep in mind, as long as the copmpnay is profitable and selling systems at a premium, they will keep doing it. ITs what the market will bare.
So, no, it isn't hard to deliver an $800 tower with what you want in it, its just a silly thing to do right now.
