This is something I posted on another thread, but it seems appropriate for this discussion as well. Forgive the self-plagarism. I did amend it a bit...
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Apple looks to me like a company treading water, waiting for the next huge wave of hardware to be ready for release. Jobs already knows he can't ride on this current hardware platform much longer and is just trying to milk the last remaining unit sales out of this depressed economic environment before the big bombs hit--new PowerMac designs with beefier processors/mobos.
Marketing has little to do with real-world performance. To successfully sell a high-end item you have to create an aura, a perception of clear superiority people are willing to pay extra for, a great user experience, a chic/hip factor, an us-vs.-the-world mindset, and a perceived user identity people want to identify with. Once you have succeeded on all of these fronts you can name your price and people will pay it.
The Porsche vs. Honda comparison falls apart. I would offer instead the Harley vs. Japanese motorcycle analogy, with Apple being Harley.
Harley Davidson marketing:
AURA--toughness, dangerous, free-spirited
SUPERIORITY--over-engineered, ruggedly built, unchanging design, "the good ol' days"
USER EXPERIENCE--loud exhaust note, low torque mean pull to the engine
CHIC/HIP--instant access to the "Easy Rider" mystique of the cool, free, rootless drifter
US VS THEM--"American Made"..."no rice burner"... etc.
USER IDENTITY--tough, freedom-loving unconventional rebel who doesn't follow the crowd.
Apple marketing:
AURA--creativity, free-spirited, "Think Different"
SUPERIORITY--UNIX-based OS for the masses, user friendliness, AltiVec, rugged machines that have a relatively long life and low TCO
USER EXPERIENCE--ease of set-up/usage/peripheral additions, intuitive and consistent interface
CHIC/HIP--Cool trend-setting cases, Hollywood darlings
US VS THEM--anti M$/Intel
USER IDENTITY--creativity-loving non-hacker who doesn't follow the crowd
BTW--just how old and out-of-date is Harley's technology? Several decades? Why do people buy them? SUCCESSFUL BRANDING. People pay $10K+ for a bike with two air-cooled coffee-can-sized pistons that idles like a sputtering lawnmower. Japanese manufacturers make sophisticated bikes that run like Rolexes, purr like kittens, never leak oil, and can smoke any Harley ever made 0-60 without leaving 2nd gear. Does anyone here think Harley gives a tinker's damn about market share when people will preorder a tricked-out Softtail for $50 Gs sight unseen?
Where even this illustration breaks down, however, it that Apple is KNOWN for innovation and it is part of their claims of superiority. During this time of hardware challenges, Apple is dramatically losing this perception. Apple is also known for being the "creative professional's computer," the "content authoring machine," but a few more months with our current PM lineup and more of those professionals are going to be buying Athlons to remain competitive as far as their production turnarounds go.
Steve Jobs knows all of this. He is probably screaming daily at his production teams to get the new PMs online so the company's image is not further tarnished in the professional community. Steve know that in this market, image is everything--if Apple becomes "the slow computer with the glitzy OS, funky case, and is 3x more expensive than a faster PC," they're dead.
You are watching a company fighting against timing glitches. OSX 10.2 done early but PMs running behind. Shake ready but no monster platform to run it on. If we would have had some big iron come out when Jaguar did, we would not be paying $129 for it now--it would be shipping with all new machines or $19.99 online as an upgrade (or free @ CompUSA). But Apple needs income, so we must suffer for the delay. Same with iTools. It was a crappy PR move to start charging us, necessitated by the lack of new innovative PowerMacs to sell. I can't even imagine what the PM unit sales look like now--anyone who knows ANYTHING about this company or the technology of their current lineup is not buying. Waiting. I bet there is a virtual boycott of high-end Macs right now, or at least there should be.
When Steve Jobs unveils the new line of PowerMacs, I predict that his upbeat pitch will have a note of relief--".. ahh... we've made it!" Once another industry-leading hardware platform for the amazing potential of the OS is released, Apple will command respect again. Market perception will be bolstered and this perception will filter down to consumer lines. Apple ads will have teeth again. And, without dropping profit percentages at all on any of the product lines, Apple will make sizable market share gains.
Oh, and Microsoft will be afraid... very afraid... especially if AppleWorks goes on steriods and becomes a real competitor to Office and Apple develops it's own OS-native browser.
But if this takes another year to happen, Apple will be marginalized. Marketshare will dwindle to nothing. A $40 billion war chest can disappear quite quickly when no one is buying.
To answer the original question: yes, a new $2k system, even a consumer one, with a 100mhz system bus is absurd. Not that the price is wrong--for everything you're getting it is a value. But the fact that they have the technology (DDR RAM) and are deliberately holding out on new buyers is detestable.
