OK, I don't want to make this a rant against Apple, but as a loyal Mac User for 14 years now I am not very pleased about the latest developments.
The MWNY was focused on Consumers. No problem with that. But there are still some news from the show that are quite disturbing:
1) 10.2 will cost 129.-$ (here in Germany even more) with no upgrade path. That is rediculous! That issue was discussed before and Apple is p*ssing of a lot of loyal users with that, especially those who adopted MacOS X early.
2) The fee for .Mac! It costs money now even it was advertised as a free service all the time before without any warning it could change one day. The main target are private users. I don't think that a lot of them are willing to pay an additional of 100.-$ a year for a servicve like that, some just can't afford it. Not to mention, that in families the costs for the account add up fast to a few hundred bucks per year. Hello???? Other companies tried already to make this business model work and they failed badly. And I don't wonder, since I count myself to the people who won't pay for a service like that. Here in Germany you get a 85MB Webspace with 3 domain names and 85 e-mail adresses for 5,- per month... any questions?
3) No progress on hardware performance! It starts to hurt that we didn't see any (counting) progress on the processors and hardware since more than a year. The iMac is a nice design but just uses the same outdated crap inside like the other Macs. Also that was discussed before in extend, so I'll keep that one short as well.
4) Steve tried to sound positive that 20% are using MacOS X now... Well, that's all??? It would have been interesting on which numbers this is based. Probably on all PowerMacs that are able to run MacOS X. Considering that it is NOTHING!!! I would have liked to hear how big that installed base is! 6 million? 20% of that are 1.2 million users! And that world-wide!!! Considering that the software companies must have a hard time to earn money with MacOS X software so far. That also explains why only 300,000 copies of Office are sold until now. And Steve is lying when he says that those 20% is better than anything before in computer history... The same old thing about statistics.
Those facts combined with the really strange product policy of Apple makes me wonder if Apple really will be able to survive for long anymore. It is no wonder that the Apple stock is diving since yesterday.
All that digital lifestyle crap with little gadgets that nobody really needs is not gonna work out. A computer is not a status symbol, it is a tool! Of course it is nice to have a well designed computer, but what's the point when I pay 500$ just for the case, keyboard and mouse? (For that prize I get almost a windows machine) I need the choice to have it if I want, but I don't need to take it. So what about a consumer machine, that is with no monitor, optimized for best price/performance ratio? It could use the same motherboard as the eMac. It comes with no mouse or keyboard so that you can use the standard USB stuff form the windows world if you like to. The same should happen with the pro models! Just a "cheap" case for the people who don't care and the stylish one for the guys who want it, Keyboard and mouse are optional! Every pro model should be a bare bone that you can configure to your likes! I don't see why it is not possible to have a SuperDrive in the "little" PowerMac... It's called Build-to-order, right? So I decide what's gonna be in my machine and not Apple!
If they would bring out some really competetive low cost models I would be convinced to bet on Apple these days. But I really don't like that the only reason remains to stay with Apple is to avoid Microsoft. To use computers is not fun anymore these days... you only can choose between different sizes of sh*t piles...
And a last thing about the pricing here in Europe. Since the dollar isn't that strong anymore compared to the Euro, I expected that Apple would take the MW as a chance to correct the prices for their whole line-up. But the only prices that changed were the "new" iMacs. And still they cost 10% more than in the US. Imagine that the new 17" iMac costs more than 2,550.-$ here inclusive sales tax. That thing is going to catch dust in the stores. I don't know anyone who would spend more than 2,500.-$ for a "home computer", when it's not coming right away with a printer, a scanner, enough memory and some other gadgets... The cheapest iMac (G4) costs 1,855,- /$ incl. sales tax. For that money I get already a very decent Windows machine with everything I need for home use. Even the eMac can't compete. A Dell machine with the same fatures costs about 250$ less (but has a PIV clocked at 1.7 GHz).
I also don't see a lot of people buying an iPod (20GB) for about 649.-. And as a last example the "little" 800 MHz PowerMac starts here at 1899.- (sales tax not included!). That's 300.-$ more than in the US! At the moment I am not willing to pay that rip-off anymore. It would be new to me that we earn 20% more here in europe... I'll wait another 4 weeks to see if there will be new pro machines that are worth the money and are not 20% more expensive than overseas. If Apple is not convincing me again, I am gone to the dark side... And don't tell me that Windows is a piece of crap! It isn't that bad anymore since Windows2000. And then there is still Linux for non graphical tasks...
I was really a Mac fanatic... but Apple is doing a lot to change that!
The discussion is opened!
groovebuster
The MWNY was focused on Consumers. No problem with that. But there are still some news from the show that are quite disturbing:
1) 10.2 will cost 129.-$ (here in Germany even more) with no upgrade path. That is rediculous! That issue was discussed before and Apple is p*ssing of a lot of loyal users with that, especially those who adopted MacOS X early.
2) The fee for .Mac! It costs money now even it was advertised as a free service all the time before without any warning it could change one day. The main target are private users. I don't think that a lot of them are willing to pay an additional of 100.-$ a year for a servicve like that, some just can't afford it. Not to mention, that in families the costs for the account add up fast to a few hundred bucks per year. Hello???? Other companies tried already to make this business model work and they failed badly. And I don't wonder, since I count myself to the people who won't pay for a service like that. Here in Germany you get a 85MB Webspace with 3 domain names and 85 e-mail adresses for 5,- per month... any questions?
3) No progress on hardware performance! It starts to hurt that we didn't see any (counting) progress on the processors and hardware since more than a year. The iMac is a nice design but just uses the same outdated crap inside like the other Macs. Also that was discussed before in extend, so I'll keep that one short as well.
4) Steve tried to sound positive that 20% are using MacOS X now... Well, that's all??? It would have been interesting on which numbers this is based. Probably on all PowerMacs that are able to run MacOS X. Considering that it is NOTHING!!! I would have liked to hear how big that installed base is! 6 million? 20% of that are 1.2 million users! And that world-wide!!! Considering that the software companies must have a hard time to earn money with MacOS X software so far. That also explains why only 300,000 copies of Office are sold until now. And Steve is lying when he says that those 20% is better than anything before in computer history... The same old thing about statistics.
Those facts combined with the really strange product policy of Apple makes me wonder if Apple really will be able to survive for long anymore. It is no wonder that the Apple stock is diving since yesterday.
All that digital lifestyle crap with little gadgets that nobody really needs is not gonna work out. A computer is not a status symbol, it is a tool! Of course it is nice to have a well designed computer, but what's the point when I pay 500$ just for the case, keyboard and mouse? (For that prize I get almost a windows machine) I need the choice to have it if I want, but I don't need to take it. So what about a consumer machine, that is with no monitor, optimized for best price/performance ratio? It could use the same motherboard as the eMac. It comes with no mouse or keyboard so that you can use the standard USB stuff form the windows world if you like to. The same should happen with the pro models! Just a "cheap" case for the people who don't care and the stylish one for the guys who want it, Keyboard and mouse are optional! Every pro model should be a bare bone that you can configure to your likes! I don't see why it is not possible to have a SuperDrive in the "little" PowerMac... It's called Build-to-order, right? So I decide what's gonna be in my machine and not Apple!
If they would bring out some really competetive low cost models I would be convinced to bet on Apple these days. But I really don't like that the only reason remains to stay with Apple is to avoid Microsoft. To use computers is not fun anymore these days... you only can choose between different sizes of sh*t piles...
And a last thing about the pricing here in Europe. Since the dollar isn't that strong anymore compared to the Euro, I expected that Apple would take the MW as a chance to correct the prices for their whole line-up. But the only prices that changed were the "new" iMacs. And still they cost 10% more than in the US. Imagine that the new 17" iMac costs more than 2,550.-$ here inclusive sales tax. That thing is going to catch dust in the stores. I don't know anyone who would spend more than 2,500.-$ for a "home computer", when it's not coming right away with a printer, a scanner, enough memory and some other gadgets... The cheapest iMac (G4) costs 1,855,- /$ incl. sales tax. For that money I get already a very decent Windows machine with everything I need for home use. Even the eMac can't compete. A Dell machine with the same fatures costs about 250$ less (but has a PIV clocked at 1.7 GHz).
I also don't see a lot of people buying an iPod (20GB) for about 649.-. And as a last example the "little" 800 MHz PowerMac starts here at 1899.- (sales tax not included!). That's 300.-$ more than in the US! At the moment I am not willing to pay that rip-off anymore. It would be new to me that we earn 20% more here in europe... I'll wait another 4 weeks to see if there will be new pro machines that are worth the money and are not 20% more expensive than overseas. If Apple is not convincing me again, I am gone to the dark side... And don't tell me that Windows is a piece of crap! It isn't that bad anymore since Windows2000. And then there is still Linux for non graphical tasks...
I was really a Mac fanatic... but Apple is doing a lot to change that!
The discussion is opened!
groovebuster