Then I'm glad Apple picked Steve Jobs over you, because your plan is exactly how Apple almost went bankrupt in the 90s. They had dozens computers at overlapping specs and price points, no clear sales vision, just trying to be everything to everyone. Apple was still selling tons of computers each tailor made for the users exact desires, but they were bleeding to death from the low margins.
You're in business so you must understand that every computer you don't sell cuts in to the profits of the ones you do sell. This can work for someone like Dell, but then again they have no extra overhead, they just buy the parts wholesale and assemble them, no R&D, no OS to write.
Apples strategy for the last, very profitable, 8 years has been to have a simplified clearly delineated line of computers with no overlap in pricing or functionality. Instead of making computers to fit the consumer, they make the consumers fit the computer, most peoples computer needs fall somewhere between the iMac and the mac mini, but Apple doesn't make anything in-between, it forces you to pick.
And this is Steve Jobs brilliance, don't chase the customer, make the customer chase you, high margin lower volume sales are the chosen path. The Mac Mini will always have bottom of the barrel chipset graphics because anything else would cut into iMac sales, there will never be an xMac(midrange mac with expansion slots) because it would hurt iMac and mac pro sales.
and this just goes to show you that you don't sell macs for a living. I do and I'm expressing what a lot of my customers and people I talk to tell me on an everyday basis.
And what I said doesnt throw Apple into the 90's, it puts them in competition with whats selling a lot these days:
1. Internet laptop : slim, modern, under $800. what the Air is but with macbook material and less technology. The Air is customer need designed so it goes to show you Apple does make computers to FIT the customers, they threw it in between the macbook and the macbook pro!!! they should do the same for their other product gaps, thats all I'm saying
2. Sub or around but not more than $500 headless CPU (what the mac mini is trying to be) to go after the lower class and corporation and educational volume sales... the cheap computer market is out there... I dont know where you live but go to a computer store and go see what sells the most...
3. Gaming machine for gamers (so they finally buy a Mac) because they ALL have a windows box for gaming and they WILL NOT spend the money on a Mac Pro.... ever..... the headless Mac is missing a 1000 - 1500 price range that wont cut into mac mini sales and mac pro sales, its just missing, and gamers fit that market because they will void the warranty right away and they dont care, they want to fiddle with their machines and tweak them to their needs... let them buy mac pro graphics cards and put them in there with a huge fan, in the end theyll have a close to 2K machine that is nothing like their mac pro, big graphics tons of storage and big ram they dont need 8 cores and an aluminum case and 4 hard drive bays and 2 optical bays, no firewire 800 and no digital audio out, take all that out and you get what they need...
my price ranges are NOT overlapping, read my post again please
the notebook is in a totally different league, it just hasnt been done and it would open a new mac market which is being filled with people buying older iBooks and Powerbooks that DO eat new macbook sales. I try to get people to buy new macbooks but the $1000 line is just not in everyones budget
the Mac Mini is just not selling very well because people choose a Wintel box with A LOT more specs for under 600 so if apple would make less they would sell more and thus make more
the gaming machine is just to open up to the reluctant gamers who for the last 8 years have been sticking to their PC because they, again, WILL NOT BUY the mac option for gaming which is the Mac Pro. it will not cut into mac pro sales because these people are just not buying the Mac in any model and this mac would not be appealing to the Mac Pro buyers who want a beautiful expensive-looking top of the line config
the iMac well, I've had a LOT of people buying used intel iMacs and even G5s because of the dislike of the glossy screen, its not forcing people to buy the Mac Pro with a matte cinema display, its making people look for other non mac option... heck i have a guy who bought an imac 2.4 and stuck a dell 24" monitor to it just because he wanted true colors to look at
people want to buy a Mac, but a lot are buying PCs because there is no mac option and they will not spend $1000 because apple wont budge. and THAT cuts into my sales and apple and only apple can fix this
oh and dont get me started on overlapping specs and price points from apple.. look at the ipod line ! its like you can buy lets see:
1gb shuffle 50
2gb shuffle 80
--------GAP-------- insert ipod here
4gb nano 150
8gb nano 200
80gb classic 250 - -
8gb touch 300 - -
160gb classic 350 - -overlap - -
16gb touch / iphone 400 - -
32gb touch 499 - -
and I understand the touch , the iphone and the classic are totally different but again, goes to show you apple DOES make products to FIT customer needs and that they do have products competing in price against each other, as long as theyre not in the same family which is what I propose (you can differentiate macs as all in one and headless, and laptops of course....)
