I'd like to think it was the quality of the hardware (components) in addition to the form factor, but if you want to pay for a premium just for "shiny" good looking things...hey....it's your cash! I think a few pro's will disagree with you.
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I'd like to think it was the quality of the hardware (components) in addition to the form factor, but if you want to pay for a premium just for "shiny" good looking things...hey....it's your cash! I think a few pro's will disagree with you.
Yeah, I agree diamonds are about the dumbest thing someone can spend their money on.
The iPad? It's gonna be awesome for my needs and the needs of millions of other families.
Very good! It's not like you to be funny! I like that change in you!
I agree with the iPad...in principle. it will be awesome for many people. So long as the sites they want to visit don't use flash.
I think most folks (the consumers/families this is aimed at), won't understand what "lack of flash" means. Once they find out it doesn't let them browse the sites and play the games they are used too (FB and all that stuff)...they'll quickly lose interest and perhaps wonder why they paid $500. They could have a "proper" laptop for that price (and believe me...that's how they think).
Don't get me wrong...they will sell well enough. Apple will make more money, but this could be a short term win. Longer term, their ideas and beliefs may alienate the very user they are trying to win. The "general consumer" is far less forgiving than their previous loyal Mac customer base.
Lack of flash on the iPhone can be forgiven! Folks are used to limitations, but positioning a product between a laptop and cell phone. Hmmm. Either cut down OSX or use Iphone OS. Apple chose the later. Let's hope OS4.0 attempts to bridge the gap. So far, they ain't.
How is something that sells in such massive volumes "overpriced"? You're now using the main argument that PC fans use against Macs. If Microsoft sets a price and millions buy, it's the right price point. Supply and demand. Nobody's forced to buy Office, especially not on the Windows platform where there are alternatives, some of which are free. Final Cut is equally underpriced vs. Adobe CS Production Premium.
The point is that Apple would not in a million years keep their software prices this low if they were a software-only company like MS and Adobe. They're using their hardware margins to subsidize the software, so that users will pick their alternative and thereby become locked to Mac if they want to continue using that software.
Did I read this right in your post?
thereby become locked to Mac
Dude how dare you accuse Apple of using such evil Microsoft tactics.
"Locking in" was a tactic perfected by Microsoft. Otherwise people wouldn't be using such inferior products.
Yes, and the lack of an FM tuner, WMA support, etc. were going to kill the iPod too. Hmmm.
Shouldn't the "massive volume" of Office sales theoretically bring the price down??? And where's the outrage in paying $400 for a shiny DVD? There seems to be plenty of outrage here about paying premium dollars for Apple hardware, yet Microsoft's obscene margins on software are embraced with open arms and open wallets - all the while those taking MS right up the tailpipe wail and moan about the Hated Evil Fruit.
An interesting phenomenon.
iPod customers are a different market for which Apple are targeting the iPad too. It is also very different to the iPhone market!! Please don't take this out of context. or re-read my post. Sure, there is overlap, but I suspect they wanted a cheaper device to compete with netbooks (a useless device, according to SJ).
The company I work for has some "Enterprise" agreement with them...employees get a personal copy MSFT Office 2007 for $20. I'd call that cheap.
BTW - I'd happily pay premium pricing for Apple's products. I have, and I will again - BUT, only when it works for me.
Nobody hates the Fruit (at least, I don't) - I am merely stating my opinions.
Tell it like it is Steve. Flash is a piece of garbage. I'm using it on an HP laptop with Windows 7 and it's flashing thats making the browsers slow: Safari and Firefox. Flash is needed though, its too crucial to the web right now. I wish it was on the ipad. That and multitasking is what is stopping me from getting it.
Seems a relevant point to make every time someone rants and raves about Apple's "overpriced" products (which around here is...always). The lack of similar outrage about Microsoft's margins is always worth spotlighting.
I have exactly the same deal. $20 is a deal for me...while my employer is taking it up the shorts.
As far as the "subsidization" argument earlier - you might argue that Microsoft uses its massive profits from Office and other similarly overpriced products to "subsidize" Windows installations on every consumer PC company's wares, thus maintaining their own "lock" on the market.
Agreed.
You must be new here.
The vast majority.
I never said that... I said that you pay for the hardware. I never specifically mentioned form factor at all. We're saying the same thing.
Huh? You are not forced to use Windows if you buy a PC, you are not forced to buy a PC to use Windows, you are not forced to use Office if you use Windows, you are not forced to buy Windows to use Office.
If you want to use OS X, you're locked to Mac. If you want to use iWork, you're locked to OS X, and by extension, Mac.
I also code JavaScript (never really tried the SVG stuff to be honest) but sometimes a project comes along that just begs for Flash and Actionscript 3 turns out to be a great OOP language. I barely look to the Flash IDE when working on a Flash project. It's just TextMate working on AS and XML files. Flash only serves as the compiler.
I mean, just look at this:
http://www.redbullflightlab.com/
http://www.gettheglass.com/
Do you think that this is possible using HTML as of today? Especially the Red Bull one with realtime Bitmap manipulation and 3D rendering. Can you show me an example of interactivity like this anywhere on the web?
If you want a non-gimped version of Office, you're locked to Windows. If you want IE (*shudder*) you're locked to Windows. If you want to use Zune (*shudder*) you're locked to Windows. Project. Outlook. Visio. Windows. Windows. Windows.
What's your point exactly?
I think we are! Hardware or Software, Apple are very good at making them work together and of course...look great!
I am worried that is changing. They are going for a market which won't pay a premium price. The software (on iPad) is from a cell phone, but is expected to bridge a gap that netbooks currently fill. Will that affect quality? OS4 needs to be good, for Apple's sake!
What kind of foul copy of Business for Dummies states that you should lower the price on things if they sell like hotcakes? Does it also say that you should raise the price if the product is selling miserably?
The outrage over Apple's hardware prices comes from the fact that they feature *the same* components as regular PCs, the same CPU, the same GPU, the same hard drives -- not merely similar, but the same. You can't apply that to a software product because Office isn't made up of little Office bits manufactured by NVidia, Intel, LG and Fujitsu.
preference...maybe they will have the option later on.
but not having an optical is good/bad. you do and you don't need one.
but I always like to have one, to burn a dvd, cd or just import (even with streaming and downloading) its nice to have the burner.
as for "something else" what were you thinking? hdd?
Ugh. Nothing compares to DVD and Blu Ray.
1) You own DVD and Blu Ray. You don't own 99% of video downloads/streams
2) The quality is way higher
3) You don't need an internet connection to use
4) Tons of extras.
Why would you want it? If you care about TV and movies, you want it.
1) You own DVD and Blu Ray. You don't own 99% of video downloads/streams
2) The quality is way higher
3) You don't need an internet connection to use
4) Tons of extras.
Why would you want it? If you care about TV and movies, you want it.
Gimped or not, it's available in some form for both platforms, iWork is not. Why even bring it up as an example of Microsoft's supposed "lock-in" tactics when Apple offers NO version of iWork for anything other than Mac?
They were happy to offer it for Mac between 1997 and 2003. They saw no point to continue after Apple had launched Safari. Since you're determined to make Microsoft look bad, you would also have complained if they had continued to offer IE for Mac, and insisted that they were doing it to protect IE's world domination. A glass is half empty if you want it to be.
If you want to use Windows Media Player with a mobile player, you're not locked to Zune, you can sync it with pretty much any device with a memory that identifies itself as a hard drive.
If you want to use iTunes with anything other than iPods, it's a no-go, and if someone tries to circumvent that (Palm Pre), Apple locks them out.
And this concerns the vast majority who buy the basic Word/Excel/Powerpoint edition... how? The Office family of products is not locked to Windows and the enterprise users who need Project and Visio wouldn't use Mac anyway, so it's hardly a tactic to keep anyone away from Mac. If so, they wouldn't make any Mac version, period.
"The personal computer was created by the hardware revolution of the 1970s. The next change will come from a software revolution." - S. Jobs (google it)
Apple a hardware company not a software company... ??
They're a technology company that produces integrated systems of hardware and software. And it's not all cheap consumer apps:
Final Cut Pro (Apples video editing package) £800
Logic Studio (audio) £400
Aperture (photography) £130
Loved Apple for over 15 years, but I agree with those that think the ommision of Flash from the iPad is a bad news, for many reasons.
Apple a hardware company not a software company... ??
They're a technology company that produces integrated systems of hardware and software. And it's not all cheap consumer apps:
Final Cut Pro (Apples video editing package) £800
Logic Studio (audio) £400
Aperture (photography) £130
Loved Apple for over 15 years, but I agree with those that think the ommision of Flash from the iPad is a bad news, for many reasons.
I continue to admire the beauty of design offered by Apple products but I do not see buying an iPad. I did own a MacBook Pro for a month last year but had many problems with it the neither Apple Care nor the Genius "techs" could solve (function keys would not work); I got my money back. I have a 4GB, 500GB HDD, 22" Acer monitor machine, custom built running XP Home that I purchased for $600...it meets my wife's needs because it easily runs a free, screen reader program (Thunder Screen Reader) not available on the Mac (she is legally blind). I did try with the MacBook but nothing could match the ease for her.
My Main computer, built in 2004, runs Linux, Ubuntu 9.10 at the moment and does everything I could possibly want...After I learned how to obtain propriety "necessities", Adobe flash.
I get excited with each new Apple release but, after reading about the products here, can't justify the extra expense for an iMac, etc. Jobs indicates that in 2010 the iMac will be taken to a new level - I hope this is true and that I will find that I need an "i" product.
My Main computer, built in 2004, runs Linux, Ubuntu 9.10 at the moment and does everything I could possibly want...After I learned how to obtain propriety "necessities", Adobe flash.
I get excited with each new Apple release but, after reading about the products here, can't justify the extra expense for an iMac, etc. Jobs indicates that in 2010 the iMac will be taken to a new level - I hope this is true and that I will find that I need an "i" product.
Time and time again, but some people think that software should be priced according
to the cost of stamping the DVD - not to cover the R&D costs of
actually creating and enhancing it.
Time and time again, but some people think that hardware should be priced according to the cost of its components - not to cover the R&D costs of actually creating and enhancing it (and building its OS and bundled software...).