What would you do if you could buy Apple?

[mymemory]

For sure I would make OSXS only (the last S is for Spanish).

The entire system would be in spanish and I would replace the C mayor accord (when you poer up the Mac) for my contru national himm

Then, all the descktop pictures would be pictures of me at the beach.

The next mac line wouln't be iMac or Power Mac, it would be Manolo and Carlos.

You would be able to get a dual 2Ghz Carlos with 2 internal superdrives and 2GB of ram from factory for less than $1000 if you can fill out a form with all the venezuelan states with their capitals.

That would be some of the changes.

 

[icetraxxg5]

I would buy Motorola's semi conductor division and then make all of the people that work at the semi conductor division work 92+ hours like Steve used to do at apple so we would be pumping out 4ghz 128bit PPC's by 2004... Oh the possibilities...

 

[icetraxxg5]

I would also spend 5x more on advertising so the average joe actually *knows* MacOS X existed and how good it really was. I would also lower the price of the machines a few hundered each.

 

[Billicus]

If I could buy Apple, I'd make the iApps Snapier. They all feel laggy on my system. But then again, if I owned Apple, I'd get a new one whenever I wanted wouldn't I? I'd release 10.3 with all of Ambitious Lemon's Features. Then I would give a ton of Apple computers to my school. Then I would debut the fabled "Apple Music Dowloads." Ah... The things I could do...

 

[spinner]

I would drastically reduce prices for educational institutions and students (get em hooked at an early age ) besides we have to be the majority in at least one market!

 

[janey]

if i could buy apple i'd kick out half of the executives.
then i'd give really big discounts to EVERYONE not just teachers, students and developers...
come out with cooler software but ones that won't piss off dedicated mac software developers
promote avie tevanian...wait that's impossible
cut off phil schiller's hands (he uses them SOOO much!)
do something about marketing. apple's computers are only mainly available in the US (well it's cheap here and most plentiful) and i want apple to make cheap $500 iMacs for consumers, powerful prosumer desktops, make everything more affordable so everyone in many different countries can get them everywhere from afghanistan to russia.

 

[Billicus]

Originally posted by spinner
I would drastically reduce prices for educational institutions and students (get em hooked at an early age ) besides we have to be the majority in at least one market!

I sure hope it can stay that way. Schools are strapped for cash right now, and some are turning to cheaper initial purchase prices to solve their new computer needs.
P.S. I love your slogan.

 

[pimentoLoaf]

I would demand that Microsoft upgrade Flight Simulator and Combat Flight Simulator 2 & 3 and Train Simulator for osX.

 

[alex_ant]

If I owned Apple... I'd be rich! I'd get piss drunk and snort $50,000 lines off supermodels' breasts. ... wait, no, that's what I would do if I were the Pope.

 

[beatle888]

Originally posted by alex_ant
If I owned Apple... I'd be rich! I'd get piss drunk and snort $50,000 lines off supermodels' breasts. ... wait, no, that's what I would do if I were the Pope.

oh yea i wanna be the pope

 

[MacFan25]

If I owned Apple, I would make the iPod updates come out this Tuesday!

 

[ibookin']

If I owned Apple, as soon as the PPC 970 was being used in a production Mac, I would tell Moto to shove it and go have fun making their prissy cell phones and embedded chips. Well, maybe not. If they come up with some incredible design I'd want to use that...

Oh, yeah... I'd buy a Gulfstream V Or maybe I could just use Steves...

500th post... Maybe I wasted it...

 

[dkeninitz]

After 20 years of PC's, I just bought my first Mac, a Tibook 1ghz. I got it just because I couldn't find a Wintel laptop that came close to offering the same mixture of features and functionality. I love the machine, and I love OS X, BUT I really do notice a lack of software choices. If there was more software to choose from, I think seriously about replacing all of my PC's with Mac's.

Here's some of the stuff I miss that will keep me from switching completely.

No Visio and no Access. I use these regularly and rely on them. So do my clients, so even if I was amenable to trying to make do with Omnigraffle and FileMaker, I couldn't.

I'm a hobbyist muscian. There are some high-end sequencing/recording programs to choose from, like Logic, Cubase and DP (ProTools is out of reach of most hobbyists), but nothing I can find to compete with lower-end but still very useful stuff, like Band-in-A Box, Jammer, and Cakewalk. With the Mac, it's high end or nothing.

I'm also an amateur photographer. I use PhotoImpact 8 on the PC, which is a $100 program w/ 90%+ of the functionality of Photoshop, I haven't been able to find anything comparable for the Mac.

I could go on, but in short, what I'm finding is that on the Mac platform the choices tend to be either very high-end, or shareware. (I'm discounting all the stuff that runs in Classic mode; I don't typically run Win 95 stuff on my XP machines, either).

So, if I were Steve Jobs, I'b trying to figure out how to get some killer apps in the mid- and low-priced range. Otherwise, I think Apple is stuck w/ 3% market share in the short term, and even less in the long-term. Unless you just lover the machine or have a specialized need that only a Mac can fill, it's just too restrictive a platform from a software standpoint.

 

[MrMacMan]

Going back to the 300 Counter Strike Threads, you guessed it.
I WOULD MAKE CS RUN ON MAC, MWHAHAAHA.

Nah, gaming is key. Lower Prices... alot. Make the 'easiest things to do on a mac' commerical lineup. Not like the 1000 Yao Ming PowerBook ads.
I heard one person say 'hey it looks like dell made some really cool laptops'

Oh well if I bought Apple I might as well buy someother things... if I can buy apple why not go on a spending spree.

 

[Billicus]

It's like Max said in the April issue of MacAddict, move Apple's prices one decimal place to the left, and wahla! You have the best computer pricing scheme around.

 

[amnesiac1984]

Originally posted by dkeninitz
After 20 years of PC's, I just bought my first Mac, a Tibook 1ghz. I got it just because I couldn't find a Wintel laptop that came close to offering the same mixture of features and functionality. I love the machine, and I love OS X, BUT I really do notice a lack of software choices. If there was more software to choose from, I think seriously about replacing all of my PC's with Mac's.

Here's some of the stuff I miss that will keep me from switching completely.

No Visio and no Access. I use these regularly and rely on them. So do my clients, so even if I was amenable to trying to make do with Omnigraffle and FileMaker, I couldn't.

I'm a hobbyist muscian. There are some high-end sequencing/recording programs to choose from, like Logic, Cubase and DP (ProTools is out of reach of most hobbyists), but nothing I can find to compete with lower-end but still very useful stuff, like Band-in-A Box, Jammer, and Cakewalk. With the Mac, it's high end or nothing.

I'm also an amateur photographer. I use PhotoImpact 8 on the PC, which is a $100 program w/ 90%+ of the functionality of Photoshop, I haven't been able to find anything comparable for the Mac.

I could go on, but in short, what I'm finding is that on the Mac platform the choices tend to be either very high-end, or shareware. (I'm discounting all the stuff that runs in Classic mode; I don't typically run Win 95 stuff on my XP machines, either).

So, if I were Steve Jobs, I'b trying to figure out how to get some killer apps in the mid- and low-priced range. Otherwise, I think Apple is stuck w/ 3% market share in the short term, and even less in the long-term. Unless you just lover the machine or have a specialized need that only a Mac can fill, it's just too restrictive a platform from a software standpoint.

I've been a hobbyist musician for a while now, adn the mac is the only way to do it! for mid - low priced stuff, have you tried Reason? If you are a student you can get it for about $150 and you can get a really good cut down version of logic for $200, as for access, it is widely agreed that it is the worst database program you can get! I know I'm mac biased but there are far better PC programs out there and Filemaker Pro really is the sh*t! My dad tuns his entire business on one completely integrated filemaker environment, it's great, you just press a button and your latest invoice is emailed to the customer and all your accounts are updated and the kettly is boiled! j/k about the kettle

 

[janey]

Originally posted by ibookin'@mwny
500th post... Maybe I wasted it...

not at all

no matter what you people do, promote avie please!!!!!
avie is so cute and smart
http://www.apple.com/pr/bios/tevanian.html

 

[mattmack]

Originally posted by dkeninitz
eI'm also an amateur photographer. I use PhotoImpact 8 on the PC, which is a $100 program w/ 90%+ of the functionality of Photoshop, I haven't been able to find anything comparable for the Mac.

try this
http://www.openosx.com/gimp/index.html
cheap alternative to photoshop

 

[spinner]

Originally posted by dkeninitz
I'm also an amateur photographer. I use PhotoImpact 8 on the PC, which is a $100 program w/ 90%+ of the functionality of Photoshop, I haven't been able to find anything comparable for the Mac.

Check out Photoshop Elements, it has 90% of the functionality of Photoshop and as an added bonus, it is made by the same company It is also OSX native now in version 2. All for the low, low price of $99 (comes with a $30 mail in rebate for cross upgading from PhotoImpact.) Did I mention that its OSX native?

 

[macphoria]

If I could buy Apple, I will have them make special laptop for the executives; a PowerBook with Coffeemaker function built in. All they have to do is get a glass of water with coffee, set it on top of PowerBook, and VOILA, it is heated and ready to drink!

Oh wait, they have that already. You just have to turn the PowerBook upside down.

 

[Dont Hurt Me]

If i could buy apple i would do 2 things. First move all lines to the ibm 970 cpu. Then make a deal with jobs to keep him involved with the company, its planning,and its vision for the future.

 

[dkeninitz]

Originally posted by amnesiac1984
I've been a hobbyist musician for a while now, adn the mac is the only way to do it! for mid - low priced stuff, have you tried Reason? If you are a student you can get it for about $150 and you can get a really good cut down version of logic for $200, as for access, it is widely agreed that it is the worst database program you can get! I know I'm mac biased but there are far better PC programs out there and Filemaker Pro really is the sh*t! My dad tuns his entire business on one completely integrated filemaker environment, it's great, you just press a button and your latest invoice is emailed to the customer and all your accounts are updated and the kettly is boiled! j/k about the kettle

It may be "widely agreed that [Access] is the worst database program you can get", but a ton of people use it, including virtually all of my clients. Most of them probably have never heard of FileMaker Pro, even though PC versions are available.

I think you missed my point. It isn't that you can't find a Mac substitute of sorts for a given PC package, it's that the choices are limited to the point that you often have to settle for shareware (some of which is very good, but then I've found lots of good shareware for the PC). Neither Reason or a "cut-down" version of Logic for would make a substitute for easy to use and inexpensive sequencing programs like BIB and Jammer, for example. OmniGraffle isn't Visio - not even close. Suppose you're a genealogy hobbyist - where's the Mac equivalent to Family Tree? Where are the Mac versions of Encarta and Worldbook? Act! and Goldmine....?

My point is that if I owned Apple, I'd concentrate on closing the software gap, somehow, some way. The hardware and operating system are fantastic. But I'm not going to give up my PC's if I have to settle for shareware and stripped versions of high-end software -- there's plenty of both of those available for the PC. Maybe Steve Jobs ought to plow some of those huge gross profit margins into software development. My PowerBook cost twice what a similar (but not as cool) PC laptop would. Certainly it didn't cost twice as much to design and manufacture.

Mac had a 13% market share a relatively short while ago; it's down to 3% now. Final Cut Pro, Pro Tools, Photoshop and Office X alone aren't going to permit this fantastic system to retain that 3% share in the long term IMHO, much less grow it.

 

[dkeninitz]

Originally posted by spinner
Check out Photoshop Elements, it has 90% of the functionality of Photoshop and as an added bonus, it is made by the same company It is also OSX native now in version 2. All for the low, low price of $99 (comes with a $30 mail in rebate for cross upgading from PhotoImpact.) Did I mention that its OSX native?

Thanks, Spinner -- I tried the PC version of Elements before I decided on PhotoImpact. Good program, but PI is more powerful (Elements is easier to learn, though).

People seem to think I dislike Mac or something -- it's just the opposite. In the two weeks I've owned my TiBook, I've been converted to the point that I wish I could switch completely.

 

[janey]

Originally posted by Dont Hurt Me
If i could buy apple i would do 2 things. First move all lines to the ibm 970 cpu. Then make a deal with jobs to keep him involved with the company, its planning,and its vision for the future.

1. the 970 ain't out yet
2. it's gonna be near impossible for you do deal with jobs because he's really hard to deal with. amelio tried making a deal where steve would come back, do things, etc. and steve never agreed.
he's a tough nut to crack and if you actually get him to stay involved with apple for any amount of time, you must be amazing.

 

[nuckinfutz]

I think you missed my point. It isn't that you can't find a Mac substitute of sorts for a given PC package, it's that the choices are limited to the point that you often have to settle for shareware (some of which is very good, but then I've found lots of good shareware for the PC). Neither Reason or a "cut-down" version of Logic for would make a substitute for easy to use and inexpensive sequencing programs like BIB and Jammer, for example. OmniGraffle isn't Visio - not even close. Suppose you're a genealogy hobbyist - where's the Mac equivalent to Family Tree? Where are the Mac versions of Encarta and Worldbook? Act! and Goldmine....?

Low cost seqencer- try http://www.intuem.com/

Band in a Box IS available for Mac. Has been for years.

Visio- Business App. Not suprised there's no support

Access- bundled with Office. Horrible DB but people use it because it's from microsoft.

Genealogy- Reunion from www.leisterpro.com rules the roost.

Encarta & Worldbook- Worldbook has a verison specific to Jaguar even. I'll be buying it soon http://store.worldbook.com/wb/product.asp?sku=10545

Act and Goldmine- Business apps. See Visio comments.

Mac had a 13% market share a relatively short while ago; it's down to 3% now. Final Cut Pro, Pro Tools, Photoshop and Office X alone aren't going to permit this fantastic system to retain that 3% share in the long term IMHO, much less grow it.

Is it better to have %13 marketshare of 1 Million or %3 of 100 Million? Marketshare is tricky and often incorrectly used.

Macintosh software hasn't done too bad lately. It does need to improve but Apple cannot force developers to write they have to entice them with great API's. I believe with OSX ...Apple has layed the foundation to do just that. From Audio to Video they've provided compelling tools to assist developers in creating great apps. The question is ..will they?

Fred Anderson recently mentioned that they hope to increase marketshare to %5 and revenue to 8 Billion. The 8 Billion will be easier to achieve IMO. Once they start shipping computers in these numbers and greater developer interest will pick up.

Apple will typically leave some markets alone and try to push the 3rd party apps but eventually they need to take things into their own hands ala Final Cut Pro Keynote, iApps etc. Expect more apps to come from Apple until the major gaps are covered and then they can back off.