Why not make a super cheap apple desktop

[Solafaa]

I know that there is the eMac but why dose apple not make super cheap compueter for school, people with low income and people who just want to surf the web and do a little word prossesing.

I went to Dells website and found desktops for as little as $499, do you think there is enough demand for low cost apple desktops?

When i was in high school the main reason why my school did not get mac which they wanted was because they costs more then others makers in the market.

 

[crazzyeddie]

The main reason is because you're paying for more than just hardware. You're paying for OS X, the most stable, full-featured OS in existence. You're also paying for the iLife suite, which sold alone by Dell costs at least $200 for inferior products. Also look at what those $500 machines have under the hood. Its all inferior hardware. If you want to buy yesterday's technology, buy a used Mac off of eBay.

 

[iJon]

apple does not cater to these low low end markets. and apple does mac a cheaper imac for the education market, i want to think it is in the range of 599. allthough the car examples get blown out of proportion alot, it could be similar. you have porsche who makes a boxster, but they aren't going to make it to compete with, lets say a Z3 or Miata.

iJon

 

[jimsowden]

apple does not cater to these low low end markets. and apple does mac a cheaper imac for the education market, i want to think it is in the range of 599. allthough the car examples get blown out of proportion alot, it could be similar. you have porsche who makes a boxster, but they aren't going to make it to compete with, lets say a Z3 or Miata.

iJon

The cheapest mac for education is the eMac with out any optical drive for a meer 599 when you buy 10. How bout some capitals there iJon?

 

[krimson]

This is such an old question.. (in a good way) which i myself have pondered on and off...

Back in the day, I could never afford on my own to get another Mac, but honestly, my parents (wit the downturn 80's) couldn't afford to get me a quadra or any of those 8XXX series towers.

it wasn't until the clones came out that I could seriously afford my own mac. I know so many that got clones, and that brought (overall) market share. I believe that a headless (ie. iMac, eMac) mid-tower/desktop option would serve the educational market much better. But that's just my opinion.

 

[iJon]

The cheapest mac for education is the eMac with out any optical drive for a meer 599 when you buy 10. How bout some capitals there iJon?

are you sure about the 10 rule, I have never heard that and had no problem going to the edu store and putting in a purchase for a 599 emac, granted i didn't enter my credit card, but i don't think i would have to get past that section for it to tell me that.

iJon

 

[JustinChaloner]

eMac

I recently hired an eMac so I could burn some DVDs for a friend, and coming from using a lowly 3yr old blue iMac I was majorly impressed. I think the eMac is a terrific low-budget Mac (about £700 in the UK) considering the software you get for it and the fact you can burn DVDs. I can't think of anything else in terms of day-to-day tasks that it would need to do. For the same money, you will get a higher spec PC, but you won't get the fantastic software that works together so seamlessly. That adds a couple of hundred to the price in my reckoning. I have a concern that Jo public will base their decision on just the raw facts (price, ram, hard drive etc.), rather than the overall experience. If only Apple could squeeze a little bit more power and capacity out of the machine then i think it would give the rest a run for their money. I mean, 32mb of video ram? that sucks!!!
I guess the one sobering thought is that ten years ago, £700 would probably just about get you a decent printer never mind a cpu. I personally dont agree that Apple should sell a cheap and nasty computer. In the long run, it would do more harm than good and would be like BMW building a budget three-wheeler!

 

[Horrortaxi]

Cheap isn't Apple's style and low income isn't Apple's demographic. Next question.

 

[webmatthijs]

im with you

i think apple should make a real cheap desktop! it doesnt have to be big, just one with a 15" screen G4 and osx, all that for around 600 dollars.

like a dream come true!

well thats not true, my dream is a Dual G5 3.0Ghz, with 2 30" screens

 

[7on]

Apple does make cheap desktops. You can get them at ebay.com ;P. Prolly the specs those machines would have to be. Not many people would buy a $300 500Mhz G4 though. Another thing, Apple machines are cheap compared to other PPC hardware. Apple manages to sell it that low because they sell in large quantities.

 

[rueyeet]

why dose apple not make super cheap compueter for school, people with low income and people who just want to surf the web and do a little word prossesing.

I went to Dells website and found desktops for as little as $499, do you think there is enough demand for low cost apple desktops?

Did that $499 include the monitor, and any rebates? I've heard people have trouble redeeming those sometimes, and a monitor will add at least something to the cost. I'd also doubt you're going to get many features or much power at that price.

Apple isn't going to beat Dell at its own game, which is to sell cheap and make up the difference in volume and in supply-chain tricks. Apple doesn't have the volume to succeed in such a strategy, and apparently neither do other computer makers: Witness the HP-Compaq merger and eMachines buying out Gateway.

Sure, we always wish everything could be better for cheaper, but them's the breaks.

 

[krimson]

my mum picked up 8 cheapo Dells a few months ago for $539 (total w/ tax, including 15" monitor, cheapo lexmark printer).

 

[superbovine]

http://www.osnews.com/story.php?news_id=3921


Apple has been building up a very big reputation and a very strong brand, I suppose that Apple is within the most expensive brands on earth. Everybody associates automatically Apple with innovation, design, quality, being different, etc. Apple cannot deliver products that are not innovative, well designed or top-notch quality, they would only destroy their own brand and reduce sales figures dramatically. Innovation and quality are related with high price, the high price guarantees the customer that he is buying an excellent product, this is psychologically as well as from the business side, a typical business model. The human psychology says that the higher the price, the better the product and otherwise. Cheap Apple boxes would mean low quality and a desperate need for cash, which would hurt the Apple brand in good times and maybe in a long term, be more dangerous than just trying to survive the hard times. If your break the association of Apple and quality, which is been given by the price, you ruin your segment and deposition yourself, a catastrophic failure.

 

[JeDiBoYTJ]

im sure apple will make a really cheap computer once a really cheap brand new "Mercedes-Benz" is made

 

[quagmire]

Considering what the old Macs cost, Macs are cheap. The 20th anniversery mac vsPowermac G5 2.5 Ghz dual. $10,000 vs $3,000. Prices are dropping in the macs.

 

[Sun Baked]

im sure apple will make a really cheap computer once a really cheap brand new "Mercedes-Benz" is made

On sale soon in the US for $9,000 to $15,000 US -- for a brand new Chinese Knockoff.

Thanks to David Shelburg and China Motors.

They're not just selling fake shoes, purses, wallets, watches, etc.

How about a MB front end for a car.

 

[yamabushi]

Why deny Macs to the poor?
Why eschew growth in market share?
Why does an inexpensive model have to be poor in quality?
Why make excuses for not having computers available for the average consumer?

Perhaps someday the people at Apple will be able to properly answer these questions.

 

[quagmire]

Why does an inexpensive model have to be poor in quality?
.

Cheap computers have to be poor quality is because the parts that make it cheap are piece of crap outdated parts.

 

[Abstract]

I know that there is the eMac but why dose apple not make super cheap compueter for school, people with low income and people who just want to surf the web and do a little word prossesing.

Well if you DON'T ignore the eMac, then Apple offers a cheap computer. But why would you ignore a computer model just to make your point?

i think apple should make a real cheap desktop! it doesnt have to be big, just one with a 15" screen G4 and osx, all that for around 600 dollars.

like a dream come true!

well thats not true, my dream is a Dual G5 3.0Ghz, with 2 30" screens

They do. Its called the eMac.

I love how people start threads like this with "Ignoring the eMac, why doesn't Apple make a cheap desktop computer?" Here's a clue: If you stop ignoring the eMac from the lineup, then you'll see that Apple DOES offer a cheap desktop that works extremely well, even when compared to the iMacs and 1.6GHz G5's PowerMac's that people were buying.

These threads are retarded. Apple won't make a $499 machine. They already offer a cheap machine, and it doesn't need to include the worst quality parts available.

 

[Solafaa]

I understand some of the things you posted guys. Yes there are some problems with Dell's mail in rebate, yes apple emacs are cheap but not that point. Why not dump iLife (iTunes, iPhoto, iDVD and iMovie) and just mac a plain mac that would cost something around $500, its possible. In my case my hight school did noy buy +200 desktop because the price was higher then other makers. That is only in my case i am sure apple would have made many more sales with cheaper desktops.

 

[superbovine]

Why deny Macs to the poor?
Why eschew growth in market share?
Why does an inexpensive model have to be poor in quality?
Why make excuses for not having computers available for the average consumer?

Perhaps someday the people at Apple will be able to properly answer these questions.

apple is it not denying macs to the poor, its about making money in the free market. apple has an fiduary duty to its stock holders to make money, not to give the poor a nice computer for a nice price. just like Ferrari isn't obligated to make cheap cars for the masses. if you look at my previous post in the his thread that article covers all your question quite well.

 

[BrianKonarsMac]

Considering what the old Macs cost, Macs are cheap. The 20th anniversery mac vsPowermac G5 2.5 Ghz dual. $10,000 vs $3,000. Prices are dropping in the macs.

i don't even know what to say to this guy that won't get me kicked off the boards...hopefully he was at least being sarcastic...

 

[BrianKonarsMac]

Cheap computers have to be poor quality is because the parts that make it cheap are piece of crap outdated parts.

i love it...and apple's use nothing but the BEST parts right? Like the modems without voice capability (I can use the phone on a 10 year old gateway, but not a 2 month old g4?) or their superior quality ram and hard drives (which are all 3rd party, typically Samsung does their ram) or amazingly fast 8x Super Drives? All of these components are dirty cheap, the only expensive piece of hardware is a G5 chip and motherboard. For a G4, it's once again, dirt cheap. You really know nothing about computers do you? You can knock together a decent PC with off the shelf components (the same you could install in a Mac) for under $500. The only thing keeping you from building a Mac for that cheap, is the availability of motherboards.

 

[Vlade]

Why does apple still use a 1 button mouse? The world may never know... its almost like apple is concerned about the short run profits and not the long run, because they won't cut margins to increase there dwindling market share.

Also, I build a PC for 250 dollars after rebates and its not a POS, the only problem was a power surge killed the modem, but that was like 5 bucks to fix. The problem with PCs is Microsoft, not the hardware, and despite what you all think PCs are still faster in most cases than the G5, but its within 10% so it doesn't matter.

/me dodges the flames!

 

[quagmire]

i love it...and apple's use nothing but the BEST parts right? Like the modems without voice capability (I can use the phone on a 10 year old gateway, but not a 2 month old g4?) or their superior quality ram and hard drives (which are all 3rd party, typically Samsung does their ram) or amazingly fast 8x Super Drives? All of these components are dirty cheap, the only expensive piece of hardware is a G5 chip and motherboard. For a G4, it's once again, dirt cheap. You really know nothing about computers do you? You can knock together a decent PC with off the shelf components (the same you could install in a Mac) for under $500. The only thing keeping you from building a Mac for that cheap, is the availability of motherboards.

I wasn't trying to say that apple uses up to date stuff. But, once you get in the $500 dell, there is alot of crap that is also more outdated then the stuff in the Pmacs. In your earlier post about me that I was being sarcastic, I was. But, the 20th anniversery mac was $10,000 then dropped to $1999