Apple and the ill timed Expo's

val1sval1s
Posted:
in General Discussion edited January 2014
Why is it that every year Apple releases their machines at the worst possible times? MWSF is immediatly after the holiday season, and MWNY is right after the Educational buying season. Educational sales are planned purchases, often in June or earlier. My school lost, in a lab of 25 machines nearly $2000 per box when the 733 G4 became the low end of the Pro line. These computers had not been shipped yet, they were part of a half million $ campus wide purchase. Seems more like an inventory dump on education, than anything else, to squeeze out the orders when a machine is most profitable, the months leading up to it's discontinuation.

If apple woulds just move it's expo's one in in april and a second in oct. That would catch both markets, and make for much happier customers.

Comments

  • Reply 1 of 6
    pscatespscates Posts: 5,847member
    Ha, I've thought about that a gazillion times myself! I'm sure there are logistical/financial/political/economic/marketing/corporate/legal reasons why this isn't done, but I honestly can't think of any.







    My God, move MWSF to October, TWO MONTHS before Christmas and watch crap fly off the shelves. The holiday shopping season would coincide nicely with the post-Expo elation and hype. Imagine if this was the first week of December, we've known about the iMacs for a few weeks now AND they were all three available and shipping!



    No, instead let's wait until AFTER Christmas, when everyone's maxxed out their credit and shot their economic wads on Furbies and Fondle Me Elmo crap, THEN announce a brand-spanking new iMac that EVERYONE loves. Hey, better yet...let's make sure they're not shipping until 1-3 AFTER their unveiling!



    :confused:



    As far as the education-buying thing, that's totally right. How many posts or articles I've read from teachers and school administrators who say the EXACT SAME THING: July is too late in the year for budgetary and purchasing reasons.



    April: plenty of time for educators to get their info and facts and "wish lists" together (in case something really amazing is unveiled at the show). Also, kids are just getting out of school, people traveling, vacations, lots of activity going on. New Macs for the summer! Kids could get an early start on learning their new computers BEFORE the schoolyear starts. At the very least, an April show gives Apple PLENTY of time to ramp up and have their stuff ready to go by the start of the school season. And we all know how piss-poor they can sometimes be at "presenting the new iWhatever...shipping in 6 weeks...".







    An October show: well, duh. Right before the maniacal holiday shopping season? Jeez-louise, imagine how many of these new iMacs would've been sold had they been available during November and December? Many people would've opted to get a new iMac instead of a stupid ****ing icicle/deer landscape sweater collection or a bunch of DVDs, games and other crap.



    :confused:



    I'm sure someone will come along here and explain why January and July are indeed the best times for Macworld.



  • Reply 2 of 6
    aries 1baries 1b Posts: 1,009member
    It does make one wonder about the slogan, 'Think Different'. How about we chip in for a sky writer to emblazon, "Think Profitable, Goddamit!!!!!" across the clear blue sky over Cupertino?



    Ye gods! Imagine if Airport had been announced in April... when all these school administrators were contemplating bids for wiring up their schools.



    Ye fates! Imagine if the iBook had been announced in October! What a [insert holiday choice here] gift!



    Ye spirits of the ancestors! Imagine if the iTablet had been announced... at all!



    Ahh well. Back to waiting for the stock to rocket skywards... and for the Tablet.

    Aries 1B
  • Reply 3 of 6
    gumby5647gumby5647 Posts: 241member
    which is why the ice book did so well. it was released in May. Plenty o' time for schools to read the reviews and compare price and specs.



    wake up apple!
  • Reply 4 of 6
    fran441fran441 Posts: 3,715member
    I thought that the shows were based around the financial quarters. <img src="graemlins/hmmm.gif" border="0" alt="[Hmmm]" />
  • Reply 5 of 6
    emaneman Posts: 7,204member
    [quote]Originally posted by Fran441:

    <strong>I thought that the shows were based around the financial quarters. <img src="graemlins/hmmm.gif" border="0" alt="[Hmmm]" /> </strong><hr></blockquote>



    Yeah, but they could possibly be more profitable if the expos were before the buying seasons.
  • Reply 6 of 6
    stroszekstroszek Posts: 801member
    i don't understand why everyone gripes about a new model being announced and not shipping until X months later. The way I see it, it makes perfect sense. If they were to start shipping on the day of the announcement, that would mean that they would have already been manufactured.



    Do any of you honestly think that a brand spanking new imac could have been manufactured, and still be a secret?



    And we all know how quickly other companies move to copy apple's designs. How long was it until a ripoff of the original imac was available? a month?



    If Apple is estimating that it is going to take three months to have all three models ready for shipping, that means manufacturing would have had to have started in october. pictures would have been leaked from the manfacturing facilities by november, and emachines would have a very similar product on the shelves by december. A month later, Apple would unvail the new imac - an imac that would be a copy of an emachines copy of itself?



    I don't think that would go over too well.



    As far as i'm concerned, they can announce new products and then start manufacturing them as long as they want.



    [ 01-15-2002: Message edited by: Stroszek ]</p>
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