When was the last time Apple did something right?

Posted:
in General Discussion edited January 2014
That is, in your book, personally, when was the last time you were happy with an Apple announcement? This board isn't as bad as others, but I have to wonder why we see the same pattern with every announcement, every expo, every press release and we still haven't run out of Mac users.
«1

Comments

  • Reply 1 of 21
    emaneman Posts: 7,204member
    1998, the original iMac or the Dual-USB iBooks.
  • Reply 2 of 21
    jchenjchen Posts: 70member
    I wasn't particulary attached to the iMac when it came out, sure it looked cool, but the 15" monitor just didn't work for me.



    I'd say the Radeon upgrade for PowerMac's, good move, only $99 (which was a top of the line card when it came out too *for ATI at least*, no Geforce 3, best thing available on PC side was Geforce 2 Ultra), under $100 too.



    Now all 450Mhz G4+ owners can run Quartz Extreme (if they upgraded).
  • Reply 3 of 21
    I like the Keynote last Tuesday and all the OSX goodies announced.



    I immediated preordered 10.2, a Bluetooth dongle, and signed up for $50. for .Mac.



    A couple of hours later I made a few posts on different forums and discovered what a fool I was. I didn't like that much and this is probably the second or thirrd post I've made since.



    I've read a lot of messages and mini editorials since, but "it's not easy being green."



    I saw the whole Keynote as concrete promises for the immediate future, but also for beyond. I've paid my way every step of the way and finally bought an iPod a month ago. Now they're a hundred dollars cheaper. My reaction was to shrug my shoulders and be happy for a friend of mine who's saving to buy one up soon.



    Like I said, it's not easy being green. But I was pretty darned happy for awhile and I still believe last Tuesday was good for me. I picked this forum at random after reading some posts.



    This is my first one, maybe my last. But at least I don't have "forum friends" who know me here and I can ignore getting flamed. I've never seen anything this bitter during the time I've had Macs. And I'm not exactly a Mac newbie.



    Tuesday was great. August 24 comes and I'm going to have the best OS in history. I may have a cell phone picked out by then to go with BlueTooth. I'm going to watch that carefully because I can't afford the $$ to be on the bleeding edge of things.



    *shrugs*



    Edit: Almost forgot. I finally popped for the FileMaker Pro 6 upgrade. I 've been waiting to see a demo by Jobs and official release date. I'm not blind. I've seen all the build numbers and discussion but I wanted something concrete in my hands before spending that money. Paying for the Photoshop upgrade was hard enough.



    update: The security update they posted last night. Apple has been bending over backwards on security issues. And in this case is wasn't much of an issue to begin with.



    [ 07-21-2002: Message edited by: shillforsteve ]</p>
  • Reply 4 of 21
    serranoserrano Posts: 1,806member
    OS X.
  • Reply 5 of 21
    gullivergulliver Posts: 122member
    [quote]Originally posted by BuonRotto:

    <strong>That is, in your book, personally, when was the last time you were happy with an Apple announcement? This board isn't as bad as others, but I have to wonder why we see the same pattern with every announcement, every expo, every press release and we still haven't run out of Mac users.</strong><hr></blockquote>



    Up until a few weeks ago I could follow most of Apples decisions. Given the circumstances with Mot and IBM they did a good job in staying in business and even growing their market-share (at least in the US).

    I even understand the angriness of some users with iTools becoming .Mac. Although Apple stated that iTools is a free service, everybody should have known that it will not stay free forever. They offer a service and we have to pay for it if we want it. That´s o.k.

    It is evident, that economy is running slow for quite a while now. In a situation like this there are basically 2 ways of dealing with it and keeping profits up:



    1. Get more customers

    2. Raise the prices



    Most companies choose to do both, with a focus on option 1. Only monopoly companies can afford to go the easy way, which is to raise prices and otherwise do nothing. The reason they can do that is because they know, that people have no choice.



    Unfortunately Apple chose to go the easy way (at least overseas): Apple products were terribly overprices for 2 years now. Due to the strong US$ their products were 20% more expensive then in the US. Apple increased their prices overseas very quickly when the US$ became stronger 2 years ago. Convinced and loyal customers like myself accepted this, because it is not Apples fault that most other currencies were so weak. I myself bought 2 Apple computers + software within the last 12 months.



    This situation changed drastically throughout the last 3 months. The US$ got weaker by 20%. Most other businesses (e.g. oil-companies) reacted immediately and lowered their local prices in Europe and elsewhere. Not so Apple!



    Not only did they keep their prices (which gives them an additional gross-margin of 20% in overseas countries), they have no promotional offerings outside the US: no crystal-clear savings, no trade-in rebate.



    What they achieve with this is, that they will lose customers because they feel cheated. Since Apples market-share in these markets is already lower than in the US (exception: Japan), this will start a deadly feedback-cycle: Less customers -&gt; less media-presence -&gt; less reference sites -&gt; less corporate installations -&gt; even less customers.



    Am I dreaming? Unfortunately not. Obviously investors and analysts share my point: Since monday last week Apple-stocks lost 18% (NASDAQ: -4%), since May 21st Apple lost 35% (NASDAQ: -20%).
  • Reply 6 of 21
    existenzexistenz Posts: 57member
    MWSF and MWNY 2001 were great
  • Reply 7 of 21
    oooh... too many good things to mention them all.



    iMac with flat panel and G4 and a unix based OS - without these I probably wouldn't be a mac owner.



    other notable mentions:



    the iPod

    getting into the services market with .mac

    going with open standards (aac, unix, mp3 and 4, xml, java)

    ditching CRT's and going widescreen.



    I can't help but be an Apple apologist, the company regularly amazes me and the new iMac + os x have restored my faith in computers.
  • Reply 8 of 21
    When I saw OSX demonstrated for the first time. That was the first and only time I ever bought a Beta version of software.
  • Reply 9 of 21
    [quote]



    1. Get more customers

    2. Raise the prices



    Most companies choose to do both, with a focus on option 1. Only monopoly companies can afford to go the easy way, which is to raise prices and otherwise do nothing. The reason they can do that is because they know, that people have no choice.



    This situation changed drastically throughout the last 3 months. The US$ got weaker by 20%. Most other businesses (e.g. oil-companies) reacted immediately and lowered their local prices in Europe and elsewhere. Not so Apple!





    Am I dreaming? Unfortunately not. Obviously investors and analysts share my point: Since monday last week Apple-stocks lost 18% (NASDAQ: -4%), since May 21st Apple lost 35% (NASDAQ: -20%).<hr></blockquote>



    Sad to say but the European market isn't that big of a factor with Apple, not that it's necessarily "fair." The U.S. and Japan are.



    Your comments about the currentcy market differential, which are generally correct, does not necessarily mean that a U.S. corporation with a small market prescence is going to take the same cost cutting measures as those with larger ones.



    Your comments about Apple's losses on the Nasdaq track virtually lockstep with the



    technology sector which is the sector that got clobbered worse than the rest of Nasdaq. The current state of U.S. based markets, as well as many others in the world which have a strong effect on each other, especially U.S. and Japanese markets, makes the performance of the last week most especially, but also the last two weeks, and also the last three weeks.....not that relevant for comparison.



    Go look at AAPL the day of the keynote. It was off when the bell rang, well before the Keynote even started, and certainly well before there were any analyists reports or knee jerk reactions of any kind.



    Consider the argument that Apple actually didn't show a profit because of the way they treated stock options and related benefits, not as an expense which is how most prefer they be considered.



    Apple certainly didn't do as badly as Gateway, but they also didn't do as well as Dell. And why do you think there's that 20% currency differential between the dollar and the euro? That has nothing to do with performance of U.S. market declines, radical ones, which even have the dollar trading off against the Yen? And the Yen of course is taking it on the chin against the Euro as well. Which economies in the world are the most productive? Not the E.U. Not the E.U. + (pick a few neighbors).



    I'll skip over the part about the "Switch" commercials, one of the largest ever undertaken in expense by Apple as to an attempt to increase market share, or do you assume that being "proprietary" (which they are) they can stick to anyone anytime they like?



    They're so ignorant and stupid....have you bothered to listen to the Conference call with analysts that happened after the Keynote?



    With their marketing and analysis reflected in that meeting, generally ignored by the markets completely, are they so stupid as to realize that U.S. high school students who pirate all their software might not be having fits about losing their multiple mac.com accounts which in recent months have become a "trader's haven?"



    Or just why did Apple, about a month ago, suddenly clamp restrictions on web sites based on volume of downloads and number of hits? Do they have enough time to run around checking 2 million (a number I heard) iDisks to see just exactly what's stored there? Did they have enough Admins to shut the kiddies down as they opened new accounts faster than the old ones could be closed? Do you have any idea what it costs to have Akami serving up terrabytes of MP3s and pirated software?



    (rant ends)
  • Reply 10 of 21
    groveratgroverat Posts: 10,872member
    The last thing Apple did right was its last announcement, the 17" iMac widescreen with GeForce4MX



    sweer
  • Reply 11 of 21
    emaneman Posts: 7,204member
    [quote]Originally posted by eXistenZ:

    <strong>MWSF and MWNY 2001 were great</strong><hr></blockquote>



    MWNY 2001 was great? The Quicksilvers weren't too good annd the iMacs were HORRIBLE.
  • Reply 12 of 21
    spartspart Posts: 2,060member
    [quote]EmAn

    Moderator Spameritus<hr></blockquote>



    <img src="graemlins/lol.gif" border="0" alt="[Laughing]" />
  • Reply 13 of 21
    emaneman Posts: 7,204member
    [quote]Originally posted by Spart:

    <strong>



    <img src="graemlins/lol.gif" border="0" alt="[Laughing]" /> </strong><hr></blockquote>



    Like it, huh?
  • Reply 14 of 21
    powerdocpowerdoc Posts: 8,123member
    [quote]Originally posted by groverat:

    <strong>The last thing Apple did right was its last announcement, the 17" iMac widescreen with GeForce4MX



    sweer </strong><hr></blockquote>

    I hope that in the near future all the i mac will be updated (speedbump and geforce 4MX for all of them )





    [ 07-21-2002: Message edited by: Powerdoc ]</p>
  • Reply 15 of 21
    drewpropsdrewprops Posts: 2,321member
    Jaguar

    iSync

    iCal

    17" iMac

    20GB iPod



    and whatever comes out in the next three months
  • Reply 16 of 21
    lemon bon bonlemon bon bon Posts: 2,383member
    Jaguar

    iSync

    iCal

    17" iMac

    20GB iPod



    Snap.



    Lemon Bon Bon
  • Reply 17 of 21
    murbotmurbot Posts: 5,262member
    drewprops, Lemon Bon Bon, my thoughts exactly.
  • Reply 18 of 21
    torifiletorifile Posts: 4,024member
    [quote]Originally posted by murbot:

    <strong>drewprops, Lemon Bon Bon, my thoughts exactly.</strong><hr></blockquote>



    ditto. and let me add windows compatibility to the ipod to the list (for the bottom line and my stock price)
  • Reply 19 of 21
    alcimedesalcimedes Posts: 5,486member
    this latest macworld had me walking away with a smile.



    i was very impressed with the direction Apple is going, which is a lot more than i can say about the windows side of things.



    don't you people pay any attention to what's going on?



    who gives a flying f*ck if you have a 2.5Ghz chip if you aren't allowed to do what you want on your computer?



    i'm sorry if i'm paranoid, but IMO, the PC side of things is starting to clamp down hardcore on user's rights and restricting freedoms left and right. what do i care if i can rip an MP3 in only 20 seconds when i'm only allowed to rip industry approved songs?



    sorry, but i'll trade a slower machine with full access and control over a faster, lobotomized machine any day of the week. anyone who thinks otherwise can take their blazing fast computer to the slaughterhouse with all the other sheep.



    i like telling my machine what to do, not the other way around.
  • Reply 20 of 21
    scadboyscadboy Posts: 189member
    Um.... hmmmm,



    hits:



    Â? iPod

    Â? LCD iMac

    Â? 14" IBook

    Â? "switch" campaign

    Â? eMac

    Â? Xserve

    Â? DVI PowerBook G4

    Â? 17" LCD iMac ($1999! awesome!)

    Â? iPod for Windows

    Â? iPod remote

    Â? retroactively extending all iPod warranties to 1 full year, (seriously, this is for real, they did. If you own an iPod you now have a 1 year warranty from date of purchase)

    Â? iCal ( I soooo need this!)

    Â? iSync (it's about damn time)

    Â? inkwell

    Â? Bluetooth integration, best of breed!

    Â? Jaguar ($69 for a billion awesome features, hell yeah!)



    misses:



    Â? LCD iMac pricing

    Â? Â?PowerÂ? MacsÂ*specs, prices

    Â? .Mac pricing structure

    Â? the iBook still has a G3

    Â? no cheap upgrade path to Jaguar for recent buyers

    Â? anemic software bundles (PowerBook/Mac should have Office and Photoshop pre-installed)

    Â? overall prices are still too-high



    despite some misses, I really think Apple's on the right track, all I really want now is a Tablet!



    ciao,



    michael
Sign In or Register to comment.