Gimme Stickers
If the Intel Inside sticker cuts $5 of the cost of the computer, hell, yes put it on there.
If Centrino inside lowers the price, do the same.
If Intel puts their marketing dollars in Apple's hands, then let them!
This is not about aesthetics. This is about competing when $10 is the difference between profitability and having a loss-leader.
Stickers can be removed.
If Centrino inside lowers the price, do the same.
If Intel puts their marketing dollars in Apple's hands, then let them!
This is not about aesthetics. This is about competing when $10 is the difference between profitability and having a loss-leader.
Stickers can be removed.
Comments
Originally posted by jccbin
If the Intel Inside sticker cuts $5 of the cost of the computer, hell, yes put it on there.
I wouldn't hesitate to pay $50 more if I could avoid having a sticker. And no, I'm not out of my mind. I just have a sense for aesthetics.
Second: Stickers are only a symptom, not the real issue. The real issue is can Apple compete with a product which is not solely tied to their hardware? Can Apple compete in producing Intel boxes? Apple obviously thinks so. The stickers represent signing on to a standard, whether it be Centrino chipset, or Intel CPU/Motherboard. Signing on to that standard is the very thing Apple needs to do to grow - The myopic purchasing masses look for the Intel badges and labels, they actually mean something.
I don't think you'll be able to pay for a badge-less Mac, and, after a few weeks, you won't want to (but you might want to remove the stickers).
J
They will be competing for the same people that they were before. They aren't targeting the totally ridiculous people who'll let someone plaster 75 stickers on the machine to save five freakin dollars.
Apple is going after the trendsetters, because they are a trendsetter. You don't start trends by putting out the same halfassed looking laptop billboard as everyone else.
Apple does things because they (or rather, Steve) things they are the right thing to do. This way Apple's users can maintain a confidence that Apple is trying to act in their best interests.
People get excited about new Apple products precisely because they know that Apple doesn't compromise on quality for the sake of mainstream salability issues. That's why Apple's cheapest consumer machine - the mini - isn't a beige box made of the cheapest materials they could find, it's a beautiful engineering masterpiece in it's own right that people who could afford a more expensive machine will buy anyway (possibly as well) just because it's desirable.
Apple is one of the biggest OEM PC vendors in the world, and Intel will be happily make a few compromises to get their business. Apple on the other hand sells itself on style, and is completely unwilling to compromise on that.
Apple will not put Intel Inside stickers on their machines to save a few dollars, and Intel will not ask them to.
Unless of course they come up with a way to make Intel stickers look so cool that we'll actually want to pay extra for a Mac that has one...
They did what made business sense so well that they have approaching $10 billion in cash and short term assets. You don't get that without watching every penny.
It is exactly the business sense they are showing off that gets the high stock price and the positive analyst reportage. They have masterfully executed an online music strategy by tying it to an exquisite piece of hardware that more than meets the demands of those who would use it. Not perfection, but good enough to keep others down. Sound (MSFT) familiar?
Apple is in a position where the value of their OS may (may) help them inch their way into the the desktop OS market, while, at the same time, putting MSFT in a position where MSFT has to spend cash to buy into the music market at the same time it is spending more cash to buy into the game console market. MSFT is playing at least two games of chicken, perhaps as many as four or five, and each of those threats could drain tens of billions of dollars over the next few years.
So what is MSFT going to have to do? Pay very close attention to the money it is spending, and that is a distraction from making money. That leads to opportunities for Apple. And Apple doesn't need but a few percentage points in the OS game to become massmarket viable again.
Gates has already directly said he likes the MacOS and thinks there is room for it in the marketplace. When the hard decisions about Xbox, MSFTMusiconline and MSFTs other worries come about, they are psychologically primed to not see MacOS X at 10% as a threat.
Jobs is confident that the iTunes model can beat the competition. Apple has no player in the game console market (although they can integrate with any of them should it become reasonable to do so).
Becoming mainstream as an "Intel product" gets them acceptability and a path to the future.
But they still aren't going to put a tacky Intel Inside sticker on their iMacs.
Apple shooting itself in the foot.
THEY BETTER NOT PUT THAT "INTEL INSIDE" JINGLE IN THEIR COMMERICALS!
Oh yeah, I forgot, THEY DON'T HAVE COMMERCIALS!
Originally posted by jccbin
If the Intel Inside sticker cuts $5 of the cost of the computer, hell, yes put it on there.
If Centrino inside lowers the price, do the same.
If Intel puts their marketing dollars in Apple's hands, then let them!
This is not about aesthetics. This is about competing when $10 is the difference between profitability and having a loss-leader.
Stickers can be removed.
Does the Intel logo come up onscreen before the Apple logo?
:-) That'd dirty your undies, eh?
That's why Intel will pay AND forego the sticker policy. Because this is Apple, not Dellenovatewayitt Packard. People (we) actually care deeply for this company, and Intel knows that means you don't need to market to us the same way the PC boxes need to be marketed.
Originally posted by speed_the_collapse
I could understand about centrino, but I'd rather pay five dollars more for a thousand dollar computer that doesn't have a sticker on it.
$$$$$$$
How much less are the CPUs if thre is a sticker on the case, do you think dell puts those stickers on for shits and giggles?
The stickers are easily removable with no problem, hell, I once counted 10 stickers on a desktop, takes 2 min to pull off, 30 seconds to hit it with goo-remover and you are good.
Hell, depending on how the contract is worded, Apple may be able to get away with static-stickers -- Lawyers have great ways of finding (and making) loopholes in contracts...
The badges are also likely to be in/on the manuals, etc.
We will see.
...actually if we are talking about manuals or packaging, then i wonder if there is a classy version of the Yonah logo that could go with the apple one.... hmmm... i'll see if i can mockup somethin'
these two logos go together like applepie and thumbtacks... or... maybe not??? OMG maybe i am getting so used to intel in apple!!
for one thing the intel logo BEVEL is totally crappy and cheesy
Originally posted by Chucker
I wouldn't hesitate to pay $50 more if I could avoid having a sticker. And no, I'm not out of my mind. I just have a sense for aesthetics.
Even if that sticker comes off very easily?