Should Apple Release Limited Edition Machines?
I think that Apple could possibly do well selling limited edition macs. Just think of all the designs and concepts that never get to be used.
Apple could make a line and intro a new one every year or 8 months.
They cold charge a boatload and people would pay. they would just have to limit them.
Apple could make a line and intro a new one every year or 8 months.
They cold charge a boatload and people would pay. they would just have to limit them.
Comments
I think it's a silly idea. Apple has to prioritize so many things ahead of making limited edition eliteware.
The TAM was a great machine/design, but it was quickly outmatched- especially for the price. Would people actually drop $10,000 on a special edition G5 tower?
i.e. a Cube that looks even cooler and is ten times as expensive?
This could work. It could help in that it would elevate Apple's status from "nice stuff" to "holy !!!! nice stuff...wish I had more money".
I doubt many people would buy a sort of "limited edition" computer. The people who have that kind of appreciation for computers and view them as a beautiful thing will know enough to realize they are getting ultimately ripped off.
The R & D required for a niche computer for a niche market sector may not be worth it. When Apple already has issues with controlling a 4 product matrix and is cautiously persuing the consumer electronics market and retail strategy, I don't believe it is time to engineer a product that would cost a lot of money and have the potential to be a huge flop.
The one way I could see a limited edition mac make sense would be the best tower combined with the Cinema Display. Add to this a beautiful sound system, maxed out RAM, HD, and the signitures of the industrial design team on the shiny sides of the Quicksilver case.
I think Apple has better things to concentrate on, though. Who in the world would buy that? Certainly not me.
Apple needs to make a competitive tower that doesn't get trounced by P4s and Athlon XPs at half the cost. That too much to ask?
Unless they are going to start a new high end (I think they could sell 1.6GHz G5s for $5k but only if they're the absolute fastest thing and kick the sh!t out of the Pentium on all fronts.) But that would hardly qualify as a special edition
With the G5 said to be introduced at no greater than 1.6 GHz, I think a 2.8 GHz G5 would fetch an insane price on ebay, just think of the bragging rights, you could rightly claim to have the fastest PC in the world, for six months at least.
<strong>No.
Apple needs to make a competitive tower that doesn't get trounced by P4s and Athlon XPs at half the cost. That too much to ask?</strong><hr></blockquote>
TW, you seem to harp on this issue and I keep asking you how exactly do you expect Apple to do this? Oh I know, instead of putting in an order for 1.2Ghz 1.4Ghz and 1.6Ghz G4s for the Jan 2002 machines they should just change their order to 2.0Ghz 2.4Ghz 2.8Ghz G5s HEY BETTER YET why don't they just bump their order up to the 3.0Ghz 3.5Ghz and 4.0Ghz G6's yea that should do it!
But I don't know. I don't see the point really, because as someone said above, their standard stuff (TiBook, Cube, iPod, iMac, etc.) look 40 gazillion times cooler than any other computer maker's stuff.
I was kinda disappointed that a 25th anniversary model wasn't released last year (or is it this year?). If they could do something that actually had legitimate reasons to exist (and NOT price it at some wild-ass $10,000...), it would certainly be cool to own a limited-edition G5-based 17" flat panel, SuperDrive-equipped iMac in a Quicksilver finish and some cool-ass, cutting edge design.
<strong>Didn't they do this already with the iMac SE and iBook SE? Worked for the iMac really well at first anyway. They also held out on the idea until the case revision in '99, it seemed like they pounced on the call for a graphite/ more neutral model, and beefed up some specs. Now that was smart business.</strong><hr></blockquote>
Those were "special editions" not "limited editions". The limited ones wouldn't always be around like the specials are.
<strong>Didn't they do this already with the iMac SE and iBook SE? Worked for the iMac really well at first anyway. They also held out on the idea until the case revision in '99, it seemed like they pounced on the call for a graphite/ more neutral model, and beefed up some specs. Now that was smart business.</strong><hr></blockquote>
plus, those "special editions" are a joke now.
what's special about them. it's just a name now for apple to charge an extra 200 bucks for a few more Mhz and gigs.
Joe
[ 12-25-2001: Message edited by: sjpsu ]</p>
People already say that.
The problem with unique limited edition machines is that something truly special an unique int he Apple line-up would cost too much to 1) design, 2) produce, 3) market.
On the other hand, a limited edition Mac with only a different color scheme and premium price is going to be a hard sale.
But Macs are not cars. It's much easier to put a car in the public's line of view than it is a computer. This would have to be one amazing computer to warrent the cost of development. More to the issue, they would need to be placed where people saw them.
Thus, the Limited Edition Macs would have to be seeded to news shows, movies, and anywhere else in the media they would be showcased. Their power would have to take center stage so that people would then start thinking of Macs as decending from the same lineage as these über-Macs.
Hey, IBM did it with Big Blue....
- Pook