Why so many announcements?

[quote]Is this a new Apple?<hr></blockquote>
Let's hope so!

Just a guess, but the only reason I can think of for so many announcements so quickly, right before MWNY, is that they want to get a bunch of "little" announcements out of the way so that nothing steals the show from... ... I'll let you fill in the rest .

[quote]Originally posted by Ming:
<strong>Just a guess, but the only reason I can think of for so many announcements so quickly, right before MWNY, is that they want to get a bunch of "little" announcements out of the way so that nothing steals the show from... ... I'll let you fill in the rest . </strong><hr></blockquote>

Course if something else is a much faster OM all the others will need updated again in fairly short order. My guess is Apple is trying to get more product upgrades in a year and have them evenly distributed so earnings are more even from quarter to quarter.

Also all the announcements are far enough out from MWNY they could speed bump a lot of products at once (though I would wager it might be just PowerMacs iMacs and eMacs

Well, for one Apple admitted last year that it wasn't refreshing its products often enough. It's clearly making some attempt to improve that situation. This would explain the PowerBook revamp.

The eMac was announced to coincide with the start of the education buying period.

Jaguar was previewed because, well, it was WWDC and you wouldn't expect anything less.

The rackmount announcement probably has no significance to its timing other than the product is ready, and its not really a crowd-pleaser for MWNY.

I also think Apple is going overboard with this "we're listening" thing. You asked for eMac, we built it for you. You asked for better resolution in the PowerBook, we added it for you.

Hehe. The convergence is happening.

[quote]Originally posted by Belle:
<strong>I also think Apple is going overboard with this "we're listening" thing. You asked for eMac, we built it for you. You asked for better resolution in the PowerBook, we added it for you.</strong><hr></blockquote>

Atoning for past sins?

Belle, as long as Apple listens to me (and they haven't since I put my signature up), that's all that matters.

Quite frankly, we're just finally seeing the transition from the announcements-only-at-expos to the announcemenets-whenever-we-can-to-keep-Apple-in-the-news theories.

[quote]Originally posted by Fran441:
<strong>Belle, as long as Apple listens to me (and they haven't since I put my signature up), that's all that matters. </strong><hr></blockquote>

So that means no new Newton? Whats all the fuzz about then, Fran?

Did I say that?

I hate you

For all their 'listening', they don't seem to be listening when we say that machines are too expensive.

[quote]Originally posted by Anders:
<strong>I hate you </strong><hr></blockquote>

Anders, it was very stupid from you , to say such terribles things to Fran . The next time try to be more moderate

[quote]Originally posted by Matsu:
<strong>For all their 'listening', they don't seem to be listening when we say that machines are too expensive. </strong><hr></blockquote>

Selective hearing...

If it sounds good they'll have it.

[quote]For all their 'listening', they don't seem to be listening when we say that machines are too expensive. <hr></blockquote>

Well, they did just slap rebates on the towers. They must have heard the silence of cash registers.

[quote]Originally posted by satchmo:
<strong>Don't get me wrong, I love it when Apple has an announcement (except when they raised price of the iMac).

I know they stated they wanted to not get pigeon holed into just MW expos to launch new stuff.

But so many in such a short time? Is this a new Apple?</strong><hr></blockquote>


Apple learned the hard way about announcing hardware ONLY at expos. The key event that pulled Jobs' head out of his arse was when Dell overtook Apple in the edu market. Part of the reason for this was Apple's marketing and sales strategy, but another reason was that Apple had a habit of waiting until MWNY to release hardware (particularly edu-oriented) instead of releasing it earlier in the summer.

By announcing hardware at MWNY, combined with the delay between announcing a product and filling channels with it, Apple missed the summer education buying season. It meant that every year, when students and schools were buying computers, they were faced with Apple hardware that was OLD, at the end of its revision cycle.

Apple learned the hard way, but they learned well. Check out how they nailed it this year:

eMac: early summer so students and schools have ample lead time to buy.
Titanium update: Aimed more at faculty and staff than students, but still, an important education item. Again, updated with plenty of lead time in the edu buying season.
XServer: Well this one's aimed at a whole lot more than the edu market, and certainly its announcement was tied to WWDC, Apple is getting out the buzz in the developer community. But still, schools are going to be all over XServer, and Apple's given them time to buy, install, configure, iron out the bugs and such.

So what's left? iBooks, but they just got an update at MWSF, so they won't be too old going into the edu buying season. And there is still ample time for Apple to update the iBook before MWNY. My guess is that the iBook is updated very soon, since it's not Quartz Extreme compatible.

Powermacs: Universities buy these, but for the most part Powermacs are not aimed at the education market. Thus if they are updated this summer, MWNY is the perfect time for their announcement. Free publicity and press associated with MWNY, so Apple can concentrate on more focused marketing of the "consumer" lines to the education market. Fu[k, a bad-ass Powermac update would sell itself, here's to hope!

haXXo4'5 Aad-Bss

Hmm, all the Microcomputing Facilities here have recent model QuickSilver Power Macs with matching 17" LCDs. Even Moffitt Library and Evans have Spring 2002 QuickSilvers. Education customer *are* buying these machines in decent numbers still.

Maybe institutional edu buyers are getting a sweeter deal or, possibly, have been getting one longer than we know. Apple just started its powermac price promo, big buyers may have been getting better prices ever since the QS debut.

Well, Eugene, Berkeley has purchasing power compared to a lot of smaller schools because it's a top-notch large university, and on top of that it's tied? to be the top computer science school in the US, and part of a huge UC system supported by the richest state in the country. (That's just my random guess) Plus I don't think they have too many computers at all; from what I've seen people have to stand in line just to get to use a computer in Moffit. Evans has more computers but I haven't found many Macs. The Units have plenty of computers but aren't as new as ones in Moffit.