Apple's updated $999 MacBook, $1,199-and-up iMac and $599 Mac Mini models may look sharp, and some add such thoughtful features as a wireless mouse that includes the "multi-touch" technology first seen on the iPhone. But Windows-based computers can cost half as much -- even before you factor in Apple's inflated charges for memory and storage upgrades. Since there's a recession going on and we're all smart capitalists, buyers will undoubtedly switch to more affordable alternatives. Clearly, Apple is doomed.
Except it's not.
In its quarterly earnings announcement Monday, the Cupertino, Calif., company blew away Wall Street's expectations, shipping more Macs in a quarter than ever before -- 3.05 million -- for a $1.67 billion profit. The New York Times noted that "Macintosh sales have now grown faster than the rest of the PC market in 19 of the last 20 quarters." TechCrunch marveled at the firm's $34 billion cash reserves -- more than the entire market value of Dell or Yahoo.
These results suggest that Apple has been able to accomplish something that a functioning market should make nearly impossible -- rake in consistently higher profit margins for a product that could be replaced by cheaper alternatives from other suppliers.
If anything, that trade-off has only become easier in the last year. The same switch to Web-based applications that has freed Mac users from having to worry about finding a Mac equivalent to some Windows program can also free Windows users from putting up with the hassle of software installs and uninstalls, one of uglier aspects of life in Microsoft's operating systems.
My own computer-shopping advice points out this difference in cost before getting into the comparative advantages of Macs and PCs. When co-workers with tight budgets have asked me directly what laptop to buy, I've told them to go ahead and get a PC (after which I've counseled them on how to uninstall the bundled trialware junk on the average Windows machine).
And yet a year and a half ago, an NPD Group analyst calculated that Apple's sales amounted to one quarter of every dollar spent on computers in the United States.
How can Apple keep printing money as if it were silicon wafers?
It's unwise, not to mention insulting, to explain away Apple's success by calling its customers "fanboys" or describing them as members of a cult. (Though it may be tempting to trot out that theory when observing the Twitter chatter about a new Apple product or the reflexive coverage this company can draw in the traditional media -- things that never happen with PC manufacturers.)
The best explanation for it may be seen sitting in traffic right now: Apple has made a business out of selling a premium product, just like BMW, Cadillac or Lexus.
Analysts and critics can insist that Apple has to ship a netbook to stay competitive, and Mac shoppers can wish that the company would turn its considerable talent for design to that category of computer. But Apple doesn't have to do that any more than Cadillac owes the world an $18,000 subcompact.
As grotesque and incomprehensible as Apple's existence may seem to people content with an affordable PC, the company seems to have taken up residence at a spot in the market that other vendors seem unable to barge into.
Manufacturers of Windows-based PCs can craft higher-end models -- Hewlett-Packard's Voodoo line of desktops and laptops have offered as much style as many Macs. But they can't do much to differentiate the software on those deluxe models -- whether it's Windows Vista or the new Windows 7, shipping Thursday -- from what they ship on the $400 boxes lining mass-market retailers' shelves. Apple won't license Mac OS X to them, and most won't ship the free, open-source Linux operating system on anything bigger than a netbook.
This could be a self-reinforcing trend: As PC builders keep having their profit margins squeezed, they have fewer resources to devote to high-end consumer products, while Apple's focus on the most profitable end of the market leaves it with ever more money to dump into product design. Or buying small islands.
Hey what about Mercedes?
Anyway consumers get something with Apple beside function, reliability we really get class! iMac looks so artistic and beautiful. Owning one really like owning a piece of art. Something we really can't get out of an ugly Dell or HP. I think the majority has spoken we really want the good s***!
I've had plenty of problems with Gmail's reliability over the last year and so has my girlfriend.
YouTube is an exercise in annoyment now with pop up adds and now forced advertisements preceding the video.
I launch iWork when I need to do some document creation not Google apps. I don't use Blogger anymore and it just catches a bunch of spam.
Picasa looks horried and I didn't even want to install it on my Mac
Google Maps consistently sends me on poor routes I'm beginning to use Microsofts maps instead.
If I look at Google's performance as far as delivering outstanding applications that I really want to use I'd say the importance of Google in my daily life is diminishing. I have little desire to see what they could do to screw up my music.
I've had plenty of problems with Gmail's reliability over the last year and so has my girlfriend.
YouTube is an exercise in annoyment now with pop up adds and now forced advertisements preceding the video.
I launch iWork when I need to do some document creation not Google apps. I don't use Blogger anymore and it just catches a bunch of spam.
Picasa looks horried and I didn't even want to install it on my Mac
Google Maps consistently sends me on poor routes I'm beginning to use Microsofts maps instead.
If I look at Google's performance as far as delivering outstanding applications that I really want to use I'd say the importance of Google in my daily life is diminishing. I have little desire to see what they could do to screw up my music.
Your whole post is ridiculous in so many ways...possibly a new world record.
.
I was hoping you had the intelligence to understand I was (semi) kidding about, I'm pretty happy today thanks to aapl, not even a bellend such as yourself will get me down
Joking aside, I do not use the web on my laptop as much as I did prior to the iPhone, thats a fact. And as more companies create apps the less inclination I have to pull up the browser.
The web is also a coagulation of god awful technologies that move like molasses. Give me a choice of cocoa & web (as a user) I will take the cocoa any day.
Also, I am a developer who has used most popular web technologies, and I write cocoa/objective c and I can tell you now I will never touch a web technology again in my life if I can. I spent my much of my time in web tech creating frameworks that make the web work more like apple, but ya know, whats the point, I love apples tools, and i gel with their philosophies.
My point is that as a developer and a consumer my preference is for cocoa based app every time.
So why should I care for web technologies on my pocket computer? The answer is I dont much, and less so each time a new app is released. To me an app has become the equivalent of a website, and I'm sure I'm not alone in this shift of thinking.
Now take the fact that the future of computing is in your pocket, and you can see that although I joked "the web is dead" it certainly gives some pause for thought. Least it should if you had any sense.
As an example the facebook iphone app is widely regarded amongst my friends as better that the web version, it's stripped down, refined, comes attached to a camera, and most importantly is in my pocket.
the new product is said to be planned for "at least" U.S. users.
So with the quotes around <at least>, you really mean that the world starts and ends on US borders, and no one will be pi*sed because of another service available "only" in the US?
But don't get me wrong I'm not a Google hater by any stretch and Gmail is still the best web email client by far IMO but the more Google takes on the less each of their products seems to grow.
Does anyone really think a Google music service is going to be any better than the plethora of existing services that don't come with iPod ecosystems? I don't really. Google hasn't found a way to monetize many of their tools. YouTube is a sham now. Google was always the company that knew the proper balance between advertising and content and YT shows they are getting desperate to infuse advertising, skewing that delicate balance.
Mostly mac, but a mixture of both. Everyone still has iTunes for various reasons (mine for developing) , but listening to music for the vast majority of people I know is through Spotify, this happened pretty much overnight.
Why pay for music when you can get it 'free' and with a cleaner user interface! The choice was a simple one for everyone to make.
Also see Lala.com--similar concept though not completely free. A iPhone app is in beta now as well.
But don't get me wrong I'm not a Google hater by any stretch and Gmail is still the best web email client by far IMO but the more Google takes on the less each of their products seems to grow.
Does anyone really think a Google music service is going to be any better than the plethora of existing services that don't come with iPod ecosystems? I don't really. Google hasn't found a way to monetize many of their tools. YouTube is a sham now. Google was always the company that knew the proper balance between advertising and content and YT shows they are getting desperate to infuse advertising, skewing that delicate balance.
I recently (well two days ago) got my google voice account and I have to say it works pretty well. I can have my google number ring to both my cell phones and if I don't answer the vmail to my email account and so far it has worked perfectly. Have to see how it goes in the long run.
I don't think Google is going to sell the music themselves. They are just going to perform music-related searches and provide links to places you can buy tracks (including iTunes). They will probably get a cut of sales from the music sellers, just like they get from non-music sponsored links. Does Google even have a system in place for accepting payments from individuals? They would need that if they were indeed selling music themselves.
I doubt Google will try and face iTunes head on. An effort that incorporates search and music (or even music discovery) is more likely. The record companies will love having google advertise music tailored for each user. Now Google will know what I'm looking for, what I enjoy watching, where I want to go and what I want to listen to. Yikes.
Apple should be as wary of Google as Microsoft. I just wish someone there learnt how to design a nice looking UI, instead of people who thought XP looked good.
Wow - are we in tinfoil hat territory here, or...?
Oh, please, with the tinfoil hat nonsense. It's never good when any company gets as big as, and exerts and leverages control over so many facets of information access, as Google. It wasn't good when Microsoft was running amok and it won't be good with Google either. Stop being so blindly naive.
Sketch-up is pretty good. Have you tried hot mail for a point of comparison?
Quote:
Originally Posted by hmurchison
I'm sorry but the Google honeymoon is over.
I've had plenty of problems with Gmail's reliability over the last year and so has my girlfriend.
YouTube is an exercise in annoyment now with pop up adds and now forced advertisements preceding the video.
I launch iWork when I need to do some document creation not Google apps. I don't use Blogger anymore and it just catches a bunch of spam.
Picasa looks horried and I didn't even want to install it on my Mac
Google Maps consistently sends me on poor routes I'm beginning to use Microsofts maps instead.
If I look at Google's performance as far as delivering outstanding applications that I really want to use I'd say the importance of Google in my daily life is diminishing. I have little desire to see what they could do to screw up my music.
Google Voice is pretty slick. However, if you don't have a smart phone it loses some of it's utility. That is because all your voice mail is routed to your email box. If you can't access your email from your phone, you can't get your voice mail.
Quote:
Originally Posted by extremeskater
I recently (well two days ago) got my google voice account and I have to say it works pretty well. I can have my google number ring to both my cell phones and if I don't answer the vmail to my email account and so far it has worked perfectly. Have to see how it goes in the long run.
Comments
Good points.
Here's something to add to that perspective.
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn...102003573.html
Apple's updated $999 MacBook, $1,199-and-up iMac and $599 Mac Mini models may look sharp, and some add such thoughtful features as a wireless mouse that includes the "multi-touch" technology first seen on the iPhone. But Windows-based computers can cost half as much -- even before you factor in Apple's inflated charges for memory and storage upgrades. Since there's a recession going on and we're all smart capitalists, buyers will undoubtedly switch to more affordable alternatives. Clearly, Apple is doomed.
Except it's not.
In its quarterly earnings announcement Monday, the Cupertino, Calif., company blew away Wall Street's expectations, shipping more Macs in a quarter than ever before -- 3.05 million -- for a $1.67 billion profit. The New York Times noted that "Macintosh sales have now grown faster than the rest of the PC market in 19 of the last 20 quarters." TechCrunch marveled at the firm's $34 billion cash reserves -- more than the entire market value of Dell or Yahoo.
These results suggest that Apple has been able to accomplish something that a functioning market should make nearly impossible -- rake in consistently higher profit margins for a product that could be replaced by cheaper alternatives from other suppliers.
If anything, that trade-off has only become easier in the last year. The same switch to Web-based applications that has freed Mac users from having to worry about finding a Mac equivalent to some Windows program can also free Windows users from putting up with the hassle of software installs and uninstalls, one of uglier aspects of life in Microsoft's operating systems.
My own computer-shopping advice points out this difference in cost before getting into the comparative advantages of Macs and PCs. When co-workers with tight budgets have asked me directly what laptop to buy, I've told them to go ahead and get a PC (after which I've counseled them on how to uninstall the bundled trialware junk on the average Windows machine).
And yet a year and a half ago, an NPD Group analyst calculated that Apple's sales amounted to one quarter of every dollar spent on computers in the United States.
How can Apple keep printing money as if it were silicon wafers?
It's unwise, not to mention insulting, to explain away Apple's success by calling its customers "fanboys" or describing them as members of a cult. (Though it may be tempting to trot out that theory when observing the Twitter chatter about a new Apple product or the reflexive coverage this company can draw in the traditional media -- things that never happen with PC manufacturers.)
The best explanation for it may be seen sitting in traffic right now: Apple has made a business out of selling a premium product, just like BMW, Cadillac or Lexus.
Analysts and critics can insist that Apple has to ship a netbook to stay competitive, and Mac shoppers can wish that the company would turn its considerable talent for design to that category of computer. But Apple doesn't have to do that any more than Cadillac owes the world an $18,000 subcompact.
As grotesque and incomprehensible as Apple's existence may seem to people content with an affordable PC, the company seems to have taken up residence at a spot in the market that other vendors seem unable to barge into.
Manufacturers of Windows-based PCs can craft higher-end models -- Hewlett-Packard's Voodoo line of desktops and laptops have offered as much style as many Macs. But they can't do much to differentiate the software on those deluxe models -- whether it's Windows Vista or the new Windows 7, shipping Thursday -- from what they ship on the $400 boxes lining mass-market retailers' shelves. Apple won't license Mac OS X to them, and most won't ship the free, open-source Linux operating system on anything bigger than a netbook.
This could be a self-reinforcing trend: As PC builders keep having their profit margins squeezed, they have fewer resources to devote to high-end consumer products, while Apple's focus on the most profitable end of the market leaves it with ever more money to dump into product design. Or buying small islands.
Hey what about Mercedes?
Anyway consumers get something with Apple beside function, reliability we really get class! iMac looks so artistic and beautiful. Owning one really like owning a piece of art. Something we really can't get out of an ugly Dell or HP. I think the majority has spoken we really want the good s***!
I'm sorry but the Google honeymoon is over.
I've had plenty of problems with Gmail's reliability over the last year and so has my girlfriend.
YouTube is an exercise in annoyment now with pop up adds and now forced advertisements preceding the video.
I launch iWork when I need to do some document creation not Google apps. I don't use Blogger anymore and it just catches a bunch of spam.
Picasa looks horried and I didn't even want to install it on my Mac
Google Maps consistently sends me on poor routes I'm beginning to use Microsofts maps instead.
If I look at Google's performance as far as delivering outstanding applications that I really want to use I'd say the importance of Google in my daily life is diminishing. I have little desire to see what they could do to screw up my music.
LMAO!
I'm sorry but the Google honeymoon is over.
I've had plenty of problems with Gmail's reliability over the last year and so has my girlfriend.
YouTube is an exercise in annoyment now with pop up adds and now forced advertisements preceding the video.
I launch iWork when I need to do some document creation not Google apps. I don't use Blogger anymore and it just catches a bunch of spam.
Picasa looks horried and I didn't even want to install it on my Mac
Google Maps consistently sends me on poor routes I'm beginning to use Microsofts maps instead.
If I look at Google's performance as far as delivering outstanding applications that I really want to use I'd say the importance of Google in my daily life is diminishing. I have little desire to see what they could do to screw up my music.
What do you use for search?
What is gonna be different with Google other than another format of audio that we not ready to migrate to?
Like i said, something like spotify. Also, the labels want competition, they are not too fond of apple running the show.
Your whole post is ridiculous in so many ways...possibly a new world record.
.
I was hoping you had the intelligence to understand I was (semi) kidding about, I'm pretty happy today thanks to aapl, not even a bellend such as yourself will get me down
Joking aside, I do not use the web on my laptop as much as I did prior to the iPhone, thats a fact. And as more companies create apps the less inclination I have to pull up the browser.
The web is also a coagulation of god awful technologies that move like molasses. Give me a choice of cocoa & web (as a user) I will take the cocoa any day.
Also, I am a developer who has used most popular web technologies, and I write cocoa/objective c and I can tell you now I will never touch a web technology again in my life if I can. I spent my much of my time in web tech creating frameworks that make the web work more like apple, but ya know, whats the point, I love apples tools, and i gel with their philosophies.
My point is that as a developer and a consumer my preference is for cocoa based app every time.
So why should I care for web technologies on my pocket computer? The answer is I dont much, and less so each time a new app is released. To me an app has become the equivalent of a website, and I'm sure I'm not alone in this shift of thinking.
Now take the fact that the future of computing is in your pocket, and you can see that although I joked "the web is dead" it certainly gives some pause for thought. Least it should if you had any sense.
As an example the facebook iphone app is widely regarded amongst my friends as better that the web version, it's stripped down, refined, comes attached to a camera, and most importantly is in my pocket.
the new product is said to be planned for "at least" U.S. users.
So with the quotes around <at least>, you really mean that the world starts and ends on US borders, and no one will be pi*sed because of another service available "only" in the US?
What do you use for search?
Google of course
But don't get me wrong I'm not a Google hater by any stretch and Gmail is still the best web email client by far IMO but the more Google takes on the less each of their products seems to grow.
Does anyone really think a Google music service is going to be any better than the plethora of existing services that don't come with iPod ecosystems? I don't really. Google hasn't found a way to monetize many of their tools. YouTube is a sham now. Google was always the company that knew the proper balance between advertising and content and YT shows they are getting desperate to infuse advertising, skewing that delicate balance.
In the end it will be good or consumers even though we don't want to see Apple challenged, right?
In the end, I doubt anything Google is up to will be good for consumers, or anyone else but themselves.
Just curious, are you and your friends Mac or PC users? I ask as iTunes is used for some many things on a Mac I couldn't live without it.
On my Mac systems I still like to use iTunes. While there are things I dislike about it, I feel its the best option on my Mac systems.
On my Windows systems I prefer Winamp. For windows systems I feel it works really well. Here is a link if you just want to check it out.
http://www.winamp.com/
Mostly mac, but a mixture of both. Everyone still has iTunes for various reasons (mine for developing) , but listening to music for the vast majority of people I know is through Spotify, this happened pretty much overnight.
Why pay for music when you can get it 'free' and with a cleaner user interface! The choice was a simple one for everyone to make.
Also see Lala.com--similar concept though not completely free. A iPhone app is in beta now as well.
Google of course
But don't get me wrong I'm not a Google hater by any stretch and Gmail is still the best web email client by far IMO but the more Google takes on the less each of their products seems to grow.
Does anyone really think a Google music service is going to be any better than the plethora of existing services that don't come with iPod ecosystems? I don't really. Google hasn't found a way to monetize many of their tools. YouTube is a sham now. Google was always the company that knew the proper balance between advertising and content and YT shows they are getting desperate to infuse advertising, skewing that delicate balance.
I recently (well two days ago) got my google voice account and I have to say it works pretty well. I can have my google number ring to both my cell phones and if I don't answer the vmail to my email account and so far it has worked perfectly. Have to see how it goes in the long run.
In the end, I doubt anything Google is up to will be good for consumers, or anyone else but themselves.
Wow - are we in tinfoil hat territory here, or...?
Apple should be as wary of Google as Microsoft. I just wish someone there learnt how to design a nice looking UI, instead of people who thought XP looked good.
Wow - are we in tinfoil hat territory here, or...?
Oh, please, with the tinfoil hat nonsense. It's never good when any company gets as big as, and exerts and leverages control over so many facets of information access, as Google. It wasn't good when Microsoft was running amok and it won't be good with Google either. Stop being so blindly naive.
I'm sorry but the Google honeymoon is over.
I've had plenty of problems with Gmail's reliability over the last year and so has my girlfriend.
YouTube is an exercise in annoyment now with pop up adds and now forced advertisements preceding the video.
I launch iWork when I need to do some document creation not Google apps. I don't use Blogger anymore and it just catches a bunch of spam.
Picasa looks horried and I didn't even want to install it on my Mac
Google Maps consistently sends me on poor routes I'm beginning to use Microsofts maps instead.
If I look at Google's performance as far as delivering outstanding applications that I really want to use I'd say the importance of Google in my daily life is diminishing. I have little desire to see what they could do to screw up my music.
I recently (well two days ago) got my google voice account and I have to say it works pretty well. I can have my google number ring to both my cell phones and if I don't answer the vmail to my email account and so far it has worked perfectly. Have to see how it goes in the long run.
What do you use for search?
Bing anyone?
(it actually works very good)
gBooks now gMusic, what's gonna come next?
gStrings. They display little ads next to the search results.