iBook CD-RW not CD-ROM

imacfpimacfp
Posted:
in Future Apple Hardware edited January 2014
I really can't understand why Apple uses the CD-ROM instead of a CD-RW for the lowend iBook. Price might be the reason but having a CD-RW is far more useful. To make up for the 66 MHz bus and small hard drive out of the box, a CD-RW would be great. And if it's not standard, they should at least make it an option. What I'd like to see for the lowend iBook's next rev.



Same Price

100 Mhz bus

20 GB hard drive

CD-RW

Comments

  • Reply 1 of 10
    bozo the clownbozo the clown Posts: 165member
    It's called marketing. The idea is that they draw you into thinking about buying an iBook when you see the price is $1200, and then when you see how much more you get for $1400, that you'll go up to the next level.



    Or so they think.
  • Reply 2 of 10
    imacfpimacfp Posts: 750member
    Of course you're right but to my mind a $1,200 sale due to nice specs is better than no sale at all. To bad Apple doesn't agree. The CD-RW model was never really allowed to take off.
  • Reply 3 of 10
    bozo the clownbozo the clown Posts: 165member
    I don't know how Apple thinks, but they must figure that given the difference in profit margin on the $1200 vs $1500 system (I'm sure the latter costs them only marginally more to build) they're willing to lose a few sales...



    Kind of goes against the "build up market share" philosophy, but who really knows.
  • Reply 4 of 10
    codewarriorcodewarrior Posts: 196member
    Apple has to have a very low end iBook to sell to schools. Schools don't want to have to pay the extra $$$ for students to have CDRW (and probably don't want the students to have them). This is the same reason the low end iMac w/CRT is still around. This also gives Apple a chance to compete for the users that only have $700 to spend.
  • Reply 5 of 10
    qaziiqazii Posts: 305member
    Also, I believe the CDRW is faster than the combo drive, so some people who can afford the combo will buy the low-end. Not good for Apple.
  • Reply 6 of 10
    eugeneeugene Posts: 8,254member
    Had they stayed at $1299, Apple would have probably taken the hit and put a CD-RW drive in the low-end, but I can see why they didn't.



    1) Lower cost of entry.

    2) Incentive to buy 3rd party FireWire CD-RW drives

    3) Incentive to select the Combo drive model
  • Reply 7 of 10
    junkyard dawgjunkyard dawg Posts: 2,801member
    How about a $999 iBook with CD-ROM? That would be a bitchin' model for schools. You know Apple's margins at $1200 are huge, they would still be fine at $999 and it would help boost marketshare.



    Ahhh, but this is Apple and they don't seem to care about market share.
  • Reply 8 of 10
    eugeneeugene Posts: 8,254member
    What about the fact that Apple again is not making a quarterly profit based on sales, but on waning investments?
  • Reply 9 of 10
    bigcbigc Posts: 1,224member
    [quote]Originally posted by Eugene:

    <strong>What about the fact that Apple again is not making a quarterly profit based on sales, but on waning investments?</strong><hr></blockquote>



    How's that?
  • Reply 10 of 10
    eugeneeugene Posts: 8,254member
    Their latest SEC filing indicates that they've lost ~20 million in operation, but cashed in !30 million in ARM stock and other investments...Samsung, Akamai...
Sign In or Register to comment.