Apple's Timing - The iMac
Here is my Theory:
Apple announced last week at MWTK that they are forced to raise the prices on the iMac due to component costs. I believe Apple made a big timing mistake here and waited 6 months too long for the iMac to be revised. We should have seen it at MWNY like we all expected. Here is my reasoning:
Component Costs
In July of 2001 LCD panels and memory was still very very low in cost. Apple would have been in a good position to announce this product then and taken advantage of the low costs. The ironic thing about Apple's announcement last week was all we heard last year from Phil Schiller was that we will see an iMac using a flat panel as soon as LCD panels go down in price. Actually, when Apple announced it LCD prices were already on the up as well as memory.
Supply and New Product Ramping
Apple could have utilized an announcement date of July as a good time to ramp up a new iMac. The school year was ready to begin in two months. It would have given Apple some months to work out any kinks and by the time they would have reached high volume production we would have been entering the holiday season. With 25 stores open and a brand new computer for the holiday season they would have done really well. Then at MWSF or even MWTK they could have announced version 2.0 with a little faster processor and THEN made a $100 price jump.
Now there are other issues that play in here. The iMac uses a G4. At that time the fastest Power Mac was 867MHz. They could have started the iMac at 600MHz and had it top out at 700MHz. There is also the cost of the Superdrive, but Apple being Pioneer's largest OEM for the drive (my guess here), I am sure they could have worked out a workable price.
Anyone have anything to add? Let's discuss.
[ 03-26-2002: Message edited by: Bodhi ]</p>
Apple announced last week at MWTK that they are forced to raise the prices on the iMac due to component costs. I believe Apple made a big timing mistake here and waited 6 months too long for the iMac to be revised. We should have seen it at MWNY like we all expected. Here is my reasoning:
Component Costs
In July of 2001 LCD panels and memory was still very very low in cost. Apple would have been in a good position to announce this product then and taken advantage of the low costs. The ironic thing about Apple's announcement last week was all we heard last year from Phil Schiller was that we will see an iMac using a flat panel as soon as LCD panels go down in price. Actually, when Apple announced it LCD prices were already on the up as well as memory.
Supply and New Product Ramping
Apple could have utilized an announcement date of July as a good time to ramp up a new iMac. The school year was ready to begin in two months. It would have given Apple some months to work out any kinks and by the time they would have reached high volume production we would have been entering the holiday season. With 25 stores open and a brand new computer for the holiday season they would have done really well. Then at MWSF or even MWTK they could have announced version 2.0 with a little faster processor and THEN made a $100 price jump.
Now there are other issues that play in here. The iMac uses a G4. At that time the fastest Power Mac was 867MHz. They could have started the iMac at 600MHz and had it top out at 700MHz. There is also the cost of the Superdrive, but Apple being Pioneer's largest OEM for the drive (my guess here), I am sure they could have worked out a workable price.
Anyone have anything to add? Let's discuss.
[ 03-26-2002: Message edited by: Bodhi ]</p>
Comments
But, being that I'm not a real "business or tech" kinda guy, I guess there are reasons that are simply beyond my grasp.
But I've often wondered why they NEVER seem to have stuff ready for the holidays.
I think I made a post here months ago basically saying that the MW Expos are both too late for the two biggest (for Apple anyway) buying periods of the year.
January's Frisco Expo misses Christmas, and NYC's July Expo is too late for educators.
I always thought an October and an April Macworld would be cool. April would replace January's, and give education buyers time to work out the budgets and orders (plus, get them in the hands of students who choose to buy one of their own during the summer).
An October MW Expo, coming two months before Christmas...well, the reasons are obvious.
They went into last holiday seasons with 25 retail stores, a new iMac that they KNEW was only weeks away, etc.
I don't know.
From where I sit (and with my limited grasp of all the nuances and ins-and-outs of "business"), they sure seem to do things to try NOT to be popular or sell as many Macs as they could.
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But I've often wondered why they NEVER seem to have stuff ready for the holidays.
I think I made a post here months ago basically saying that the MW Expos are both too late for the two biggest (for Apple anyway) buying periods of the year.
January's Frisco Expo misses Christmas, and NYC's July Expo is too late for educators.
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I've wondered about that too. The one in January really puzzles me. It's right after the new year when people are still not up to full speed given all the holidays.
While the MacWorld expos are not officially an Apple event ( I believe International Data Group runs MacPublishing/MacWorld), I'm sure they're presence either makes or breaks the event.
A gentle suggestion to move the expos to a date more advantageous for Apple would not be too difficult.