What does Apple have to do, to get you to open your wallet?
On the eve on MWNY, now is a good time to ask yourself what do you want from Apple. But more importantly, what is your threshold for purchase? At what specification or price point would a future product from Apple make the purchase decision a no-brainer? Not for the perceived market, but for you.
I think there are a lot of folks with older systems, sitting on the fence, waiting for just the right product to justify our purchase. What Apple offering would irresistibly force us to open our wallets?
For myself, here are the products that I would have to have to place an order the day they were announced:
1. G4 iBook, assuming a "reasonable" price point. I think the G4 is essential to bring this holdout completely over to the rest of the family. I've been waiting for at least a 2x performance boost (processor and graphics) over my Pismo. And I prefer the footprint and price point of the iBook over the G4 Powerbooks.
2. A modern Newton equivalent. Not foreseeable in the short term, but it would cause me to open the wallet. Given how the iPod was assembled with so many off the shelf components from 3rd parties with no custom ASIC's, it's hard to see how Apple could pull this one off as effortlessly as the engineering effort is more specific.
3. An Apple branded Danger Hiptop like device. This could alleviate the need for the Newton and duplicate some of the traveling uses of the iBook. However, since Danger wants kickback from service providers and Apple isn't currently playing in this field, the possibility seems extremely remote.
Of course, it seems like none of these will be offered in the near term. And I feel that only the iBook will happen someday. But the customer has spoken.
BT
I think there are a lot of folks with older systems, sitting on the fence, waiting for just the right product to justify our purchase. What Apple offering would irresistibly force us to open our wallets?
For myself, here are the products that I would have to have to place an order the day they were announced:
1. G4 iBook, assuming a "reasonable" price point. I think the G4 is essential to bring this holdout completely over to the rest of the family. I've been waiting for at least a 2x performance boost (processor and graphics) over my Pismo. And I prefer the footprint and price point of the iBook over the G4 Powerbooks.
2. A modern Newton equivalent. Not foreseeable in the short term, but it would cause me to open the wallet. Given how the iPod was assembled with so many off the shelf components from 3rd parties with no custom ASIC's, it's hard to see how Apple could pull this one off as effortlessly as the engineering effort is more specific.
3. An Apple branded Danger Hiptop like device. This could alleviate the need for the Newton and duplicate some of the traveling uses of the iBook. However, since Danger wants kickback from service providers and Apple isn't currently playing in this field, the possibility seems extremely remote.
Of course, it seems like none of these will be offered in the near term. And I feel that only the iBook will happen someday. But the customer has spoken.
BT