ChinaMac
I feel that Apple is missing opportunities to work with governments of emerging developing nations and nations that have not set a computer standard. Many nations such as China have a huge potential for sales as well estabilishing new and different standards that are in western countries (microsft based OS) China in particular has poured government funds into investing in Linux inorder to not be dependent on other nations and to lower costs for technology aquisition.
So this is what I am proposing. For Apple to design a computer and liscencing plan especially taylored for these nations.
1) free office productivity software
2) Very Low cost of operating system/updates
3) Perhaps a testbed for Intel or other processors (china is planning to rivel intel in 10 years or so in processor development)
The main focus would be to establish OS X and it's developement tools as the standard for emerging countries which will in turn lead to a larger market share (thus more outles for Os X software developers) and more developers writing software for the Mac
[ 08-20-2002: Message edited by: Producer ]</p>
So this is what I am proposing. For Apple to design a computer and liscencing plan especially taylored for these nations.
1) free office productivity software
2) Very Low cost of operating system/updates
3) Perhaps a testbed for Intel or other processors (china is planning to rivel intel in 10 years or so in processor development)
The main focus would be to establish OS X and it's developement tools as the standard for emerging countries which will in turn lead to a larger market share (thus more outles for Os X software developers) and more developers writing software for the Mac
[ 08-20-2002: Message edited by: Producer ]</p>
Comments
[ 08-20-2002: Message edited by: keyboardf12 ]</p>
Apple would have to be absolutely crazy to license their "crown jewels" into markets where piracy is *rampant*.
I would be *very* surprised to see Apple start a Mac clone market in Asia (or anywhere), believing manufacturers who "promise" to sell their products only in pre-defined markets.
Apple can not afford to waste its resources trying to compete in the low-margin PC market...
[ 08-20-2002: Message edited by: Lorenz ]</p>
<strong>Why would developing countries spend the cash on a premium, niche product. Are they going to put bose speakers in all their stereos and TVs too?</strong><hr></blockquote>
Are we trying to solve world hunger, or are we talking about what Apple, with its limited resources, "should" do next? Remember that at the end of the day, AAPL is a business that happens to be selling computers. Awesome, kick-ass machines to be sure -- but they are a for-profit organization.
Do you really think that going head-to-head with the likes of Dell in markets with razor-thin margins is the best move for Apple to grow its market share?
Instead, what about going after profitable markets with the Mac? You've got a user-friendly Unix-based workstation that's fun to use. What types of markets would that sell well in?
China is currently working with Linux and GPL to make pretty much everything they need for computers. Since this will probably free, then pirating is not an issue. How can you pirate free stuff?
If this pans out, then the market share of Linux will jump dramatically, especially for desktops. What implications this has on the computer industry, I wouldn't have a clue.
For Macs, however, statistically, that could drop its marketshare even lower, without a reduction in its installed base (hey-- don't blame me on the math-- that's statistics for you).
In a word, it can make Macs look bad. Who wants to develop for a 2% world market share?
If only Apple can convince them to use Darwin....
<strong>Perhaps they could also just liscence the OS and have local makers make the computer hardware. Ofcourse they would only be allowed to sell the computers locally so they would not compete with Apples other markets.</strong><hr></blockquote>
selling local mac to local in china is the only way for apple to get into china's market. now, apple has to sell a same module of powermac for twice price you and i pay here because of tariff.
since mac is not made in china (mic), they are not allowed to be flowing in local market.
china is wto now, but still it will take much longer for those tariff to be gone. the bigger question is that whether apple's product could enjoy wto's protection.
also making mac for china is easy, just change the power supply fixed to ~220 and have the power plug unique for china. china's power socket is different from here.
but no matter what apple do, it should not sacrify the elegance and top notch design philosophy. otherwise, it is not different from pc.
[ 08-20-2002: Message edited by: anakin1992 ]
[ 08-20-2002: Message edited by: anakin1992 ]</p>
Apple makes its money on hardware. It would need to sell way cheap hardware to compete with the Legends et al. in China, and if that were to happen, it wouldn't be long before the grey market saw to it that those cheap Macs were on our shores. Apple would never allow that.
MSKR
<strong>China in particular has poured government funds into investing in Linux inorder to not be dependent on other nations and to lower costs for technology aquisition.</strong><hr></blockquote>
Apple is western. Apple is not low cost.
Chinese, and Japanese and Korean, are fabulous on macs. <img src="graemlins/smokin.gif" border="0" alt="[Chilling]" />