Yeah, but what about PRICES! (new dance pending)
SO, eeexcelent news in the form of PPc970 monsters has arrived. 1.6SP-2.0DP with 8GB RAm and fully modernized I/O. But what about the prices?
I think any price increase is NOT justifiable at all, and titanically short sighted.
Whatever they charge for the better, best, ultimate configs is really of no concern to me. The performance might be there, but these will surely be too expensive for my tastes. That leaves the entry level. Slots are down to 3, suggesting a case shrink, prices dropped on it just on rev prior (apple surely noting that a new 64 bit SP machine was comming onl;ine this summer. Raising the prices back up, regardless of performance, just will not do on an entry level machine, at 1499, they're passable, but not something to win converts for long, especially since the performance metric probably still tilts in favor of Mega-Ghz HT P4's when it comes to a single 1.6 PPC970, as per the specs.
What Apple really needs to do is seize this opportunity to really compete, to hit not just a infield homerun, but hit an andro fuel, corked bat special grand slam straight out of the park. It's the only way to signal, hey look, we're not dead, we're back and we mean business.
I say 1299, and I don't care if they strip the machine out to get it there. DVD-rom only, 256MB ram, so-so video, smallish HDD, just put that new G5 and mobo in there with all it's sexy new modern I/O, put in the old el-cap case for all I care, just get that price down to where it needs to be.
Apple has to learn the concept of a market share leader, the rest of the lineup can cost pretty much whatever, but a true entry level tower has been missing for far too long.
1499 would be acceptable (with a better spec than a 1299 machine) but any increase, especially the 1699-1799 I've heard thrown around here, would be to mind an utter disaster, a classic example of Apple shooting it's own feet in mid chase.
We might get a new dance come monday, probably difficult to do the old one since Apple has injected some 64 bit elixer into the mix that makes the feet sluggish and the mind more mellow, at least for one Q.
will it be PRICE
, or PRICE 
???
Over to you
I think any price increase is NOT justifiable at all, and titanically short sighted.
Whatever they charge for the better, best, ultimate configs is really of no concern to me. The performance might be there, but these will surely be too expensive for my tastes. That leaves the entry level. Slots are down to 3, suggesting a case shrink, prices dropped on it just on rev prior (apple surely noting that a new 64 bit SP machine was comming onl;ine this summer. Raising the prices back up, regardless of performance, just will not do on an entry level machine, at 1499, they're passable, but not something to win converts for long, especially since the performance metric probably still tilts in favor of Mega-Ghz HT P4's when it comes to a single 1.6 PPC970, as per the specs.
What Apple really needs to do is seize this opportunity to really compete, to hit not just a infield homerun, but hit an andro fuel, corked bat special grand slam straight out of the park. It's the only way to signal, hey look, we're not dead, we're back and we mean business.
I say 1299, and I don't care if they strip the machine out to get it there. DVD-rom only, 256MB ram, so-so video, smallish HDD, just put that new G5 and mobo in there with all it's sexy new modern I/O, put in the old el-cap case for all I care, just get that price down to where it needs to be.
Apple has to learn the concept of a market share leader, the rest of the lineup can cost pretty much whatever, but a true entry level tower has been missing for far too long.
1499 would be acceptable (with a better spec than a 1299 machine) but any increase, especially the 1699-1799 I've heard thrown around here, would be to mind an utter disaster, a classic example of Apple shooting it's own feet in mid chase.
We might get a new dance come monday, probably difficult to do the old one since Apple has injected some 64 bit elixer into the mix that makes the feet sluggish and the mind more mellow, at least for one Q.
will it be PRICE
, or PRICE ???Over to you
Comments
But on top of that:
New bus, motherboard architecture, much more expensive ram, SATA drives (The biggest one I think) and so on...
Fortunately, Hypertransport should be quite cheap..
Low-price entrylevel machines are sure to follow - in about half a year.
Originally posted by Smircle
Like it or not, Apple will most likely want to skim the cream as long as those machines are in hot demand.
Low-price entrylevel machines are sure to follow - in about half a year.
If Apple wants to cut some mustard on the 'switch' campaign, they better release some low-$ 970-machines soon.
In half a year Intel may hit back, thus too late for Apple to make big numbers of Wintel-users switch.
Better skim the cream on them.....
If they can hold the current pricing scheme I would be impressed. I can't see the dual 2 gig for less than $3300. I think the pros will be all over it.
With that in mind, I believe it far wiser to lok for long term growth by excpanding marketshare as much as possible as quickly as possible.
Towers are the machines switchers want. The PM fits.
Performance (parity) is what mac users AND switchers want. Again the PPC970 fits.
Price-performance parity is the other demand of switchers. Will Apple make it fit?
Again, I'm not saying they have to give it to us at a price and feature set that would just make the better/best models too much, they can strip down the optical, RAM, HDD, and video components to much more basic levels than the better best offerings, but to really maek an impact the price has to come down (970 or not)
I see no reason why this won't happen again.
My guess are
- single 1,6 ghz : 1600
- single 1,8 ghz : 2100
- dual : 2 ghz : 3200
The two lattest versions have both the superdrive in it.
The single 1,6 ghz will have only a combo.
Originally posted by I, Fred
Apple's policy seems to be to raise prices whenever possible, and find some way to cripple the **** out of the entry machine.
let's face it, they offer a unique solution in the consumer desktop market, they're going to milk this for all it's worth. besides, price/performance is much harder to compare when you have options that no one else does. (as of yet)
i'm guessing entry level machine debuts at minnimum of $1,799 retail.
way to much new hardware crammed in one box not to see a jump.
Originally posted by BuonRotto
It's not backlash, it's pessimistic thinking. If I expect the worst, then when a Major Steve Announcement comes, I am relieved that my worst fears aren't true.
It's the only way for a sensitive soul as myself to survive a buzzhype run-up to a Major Apple Event.
This G5 rumor has been almost 2 years in the making, and frankly this is bigger in many ways than the gumdrop or OS X......the gumdrop may have saved Apple's bacon (mmmmm, apple-bacon), and OS X was an acknowledgement that Apple was going to finally join the modern OS arena, but the G5 and accompanying technologies is the gateway to competiveness across all fronts with x86......
expect the worst expect the worst expect the worst expect the worst expect the worst expect the worst expect the worst expect the worst expect the worst expect the worst expect the worst expect the worst expect the worst expect the worst expect the worst expect the worst expect the worst expect the worst expect the worst expect the worst expect the worst expect the worst expect the worst expect the worst expect the worst expect the worst expect the worst expect the worst expect the worst expect the worst expect the worst expect the worst expect the worst expect the worst expect the worst expect the worst expect the worst expect the worst expect the worst expect the worst expect the worst expect the worst but hope for the best.
In the short term: Supply and demand rules. Unless Apple has done an unprecedented job of ramping up production this time around, they might need to raise prices just to squelch demand to the point that they don't drown in backorders. Regardless of how much some people will about high prices, I'll bet that for the first few months Apple could sell these beasts at, say, $2000, $2600, and $3200 or more (good/better/best), and still have a hard time keeping up with demand.
You can't build market share faster than you can move merchandise, so I'd reluctantly have to accept the business logic of higher short-term prices (if demand is anything like I think it will be), expecting Apple to want to reap some big profit margins while it can.
I'd love to be proven wrong -- because I'm almost certain to buy a dual 2.0 as soon as possible, no matter what.
Originally posted by Matsu
will it be PRICE
Over to you
It'll be