"White Box" Apple Computer idea
From OS News:
http://www.osnews.com/story.php?news_id=4037
http://www.osnews.com/story.php?news_id=3901
The second link is referenced in the first and is the history of this idea.
Essentially they recommend a whole new computer company subsidiary from Apple (called "Strawberry" for demostration purposes) that would sell low end OS X compatible computers with less frills and style. Differentiate them from PowerMacs through a number of means (a slightly crippled OS X, G3, etc.) and sell them on the cheap.
They wouldn't tarnish the brand because they're a different brand, they could be sold with Linux or OS X, sell them at WalMarts, BestBuys, K-Marts where Apple needs market penetration; overall it's a fascinating idea.
What are the downsides? I think it should be seriously considered. If you have some time take a look at the links as they're more in depth than my summary.
http://www.osnews.com/story.php?news_id=4037
http://www.osnews.com/story.php?news_id=3901
The second link is referenced in the first and is the history of this idea.
Essentially they recommend a whole new computer company subsidiary from Apple (called "Strawberry" for demostration purposes) that would sell low end OS X compatible computers with less frills and style. Differentiate them from PowerMacs through a number of means (a slightly crippled OS X, G3, etc.) and sell them on the cheap.
They wouldn't tarnish the brand because they're a different brand, they could be sold with Linux or OS X, sell them at WalMarts, BestBuys, K-Marts where Apple needs market penetration; overall it's a fascinating idea.
What are the downsides? I think it should be seriously considered. If you have some time take a look at the links as they're more in depth than my summary.
Comments
Apple, in my opinion, create a subsiduary. License out 'X' in China on a cheap white box. No frills. A small license fee for 'X'.
Sooner or later...cheap 'X' no frills boxes will be outselling Dell! I heard a story that even Dell can't compete with the Chinese box makers!!!
Imagine Apple machines on import to USA selling cheaper than Dells!
This could truly open doors for mass-market Apple.
I don't believe Apple can do it on its own.
Apple needs to think about doing something radical.
Markets like China and India give room for potential on a massive scale.
It's how creative Apple can be...instead of sticking to its 'Greed' mantra.
They have nothing to lose in a market like China where it is still, relatively speaking, early days.
Give the damn 'X' thing away free...license it...create a 'cheapo' subsiduary. Hey, they already have an iPod and a 'Mac' division.
Remember the 'Power Computing' brand they bought out to stop them cloning? £160 million. Good brand. Kicked Apple's arse in speed and advertising!
Got me thinking...
Lemon Bon Bon
i think an OSX port to windows machines would be intense. Offer a commercial OS that isnt windows that obviously is amazing and people will start using that with out having to completely jump the PC worl and switch to mac. Then after experience on the OS they will want to buy a mac. That takes care of the other big turn off which is unfamilarity
The reasons not to do that are the same as they were every other time this was brought up.
It wont push the prices down on our existing harware because it will be different.
The only thing it might be able to do is to generate som more cash for Apple, but hey who cares, all I want is a better Mac cheaper than today (well actually more value for my money, it should still be a delux computer). It wont benefit the current Mac division, but it might harm it by not keeping our lovely opperating system Mac spesific. Apple does not need to enter the mass maket. Now dont get me wrong I'd love to se Apple grow, but not in this way , not by putting osX on a cheap machine and not by making computers they dont love and tying to hide that there making the garbage, just to make som cash, they already have mountais of cash. Apple does fine as a niche computer maker, and I like it that way
Viktor
Viktor
Originally posted by krispie
Oh good grief, OSX on Intel again.
The reasons not to do that are the same as they were every other time this was brought up.
oh crap youre right. i wish i had your wisdom with me at all times while i type just to make sure i dont make any mistakes for having certain ideas.
Originally posted by krispie
Oh good grief, OSX on Intel again.
The reasons not to do that are the same as they were every other time this was brought up.
Great. How about you address the topic then? It's not about Intel, it's about a G3 produced by Apple.
Thanks!
But the biggest obstacle is Apple itself. They don't care about marketshare.
Originally posted by farve
Well I dunno. In what way would this benefit us Mac users, We want our computers to be a bit better than the rest of the shit that's out there.
It wont push the prices down on our existing harware because it will be different.
One benefit is to create a larger user base. That means that a lot more applications will get ported to the Mac platform then they do now. That means that no website (online banks are the biggest offenders) will dare be incompatible with Safari. The way it is now, I keep Virtual PC just for some evilly-designed websites.
That's the benefit.
Apple should commission a company they are already partnered with (HP) to ship "white-box" clones to emerging markets where Apple has no presence at all. Anywhere else and Apple would eat into its own sales.
Then again, if IBM is having that much trouble shipping PPC970s, then why bother? G4s are an option, but can Apple or anybody really hope to sell G4 based clones when AMD/Intel based hardware would probably still provide more bang for less buck.
Originally posted by bunge
Great. How about you address the topic then? It's not about Intel, it's about a G3 produced by Apple.
Thanks!
Erm, I was responding to earthtoandy, who was talking about putting it on Windows machines.
Easy mistake for you to make on a non-threaded forum.
I guess I should have quoted the appropriate part of the message. Sorry for that, I'm not used to deficient non-threaded boards like this one.
In my opinion Apple needs to add more value to it's computers. Computers fused to LCDs are niche products at the most. To address the mass market, how about a slimmed down version of the OS-X runtime that is open-sourced so Linux can adapt it?
Sell a plain box with a G4 and standard PC components, PCI cards and all. No screen, no frills, OS X and some bundled software. Maybe they could get it to cost less than 500 dollars and reach the home market/linux market. Third party upgrades could make it into a powerful box. You could even start out a company that buys Apple Carts and rebuilds them into powerful gaming computers. Only sell them through "cheaper" channels, like wal-mart and other places.
If Apple is going to extended their market percentage they need really cheap boxes somehow.
That said, I think China will be difficult for them to approach. The problem with porting OS X over to a clone platform is that much of what makes OS X great is the fact that it runs on a small, consistent, and consistently high-quality set of hardware platforms. If Apple released a version that ran on commodity hardware, they'd suddenly find themselves in exactly the same neverending driver-compatibility Hell that Microsoft has been in for the last ten years, and they'd have to go through and beef up all the code that simply assumes the existence of, say, an Ethernet port, or USB, or FireWire. Support and maintenance of OS X would become far more expensive and labor intensive, while performance and reliability would suffer. Furthermore, Apple would no longer be able to innovate as quickly, because they wouldn't be able to control the hardware. Remember, Apple got USB off the ground by releasing machine that only had USB. If there had been clones, they'd have continued to offer legacy ports to be "more compatible than Apple," and so there'd still be a sizeable market for peripherals that used those ports, and so the peripheral makers would continue to use them, and Apple would have to either give in or fade away. This is exactly what happened with USB on the Windows side.
Apple would be better served, I think, partnering with Chinese companies to make Apple-designed hardware in China for the Chinese market. Once OS X is 90%-99% Linux compatible it'll be broadly interoperable with the OS that China is developing, and then Apple can position itself in the same way it's done here, as a higher-end, value-added platform. The difference would be that instead of being an outlier marginalized by Microsoft, it would be starting fresh in a country dominated by an open source OS with which it can exchange communication, documents and even applications.
A "stripped down" Mac is a contradiction in terms. Apple's whole pitch is that you buy one machine, pull it out of the box, turn it on, and there's everything you need, and several things you didn't even know you needed. There's no real reason to prefer a "stripped down" Mac to anything else unless you're already an Apple loyalist.
What an stupid article... repeat after me... ITS NOT GOING TO HAPPEN!
The G3 is dead and any "white box" sales will cannibalize Apples brand sales.
These ideas come up every few months from people who want cheap Macs
Besides who is going to buy that outdated piece of crap. A 1GHz G3 with outdated graphics card? Yeah, right.
These ideas come up every few months from people who want cheap Macs
Hear hear! Just buy the damn computer and go on about your life. I've heard people obsess less about buying cars and they cost 10x the average computer.
Originally posted by Leonard
What an stupid article... repeat after me... ITS NOT GOING TO HAPPEN!
Concidering Apples market strategy, you are righ that it would not happen. Stupid is pushing it a bit to far, even though the prices are lala land low.
The G3 is dead
In the Mac consumer space, yes.
and any "white box" sales will cannibalize Apples brand sales.
As long as Apple would make a profit from this it'd not be a problem. But however my guess is that it would, so....
These ideas come up every few months from people who want cheap Macs
Just because it's repeated doesn't mean that it's stupid, not that I agree with Eugenia but I think that you are overly harch.
Besides who is going to buy that outdated piece of crap. 1GHz G3 with outdated graphics card? Yeah, right.
That "G3" (or more like G4) would propably be faster then an similarly clocked 7447A in most cases. And would you really expect an "ultra 1337" 3D card for the prices she is suggesting? And is that really expected in the market that she wants it in?
... ... ...
Any way, like have been said before the prices Eugenia wants it to have is way, way WAY to low for Apples profit margins. For example, that G3/G4 chip alone would cost something in the realm of $80-$100 [thinking of the current 750GX prices] then factor in the cost of OSX, the HD + ComboDrive, memory, case, ..., and you don't end up with much of a profit margin on that $299 Mac. In fact, there is a very good chance that Apple would make a loss selling them, and I do hope that we all agree here that that is not a thing that we want.