Apple pulls fast one with new iMacs (READ)
After successfully lying my ass off to the guy in the library, I convinced him to let me stay in the computer lab next to the library to watch the keynote. I would have watched in the library contently however none of the computers had sound. My excuse you ask? "I need sound to do my work. I have to analyze a company for my economics class and watch this". It got me a room to myself to watch.
Anyway, on to what this is truely about. Watching the iMacs being unveiled I noticed what Jobs said about the shipping. "We are going to start by offering the high-end model with Super Drive, shipping this month, because we feel that the demand will be greater for these models" THe others will ship in Febuary and March. If you ask me, that's just Apple's little way of saying "Yep, we want more of your money". There's no way they can't ship the other two machines at the same time. Apple is pulling a fast one here.
Anyway, on to what this is truely about. Watching the iMacs being unveiled I noticed what Jobs said about the shipping. "We are going to start by offering the high-end model with Super Drive, shipping this month, because we feel that the demand will be greater for these models" THe others will ship in Febuary and March. If you ask me, that's just Apple's little way of saying "Yep, we want more of your money". There's no way they can't ship the other two machines at the same time. Apple is pulling a fast one here.
Comments
<strong>Whiner. Go get a Dell.</strong><hr></blockquote>
Wow, how original!
The man has a valid point. 3 months to ship a new computer? It's bad business.
Also, for all we know, this could be worst case scenario, and Apple has taken into consideration way more orders than will actually occur; you might be in for a pleasant surprise. If you know anything about PR or marketing, that's always better than a negative one.
Anyway, there is a difference between complaining about 3 months wait, and complaining that Apple is trying to "pull a fast one" and screw over customers. If you don't like how Apple does business, go get a PC.
Heck, you think you have probs? I know somebody who has already promised quite a few clients new top-of-the-line iMacs by the end of the month.. I'm talking *quite* a few tens of thousands of dollars here. And it doesn't look like he'll be getting them in time.
[ 01-07-2002: Message edited by: bradbower ]</p>
"I don't want to have to wait another month for the one I want. I'll just spend an extra $300."
either
1.) The new imac is hard to manufacture and Apple doesn't have the production capacity.
or
2.) Apple just wants everyone to buy the 1800 one
I tried to think of an excuse as to why this would be the case, but none really floats. I thought, perhaps some supplies are constrained (ie flat panels). Even if this were the case, they could still produce all three models and have a limited supply of each.
When I saw the planned rollout scheme the first thing I thought was that they're testing the waters. They want to feel out demand before they start committing to production. Looks like they also want to rake in some cash in case the new iMac doesn't play well.
Exactly.
*runs to get some RDF antidote*
Some people are such sheep.
<strong>
If you ask me, that's just Apple's little way of saying "Yep, we want more of your money". There's no way they can't ship the other two machines at the same time. Apple is pulling a fast one here.</strong><hr></blockquote>
"Pulling a fast one?!"
Let there be no mistake -- Apple wants more of your money! When you come across a publically traded company that DOESN'T want more of your money, let me know please.
Furthermore, releasing a hot, new, in-demand product at a premium to begin with is an industry-wide practice. Dell does it, Sony does it, Gateway does it, IBM does it, and so on.
Apple knows that there are many people who will fall in love with this thing and WANT ONE -- their impulse of WANTING ONE will be stronger than their feelings about which specific model is the best deal or which one has the features they really need. Those people will buy one as soon as they're available, and if Apple wants to sell them a better computer at a higher price, it's not like they're getting ripped off.
Sure, many of those people would buy the cheapest model on Jan 31 if all 3 models were available, and Apple would get less money that way. Big deal. Early adopters of hot new products always pay more. At least this way they GET more (Superdrive, 800mhz CPU, etc.)
As a company, Apple haw to fill the orders of those who have spend more money on the machine. It's a good business practice.
I think that it's fairly obvious that the iMac shipping times are fairly pessimistic as well. That way, Jobs can 'surprise' everyone when all of the iMac models are shipping at MWTY.
I think that makes sense.
This model is gonna a whole lot faster by the end of the year too. Those are plain jane G4's running in there (with the on die cache.) Not the coolest chip by far. Apollo and G5 ar coming. iMac will probably be at/over a Ghz by mid year, at least on the high end.
[ 01-07-2002: Message edited by: starfleetX ]</p>
<strong>
*runs to get some RDF antidote*
Some people are such sheep.</strong><hr></blockquote>
Not only is this expected of Apple, and a perfectly fine practice in the industry--but I just don't mind. I'm too psyched about the iMac to get brought down by some pessimistic shipping estimates.
At least in the quantities needed.
This could well become the biggest LCD based product to date.
The $1299.00 model kinda sucks ass.
The $1499.00 model is okay.
Ideally, the best scenario would have been $1699.00 on the highend and $1399.00 on the lowend.
Just 2 models.
The imac is far harder to produce then nearly every other computer. when the original imac came out, i would guess that it also took them a while to get manufacturing going cause of the imacs comparitively hard assembly.