HOLY CRAP! Do they not get it...?
Up until now... I thought that there was a "master plan" behind all of what goes on at Apple. One thing mentioned in today's Financial ConfCall bothers me:
[quote]One particular area of concerns is pro sales. Such sales are flat in Europe. There wasn't the expected uplift in sales due to the release of Photoshop 7 for Mac OS X and some pro users are apparently delaying upgrading their systems until the release of the next version of Mac OS X, codenamed Jaguar, Anderson said.
<hr></blockquote>
WHAT...??? Do they really think THAT is why Pro sales have dropped...? OSX and PShop have NOTHING to do with it... it's the fact that their PowerMacs are in need of a speedBump and THAT is what the "Pros" are waiting for... NOT frickin' JAGUAR!
They may be waiting for Jag to switch from OS9 to OSX... but C'MON!!!!
It makes me wonder... do they REALLY think that...? Or do they just want to PROJECT that so as to deflect from discussion of future hardware to REMEDY that situation. Admission of it being due to pending future hardware would indicate that they are AWARE of it and are about to change it... thus leaking info...
I dunno... seems like a flimsy theory to me though...
What do y'all think...?
[quote]One particular area of concerns is pro sales. Such sales are flat in Europe. There wasn't the expected uplift in sales due to the release of Photoshop 7 for Mac OS X and some pro users are apparently delaying upgrading their systems until the release of the next version of Mac OS X, codenamed Jaguar, Anderson said.
<hr></blockquote>
WHAT...??? Do they really think THAT is why Pro sales have dropped...? OSX and PShop have NOTHING to do with it... it's the fact that their PowerMacs are in need of a speedBump and THAT is what the "Pros" are waiting for... NOT frickin' JAGUAR!
They may be waiting for Jag to switch from OS9 to OSX... but C'MON!!!!
It makes me wonder... do they REALLY think that...? Or do they just want to PROJECT that so as to deflect from discussion of future hardware to REMEDY that situation. Admission of it being due to pending future hardware would indicate that they are AWARE of it and are about to change it... thus leaking info...
I dunno... seems like a flimsy theory to me though...
What do y'all think...?
Comments
The reason that the PowerMacs have historically costed so much is because professional customers have been willing to pay for them. Even though Apple lost some volume they made it up with higher profits on each sale. That is obviously over now, so maybe Apple would be better off pricing them at what they should cost, $1100 - $2000. They'ed probably see a 50 to 100 per cent increase in sales.
<strong>That pricing of course kills the iMac and eMac.</strong><hr></blockquote>
Then lower the price of the iMac and eMac.
Apples business model is wrong, they need to rely on software (They give most of that away) instead of hardware. hardware sales are going to continue to decline simply because users are not going to need continuing preformance increases. The shift is that people will replace worn out machines, oh dear. How long will it be before any Macs over Ghz need to be laid out to rest?
and no, executives often never "get it." often times, they can't even work a fax machine, which seems to imply that most of them are simply lucky, and surrounded by nodding head yes-men.
if you work for an executive or boss who gets it, and is willing to fight those above and aroudn them for what is right and makes sense, stick with 'em... they are a rare breed indeed.
<strong>One of the consequences of faster processors is that fewer people need to upgrade. I have a G3-300 and I don't need to upgrade to run Office and Quark. I don't do heavy Photoshop, and Dreamweaver doesn't need power anyway.
Apples business model is wrong, they need to rely on software (They give most of that away) instead of hardware. hardware sales are going to continue to decline simply because users are not going to need continuing preformance increases. The shift is that people will replace worn out machines, oh dear. How long will it be before any Macs over Ghz need to be laid out to rest?</strong><hr></blockquote>
But this is not true in the "Pro" line... where Mhz (Ghz) make all the difference in the world... for those of us that DO use our CPUs to their fullest for FCP rendering, After Effects rendering, 3D Rendering (especially with Radiosity enabled)... I can have a single print-quality image take 40-60 hours to render if not longer on my 533Mhz w/ 1.5GB of Ram. I don't want to upgrade right now until I know what the "next" thing is... I'd be royally ticked-off if I just bought a QuickSilver right now... and then in two weeks they release a whole new architecture that would give me MUCH better bang for my buck.
A good portion of the designers I know (in the Boston Area) are similar to me in regards to type of work... web, print, video, audio...
I agree that killer apps are important... but there are a LOT of people waiting for the next "bump".
(Plus what was said before... the Design industry is having it's OWN issues right now)
<strong>Apples business model is wrong, they need to rely on software (They give most of that away) instead of hardware.</strong><hr></blockquote>
What they've been trying to do is push software which requires, or which is not infuriatingly slow on, buff hardware. They've also been pushing integrated hardware like the top-line iMac that is a one-piece, out-of-the-box multimedia authoring machine. They're smart in pushing what you can do with new hardware in very specific terms, rather than just rolling out faster and faster versions of the same thing.
Unfortunately, desktop sales in general are sucking. There are a lot of reasons for that.
Let's look at the PowerMac. Now, before someone jumps down my throat, I'll grant that the PM's are behind the curve - and especially, that they're perceived to be - in a number of real-world applications. But, let's look at other things, just as an exercise:
Item: The economy is in doldrums, and several of Apple's key markets have been clobbered as a result.
Item: Desktop sales overall are plummeting.
Item: Laptop sales are soaring (relatively).
Item: MWNY is of course on, and there's always a slump before MacWorlds.
It used to be that if you wanted a machine with any serious capability, you had to get a tower. That simply is not true anymore. PCI cards are far less common than they once were, because they are far less necessary. Laptops are now powerful enough to be primary machines even for people who use their computers to do heavy lifting. This means that PowerMac sales can also be getting eaten by eMac/iMac and PowerBook sales. Also, as you point out, even relatively low end machines are more than capable, so someone who might have purchased a PowerMac G3 back in 1998 or 1999 might consider an iBook now. The fact that one of Apple's least powerful machines is one of their most consistent sellers even in this market means something.
The thing is that Apple might actually want this to happen. Remember who's in charge. Towers mean cumbersome, loud machines with slots and bays, which Steve has never liked. The consumer machines and the notebooks are simple, quiet, self-contained, and expandable by extraordinarily simple, failsafe means.
The big, fast new machines will serve partly as flagships and mostly as workstations in markets that really do need that much power - 3D, cinema and HDTV quality video work, pro audio, scientific applications, Photoshop
[ 07-16-2002: Message edited by: Amorph ]</p>
<strong>Up until now... I thought that there was a "master plan" behind all of what goes on at Apple. One thing mentioned in today's Financial ConfCall bothers me:
WHAT...??? Do they really think THAT is why Pro sales have dropped...? OSX and PShop have NOTHING to do with it... it's the fact that their PowerMacs are in need of a speedBump and THAT is what the "Pros" are waiting for... NOT frickin' JAGUAR!
They may be waiting for Jag to switch from OS9 to OSX... but C'MON!!!!
It makes me wonder... do they REALLY think that...? Or do they just want to PROJECT that so as to deflect from discussion of future hardware to REMEDY that situation. Admission of it being due to pending future hardware would indicate that they are AWARE of it and are about to change it... thus leaking info...
I dunno... seems like a flimsy theory to me though...
What do y'all think...?</strong><hr></blockquote>
Hey, apply for an executive job at Apple, then. I'm sure they'll see the error in their ways.
<strong>Hey, apply for an executive job at Apple, then. I'm sure they'll see the error in their ways.</strong><hr></blockquote>
Nice attitude...
My point wasn't that I could do it better... far from it. I know enough about business to be dangerous... I openly admit that... I was just asking everyone about what THEY thought about his comments.
Case-in-point: Don't analysts use this information to make future decisions and assesments...? What happens when they release Jag & a new PM line at the same time... does Apple stick to their guns and give OSX-Jag the credit if sales go up...? If so... this skews the importance of FUTURE releases of hardware and/or OS releases...
"Hmmm... look how well Apple did with the release of Jaguar... now they're about to release OSX (10.4) and it should do the same for PM sales that it did in the past..."
Okay... not the most coherent example... but I "think" you know what I mean... it's about setting expectations and accounting for trends. If they mis-state their reasoning, doesn't it mislead the board, investors, etc...?
THAT was my point...
If I ran Apple, it'd be gone by now.
<strong>the power macs aren't selling because the design industry is in shambles.</strong><hr></blockquote>
You know? Your right. I haven't seen the design industry is such bad shape in years. All my peers are either laid-off, working shit-design jobs, freelance/contract jobs or WaWa. Why would a design firm even think of upgrading when they can't even stay in business? <img src="graemlins/oyvey.gif" border="0" alt="[No]" />