apple pricepoints, something makes no sense.

Posted:
in Current Mac Hardware edited January 2014
Talk about extreme. For those who do not want all in one units



1. Mac Mini 499, G4 1.25,40mb drive and 256M of memory



2. Mac G5 1.8GHZ,80GB drive, 256M of memory and an old 5200 64mb videocard for only 1499 (no monitor included)





1499 gets you a dell with 1GB of ram, 3GHZ current gen P4, 160GB FDD, 256MB 6800 PCIe nvidia(video etc) and a 19inch flat monitor.



I love OSX and my Mini but the G5 is a real tough sell for what you get, the Mini is an easy sell but Apple needs to drop those margins just a wee bit. The CPU does not bother me but it just seems Apple really skimps on the other items (ie videocard, memory etc..)

Comments

  • Reply 1 of 9
    chopper3chopper3 Posts: 293member
    Quote:

    Originally posted by hugodrax

    Talk about extreme. For those who do not want all in one units



    1. Mac Mini 499, G4 1.25,40mb drive and 256M of memory



    2. Mac G5 1.8GHZ,80GB drive, 256M of memory and an old 5200 64mb videocard for only 1499 (no monitor included)





    1499 gets you a dell with 1GB of ram, 3GHZ current gen P4, 160GB FDD, 256MB 6800 PCIe nvidia(video etc) and a 19inch flat monitor.



    I love OSX and my Mini but the G5 is a real tough sell for what you get, the Mini is an easy sell but Apple needs to drop those margins just a wee bit. The CPU does not bother me but it just seems Apple really skimps on the other items (ie videocard, memory etc..)




    I couldn't agree with you more regarding disk and ram but the 6800 family runs too hot right now to work in an imac without the fans being on all the time, that's not a problem if you have a separate box with fans already loud-enough to cool a P4



    Perhaps the answer would be to put in a x800 as that runs a lot cooler and is broadly similar to the 6800 - then again you can't BTO an x800 into a G5 yet so that's not going to happen.
  • Reply 2 of 9
    sunilramansunilraman Posts: 8,133member
    Quote:

    Originally posted by hugodrax

    Talk about extreme. For those who do not want all in one units



    1. Mac Mini 499, G4 1.25,40mb drive and 256M of memory



    2. Mac G5 1.8GHZ,80GB drive, 256M of memory and an old 5200 64mb videocard for only 1499 (no monitor included)





    1499 gets you a dell with 1GB of ram, 3GHZ current gen P4, 160GB FDD, 256MB 6800 PCIe nvidia(video etc) and a 19inch flat monitor.



    I love OSX and my Mini but the G5 is a real tough sell for what you get, the Mini is an easy sell but Apple needs to drop those margins just a wee bit. The CPU does not bother me but it just seems Apple really skimps on the other items (ie videocard, memory etc..)




    The PowerMac g5 even single 1.8ghz is very very much faster than the G4 though, and this is the primary product-image problem Apple is having with the PowerMac line (and yeah, lower RAM and hard disk and older GPU does not help).



    Overall, you have highlighted possible perception issues which have seen PowerMac (including Xserve) unit numbers and revenue decrease compared to the previous quarter and even compared to the year-ago quarter (gonna pimp my chart again (hey it took me a while to make it!!)) ::



  • Reply 3 of 9
    hugodraxhugodrax Posts: 116member
    Well I was comparing the PowemacG5 not Imac, From looking at the chart it makes sense why PowerMac G5s sell so poorly.



    They get a perfectly good CPU and saddle it with a slow videocard, very little RAM and a small HD.



    Obviously the CASE is fine and does not need a redesign so that should save them money right there but they need to offer the consumer a little more gravy when the expect to sell a high tier model for a starting price of 1499 (sans monitor)



    I wonder if Apple is trying to squeeze huge profit margins risking diminishing marketshare of highend units?
  • Reply 4 of 9
    hmurchisonhmurchison Posts: 12,419member
    Quote:

    I wonder if Apple is trying to squeeze huge profit margins risking diminishing marketshare of highend units?



    Nothing that diabolical. Apple is simply trying to make a computer aimed at the home which is different from the commodity ATX chassis PC.



    It's not too hard to understand why the iMac isn't the same price as the Dell. The iMac cannot use standard ATX casing of course. I haven't met many people that have purchased the iMac G5 and not loved it. It's quiet and when stocked with enough RAM, fast and capable.



    Apple has simply eschewed the PC mantra of bloat. Consumer typically "think" they need the excess but many are fine with a rather limited amount of specs. The iMac G5 isn't perfect but you won't understand it unless you take a holistic view of what a majority of households want or need.
  • Reply 5 of 9
    hugodraxhugodrax Posts: 116member
    The issue I have is not with the iMacs but the Powermac G5 towers. Those are supposed to be the pro units.
  • Reply 6 of 9
    You are correct. Apple definitely lacks a middle-road "prosumer" headless computer, or at least one that is priced accordingly.



    A G5 system in the $1000 range with midrange or lower high-end components would be a big improvement, IMO.
  • Reply 7 of 9
    hmurchisonhmurchison Posts: 12,419member
    Apple's biggest problem is having Powermacs with standard PCI. If the whole lineup had PCI-X then I could see the value.



    I don't think that $1000 is a very good pricepoint to prosumers but that's just my personal opinion and of course who exactly is a "Prosumer"? Debatable indeed.



    I'm eager to see what Apple has to offer. I know they'll be chintzy somewhere which vexes me but enough of the plain jane entery level. Every "Power"mac should be living up to it's name.
  • Reply 8 of 9
    gamblorgamblor Posts: 446member
    Quote:

    Originally posted by hmurchison

    Apple's biggest problem is having Powermacs with standard PCI. If the whole lineup had PCI-X then I could see the value.





    Honestly, I don't see that as too much of an issue. Right now, I've got a 12" Powerbook G4 that I've had for a bit over two years. Before that, I had a Quicksilver 733MHz. I made three upgrades to it, before getting rid of it. I upgraded the video card, added a hard drive, and added memory. The PCI slots just didn't make any difference. I think that if I had a Powermac now, I'd probably be in the same type of situation-- with one caveat: if it were possible to add a RAID card & three drives for a RAID 5 array, I'd seriously consider doing that. For what I do, and what I want to do (mainly stuff like Photoshop/Illustrator, Lightwave 3D, Final Cut Pro), a decently quick (say G5 2.0GHz with 1/2 speed bus) machine that had upgradable video, memory, and harddrives, I think that'd be perfect for me. Price it at $1000, and I'll be all over it like a cheap suit.



    I suppose it's possible that I'm in a minority on this, but I suspect that's not the case. It seems to me that card slots (even quick card slots) are something that are needed by a specific crowd, not by a majority of "prosumers". But, I could be wrong-- it's happened before.
  • Reply 9 of 9
    hmurchisonhmurchison Posts: 12,419member
    Gamblor I have NEVER known you to be wrong
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