Will prices of mac's come down?
I think this is a BIG contributer to why apple isnt making even bigger strides to being on top of the computer market, or at least closer to being there. Apple has done well with the ipod keeping the price reasonable and not rasing it for every new ipod, but really, bring the price down. I read an article on the mac being cheaper then dell, well who cares, dell is an overpriced rip off of a computer. HP and Compaq, they are the real bang for ure buck, and they are the ones NOW doing the best, Dell has lost tons, HP is getting more and more popular, so if apple can go in that direction as well, there is no stopping this company!
So.. anyways, is a price drop in sight??
So.. anyways, is a price drop in sight??
Comments
There's no need - Apple wants to appeal to a different end of the market and always have.
The question is... what do you get for your money? Try looking at *comparable* hardware, and the latest round of Macs (especially the Mac Pro) are pretty nicely priced against the PC side.
But yes, if you're looking for rock-bottom machines, then you need to look elsewhere than Apple. And, I believe, Apple is just fine with that.
Let me take the Macbook as a comparison. First off this machine isn't overpriced, it's well within it's price category. Just go look for any other 12-13" laptop out there with a 1.83-2ghz core duo and you'll see what I mean.
The build quality of the machine itself is very nice, the choice of plastics and textures, the way all the connectors are submounted and the slot loading drive.
Then there are the little things like optical audio ports, magnetic lid clasp, magsafe power cord, full size firewire jack and so on. Things that don't necessarily jump out at you at first but make the whole experience nice.
Now I admit HP is offering a lot of nice laptops these days with perks like lightscribe and flash card readers and even dual harddrives in some models. But while they may offer those features they do it in place of the features I mentioned above and without the same build quality and eye on design.
I admit I wish the macbook had better graphics and it would be nice to have a feature that lets you play DVD's without turning the machine on. But I think that if you look at any machine out there it is always a give and take scenario.
Even so I think some Mac's could offer a little more for their money. The 17" Macbook Pro comes to mind. I configured a 17" HP model that had all the bells and whistles (two 120gig hard drives, TV tuner, ultrabright screen, Lightscribe DL DVD-+RW, quickplay, remote, you name it) for $700 less then the 17" Macbook Pro that doesn't come with half that stuff.
Once you go Mac, you'll never go back.
cinema displays may be the exception.
Will prices of mac's what come down?
I love you.
At first glance most Apple computers look overpriced. But you really have to get up close to them and go over them throughly. The build quality is generaly very good and they have a lot of little things that are nice.
Let me take the Macbook as a comparison. First off this machine isn't overpriced, it's well within it's price category. Just go look for any other 12-13" laptop out there with a 1.83-2ghz core duo and you'll see what I mean.
The build quality of the machine itself is very nice, the choice of plastics and textures, the way all the connectors are submounted and the slot loading drive.
Then there are the little things like optical audio ports, magnetic lid clasp, magsafe power cord, full size firewire jack and so on. Things that don't necessarily jump out at you at first but make the whole experience nice.
Now I admit HP is offering a lot of nice laptops these days with perks like lightscribe and flash card readers and even dual harddrives in some models. But while they may offer those features they do it in place of the features I mentioned above and without the same build quality and eye on design.
Apple build quality is as shitty as any other brand which uses south east asian sweatshops as their OEM. Because... Apple builds their stuff in south east asian sweatshops.
Apples aren't really more expensive. They just don't have any stripper models and they don't trash their computers with adware.
It's like American cars. People say Americans can't build cars worth a darn anymore. I disagree, they are building very good cars down at the Honda and Toyota plants in Ohio and Kentucky. And they'd be building just as good of cars in the GM and Ford plants here in Detroit if the cars themselves would have just been designed better to begin with. Which from time to time we get.
Apple products are designed betteer to begin with.
Apple build quality is as shitty as any other brand which uses south east asian sweatshops as their OEM. Because... Apple builds their stuff in south east asian sweatshops.
Apples aren't really more expensive. They just don't have any stripper models and they don't trash their computers with adware.
I'm really getting tired of this traditional american xenophobia. Yeah, there used to be a time when just about anything in Japan/Asia was poorly designed and constructed. Now, however, they're more than rivaling domestic car manufacturers, and have owned the electronics market for over a decade.
Have you seen some of the assembly lines they have in China? We're not talking dirt floors and no air conditioning. China currently has an extreme excess of labor, and they're using that to their advantage. I work in a lab full of chinese students, and although they'll admit that although current living standards aren't used to what we have in the west, they're quite confident that given their powerful workforce, they'll soon have a tech-driven economy to rival that of ours.
Also interesting are their feelings on the current communist regime: "Eh, it's only one more form of government in our six thousand year history."
The currently Intel transition is still extremely bumpy, from constrained macbook supply, to first generation Mac pro product design flaws. Not to mention software delays due to the move to intel. Even pro applications such as Final Cut Pro missed the entire revision cycle due to the herculean move to Universal Binary.
Once things simmer down, Apple could literally pull the lever and spur great mac sales. How about $300 off any purchase when traded in with a PC? Apple has the cash to do this and can reap the profits of future software sales. How about a migration manager that will perfectly move someone over from Windows to Mac with zero effort?
How about Apple offering an xMac? Or a Mobile OS X device. Or an iPhone?
Apple will only lower prices when they are ready to handle the volume. Right now, they could not.
Have you seen some of the assembly lines they have in China? We're not talking dirt floors and no air conditioning. China currently has an extreme excess of labor, and they're using that to their advantage. I work in a lab full of chinese students, and although they'll admit that although current living standards aren't used to what we have in the west, they're quite confident that given their powerful workforce, they'll soon have a tech-driven economy to rival that of ours.
Also interesting are their feelings on the current communist regime: "Eh, it's only one more form of government in our six thousand year history."
The question is how the rural poor are making out. The problem is if someone tries to respark another cultural revolution given the disparity of wealth. Hence the huge overreaction back in 1989...and the good number of Chinese millionares with their families in the US living upper middle class lives rather than the rich rich lives in China (servants, housekeepers, etc).
Vinea
I still havent' found a mini pc that gives me what my Mac mini does.
Mac OSX?
1. "Starting at LOW LOW price" -- Dell often qoutes their lowest price in the ads and only later do you realize that if you customize the model to be something useful, it becomes no longer dirt cheap. Apple, for example, could advertise at the end of its new Ads, "Macs starting at 599$" and then show the image of the iMac and then in fine print say "model not shown" A bit like the monitor not included tactic.
2."Rebates, rebates, rebates!" -- Dell makes expert use of rebates for everything, making the computer seem cheaper but requiring the consumer to buy something that they might not work. AKA "Dude! Dulls start at 399$****" fine print = *** after 100$ rebate for the 100$ printer you bought. My favorite occasion of this was when I checked Dell a while back and saw "free shipping on all orders! **" fine print = after 19.99$ mail-in-rebate!!
-jay
This is a bit of topic, but I've always wondered why Apple doesn't adopt Dell-like headfake pricing tactics.
Because they try to maintain a somewhat bearable customer reputation?