Apple to drop sub-$500 Mac bomb at Expo. ⇒
29 December 2004, late morning
I hope this is true. This link was found via Slashdot.
This is a post from my link log: If you click the title of this post you will be taken the web page I am discussing.
29 December 2004, late morning
I hope this is true. This link was found via Slashdot.
This is a post from my link log: If you click the title of this post you will be taken the web page I am discussing.
If this is true, it means they’ve actually been reading my offensive and insulting emails.
by rishi on December 29 2004, 12:17 pm #
It would be nice if it is true. Mind you, at this expo they are also supposed to announce the FireWire audio capture tool, the iPod Flash, the Apple/Motorola iPhone, and now this. That’s a lot of products.
I want to believe.
by ramanan on December 29 2004, 1:12 pm #
Maybe all those other products are false rumors leaked by Apple to throw people off the track of the Q88. Maybe they do have all those products lined up. It’s about time, anyways. I can’t remember the last MacExpo that was worthy of having a live feed.
by rishi on December 29 2004, 1:29 pm #
Ok, this (if true) will be the perfect media desktop. Add more storage, memory and Airport Express and you have a media center streaming tunes around the house. Add a tv tuner, and you have a pvr. No need for a dedicated display; do it remotely.
This has tremendous hacking potential! I can foresee people abandoning the XBox and tweak this!
by Sunny on December 30 2004, 12:09 am #
I know, I know…Airport Extreme.
by Sunny on December 30 2004, 12:22 am #
No you were right. Airport Extreme is apples 802.11g card. Airport Express is the wireless router that streams music to HiFis.
by ramanan on December 30 2004, 12:57 am #
Well…more proof that I am a victim of the Apple marketing machine.
Yeah, I will be buying this when it (if) comes out. But what happens to Gruber’s assertion that Apple doesn’t care for marketshare?
by Sunny on December 30 2004, 5:10 am #
Even if they aren’t trying to gain market share, they are trying to gain profits. The fact that there probably is a captive market of PC users who just don’t want to pay for a fancy Mac is a silly business opportunity to pass up.
by ramanan on December 30 2004, 10:49 am #
Every public company cares about market share. If they didn’t show profits (which grow by either increasing revenue, or decreasing costs), then their shareholders would sell their stock and put it in a company whose value is increasing.
I think anyone who thinks that Apple doesn’t care about increasing their market share don’t fully appreciate the basics of running a publicly-traded business. I will agree that that they are caught in a conflict of appeasing shareholders and producing computers of such high aesthetic that most people cannot afford them. Apple has to care about market share, because by introducing products like titanium laptops and 30” lcd screens, they are certainly not reducing their production costs. The only way they are going to improve the price of their stock is by selling more products.
Fortunately, Apple has discovered that there is a price range where the general public is willing to spend on well-crafted digital devices. There is no doubt that focussing on the iPod is probably the best business decision Apple has made in a very long time. It’s beautiful, and it sells like mad. What more their directors ask for?
I think the “headless mac” could also be a redefining product for Apple. I have felt this way for a very very very long time, and I am eager to find out if this rumor is hollow or not.
by rishi on December 30 2004, 12:29 pm #
But Rishi, Apple doesn’t need to increase its market share though, just its sales and profits. I think Apple has been selling more computers every year since Jobs joined. The fact that there market share shrinks is due to the fact Dell is selling even more computers every year. Apple can be profitable without gaining market share.
Also, here is the John Gruber article I think Sunny is referring too.
by ramanan on December 30 2004, 1:25 pm #
Right, I wasn’t really clear in my rant. I wasn’t really talking about present day so much. Right now, you can sell more computers every day while losing your market share because computers are not yet a “necessity”. I was talking in the context of a more mature industry, which the personal computer industry is well on it’s way to becoming in North America.
Given the rapidly increasing presence of computers everywhere, and the lack of a need to be perpetually upgrading, Apple will soon be faced with being limited to increasing profits by taking market share away from others. If they do start making barebones Macs, I would read it as an indicator that they do in fact realise how little growth is left in personal computing, and they have no choice but to fight Dell and HP on their own turf; the sub-$500 arena.
by rishi on December 30 2004, 2:18 pm #