Comments on: Apple releases new machines, cuts prices

The holiday season is bringing a smaller price tag for the lowest-end iBook, among other treats from the computer maker.

Nice

"He went on to note: "We're certainly happy if they choose any Apple notebook."

What happen to the customer? Try providing the customer with something they can acutally use instead of the mantality of just buy any apple. Just another example of how lame apple really is. I'm so glad I "switched" back to windows based machines.

[Johnny Mnemonic]

What?

I think you may be the only person left on this
planet to prefer Windows over anything.

Reality Shows

I use Mac/Win/Unix every day, so I am multi-platform aware.

First: I think you are taking a small statement & blowing it way
out of proportion. If you go to any Apple Retail Store, the staff is
encouraged to listen carefully to the customer & ask a lot of
questions. This enables them to provide the "best client system
solution" possible - not over sell or under sell, since they are
NOT on commision.

Second: What every platform is your best solution & platform of
choice is fine. What works best for anybody to solve their
problems is great.

Third: NO one platform is the best at solving all your problems,
unless you are a very computer task limited person who rarely
uses a computer.

Fourth: 50% of Apple Retail Store sales are to "switchers" or
"adopters" of Macs, so that 95% figure is simply not possible.
That would leave 5% for ALL the other computers (Apple/Sun/
SGI/Linux/Open Source/Java) So that doesnot add up either.

Fifth: When software is Mac/Win capable, the sales of that
software are counted as PC/Win sales.

Sixth: Millions of people have Macs at home & schools. The 95%
figure is only for professional business / office computers.

Seven: BMW/Mercedes/Volvo/Lexus/InfinityHummer/LandRover/
Porche ALL HAVE LESS marketshare than Apple has in
computers. Good company. You can hang around with Michael
Dull dude...
-Eyes wide open in Seattle-

[iKenny]

Apple lame?

I think if any computer company can be labeled as lame, it's
Microsoft. Every day millions of people put up with security
flaws, confusing software, and technology that is harder to use
than it should be as a direct result of Microsoft. Consider this:
when I connect to a network (which takes about 3 seconds -
literally) on my Mac, it automatically finds any other Macs on the
network and can, without any additional software, share files
with them, share printers with them, chat with them, share
photos and music with them, and more, and I don't have to enter
a single IP address. Why, if Microsoft spends 10x Apple on
research, can they fail to come up with ideas like Exposé,
Rendezvous, or just an all-around easy to use interface? Make
all the excuses you want - if Microsoft hadn't locked everyone
in, competition would set in and soon Microsoft would be down
to Apple's marketshare numbers today.

[Jon N.]

Cool...

COOL! I don't believe it, but it's true! Apple Inc. has actually made a excellent marketing move. A PowerPC with expansion slots for $1.5K! I've always had a bit of MAC envy, & now I think I'll put my nickels & dimes in my piggy for one. Let's just hope that this is a pre-cursor for the day sometime next year, when the PowerPC MAC is equipped with a G5 @ 3.0 GHz. !

Not "differentiation" this is "price discrimination"

The differences between the iBook and the PowerBooks are not
about differentiation as Apple says. I just bought a refurbed
iBook from store.apple.com. The differences are about price
discrimination. Apple knows that some people will pay more for
non-mirrored video, for the DVI connector, for a larger hard
drive. The PowerBook puts those features into aluminum for
$1,000 more. I think economists might call this 3rd degree
price discrimination.

[crescentdave]

Details are Optional

Re: the $999 model: love the lack of actual specs. Size of hard drive? Speed of hard drive? Cached or not? Speed of CD burner? Assisted graphics? Connectivity (how many usb/firewire ports)? Room for expansion?

12 inch screen. That's rough baby. Real rough.