Path: utzoo!utgpu!water!watmath!clyde!bellcore!faline!thumper!ulysses!andante!princeton!njin!rutgers!mailrus!ames!amdahl!pyramid!pyrnj!esquire!sbb From: sbb@esquire.UUCP (Stephen B. Baumgarten) Newsgroups: comp.sys.mac Subject: Re: Apple Gets Greedier (Read it and Weep!) Keywords: Apple, Mac, Prices, Rip-off Message-ID: <636@esquire.UUCP> Date: 14 Sep 88 19:00:45 GMT References: <1018@lakesys.UUCP> <68072@sun.uucp> <68083@sun.uucp> <1025@lakesys.UUCP> Reply-To: sbb@esquire.UUCP (Stephen B. Baumgarten) Distribution: na Organization: DP&W, New York, NY Lines: 49 In article <1025@lakesys.UUCP> macak@lakesys.UUCP (Jim Macak) writes: >But look at it this way for a moment: IBM is currently faltering badly wrt >its line of PS/2 computers. No matter what IBM claims, the PS/2 line is not >selling as well as IBM had expected. The "new standard" of PS/2 and OS-2 has >thus far been largely rejected by corporate America. > >This would seem to be a golden opportunity for Apple: IBM loosing market share >with its graphic interface looking dead in the water. > >What if Apple pulled out all the stops, hurredly brought new manufacturing >facilities on line, and started flooding the market with reasonably-priced >Macintosh CPUs? > >OK, maybe the Mac still wouldn't become the dominant business computer. But I >bet the Mac's share of the business market would increase _dramitically_ under >this scenario. But price is not what's keeping Macs out of corporations (although it is keeping them out of homes/schools/dorm rooms/etc.). Since Apple has obviously decided that for now the corporate market is more important than any other, it makes sense for them to raise prices. In fact, most market analysts praised Apple's move, suggesting that it showed good business sense and would undoubtedly help Apple's bottom line. I regret the increase too. But my company, which has been vacillating for weeks about getting a Mac II for our typesetting group, has finally decided to get one next week. The fact that prices went up 20% really makes no difference at all, since for what we're buying a Macintosh for, there are no real alternatives (and that's why we love it so, right?). Besides, the increase, when taken in context of the Full Page Display, scanner, tape backup unit, software, etc., really adds very little to our total system cost. Apple is slowly realizing that businesses that paid top dollar for "true-blue" IBM equipment years ago (even though clones were cheaper, more reliable and better performers) are perfectly willing to pay top dollar for Apple equipment now. Maybe the prices will drop when the new Macs come out next year... -- Steve Baumgarten | "New York... when civilization falls apart, Davis Polk & Wardwell | remember, we were way ahead of you." {uunet,cmcl2}!esquire!sbb | sbb%esquire@cmcl2.nyu.edu | - David Letterman