🚀 go-pugleaf

In article <7644@dhw68k.cts.com>, Roger L. Long (bytebug) writes:

>>that I feel are damaging to Apple's future:
>>1)  These lawsuits.  see above
>
>       ...or perhaps it will turn out to protect Apple's future.

Apple has been in the position ever since the introduction of the Macintosh to
have the name "Macintosh" synonymous with "ease of use" just as people tend to
say Xerox more than photocopy and Kleenex more than facial tissue.  With a
product in this kind of situation, the Macintosh would already be in the mind
of the consumer, thus avoiding what advertising typically is for these days.
Example: hypothetical situation in the future: Your wife tells you to go down
to the local computer store and buy a Macintosh (being used in the sense of an
easy to use computer).  Will this make it more likely for you to buy a Mac over
something else with a similar interface?  In this kind of situation,
advertising can be used to expand upon the idea of a Macintosh in people's
minds, not just trying to get in their minds in the first place.  I personally
feel the Macintosh's interface is substantially superior than Windows and other
similar interfaces, why not let that be the deciding factor in the end?

>>2)  a low end computer is needed for competition with IBM clones.  The other
>>thing consumers look at besides the computer that exists today is the bottom
>>line: price.
>
>       Why?  Whenever I select ANY product, one of the last things I look at
>       is price.  Quality and ease-of-use and how long it's going to last and
>       whether it's going to be supported are far more important to me in
>       shopping for VCRs, TVs, toasters, *and* computers.

Well I don't have the money to look at price last.  As a matter of fact, that
HAS to be my primary consideration, otherwise I would have bought a Mac II (on
the basis of being supported).  This tends to be more of the situation:
According to a recent survey, people when purchasing cars tend to look at price
first, then looks, etc. etc.  But a low end machine would have several
advantages to Apple's way of thinking:
a)  They want to make the computer for "the rest of us."  Well, when people are
going out and buying their first computer, they very rarely have the money to
go out and buy a $3000 computer system.  These people are very rarely
represented on a board like this, but I don't see how you could deny it.  Thus,
they are considering price first.  If they look at Macintosh, they'll see a
bottom line SE (two drives and Imagewriter //) priced at around $2500, they'll
see a bottom line PCompatible (which will fall apart in two years, from my
experiences with several of the cheap clones, but these purchasers don't know
that and thus it doesn't matter, i.e. it doesn't influence the sale) priced at
$1300 (that's with a 20 meg HD and typical parallel printer).  At half the
price, the IBM clone will look a lot better.  So they buy the IBM (since they
can't afford the Mac because "Apple has no duty to satisfy a low-end
customer").  Two years later, when the clone falls apart, they have the money
to afford a $3000 system.  But by now they are a) educated about the quality of
the cheap clones and b) have all that software and information on IBM and
wouldn't want to change.  The solution: buy a 286-based high-quality clone and
be entrenched in the IBM market for eternity.  After using an Apple II for 5
years, we had so much information on it that when it died (bad experiences with
lightning), we HAD to replace it because transfering the data would have been
next to impossible.  This is all how, when Apple doesn't satisfy the low-end
customer, it loses sales to these people when they become high-end customers.
b) Apple is much more concerned about the business market right now (always
have been really).  If we divide the business market into two divisions: one
division being small businesses that might be looking into getting one computer
for finances and other things and the other division being the already
successful companies that already have computers (mostly IBMs), then I can see
two possible markets to attack.  If Apple attacks the already successful
companies, their efforts are almost worthless (this is actually what they are
doing).  These companies are not going to replace all those IBMs and transfer
all that data just to have Macintoshes.  Very few companies have done this, and
it's all based around money.  The other market is severely affected by price.
They typically only want one computer, don't have money to throw around, and
thus wind up in the same situation as the first-time computer buyer consumer
described above.  They also typically come to the same conclusion: buy a cheap
IBM clone.  When these companies become big, successful companies, they already
have IBMs and Apple has lost a lot of potential sales due to not satisfying the
low-end consumer.
[these situations are based on my experiences with several small businesses
looking to purchase a computer and with large corporations that already have
IBMs.  The typical consumer situation is based on about 20 people that I have
recommended the purchase of a computer to over the years.  Thus you can hardly
say I'm making it up]

My suggestion for supplying printer drivers is based on price, which falls into
the same situation as above.  I could get a serial Okidata printer for about
half the price of an Imagewriter //, but since Apple doesn't supply printer
drivers, they are hard to find.  People buying a first computer are not going
to know about these things (and I doubt Apple dealers would mention it to
them), thus they're looking at $500 for a printer instead of $250-$300.  It all
falls into the same situation.

>>4)  the current policy with charging for replacement fans for the SE.
>>Hopefully, if I can get onto this board when I go home, you'll be seeing a
>>proposal to Apple up here trying to explain how a policy like this can
damage>>their future.
>
>       You know, I bought a car a few years back.  Undoubtedly, there have
>       been some changes made to that car model in the past couple years.
>       What do you think the dealer is going to tell me if I take my car in
>       and tell him I want the better radio put into my car at no cost?

I would hardly consider changing the fan merely an improvement.  Having worked
with both the old and new ones now (I recently had mine upgraded), I would call
it a defect in the original design.  Example: about two years ago Toyota
recalled the Tercels from a couple of years of manufacturering to replace the
ignition system because it had shown to be defective and could become a very
expensive thing to fix if it went out.  They did this at no cost, and the fan
seems like the exact same situation.  Toyota knows how to handle situations
like this and keep customer satisfaction, Apple just needs to learn things like
this.

>       Again, free enterprise.  You don't like your local Apple dealer because
>       he doesn't know anything?  Vote with your feet and go find another.

I'd like to go find another, but as I said, I've yet to find a SINGLE one!  Now
I'm sure they're out there, but the first experience with a dealer for a given
product is most often the most significant one (When shoping for cars, you
learn all about the given car at the first dealer you visit and your only
concerns when you visit other dealers is price.)  I would go out of my way for
a knowledgable dealer, but they sure aren't helping.

And I have seen their latest annual report.  What I see is a company that has
grown too fast that is going to get so obsessed with their success that when
this isn't happening ten years from now they won't know why.  I don't want to
see that happen because I like their products, but I can't see it not
happening.  Right now the two biggest names in personal computers is IBM and
Apple.  IBM is (roughly) 10 times older than Apple.  It also has the experience
to be an incredibly stable company no matter what the current economic
situation.  If Apple wants to compete with them (which they do), they will have
to be just as stable or they'll never be able to be keep their competitiveness
through poorer economic situations.

Terence Murphy
Note: Since I'm leaving school in two days, I won't be reachable electronically
and also won't be contributing to this discussion anymore (I can hear the
cheers already).  But don't stop on my account.
address via US Mail:
2700 Evans Dale Cir
Atlanta GA  30340  USA