🚀 go-pugleaf

In article <4dop6b$ejm@ra.nrl.navy.mil>, pitre@n5160d.nrl.navy.mil
(Richard Pitre) wrote:

> In article <4dj7od$f9lq@navajo.gate.net>  writes:
> > Mike McCammant (mikemc@macshack.com) wrote:
> > : 
> > : Assuming that the poster meant $68M/Q, I wonder how many quarters it would
> > : take until the stockholders jumped ship? Not many.  Then all the that  $$$
> > : that is spoken of goes bye-bye. Make no bones about it, Apple is in deep
> > : do-do.
> > 
> > Let's see... Apple lost about $70 million in a quarter in which it sold 3 
> > million computers.  About $23 per computer.
> > 
> > So if Apple wants to get back into profitability, all they have to do is 
> > raise prices by $25/computer.  If they raised prices by $100/CPU, they'd 
> > lose a little bit of the bottom end, but they'd be making profits again.
> > 
> > The simplest strategy for Apple is to stop trying to meet Packard-Bell's 
> > price point, and start competing with *real* companies.
> > 
> > -- 
> > 
> > Chad Irby           /    My greatest fear: that future generations will,
> > cirby@gate.net     /      for some reason, refer to me as an "optimist."
> 
> If Apple raised their price by $25  I think that the street price would
go up  
> by a considerably greater amount. There is a simple problem that Apple
cannot  
> solve. The buying public is not sensitive to some differences in quality
that  
> Apple thinks are important. Dropping the bottom end of their line is
probably  
> smart because those machines only had a chance of appealing to people
who are  
> looking at gross prices versus gross advertised features. When it comes to  
> dealing with things that are gross the Wintel fraudsortium has it over  
> everyone.

Apple needs to employ the same strategy that the auto makers do. 0 margin
on the lowest end systems (for marketshare) and big margins on the high
end systems for profits. People will pay big dollar for high end systems.
8500 is #2 or #3 in system sales for Apple. If I need that kind of speed I
will pay what I need to pay. If I just need *something* then I will pay as
little as I can. 

People that buy 8500/9500s aren't just choosing a computer, they are
buying the fastest Mac they can get their hands on. A busy graphic artist
can cover the cost of an 8500 in their time in just a few months.
Increasing the price of high end systems will probably not hurt sales at
all.

People that buy low end systems just want to do Quicken, get on the net,
etc. Many generally don't care what they get, just so long as it is cheap.
Apple may not be able to cover the PC bigots or those with PC's at work
that they need to remain compatable with, but theres an awful lot that
don't fall in those two groups.

-- 
Bob Cassidy
UC Irvine