Here's why Apple charges so darn much...

[halfadder]

Steve Jobs and the Great Glass Elevator/Staircase/Cube.

http://www.flickr.com/photos/jurvetson/148925935/
and
http://www.appleinsider.com/article.php?id=1759
and
http://switchblog.com/2006/05/apple-store-fifth-avenue_114806485711353517.html

Yes, that's all glass. Yes, that's an all glass elevator in the center of the staircase. No, the staircase is frosted, so the women in skirts don't have to worry.

 

[evilsaint]

Yeesh, the store is even going to be open 24/7... it's pretty... but futile and useless, like their computers

You got it right Halfadder... I doubt they'd get many more converts to their actual computers, but i'll be damned if they couldn't sell more of those Cinema Displays if they put competitive price tags on 'em.

 

[halfadder]

I became a Mac OS X fan some time ago, and I *LOVE* my MacBookPro, especially now with WinXP dual boot as well as the neat new Parallels virtual machine. I love the iLife software bundle and I just ordered Final Cut Express HD 3.5.

But... as much as I'm loving the Unix/NeXT/Mac side of things, I still like WinXP, enough to where I can't overlook Apple's prices and narrow product range. I don't mind paying a little more for quality and neat features (heck, I drive a BMW) but the high prices and elitist attitude is going to continue to hurt Apple's market and minimize the number of applications. Latst I checked, there are only about 1500 applications for Mac OS X Intel. Compare that to about 100,000 for WinXP Intel. This creates a need for dual booting, which keeps fueling the Microsoft monopoly.

When I see things like the new Apple Glass Cube Store, I can't help but think of the old jab at McDonalds:
"If the secret sauce is supposedly so good, then why doesn't McDonalds leave the burger business and make a killing selling their sauce in every supermarket in the world?"

 

[mechBgon]

If Apple gets around to releasing a version of their OS that'll run on non-officially-Apple hardware, then you could make your own Mac-alike for significant savings. Price up an iMac with those specs and kiss about six extra bills goodbye.

 

[Mundos]

id use osx if it was compatible with the software i like...

i want all the mac people out there to remember, the more mac secures of the computer market, the more people are going to work to exploit their os and software...and it may end up looking just as lame as windows swiss cheese edition....just something to keep in mind.

 

[fire400]

Originally posted by: evilsaint
Yeesh, the store is even going to be open 24/7... it's pretty... but futile and useless, like their computers

You got it right Halfadder... I doubt they'd get many more converts to their actual computers, but i'll be damned if they couldn't sell more of those Cinema Displays if they put competitive price tags on 'em.

wow really? 24/7... a computer STORE that sells Macs!? WOW WOW WOW

 

[Robor]

No surprise... Haven't the Mac's always been style and looks over performance and functionality?

 

[halfadder]

Originally posted by: Robor
No surprise... Haven't the Mac's always been style and looks over performance and functionality?

I don't think it's style OVER performance/functionality, but I do think the obsession for style has caused the company to spend less time on performance and features.

Even the original Mac, GUI and all, was designed for the most possible performance. Other Macs over the years have also stressed performance, like the high end Quadras, or the Mac IIfx. Even the G4 had a huge emphasis on performance. Months before the G4 was even available to developers, Apple had G4 simulator software available for free so developers could optimize for Altivec. The G4 was actually really powerful for its time, at least for the first year, then it started to fall behind, so Apple had to do other tricks, like more cache and dual CPUs to stay competitive.

Back to style. If Apple were to dump some of the more frivolous eyecandy from it's machines they could offer more performance for the dollar. Apple is a large company with a lot of buying power, they could easily be a market price leader.

It could be worse. At least the new MacBook is fairly close to competitive PC notebooks in terms of price and features. But if it was less flashy and had simpler packaging, Apple probably could have put a 128 MB X1400 in there without changing the price. With the educational discount, my MacBookPro didn't cost much more than a similar Acer. The real acid test will be the upcoming Merom-powered desktop towers.

 

[w00t]

That is sweet.