Russell Beattie: The $500 Mac. I found this article via Alex King, but really, the whole web is abuzz with the idea that Apple may announce a $500 Mac without a monitor at Macworld San Francisco tomorrow. Russell digs into the idea a bit more than the typical “I want one!” histrionics to really consider what the benefits would be to Apple’s business.
I’ve been watching Apple for a long, long time. I pine away over their product announcements, invite my friends and loved ones to consider a Mac before they buy a PC, and proselytize the adamantly ignorant over the strides Apple has made in the past few years. Apple doesn’t suck any more. There’s serious innovation going on in Cupertino these days–Steve Jobs put it best at MacWorld a year or two ago, “Microsoft is copying us again, it’s great!” I even own a couple of Apple products.
But neither of them are computers, and both of them were gifts (namely, my iPod and my Airport Express). I’ll gladly spend an afternoon in the Apple store playing with the latest and greatest products, but I’ve never left having spent more than $50–usually for some iPod accessory or something. To make matters worse, I’ve directly purchased, or given advice over purchasing, six computers in the past three years. Three of them were Dells, for which I’m still doing penance. There were also two Compaqs and an IBM. All were new except for the IBM Thinkpad. Why? Because in every case, though I would have preferred or recommended an Apple, it always came down to the barrier to entry. And, in almost every case, that barrier to entry came down to a dollar number.
There were two situations where the purchasers just would not consider an Apple because they were “used to” or had a significant investment in Windows. In the remaining four cases, Apple would have been a fine or even preferred alternative–but it came with a high premium. We bought my mom a computer for Christmas last year. It came with a monitor, CPU, and printer. Total cost including shipping and tax? About $360. Three hundred and sixty dollars! It was almost criminal. Sure it was a special case, and Dell was running some great deals leading up to the holidays. Consider, though, my sister Jaime, my wife Sarah, and our friend Alex, all of whom looking for laptops. For Sarah, we found a $300 Thinkpad on eBay, and I loaded a copy of Windows 98 for which I’d already had a license. To spend $1,200 on a new iBook was just too much money. Alex and Jaime, on the other hand, were willing to spend serious cash, and this is where Apple tends to win out over competitors. That is, until you consider the additional $340 you have to spend on the Mac edition of Office 2004. You know, if you actually want to collaborate with classmates or coworkers. Both of them went with PC alternatives.
Beattie notes that by leveraging the existing monitors, keyboards, printers, and other PC hardware, Apple has turned a hindrance into an opportunity. Rather than demand that PC users cast their investments into the closet and buy a Mac, it would seem that they’re inviting PC users to use their existing hardware the next time they upgrade their desktop machines. One might wonder if they’ve taken a key learning from their foray into the consumer electronics market–namely, the art of parlay. With the iPod, Apple is taking a fantastic product and leveraging it to present to us, their new-found adoring fans, another fantastic product: the iTunes Music Store. John Gruber makes this argument more coherently than I, but the point is this: the more barriers Apple tears down, or leverages to their advantage, to break into the wider PC market, the more likely people will be to buy a Mac.
I would go even further and suggest, if there really will be such a thing as an Apple-branded office package called iWork, that Apple offer upgrade pricing to users of Microsoft Office. Provide the discount in the form of a price break at the register or in the form of a rebate. Either way, continue to parlay the investment in PCs as an investment in Apple. If I get iWork for a discount because of my copy of Microsoft Office 2000, I won’t just see Apple taking my initial investment into consderation, but I’ll also believe I got a great deal.
Will I buy a $500 Mac? Probably not this time around. Sarah and I are huge fans of WiFi, and I love having a desk uncluttered with desktop equipment. But, for my in-laws who upgraded their desktop CPU for some $400–and countless others like them–an extra hundred bucks might seem quite justifiable if the machine has enough perks.
What do you think?
I don’t know if i would buy oneor not … certaining not for my main system. At this point i wouldn’t buy anything unless it had a G5 in it. Your limiting yourself if you do and will have to upgrade sooner. Apple will support a G4 for a couple years (prolly 3) in the OS …
Also, think about the specs. A g5 iMac comes with 256mb of ram, OS X craves ram. 512 should be the min, 1gb is a nice amount to work with.
It won’t be upgradable, and will have a horrid video card in it. The video card in the iMac G5 is pretty loosy if you think about it.
So actually, no, I don’t think I would. It would be like buying those $360 Dell’s ;-). It’ll suck.
(I love Dell, btw. Great hardware … but you gotta pay for it. the optiplex line is wonderful. compared to anything else out there that I’ve tested Dell takes the cake for cost vs. performance vs. hardware-life-span)
Mike.
I’m torn as well. I might, to use it as a web development platform. It would be handy to have a desktop box, rather than keeping my laptop open on the table next to me.
But $500 for something i really dont need is a bit steep. I’d probably build a linux box instead, and have all three platforms going on.
After seeing it, it is insanely cool looking … but the specs just aren’t worth $500 or $600 to ME.
Thats not to say its not a great family machine for all the digital hub type stuff. In fact its really not bad at all if you need a cheap computer and have a monitor around.
I’m still stuck on the “Why buy a G4 at this point” … though, i guess that means G4 support for at least another 3 years.
I don’t think I’d buy a Mac… Just based on the obvious dumb user stuff-
1. I know windows and how it’s quirks work (they might suck, but i know why they screw stuff up now and can compensate. If OSX or whaetever gets mangled, I am at a loss as to what to do. And don’t tell me OSX doesn’t get mangled either. I’ve seen it happen.)
2. Cross user compatability. Basically, iWork would be nice.
3. All the stupid free software that puts lovely spyware on my computer is windows based. How could I live without that Snood? LOL… oh boy…
4. I’m as deep as a saucer.
Mike, I agree that the box is underspec’d in the sense that, a year from buying the tihng, you’ll totally want to upgrade. The RAM, processor, and video are just not great for the specs that Tiger is going to require. I think I would wait and see what else Apple announces this year before rushing out to buy one.
Ryan, I think I’m in the same boat as you–it would be great to have, but $500 is an awfully large pricetag for a “nice to have” given the opportunity cost. $500 can go a long way towards, say, a 12-inch iBook.
I can’t believe of the three people on this tread, I haven’t seen you in the longest amount of time! Anyway, you hit the nail on the head for why a lot of people might actually go get one of these for their parents/in-laws/etc. It would be SO NICE to give something to friends and family that you don’t have to constantly go and run antivirus scans or spyware removal software. The Mac Mini will now top my recommendation list for anyone looking for a cheap upgrade PC.
Jai, hi there.
I would buy the Mac Mini just because Jai doesn’t like it. And I’ve figured out that by doing whatever Jai doesn’t do, I’ll be nothing like him.
I would buy a Mac Mini just because Jai doesn’t like them. And I’ve discovered that by doing the exact opposite of what Jai does, I’ll end up being nothing like Jai, and therefore better.
That’s why I’m the master.
I will post everything twice because Jai doesn’t do that.
I will post everything twice and slightly modify the message for my second post because Jai doesn’t do that.
And that why I’m the master.
HAHAHAHA funny Kyle… Ken, Kyle is Kurios’ former bassist and he’s also known as Captain Awesome. Don’t question it.
But anyway, on the subject of Macs, I found this article (see 3rd section down) very interesting… Are Mac’s really the devil? I think the evidence speaks for itself.
http://objective.jesussave.us/propaganda.html
*snicker*… nothing like a little thing to make you exclaim “HOLY CRAP” for you every now and again, huh buddy? I had hoped that the article was a joke. It’s wasn’t intended to be one. That’s just sad.