September 16 2004

Should Apple enter the low end PC market?

OS News is running an article on Getting Macs to the Masses written by Eugenia Loli-Queru. Her article proposes that Apple launch a new brand of low-end computers, with G3s and a crippled version of OS X for $300. Now whilst it's an alternative on a constantly debated topic (that Macs should be cheaper) let's take into consideration a couple of things; She assumes that Mac should become commonplace and that by making them cheaper, the user base will increase.

Mac and Apple are inextricably intertwined. If one brand looks cheap, then the other will too. Her argument that the 'Mac' brand be separated in the 'crippled' version of OS X, still will have people drawing a comparison between BrandX and Mac. In fact, it's not so much the 'Mac' brand that will be effected, but the Apple brand. She points to the fact that Toyota and Lexus are both made by Toyota but are very different in people's minds. However this comparison cannot be drawn because the UI will be identical. A more appropriate comparison would be the Toyota brand stamped on an Audi. People are going to look at the car and go 'Hey, that's an Audi'. That is until they read the badge. You're giving people the expectation of something far superior, and delivering something that's not.

Small market shares are the perfect environment for innovation to thrive. I think that in the effort to increase sales, Apple had to innovate. Look at how Jobs changed the image of Macs from what they were ( the "500 days of Beige") to the 4 lines of computers that they are now. If Apple had been in the market share of Microsoft, such radical innovation would not be necessary, it would be more like 500 months of beige. Apple is making a healthy profit. People are unfortunately making the assumption that market share or profit is equitable to success. I think that Apple makes the finest computers and operating systems in the world. Remember, not everyone owns a Lamborghini.

In Eugenia's original article she says "What really matters is to have as many users as possible, so it will attract more developers and create an actual "market" around the platform. Less users, less money flowing, less third party development, which ultimately leads to the death of a platform". As it turns out, the death of Apple has been one of the most popular subjects that has been written about the company. In fact if Apple were to die, I think there would be at least one person in every major tech related publication going "See I told you!". Apple has reported that Panther is the most successful version of Mac OS to ship. Now while Apple's total unit shipments have gone down since 1995, they are slowly increasing. I have a feeling that many people switched from Mac to Win 98 and have been very hesitant to go back.

A common argument, that I'm beginning to get sick of in general, is that Mac's are too expensive. Now, while I am not aware of any reliable sources on total cost of ownership, it has been my experience (considering I ran both Windows PCs and Macs) that you have less 'downtime' with Macs, that is, fixing time. But this can be debated endlessly, with Windows people saying that they spend next to zero time in maintainace so instead of taking something that is variable, let's look at what you get with an out of the box Mac, with no downloading.

  • iDVD, a DVD authoring tool
  • iCal, Calender, Organizer.
  • GarageBand, pro quality audio creation.
  • Address Book, to manage contacts.
  • PDF authoring.
  • Stickies
  • Xcode, a full blown professional software development environment, with complete documentation, and code examples. (It's worth noting too, that Microsoft Visual Studio.net 2003 has a list price of $1799)

    • There is some software that ships with Windows, that is less superior to its Mac counterpart:

  • Internet Explorer (Safari)
  • Windows Movie Maker (iMovie)
  • Outlook Express (Mail)
  • Windows Media Player (iTunes, Quicktime*)

    • Similar functionality to packages shipped with the Mac OS, can be downloaded for free for Windows:

  • iPhoto, (Picasa from Google)
  • Safari (Firefox from Mozilla)
  • Mail (Thunderbird from Mozilla)
  • Windows Media Player (iTunes from Apple)

    • Ok, so let's take a look at the iMac G5, a consumer desktop for $1299. The cheapest 17" monitor I could find was $485, which leaves us with $814 for the computer. I configured a similar specification Dell, which comes to $637 with no monitor. Now the difference here is $177. Now depending on what demographic you fall into, this extra $177 can either go really far, or not really far at all. As a student in a creative setting, I've used GarageBand for my Introduction to Audio class, I've used iDVD to author content for other subject. I've been inspired to develop 4 pieces of software using Xcode, and stickies have helped in keeping my life together (in fact, various portions of this article were in stickies). Both GarageBand and Xcode, even with student versions, would easily go over $177. However if your a business and you're using Microsoft Office, I can see how that $177 can be an issue. Also, the difference would be greater should you use a CRT instead of an LDC.

    So some of you may be thinking that I'm a computer snob. But I think that the majority of this ultra-low end market is reserved for the people who don't really use computers. Perhaps once a day to check their e-mail. People who are passionate about their computers are going to spend more money. I think that the Mac is a well priced computer, especially for what you get. If I were to switch back, I'd have to either pirate a lot of software or spend an enormous amount of money to get similar functionality. What it really boils down to, is that I don't think that Apple producing cheap computers would be any benefit to them. I'm also confident that Apple have done piles of research into the computer market. They were at one stage looking at Intel as a potential G5 chip manufacturer. I would be confident enough to say "I think they know what they're doing.

    But, as it turns out, Apple does sell low end computers that are priced at $249, $299 and $399. They run their own OS, and they're called the iPod.

    *It should be noted that the Quicktime that ships with Mac doesn't ship with the ability to play movies at full screen. I believe is rectified in the version of quicktime that will ship with Tiger.

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