| reply to haroldo
Re: Wish List for 10.9 said by haroldo:Let me ask you...if you ran the company would you want to sell 500,000 units or 50 million units?
Not to distract the thread, but, it's inevitable that they would want to go mainstream. Appealing to the masses is the best way to go about doing it.
iPad sold tens of millions because it was simple, easy to use and "fun". Being a niche manufacturer appealing to a tiny subset of the population is great...so is $140,000,000,000.00 in the bank (at last count).
Apple has the highest profit margins of any computer company. Apple can sell 500,000 units and make more money than Dell and HP selling 50 million units. Apple is going for profit share, not market share.
The Mac has never been a mass market device when compared to the competition (Windows PCs). The Mac has always been a small niche. If Apple really wants to sell more Macs then they would have to lower the prices of their computers. The average PC laptop purchase price is $420 while the average Mac laptop purchase price is $1,400. With a lower price, more consumers could afford a Mac and Apple could go for bulk. But a cheaper Mac runs the risk of product quality and lowering those delicious profit margins. Apple themselves have said they do not want to lower prices, they don't know how to make a $500 laptop that doesn't suck.
My argument is, Apple has a product in the mass market segment where they're selling massive quantities: the iPad. And they also have a product in a niche market where they're only 5% of the worldwide market: the Mac. I would like to see the niche market product (Mac) become more powerful because Apple now has another product that can carry the simplicity at all costs banner (iPad).
--
less talk, more music |
