Sub $500 Mac?

http://www.thinksecret.com/news/0412expo2.html

Wot do you guys think? I think it's a great idea to further venture into the home PC market. Just need to give the consumers a choice and let them make thier own educated decision instead of a cost-effective one as is the case 99% of the time now.

sounds like a great way to get people to switch, but how will this effect their current emac/imac sales?

I have been waiting for something like that, I want to be able to use my 20in LCD but I don't want to spend like $600 for an old 733mhz Powermac. I hope this thing has DVI ouput. Anyone know of a KVM switch that can be used for DVI monitors and USB keyboards?

MacAddikt said:

sounds like a great way to get people to switch, but how will this effect their current emac/imac sales?

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It doesn't matter how it affects this line, they should look at the big picture, will this increase their overall sales? will they increase market share?
That is the reason of having different lines of products, to provide everyone with something that is usefull for them and have a bigger slide of the cake, not to compite against internal lines of products

alejandrico said:

It doesn't matter how it affects this line, they should look at the big picture, will this increase their overall sales? will they increase market share?
That is the reason of having different lines of products, to provide everyone with something that is usefull for them and have a bigger slide of the cake, not to compite against internal lines of products

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Very good point. I think they just need more of a selection of machines. So if other sales drop, but this new system raises sales, they will be selling an equal amount of each product.

I think that it would raise their sales a bit. It would be a cheap machine that isnt loaded with a monitor. This might cause more switchers. I know i'm help back from switching because of the expensive machines. It's prbably like that with alot of other people. I would probably buy one. Only if everything in Tiger worked on it though. I don't know why they just didn't keep the PowerMac G4.

I think this will definitely help sales. I don't think current Apple users will go from their current eMac, iMac, and so on for a cheaper-priced system. I mean they've already made the investment and know it's worth the extra money over a PC. This is good for non-Apple users to get some exposure to the product line. The people who like the experience will more then likely move right up on the line to a more powerful/expensive system.

shaun89 said:

Very good point. I think they just need more of a selection of machines. So if other sales drop, but this new system raises sales, they will be selling an equal amount of each product.

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Apple tried that be Steve Jobs came back, it hurt the company. That is the reason why steve Jobs changed the line when he came back.

I know some people who are interesed in buying a new computer but don't have a lot of cash to splash, I am constantly telling them how great macs are but the price is an issue. Hopefully this new model will convince them entirely to get a mac.

i still think apple would have to limit the eMac to the education market again or step it up to a G5 or this machine would hurt eMac sales, which have a higher marginal profit than a $500 machine could have.

Supposed Features of $499 mac:

1.25GHz G4
256MB of RAM
USB 2.0
FireWire 400
10/100 BASE-T Ethernet
56K V.92 modem
AirPort Extreme support

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thats too close to the specs of the current eMac($800), minus the optical drive which you can get for less than $50 and a 17" flat CRT monitor you can get for $100 (or less). plus it will add confusion for the consumer (which as rman stated, has already happened).

And as LCDs become cheaper over the next 2-3 years, the emac itself will no longer have a purpose, and apple can go back to 4 models (not including servers, they have a different audience)

home user: iMac
home user on the go: iBook

power user: powermac
power user to go: powerbook

My Idea

My Image
- Just an idea of mine!

id like to see something more like:

I want to see a headless Mac return in the form of a NeXT cube, black case and all.

witeshark said:

It seems like a possibility: Look here

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Both articles are in regards to the same machine. "Q88"

All the rumor sites seem to be picking this up. Some claim to have corroborated it.

If it's true, it's about time.

[EDIT: The various computer-generated mockups of what it might look like remind me not of the NeXT Cube, but of the Slab.]

Apple is up to the wazoo in quality control problems now; if they do a mass-market, low-cost and low-profit machine what can we expect? If Apple sells an "iCheap" that is unreliable it will only serve to give the anti-Apple nabobs of negativity proof of their opinions.

Badger said:

Apple is up to the wazoo in quality control problems now; if they do a mass-market, low-cost and low-profit machine what can we expect? If Apple sells an "iCheap" that is unreliable it will only serve to give the anti-Apple nabobs of negativity proof of their opinions.

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And HP and Dell are saints when it comes to quality control?

My mom wanted a PDA/phone for Christmas. She went through 3 Blackberries and 4 iPaqs before she could find something without a defect.

My brother's new Compaq laptop had the hard drive crap out on him twice, and to top it off he has to use an external keyboard because some of the keys wont work.

Don't get me started on my IBM desktop from 2 years back.

Dells, HPs, Compaqs, Sonys, Apples - they're all made in Taiwan in the same ****ed factories. The anti-Apple folks will always exist, and there's little we can do to stop them.

I don't expect Apple to produce perfect machines (and I've had my share of problems with PDAs etc) but Apple is a sitting duck for criticism from the pc world. As for Apple's quality control look at the long-standing problems with eMac CRTs, iBook main boards, LCD screen problems etc. For example the eMac CRT quality problems are well documented yet Apple has neither improved the screens in the new models nor come up with a solution for existing models. My point is if they don't produce a machine at a reasonable quality level they will alienate those who buy them, especially switchers, (remember the Performas) and create a lot of bad publicity for themselves.

I really don't care about how this affects the PC v. Apple thing, I just want a low cost apple desktop that allows me to use my own monitor, when it comes out, I'll buy it.

meltbanana314 said:

Dells, HPs, Compaqs, Sonys, Apples - they're all made in Taiwan in the same ****ed factories. The anti-Apple folks will always exist, and there's little we can do to stop them.

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Actually sonys are made in Japan
HPs mary were made in Mexico although they moved the factory to Chine
For the rest of them I believe most are made in China