I can already see the internet reaction to this assessment by NPD. they of the statistic that Apple has 91% of the over $1000 computer notebook market.
“Is this true? How is it possible? NPD vice president of industry analysis Stephen Baker says it’s simple: “The average price of a non-netbook Windows PC is under $600. It’s hard to see what functionality you could add to a Windows notebook to make it worth $1,200 to $1,500 to someone.”
So what is Apple giving people for an extra thousand or two thousand dollars? “Apple is giving them Apple,” Baker said. “They’re the only ones willing to sell computers at that price level. They’re like Mercedes that way. In tech, we tend to think performance is most important, but most people want functionality. Yet there are lots of people who want to say, ‘I want to be cool and drive around in a fancy car.’ An Apple computer makes you cool, it makes other people jealous.”
I know people like that -- who compare OS X to Rolexes or fine wines or Lexuses or Mercedes. They drive me up the wall, and do more to prove the perception that Macs are the brand-name machine for the Williamsburg dicks who shop at Abercrombie. Now, is this true for the majority of their consumers? I doubt it, but in much the same way as the highly vocal racists and birthers and protest Galts are making the Republican party look bad to us outsiders, the outspoken Mac zealots make it difficult to comfortably use any brand of computer without defensiveness. And in the same way that shameless GOP pandering to its crazy base is an abject abdication of its responsibility, the same goes for Apple's pandering to its base -- though both has been doing it so long, they do not know how to ease off.
I have no idea what Steve Jobs was thinking back in 1995, but I do remember what he was still thinking in 1984 when he hired Chiat/Day to create a wonderful commercial that defined the personal computer revolution. Who can forget the audience of reverent drones and the big screen on the stage? It used to be funny to note the similarity between the crowds in the old commercial and the audiences at Macworld Expo, sitting at the front of their seats in rapt attention and waiting for the big head on the screen to tell them what to think. The humor is slowly fading, though, and I can't help but feel that Apple's iPhone division has become everything the old company mocked in 1984.
One thing missing from this MDN update: That they were wrong and "spreading misinformation" as well.
After the snark attack from three weeks ago, it looks like John and Joe are friends again. Though it may be because the sun is smiling on Apple today. Also: Joe on the rain disrupting Microsoft's parade.
Update: Marco rains on John's parade on the subject of Apple's 91% of the >$1000 PC market. It could be just retail.
The major reason I have been reading Joe Wilcox since way back when he was an analyst at Jupiter Research was his parsing of earnings reports for Microsoft. When he started working for eWeek, he added Apple as well. While he hasn't always gotten the companies right (sometimes, he's too pessimistic with regards to Apple), his reading of them seems the most reasonable. It's good to see he's going to continue to remark on earnings season while at BetaNews; here is his take on Apple defying the recession.
Gigaom highlights this theory for why Windows 7 is more popular than Windows Vista.
Whoever at Microsoft decided to open up the Windows 7 beta and release candidate testing program to anyone wishing to try out the new OS deserves kudos.
By opening up the testing program Microsoft has increased the number of testers and chances of finding edge case bugs. Successful open source projects highlight the benefits of a large set of users whose use uncovers bugs that formal testing did not or could not find. I know of several people who have used Windows 7 as their primary operating system for over 2 months. All six of them are quite impressed with the quality of release candidate and have preordered Windows 7. This shift from user to purchaser is also a mainstay of the open source business model. Although, one could argue that the Windows 7 model is more related to the shareware model than an open source business model. Fair enough. But I’d argue both models rely on adoption led marketing.
Except though, Windows Vista also had a public beta period where anybody could download the beta, and two release candidate versions. I know -- I downloaded, and had shipped to me the beta and the first RC version. All just as public. And all reports were that MS acted less on feedback on Seven than on Vista. Vista was plagued by a way too public viewing of its development process which saw many features jettisoned, a miscalculation of the direction of the PC industry (laptops started becoming the dominant computer during the time of development, ending the free gains in performance by ever increasing hardware specs), and essentially the consequences of breaking changes -- similar to problems that Apple suffered when Apple transitioned from "Classic" Mac OS to Mac OS X. (Remember, OS X 10.0 was so reviled, that Apple released 10.1 about six months later and for free. And most people would not consider OS X a stable platform until 10.3!)
"The only conservative political strip..."?
The only conservative political strip?
Have you never heard of Mallard Fillmore? OK, granted Mallard Fillmore is crap. I wouldn't want to count it as a comic strip, either.
Have you never heard of Prickly City? OK, you may not have heard of it, given it is actually funny. No, I don't see any evidence of an improvement in the writing of the strip. If anything, it appears you lost the ability to employ subtlety.
Still, I wish you luck. Maybe once you solve your financial difficulties, you can work on making the strip a bit more sophisticated than Obama == Hitler.
...despite the fact that journalism isn't even the subject of the essay. I'll (hopefully) expand on this later, but think of the difference between "politics" and "policy".
MacDailyNews: "Apple legal forces Microsoft to stop falsely advertising MacBook Pro price."
Except, no they didn't. As of today, no advertisements were pulled. Just five minutes ago, Lisa and Jackson appeared during a break in Letterman. Never mind that the point of the ads still stand.
Though I guess we should thank Apple for the new Microsoft ad. And the continuation of the campaign until the end of time. . .
...then you'd probably be better off using a typewriter. Try any bit of significant video editing on your phone or online. Try drawing this on your iPhone (even though there is a nice paint app for it). People who keep trying to kill PCs seem to have no imagination what so ever.
