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MacNN News

Columnist criticizes Apple's low-cost offerings

updated 02:45 pm EST, Thu January 13, 2005

Columnist bashes \'mini\'

Canada's National Post has published a column by Paul Kedrosky on the Mac mini and iPod shuffle, in which Mr. Kedrosky complains about Apple's foray into the low-cost computer market. "You have to love Apple Computer. Not, however, for its products. Those are ... No, you have to love Apple for its ability to manipulate the press. Here is a tiny company with 3% market share in the personal computer, and yet Steve Jobs' new product announcements at Macworld earlier this week were treated as if they were auguries of the future of computing from a descending deity ... Hence the company's announcements this week. Far from being forward-thinking and strategic, Jobs was busily shoring up a currently foundering product line -- Apple's over-priced Macintosh -- by leveraging a soon-to-be foundering product line -- Apple's iPod."

by MacNN Staff

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adamschneider
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Joined: Dec 1999

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01/13, 02:49pm | report spam | close Reply |
shill

Dear Mr. Kedrosky,

The check is in the mail.

Much love,
Billy G.

testudo
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Joined: Aug 2001

0

01/13, 02:50pm | report spam | close Reply |
Woohoo!

The MacNN trolls have moved to Canada and gotten a 'real' job.

testudo
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Joined: Aug 2001

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01/13, 02:52pm | report spam | close Reply |
Oh, and please...

I really could give a flying flip (or a flippin' fly) whether you people email this idiot (or not) or not. But, really, no one here is interested in copies of your letters to this gentleman. They're the same ol' boring letters anyway (just find the ones people wrote the NY Times last month - or whatever paper it was - and cc them to this guy).

Anyway, I think he's just upset because his mom didn't buy him an iPod for Christmas.

technocoy
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Joined: Oct 2002

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01/13, 02:53pm | report spam | close Reply |
please...

i love the naysayers that get continually shut the @$%& -up every year. every time apple releases something they talk smack. and then they get the smack down.

peace

bcamp1973
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Joined: May 1999

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01/13, 02:53pm | report spam | close Reply |
Don't read the article!

This is just another a$$hole journalist that knows he can sell a lot more ad clicks by pi$$ing of the Mac faithful. Don't fall for the trap. Don't visit the site...

drduke
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Joined: Jan 2005

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01/13, 02:53pm | report spam | close Reply |
waste of my time

haha, what a f****** whiner, true i wasted a minute of my time reading such swill but the outright hatred this guy feels for apple is amusing. i'm gonna go jack off to windows now, laters paul.

velporama
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Joined: May 2004

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01/13, 02:55pm | report spam | close Reply |
Economics 101

It's funny that Mr. Kedrosky does not realize that charging a premium price for a premium product is not unreasonable. Adam Smith's invisible hand has a tendency to land a painful economic slap in the face if products actually _are_ overpriced. Since consumers (much to the chagrin of Apple's competition) are still choosing Apple products, I would have to say that Mr. Kedrosky needs to accept that this is at least a breath of fresh air for a computing industry stifled by a lack of competition.

darcybaston
Grizzled Veteran

Joined: May 2000

0

01/13, 03:01pm | report spam | close Reply |
smokey dopey

The article must be a result of inhaling something. Something from the push to legalize marijuana in Canada.

(I'm canadian and poking fun at myself)

redwood
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01/13, 03:06pm | report spam | close Reply |
Foundering product line??

What exactly is a foundering product line?

chadpengar
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01/13, 03:10pm | report spam | close Reply |
who cares about Canada

With apologies to the non-stupid Canadians...

"Here you have a tiny country of only a handful of people, and you have newspapers columnists who think that anyone cares about their opinions... They speak and they expect the whole world to listen."

Philly_Mac
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Joined: Nov 2001

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01/13, 03:11pm | report spam | close Reply |
Foundering??

I'm with you, redwood; funny how it's "soon to be foundering" when Apple just released figures stating the exact opposite.
Anything to get a byline, I suppose.
d.

testudo
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01/13, 03:14pm | report spam | close Reply |
Re: foundering

What exactly is a foundering product line?

Its a product produced in a foundary. You know, like steel mill kind of things. Or Apple computers (I can see it now, hot steel poured into molds from large vats, steam rising all over as they're quickly cooled to produce these materials).

It could also be a typo, and he meant a floundering product line. You know, a product that is produced by flounders somewhere in the oceans and bays around the country. its best to get flounder that are spawned in fisheries rather than the wild. You can count on them more, they have less of a drug problem, and you worry less about them making crude comments to the female staffers.

Baritone
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01/13, 03:14pm | report spam | close Reply |
Kedrosky's article is...

Bantha Poodoo!

macdude22
Forum Regular

Joined: Nov 2001

0

01/13, 03:14pm | report spam | close Reply |
Hmmmm

(of a ship) sinking

Call me a crazy po hyperchicken from a backwater planet but last time I had Buz class a company with 300 mil profits and increasing sales, and no debt, wasn't considered foundering.

rkadowns
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01/13, 03:15pm | report spam | close Reply |
Anti-American

He's Canadian. Apple is an American company. Nuff said.

c. haynes
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01/13, 03:17pm | report spam | close Reply |
Macs ... why?

Why? Because I have to produce graphics for commerce every week of every year and I can't do it on a Windows based machine consistently. Overpriced? I pay for confidence, reliability and SECURITY you blow hole. And I'd pay more than I have to with Apple to get it.

DrMacer
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01/13, 03:21pm | report spam | close Reply |
Overpaid for product?

The macintosh is on the higher end of the price scale, not really overpriced. I tried the Windows thing (with windows 2000) after owning nothing other than apple products (starting with the apple II). The time it took to keep Windows running productively spent a lot of my time and my productivity dropped significantly. I moved back to apple with MacOS X and I couldn't be happier. Thanks for your uneducated opinion -- not helpful reading and wasted some more of my time. Thanks a lot.

ender
Junior Member

Joined: Mar 1999

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01/13, 03:23pm | report spam | close Reply |
Top Prize

Wow, a few more articles like that and this guy can take top prize for most blatantly ignorant columnist. And with the premium crop of anti-Mac writers out there, that's quite an accomplishment!

zachs
Mac Elite

Joined: May 2002

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01/13, 03:27pm | report spam | close Reply |
iPod?

The iPod will founder (yes, "founder", v. to give way : collapse)?

Sorry, I think not, as all sales records indicate otherwise. Besides, the iPod isn't overpriced...in fact, Apple has a broad range of prices, from $99 (iPod shuffle) up to $599 (iPod photo).

I think

njfuzzy
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01/13, 03:28pm | report spam | close Reply |
I love the BMW references

A big part of his article hinges on the fact that BMW doesn't make a small less-expensive car to compete with the lower-end of the market.

Has he even hear of the Mini Cooper? A smaller car, made by BMW, with very slick stylings, a cult following, at a price range a bit high for its size but designed to compete with the Camrys if the world.

Sounds oddly familiar.

aristotles
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Joined: Jul 2004

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01/13, 03:32pm | report spam | close Reply |
Who is this guy really?

Is Paul Kedrosky the new Nom de Plume of Paul Thurrott or that Dvorak guy? He sounds a lot like him.

WTF is his problem? Selling cheaper macs is bad? Apple is doomed because it has a commanding lead in music player sales that has just continued to grow?

SomeToast
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Joined: Jan 1999

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01/13, 03:33pm | report spam | close Reply |
And in other news...

Columnist seeks hits for web site. Film at eleven.

Durandalus
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01/13, 03:38pm | report spam | close Reply |
Buhahah!

Microsoft .NET Framework:
"Exception of type System.OutOfMemoryException was thrown"

How about getting some Xserves?

harpo64
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01/13, 03:43pm | report spam | close Reply |
His Background

Don't worry, didn't spend too much time on this. But if you click on All Columnists his is the only one without a picture. Here's what it says about his background:
Dr. Paul Kedrosky's column appears on the Financial Post OpEd page on Tuesdays and Saturdays. He currently teaches business at the University of California, San Diego, where he is also a Distinguished Fellow at the William J. von Liebig Center. Dr. Kedrosky has published more than 200 academic and non-academic articles, and he has lectured and consulted in Canada, the U.S., and Europe. His media appearances include ABC Nightline, CNN, CNBC, PBS Newshour, and CBC Businessworld. His columns have also appeared in the Wall Street Journal, the Economist, Forbes, RealMoney, and many other publications. In addition to his academic activities, Dr. Kedrosky consults with hedge funds and money management firms, and he has held positions in the brokerage industry. He serves on the board of a number of private companies.

Wonder if he's on the board of intel, dell, microsoft?

HeatherEcsedi
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01/13, 03:44pm | report spam | close Reply |
Brag ?

Paul Kedrosky, stop being jalous. It's not because you brag about the cheap little PC you're forced to work with it automatically means Apple users brag about their Macs too.

Does Apple manipulate the press ? No more than other computer companies I suppose. The difference is Apple always comes up with hot products. I guess it helps get the attention of the media.

Maybe Paul should write another article about how Microsoft manipulates the governments and the justice departments throughout the world... Oops ! That was lame ! Sorry !

JohnnyFive
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01/13, 03:46pm | report spam | close Reply |
Ahh the irony...

Kedrosky is scratching his head over a company with a tiny market-share that captures so much press; yet he himself admits he's guilty of the same crime. His kind of rhetoric is getting old. It's tiresome. But it's the kind of rhetoric you'd expect after a Jobs keynote, I suppose.

From the looks of it, the article is written in haste anyway.

porieux
Baninated

Joined: Mar 2001

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01/13, 03:54pm | report spam | close Reply |
sounds like

sour grapes to me

burger
Forum Regular

Joined: Sep 2000

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01/13, 03:59pm | report spam | close Reply |
And we all know...

when the iPod becomes outdated, Apple won't know what to do! He is trying to say that the iPod is the only thing that makes Apple successful, and Steve is trying to use it's public fame to sucker the media into reporting on the Mac line of computers.

I would too! The digital music players of today will go through many changes in the coming years, possibly toward Apple's technology, or away from it. If you have a great product that has a huge share in the market, why would you not use it's fame to draw attention to the other products you manufacture, especially if you seee the iPod market becoming oversaturated with competition in the near future?

If you didn't, you would be a marketing moron.

As if this guy didn't use Apple to draw attention to his article, because he has a foundering sense of what is interesting and is trying to sucker us into reading his garbage to bolster his reader pool. :P

Swift
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01/13, 04:03pm | report spam | close Reply |
But seriously...

what's his opinion? Why does it matter? Everything he says is simply filled with bile, not meaningful criticism. I guess he's a Windows nut.

Anybody remember the predictions of doom for the mini iPod, because Apple screwed up by charging too much? Whoops. Now the iPod shuffle doesn't cost enough. There are columnists making their salaries from seeing every music player out there as "the iPod killer." Anybody want to watch postage-stamp movies while you're jogging? How about a little FM commerical radio for your soul on the exercise machine? Nope, Apple stays on top because you can program your own music track.

Geobunny
Mac Elite

Joined: Oct 2000

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01/13, 04:04pm | report spam | close Reply |
BMWs

You gotta love the comparison to BMWs. Recently, BMW actually HAVE released a lower priced family car - the BMW 1 series. Last I heard, BMW were not floundering. Seems like shoddy journalism to me...along with a fairly poor command of English vocab.

/On second thoughts, maybe the foundering/floundering slip up was Freudian! ;)

horvatic
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01/13, 04:04pm | report spam | close Reply |
Over glossy fashion plate

I'll take my over glossy fashion plates over a virus infected, spyware riddled, malware infested PC with broken windows on it any day. My fashion plate has the most stable OS on the market. NO viruses, spyware, malware and is way more secure than any PC today. I also have great applications like iLife and iWork to look forward to. My Mac will be working long after your cheap PC dies in the recycle bin. Have fun waiting for shorthorn cause it's gonna be a loooooonnnnnnnnggggg wait.

purpleshorts
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01/13, 04:09pm | report spam | close Reply |
Jane, you ignorant s***..

Hey, Mac Faithful. For a refreshing counterpoint, try this article. It made my day...

http://www.infoworld.com/article/05/01/13/HNmacworldanalysis_1.html

Koda
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01/13, 04:14pm | report spam | close Reply |
Re: Anti-American

> He's Canadian. Apple is an American company. Nuff said.

You are just as much of a loser as he is if you are making comments like that. You couldn't think up an intelligent comment so you latched onto the idea "Hey, he's from another country!" and went from there. Remember Microsoft is an American company too and he seems to have a preference for them.

cblueorg
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01/13, 04:16pm | report spam | close Reply |
what a coincidence!

I've just took a peek at the article... Look at the top sponsor.
http://www.cblue.org/mc.png

dece
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01/13, 04:16pm | report spam | close Reply |
Great article...

Good find!

t6hawk
Mac Enthusiast

Joined: Jan 2001

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01/13, 04:18pm | report spam | close Reply |
To our American friends

Just a note for our American friends to the south. The National Post is known as a joke in Canada that no one with intelligence reads. Could explain articles like the garbage that Kedrosky is spouting.

mattyd
Senior User

Joined: Nov 2000

0

01/13, 04:37pm | report spam | close Reply |
Write him...

http://www.canada.com/national/nationalpost/info/contactus/mailto.html?name=Paul+Kedrosky

VadersCape
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01/13, 04:43pm | report spam | close Reply |
Ah yes ...

Paul Kedrosky. Which anagrams to (among other things):

A DRY POKE SULK and ASK ELROY K. PUD

What a hoser, eh?

Paul Huang
Dedicated MacNNer

Joined: Sep 1999

0

01/13, 04:48pm | report spam | close Reply |
1/10/05 WSJ article

BMW's US$3.5 BILLION profit is higher than the following companies COMBINED (according to a Wall Street Journal article on 1/10/05, title page)

Renault
Ford
Volkswagen
GM

Eat that.

Gorloth
Registered User

Joined: Nov 2001

0

01/13, 04:57pm | report spam | close Reply |
Poor b******

Another Doom sayer of Apple, lets see I made over $ 265.000 on Apple stock. I bought in at $14.15 just after Steve returned to Apple. I knew glory would return to Apple. This time around I bought 4000 shares at $16 So Paul Kedrosky...how long should I hold out, till the iPod dies. I use a PoweMac, my wife uses it, my kids use a G5 iMac, I want my kids to grow up and work at Apple. I tell my son ...you can thank Mr. Jobs for that new Giant Ti mountain bike. Ha Ha Ha what have you got a Rio player and a Dell...

dhandler
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01/13, 05:18pm | report spam | close Reply |
Dvorak wannabe

Wow - I never thought I'd say it but by comparsion, this guy makes Dvorak look good! By the way, this guy currently teaches business at the University of California, San Diego. so although his column appears in a Canadian newspaper, he's a Californian.

Buran
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01/13, 05:36pm | report spam | close Reply |
BMW followup

njfuzzy said that "A big part of his article hinges on the fact that BMW doesn't make a small less-expensive car to compete with the lower-end of the market."

Keep an eye out for the upcoming 1-series. This will be positioned against the Audi A3, another small "premium" hatchback that will start around $25,000 USD. Not mass-market, not quite, but far more so than the next-smallest model, the 3-series. Mercedes has something somewhat similar with its C-class (sadly, we won't get the really cool A-class.)

slider
Mac Elite

Joined: Oct 1999

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01/13, 05:39pm | report spam | close Reply |
Why Bother

Why does MacNN post this stuff. If it was a respected journalist with experience in the market, then I would understand, but, well, who?

rkadowns
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01/13, 05:40pm | report spam | close Reply |
Re: Anti-American

MS probably makes him money.

kentuckyfried
Senior User

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01/13, 05:49pm | report spam | close Reply |
wow, so much hate

I'm sorry, but even though Apple products cost more, at least they actually WORK better.

I constantly have to deal with random Windows problems like Adobe Acrobat failing to start-up, viruses, weird mosaic-ing problems, etc etc on my high end engineering PC at work. I get frustrated trying to clear the desktop so I can grab something there.

I go home, and it's all peaceful. My mac just works.

Nostromo
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01/13, 06:04pm | report spam | close Reply |
national joke?

> Just a note for our American friends to the south. The National Post is known as a joke in Canada that no one with intelligence reads. <

Ah! So it's the Canadian equivalent of the Washington Times (a right-wing rag that kisses that a** of the fascist hillbillys currently running the USA). Thanks for the clarification :)

Gabriel Morales

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01/13, 06:04pm | report spam | close Reply | delete
MacNN Posting

Honestly, I'm not sure if MacNN should be posting this kind of thing. How do you seperate "news" from nonsence? Perhaps something (negative or positive) published in the New York Times, or some other major newspaper would be noteworthy, but this?.. Just because it's a slow news day?

Jonathan-Tanya
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01/13, 06:57pm | report spam | close Reply |
Macnn news choice again

I agree with what others have said, this opinion piece from a rabid microsoft fan, isn't really news, or new, or even interesting.

nostar
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01/13, 07:02pm | report spam | close Reply |
Canada?

Canada has a news source? I thought all we got out of Canada was Celine Dion, Bryan Adams and those damn Canadien 25� pieces that I can't get rid of. But news, wow, I'm impressed. It's only a matter of time when they make the switch from their Winblows 3.0 boxes to a Mac. It'll happen. Either that or at least a Linux machine.

urapns
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01/13, 07:25pm | report spam | close Reply |
foundering...???

Seems to me he's jealous...reminds me of the saying: Those that can do; those that can't teach...most appropriate for this whacko...

adamschneider
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01/13, 08:40pm | report spam | close Reply |
NP = WT

Nostromo's right, it does seem reminiscent of the Washington Times...

bipto
Dedicated MacNNer

Joined: Aug 1999

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01/13, 09:17pm | report spam | close Reply |
I think...

...this guy just about gets it right:

http://www.pixelfish.net

redwood
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01/13, 09:19pm | report spam | close Reply |
To the Canadians...

Thanks for the insight on the "Post" !

speedraycer
Junior Member

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01/13, 11:08pm | report spam | close Reply |
Hmmm...

How much is this "Paul Kedrosky" and where can I purchase one?
-Microsoft

ronjamin
Baninated

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01/13, 11:28pm | report spam | close Reply |
iPod Shuffle

The fact is that this product is going to clean up the flash market for both USB drives and mp3 players. Why would you buy anything else for the money. Its a no-brainer. One observation: Apple is pulling a stealth Microsoft maneuver. Bravo.

bobette
Mac Elite

Joined: Oct 1999

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01/14, 12:47am | report spam | close Reply |
cool it yanks

k, if any of you believe THAT canadian speaks for THIS or ANY OTHER canadian, you're a wanker. enough canada bashing already.

JEB
Junior Member

Joined: May 2001

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01/14, 01:23am | report spam | close Reply |
Bummer

Growing up with all the other kids calling you 'Dork-sky

tontondavid10
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01/14, 02:30am | report spam | close Reply |
what really gets me...

Is all these people who insist on a company who's just raked in millions in profit, is in full growth, and in a perfect position to gain market share and rake in a lot more money to just turn around and say: "fair play, we lose, we give up our dream and our millions because we've only got an installed user base of 10s of millions of users." WTF? These people don't understand economics or are they simply mac haters?

scottgfx
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01/14, 03:19am | report spam | close Reply |
Re: Nostromo

QUOTE: "(a right-wing rag that kisses that a** of the fascist hillbillys currently running the USA). Thanks for the clarification :) "

I'm not sure what is more sad; That you are so out of touch and angry, or that you actually thought you were funny.

scottgfx
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01/14, 03:21am | report spam | close Reply |
Re: Canada

I had a boss who was Canadian. Super cool guy. For that I really like Canada. Thank you.

bobolicious
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01/14, 09:08am | report spam | close Reply |
I do agree...

...if the iPod were not around the computer business would be lagging...

'It has competed head on with some of the consumer electronics businesses and come out on top.'

I went to the Apple store last night - images wouldn't load on my Ti in Safari, but they popped up right away on my PC... I had to laugh...

I still find Macs & OS-X STILL have many fundamental problems...

dave a
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01/14, 09:08am | report spam | close Reply |
Again?

This post doesn't seem to have been posted. Hope it's not a duplicate. If it is, I'm sorry!

Canada is a great nation filled with intelligent, educated people. However, every nation has a share of ignorant or wrong-headed or nasty people. That's how certain publications and viewpoints get their listeners and readers. The Klan thrived in the US for quite a while... and in some parts, still does.

This guy is a Californian, not a Canadian.

Scottgrfx seems to be the one out of touch IMHO regarding the Washington Times. Not that I'm a great lover of the Post, either. The state of journalism is pretty sad today. Corporatization of journalism has its own very strong bias that is sometimes subtle but touches both "liberal" and "conservative" papers...making both neither one (that is, the "liberal" papers aren't really liberal and the "conservative" ones aren't really conservative, though some are neocon). Anyhoo... I think the Canada-bashing in the audience makes Americans sound like a bunch of reactionary provincials and only reinforces the increasingly common stereotype of us as ignorant cowboys. Let's reign it in and remember that no one person adequately represents everyone in their country - Adolph Hitler was not an average German, the Queen of England is not an average Briton, Steve Jobs is not an average American, and this columnist is neither an average Californian nor any kind of a Canadian.

z10n
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01/14, 09:43am | report spam | close Reply |
Rebuttal

Those are over-glossy fashion plates designed for the people who like to overpay for products and then brag about it.

Ah, the obviously over-generalized and irrationally wrong opinion of the columnest. Since Paul doesn't like Macs and thinks they are overpriced, all mac users must love to pay for overpriced computers. Unfortunately for Paul, one person's "over-glossy fashion plate" is another person's ideal computer. Paul obviously has no understanding of the fact that many people buying macs are not "bragging" about their choice: they simply like the mac better. Crazy, but true.

One thing is important here. It's much easier to make an obviously ill-advised and irrational damning comment, then it is to create something ballanced and interesting. Paul paints himself as no different then the average tabloid columnest, a failure in life and so desperate for any and all attention. Sad.

In other words, it priced its products 30% to 40% above comparable Windows-based product because of a conscious premium-pricing market strategy, not because its costs were out of control.

A somewhat fair estimation. Apple has deliberately used the "BMW" angle to make it seem like their products are worth more then the competition. But to some degree, apple DOES appear to put more time and effort into their products then most other companies. The extremely sleak look of most apple products does not come naturally: it must be delibrately created. Therefore, apple products ARE worth more because they have more care and attention then most other products. That's why you pay more. Agreed, many people are more interested in low price then fit and finish, so they are not willing to pay. But that doesn't mean apple is artificially inflating price.

But this week's announcement flies in the face of that prior strategy (The BMW mindset). By launching products -- its Mac Mini and iPod Shuffle -- at low-low prices, undercutting comparable products from computer-makers and portable music player makers, respectively, Apple is getting down and dirty and fighting it out on price.

Here's a brain freezer. Maybe apple CHANGED THEIR MINDS. Imagine that. Maybe they realized that they aren't going to grow market share by being 100% elitist and overpriced. I consider this a great day for apple, finally coming to that conclusion. And I understand why they are doing it now. If they had started back before they had the iPod to keep their cash going, they might have tanked. But now that they have the iPod in their back pocket, they can afford to experiement. Switching the mindset away from 100% BMW is a big step for them. But now is the perfect time to do it. Here's another idea. Apple is keeping the bottom end low to suck in new customers, who may then be interested in more expensive products. That way, they get the best of both worlds.

Why would they

Comment buried. Show

z10n
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01/14, 09:49am | report spam | close Reply |
Rules of blogging

#47) Make irrational and blatently ignorant posts. Stupidity gets more comments then sanity.

Comment buried. Show

MichaelNH
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01/14, 10:16am | report spam | close Reply |
Lower cost..

I still love my G5 tower and would never go to a lower cost machine (which also equates) to slower machine.. If I didn't have a portable with a DVD burner, I'd consider the mini mac for that purpose... I know many PC users that are going get a mac because they don't need the $2000 macs.. too much power for what they do.. good job Apple

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swisswuff
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01/14, 03:48pm | report spam | close Reply |
mac mini ... cheap?

you will shell out around 1600 $ until that machine is not just croaking, but "running" and able to run software, until you can click and type and actually "see" something.

with a mac mini being equipped with only one g4 processor, you would want some RAM memory and a large harddisk - all not included in the base price. then you will have to buy keyboard, mouse, a monitor and speakers. also, there is no tv-card or digitizer coming with it. remember, nothing comes with it!

some 1600$ or more, for a desktop that contains old technology such as G4 processors running on 167 MHz system buses, to me, constitutes a tax. you may debate what the tax is on, but it's not what i call a "fair price". and i love apple for offering it.

i just don't think it's worth buying.

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Maplesyrup
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01/14, 04:16pm | report spam | close Reply |
kedrosky

Mr Kedrosky writes for a right wing rag bankrolled by billionaires and
even stupid canadians are not long deceived.

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S S
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Joined: Jan 2003

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01/14, 04:28pm | report spam | close Reply |
BMW mini?

This guys just bitter. I guess he thinks people aren't entilted to well executed pruducts. All companies should only sell the cheapest c*** they can put together. To this guy selling more expensive quality products is a sin. Why don't we close down Nordstroms. I can't beleive they charge $200 for jeans. How dare they. Everyone should shop at Wal Mart.

This guys argument infers that Apple has lost it's way by saying BMW wouldn't sell a cheap car. They do. It's called a Mini Cooper. To me the BMW mini and Mac Mini go hand in hand. When BMW went to build a small cheap car they decided compacts didn't have to be boring. What they did was make a cheap car cool. It was given the love and passion of it's much costlier stablemates. And that is what Apple did with there low cost offereings. Both the iPod Shuffle and Mac Mini seem speacial. The build quality and material uses is top notch. Superb fit and finish. It dosn't feel like a second rate product. If they had thrown an iMac G4 mother board in an old G4 plastic tower case that would have felt worng. These are product gems. I wouldn't be ashamed to have either one. I wouldn't feel like I couldn't afford better. I'd be happy that Apple made something speacial for me.

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24c
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Joined: Jan 2005

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01/15, 06:50am | report spam | close Reply |
mac mini.... cheap

swisswuff writes "u will shell out around 1600 $ until that machine is not just croaking, but "running" and able to run software, until you can click and type and actually "see" something.

with a mac mini being equipped with only one g4 processor, you would want some RAM memory and a large harddisk - all not included in the base price. then you will have to buy keyboard, mouse, a monitor and speakers. also, there is no tv-card or digitizer coming with it. remember, nothing comes with it!

some 1600$ or more, for a desktop that contains old technology such as G4 processors running on 167 MHz system buses, to me, constitutes a tax. you may debate what the tax is on, but it's not what i call a "fair price". and i love apple for offering it."

All off this is slightly off topic,...Yeah it might be cheaper, but for all the slagging you want to put on it, the Mac mini is Apple current line up technology. It might only be a glorified iBook in terms of processing power, but that's more than enough for the target audience. OK, more enlightened individuals might realise you need more than 256 Mb of ram to make the bigger parts of iLife to run smoothly, but nobody is forcing you to add another $1100 worth of kit to upgrade an Apple "budget" machine. You are because you aree not the target audience.

Also will people who keep braying about Apple steep pricing etc, remember small market share means small numbers and poor economies of scale (especially when you don't use some of the same stuff as others) ... this always makes for higher pricing , which in turn can force you into innovation to justify your products.

With the iPod commanding huge market share, we are seeing some of these increasing economies of scale and a reduction in price will follow. IMO the iPod shuffle is a realisation of this and the Mac mini will be.

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Columnist criticizes Apple's low-cost offerings

updated 02:45 pm EST, Thu January 13, 2005

Columnist bashes \'mini\'

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