Intel's 'Ultrabook' Strategy is Outdated
Posted on 8th Jun 2011 at 07:28 by Clive Webster with 70 comments
While it’s good news for customers that Intel is aiming to make superportable laptops that rival the MacBook Air affordable for many, via its ‘ultrabook’ project, it shows a slightly outdated mode of thinking. When asked what would make superportable laptops successful, Intel’s executive vice-president Sean Maloney replied that a low price would do it. Low price = more sales = more profit, the conventional wisdom goes. Or does it?
The problem with the equation above is that low price = low margin, and you therefore rely on huge sales to make significant profits. And the drive to lower prices can lead to design compromises – plastic rather than aluminium shells, steel rather than magnesium alloy skeletons, cheap components that fail more quickly or are louder or slower. This is the PC industry for the last 30 years.
But it’s a flawed business model – just look at UK box-shifter Mesh, which ceased trading recently. Equally, look at Acer. For years it has been trimming its costs to be ultra-efficient while also climbing the league tables in terms of units sold. All this effort was in many ways the pinnacle of the low-price philosophy of making money from computers. And it failed: Apple is more profitable.
That’s the shift that we’re seeing: so far, we’ve made do with stuff that kind of works, does a job and doesn’t cost too much. Now we want technology that’s cool, that looks like it could be from the future and that we’re not embarrassed to leave out on the coffee table. Make something desirable and it will sell, even if you whack on a decent margin. And from that decent margin you can invest in customer support (how many negative stories have you heard about Apple customer support? How many positive ones?) and into the creation of new, even more desirable kit.
Of course, the Apple success story doesn’t end at merely charging extra for desirability, there’s the fact that it takes a 30 per cent skim of any software sold for that desirable item. However, the point that it’s desirability and not cheapness that really makes money these days doesn’t crumble in light of the App Store levy caveat. Hopefully superportable laptop makers won’t forget this fact, despite Intel’s out-of-date thinking about them; certainly if preview shots from Computex 2011 are anything to go by, Asus hasn’t with its UX21. Could we see desirably light laptops without a prohibitive price? Possibly, but I’m hoping that the latter doesn’t undermine the former.
The problem with the equation above is that low price = low margin, and you therefore rely on huge sales to make significant profits. And the drive to lower prices can lead to design compromises – plastic rather than aluminium shells, steel rather than magnesium alloy skeletons, cheap components that fail more quickly or are louder or slower. This is the PC industry for the last 30 years.
But it’s a flawed business model – just look at UK box-shifter Mesh, which ceased trading recently. Equally, look at Acer. For years it has been trimming its costs to be ultra-efficient while also climbing the league tables in terms of units sold. All this effort was in many ways the pinnacle of the low-price philosophy of making money from computers. And it failed: Apple is more profitable.
That’s the shift that we’re seeing: so far, we’ve made do with stuff that kind of works, does a job and doesn’t cost too much. Now we want technology that’s cool, that looks like it could be from the future and that we’re not embarrassed to leave out on the coffee table. Make something desirable and it will sell, even if you whack on a decent margin. And from that decent margin you can invest in customer support (how many negative stories have you heard about Apple customer support? How many positive ones?) and into the creation of new, even more desirable kit.
Of course, the Apple success story doesn’t end at merely charging extra for desirability, there’s the fact that it takes a 30 per cent skim of any software sold for that desirable item. However, the point that it’s desirability and not cheapness that really makes money these days doesn’t crumble in light of the App Store levy caveat. Hopefully superportable laptop makers won’t forget this fact, despite Intel’s out-of-date thinking about them; certainly if preview shots from Computex 2011 are anything to go by, Asus hasn’t with its UX21. Could we see desirably light laptops without a prohibitive price? Possibly, but I’m hoping that the latter doesn’t undermine the former.
70 Comments
Discuss in the forums ReplyPaul Thurrot predicted that tablet devices would upgrade to full PC functionality, while PCs would come down to meet them in user-friendliness, and that this as the philosophy behind Windows 8. Ultrabooks are an evolutionary step in that process.
Point being, if I could have bought a plastic machine that weighed less, but still had the SSD, memory, faster CPU, and an ethernet port (wifi just doesn't cut it when you want to copy some movies before a trip), I would have been perfectly happy to give the Mac a miss.
(Of course, I also needed a Mac because it's new target OS for my company's software, so I needed it there for testing, but I could have made do with a Mac Mini on the end of a ssh connection.)
Perhaps a tablet, with a slide out keyboard?
A tablet that acts as a wireless controller to a static PC (oh, Wii U)
A tablet where you can take out a small piece and it can be a phone...
This.
Overwhelmingly the major consumer markets demand lightness and ever more cheapness. This means plastics and more money put into high power batteries. Mobile phones can get away with it because they are subsidised and the amount of material they use is minimal compared to a laptop. What you pay for is engineering cost for minaturisation, which is a fixed factor - not like a block of aluminium.
Apple's model also works because of the services and OS it has in place to back it up, not just the hardware. Would the iPod have been such as massive hit without iTunes? Would Mac's just be pretty PCs without OSX?
Done! It's out this month. It's called the Eee Pad Slider. ;)
Also love to Clive for his UX link <3<3
I would never by any Apple product as they're rediculously overpriced, and at the end of the day a mac is just a PC hardware with different software.
So they are popular because they're popular? Thanks for clearing that one up. Why do apple fan's love apple? Because they're bloody good that's why.
First up, they're not overpriced, they're just premium products, apple doesn't do budget gear. If you want a creaky piece of plastic subsidised by tons of bloatware then yes a PC with a similar CPU, GPU, RAM etc will cost less. Nothing wrong with going that route, but if you want premium gear then apple's a good option.
Also, say you want a top spec 10" tablet, the low cost option is actually an iPad 2.
You say they're PC Hardware with different software? By hardware I assume you mean CPU, GPU & RAM? Then yes they share technology, but it's the implementation with software that apple do well. And you mention software as if it's irrelevant. Apple software is cheaper than that from MS - from the free / dirt cheap development tools to the office apps.
You ever bought a new boxed PC? How long did it take to get it the way you wanted? Uninstall all their crap, re-install all the stuff you need. Update the drivers as they shipped out of date crap, found a decent anti-virus package etc. Maybe even do a clean install? People who know PCs do this all the time, but you don't need to do that on a Mac. Really you don't.
Don't get me wrong, I've still got my PC. If I want to play decent games at a decent spec then my i7 rig can still boot into Windows 7. But for everything else I've now switched over to Apple (You guessed that right!). Phone, Laptop, Tablet... The last thing to switch was the i7 rig changing to a hackintosh beast at default.
Only thing more annoying that apple fans like me is apple haters.
that's huge difference. out of all mac os running computers apple sold, 75% are laptops therefore their sw engineers make sure that os runs flawlessly on laptop and that's how it is. you don't get any sort of slowness or anything like that on a laptop, even if it's 11" Air.
Yes, I'm a mac user but not a blind one, i've done fair deal of research and been running hackintosh for over 6 months before i decided to switch completely.
And i'm not looking back, can't, user experience of apple products/sw isn't matched.
first time i reinstalled system was when i upgraded to ssd - that was after almost 2 years - i've never ever before had that luxury to run win in stable state for as long and was reinstalling roughly every 3 months.
So it's that firm connection between hw and sw - that's what makes apple's excellent user experience.
it's not about tech specs - those are irrelevant, what is relevant is user experience and simply mac allows you to forget you're working on a piece of hw and using os - nope, you're completely focused on what you're doing, whether it's a game, development, reading, mixing music, anything. system and hw doesn't get in the way - and that's what user experience should be about, to get done what you need done as soon as you can without any hw/sw related problems.
1) Keyboard and touchpad that are easy to use without mistakes or corrections (Mac touchpads have been especially good for a long time)
2) Matte screen (FFS!)
3) Good battery life and perfectly reliable sleep and hibernation modes (the latter two being the dodgy point on many PC laptops)
4) "Enough" power and storage space (Macbook Air = perfect example)
5) No driver issues or per-vendor customization issues. Ever.
Because Apple can integrate the hardware and operating system more closely than any Windows box maker ever could, they can make power management and driver integration something you just take for granted and don't notice anymore. True, their drivers don't have the best performance in the world most of the time, but switching back to an Acer laptop from a Powerbook G4 after a few years, that's when that indefinable Apple edge suddenly gets quantified in very specific ways as the rough edges around things that used to just work make their presence felt.
Don't get me wrong, I'm not an Apple Cultist (those people scare the bejesus outta me) and Mac laptops aren't perfect (UK keyboard layout is lazy and what is it with those frickin' gloss screens!!!!! ARGH!) but I just can't see any Wintel box ever catching up to Apple in terms of usability, and that's why people buy Apple (and why many other people fail to understand why people buy Apple)
desirability = profit (ie success) while cheapness doesn't; therefore why is Intel saying that the key aspect of its 'ultrabook' project is a low cost? Is Intel out of touch?
Cheapest PC in the UK - it's a phone with a subsidised contract, and Intel are just waking up to that potential.
Intel isn't bringing anything new really - this product only exists because they can't make a cpu low powered enough to go in a tablet (the thing that is selling well). I doubt it'll go anywhere.
So Apple DO charge more for the same hardware? That's what you've just said.
Desirability is all down to marketing. You tell everyone that 'x' is the hottest new gadget they absolutely must have, you get adverts everywhere telling them, you get journalists telling them, you get the "trendies" looking down on people who don't have something... and everyone will go mad for it.
It's a label, essentially. Like designer jeans costing £80+ that are exactly the same as non-brand jobs that sell for a fiver but don't have that all important 'brand' label stitched on the back pocket. Convince everyone that label is desirable and those swayed by that sort of thing will sell their souls for it.
...
Saying cheapness doesn't equal profit doesn't necessarily work, either; on the PC 'cheapness' front I think the issue is that there are, literally, hundreds of companies building PCs to the lowest price possible. There's only one Apple, because they've locked down their territory and fight viciously to guard it. Imagine if IBM had done that back when everything was "IBM Compatible" - there would likely be two PC electronics firms in the world: IBM and Motorola.
I think - I didn't work for Mesh!
most of laptops they sell are Airs - the new ones
nope, they don't. just went through this yesterday with my friend - cheapest 27" iMac vs alternative based on same/similar components:
Apple price: £1399
Equivalent built from parts (Mini ITX): £1626
not talking about the mess with cables, need to build it yourself and so on...
the way i see it is more about what you want to do. i don't think we will have a pc a tablet or a phone with different os
what i believe we'll have is just one os which handles all devices and they'll be all up to date (like apple presented with their iCloud offering) and you will just use a device which suits your current needs and situation - more like a terminal or screen you use to get done what you need done.
i guess aim will be to make system as transparent as possible and focus on experience and productivity - no matter what device you use
that's not off topic, that's on topic since you can't look at this as a bunch of chips and tech specs and so on.
ppl pay for experience and experience is what drives their need to buy
Erm, that quote for a computer is more than my PC by far. Ok yea the screen is a large cost (£918 for the mac build, however Hazro do a similar quality screen for £550) and building that exact spec on Scan is £615, and that ain't going for the cheapest of stuff either with a Lian Li case and modular PSU.
The best thing about the iMac 27 is the screen, which your getting at a slightly cheaper price.
I understand why people don't like Dell etc because of all the bloat you get with them, I've built all my computers myself, and haven't had any stability problems at all, and building a computer isn't that hard these days.
You can be fine with Dells and i agree to some extent you get what you pay for, but there is no way that you can buy a similar spec Mac to a PC and not pay more for it, unless you buy an "Alienware" which are just rip offs.
As far as the future goes, what you might get is have your tablet linked to your TV so you've got a larger screen to do stuff with/watch films etc.
Would that be be the stories of Apple not responding to customer complaints or the ones about Apple denying that there is anything to complain about or even the ones about Apple telling their customer care reps to even acknowledge that there is a problem to deny ?
here are components i used (from scan) and they try to match iMac as closely as possible, few problems though:
- had to opt for slightly more expensive case to save on itx psu and use normal one
- there's no IPS LED backlight 27" display on the market with that resolution so Dell 27" is used
- no fanless psu to keep price as low as possible
- no 512MB gfx can be found from hd6770 series on Scan
- slower cpu used, since can't find 2.7GHz 65W on scan
config:
gfx - 1GB sapphire HD6770
bluetooth mouse + keyboard - logitech cordless desktop
display - 27" Dell U2711
os - Win7 Ultimate Retail
mobo - Intel BOXDH67CFB3
cpu - Intel Core i5 2.5GHz 65W
FW800 - Lycom PE-107 FW800 card
wifi - Asus USB-N13 - 300Mb/s (like apple) wifi N
ram - 2x2GB Corsair DDR3 1333Mhz
hdd - 1TB HD Caviar Blue
bluetooth - Belkin F8T017NG bluetooth 2.1 + EDR (like apple, not v2)
slot-in dvd - samsung SN-T083C
case - Lian Li PC-Q11B
cpu fan - low profile Dynatron K2 Mini ITX
psu - 400W FSP Green - cheapest one
If you're out of warranty and the apple product breaks you may as well buy a new device.
In other words, iMac is £250 less than equivalent built from available components.
It means you can either use it on applecare and iwork or external FW800/TB disk or upgrade to SSD or you can buy sw worth £250
The hazro screen i mentioned here is Wled http://www.tftcentral.co.uk/reviews/hazro_hz27wa.htm, it is very similar, and i think it has the same resolution. If you go for the zotac motherboard, then that includes wifi with it, i forgot the bluetooth, so however much that is. Also the reason why it only has 512mg of graphics ram is because it is a laptop card (hence why it has an M in the name)
I do'nt know which i5 your using, but this is clocked at 2.8 (http://www.scan.co.uk/products/intel-i5-760-s1156-lynnfield-quad-core-28-ghz-8mb-cache-core-ratio-21x-95w-retail)
Also you've added windows ultimate, when there is no need for it you probs wouldn't notice the difference, you could easily also just use an OEM saving you £100.
As far as the fanless PSU, a 120mm fan spinning slowly is pretty much inaudible, and the PSU will lost longer due to being cooler.
So the computer parts came to £710, and £400 for the screen (http://www.overclockers.co.uk/showproduct.php?prodid=MO-011-HO&groupid=17&catid=1120&subcat=)
Logitech Cordless Desktop S 520 Keyboard & Laser Mouse USB
Belkin F8T017NG Bluetooth v2.1 + EDR USB Key Class 1 - 100-150m
Lian Li PC-V351B, Black Aluminum Cube Mini ITX Case w/o PSU
1TB Samsung HD103SJ Spinpoint F3, SATA 3Gb/s, 7200rpm, 32MB Cache, 8.9ms, NCQ
550W Antec Basiq Plus, Modular PSU, EPS 12V, 120mm Fan, ATX 12V Version 2.2
Veho VSD-003 Micro-SD/SDHC USB Card Reader
Intel i5 760, S1156, Lynnfield Quad Core, 2.8 GHz, 8MB Cache, Core Ratio 21x, 95W, Retail
4GB Corsair XMS3, DDR3 PC3-10666 (1333), Non-ECC Unbuffered, CAS 9-9-9-24, 1.50V
1GB Sapphire HD 6770, PCI-E 2.1 (x16), 4800MHz GDDR5, GPU 850MHz, 800 Cores, DP/ HDMI/ DL DVI-I
Zotac H55ITX-A-E, Intel H55 Express, 1156, DDR3 1066/1333, SATA 3Gb/s, Mini ITX
Sony AD-7260S-0B 24x DVD±R, 12xDVD±DL, DVD+RW x8/-RWx6 ,12xRAM SATA, Black, OEM
Microsoft Windows 7 Home Premium 64 Bit SP1, Operating System, Single, - OEM
You can install Win on the same computer many times, they only get upset if you change the computer, and even then you can more than likely register it.
The reason why they use 65w cpu's is because they downclock them, also because it is built into the screen you don't want it to be pumping out heat. A mobile chip is not anywhere near as powerful as the desktop version, due to a laptop having a lot less power at its disposal so the 6770 will last a lot longer than the 6770m in terms of graphical grunt.
Also most of those parts come with a 2/3 year guarantee free.
CPU - should be sandy bridge, the same goes for motherboard
and as i said, you need retail version of os
you forgot wifi and firewire, wifi must be N 300Mb/s and FireWire must be 800
you can't use other components because you should stay as close as possible to iMac, that's the whole point of it, meaning as power efficient as possible (iMac is 300W btw), as small as possible, the same connectivity options and so on...
that's not true at all. oem license can be obtained for system builders and can be bought together with hdd, cpu, mobo, it's not transferable between different machines. i learned this hard way when my legally purchased vista ultimate oem was f****d after changing mobo
The lian li case states it is mini ITX in the name.
As far as your copy for windows, if you ring them up then 99% of the time they will just give you the code, and technically a mobo does count as a new computer however if you explained to them why, they usually just give it to you anway, i've done it a few times.
Apple is a multi-million dollar company who deals directly with hardware manufacturers, they buy in massive bulk, reducing their cost substantially. You are buying from Scan, who buy in smaller quantities, and who mark up the cost of items so that they make profit as well. The screen that you are buying is made by dell, who buy the panel from LG (I believe), and then sell it to scan, who sell it to you.
The fact that your build came out about 300 pounds more than apple is not surprising, especially when you have done your best to make it as small a build as possible. If you had used full sized components, you would have come out cheaper as well. Also, W7 ultimate is unnecessary.
Basically all you have proven is how much of a premium Apple charges for it's underpowered hardware.
As someone with a neuropsychology background I can safely predict that you would get the same result when you scan football fans while exposed to their team logo/colours, or when you scan patriots when exposed to their national flag.
No, Intel is right. Desirability alone is not enough. I sincerely desire an Aston Martin. I cannot afford to buy one, so unfortunately my feelings towards Aston Martin are irrelevant to their bottom line. I quite desire an iPad or Asus Transformer, but again... it's too much money right now, so no sale.
Intel rightly considers price as significant a factor in making the sale as desirability.
nope that's the whole point. how much you pay for the same or as similar as possible computer at apple store and if you build it yourself.
if you don't get it then there's nothing i can do about it.
people always say that macs are expensive, so i've done research and try to build a copy of cheapest 27"imac and those are my findings.
if you want to compare imac to something, that something should be as similar as possible. otherwise there's nothing to compare, it's as simple as that.
i don't care about how big is margin at scan or overclockers, all I care about is how much it costs me.
sorry but having windows home is a joke and can't be compared to Mac OS X. apparently you're not a mac user and therefore can't see the difference. I've built myself many computers and was a win guy until the end of 2009 and am still using win at work, but at home and everywhere with me i use mac.
it was an example of ONE person not study done on many of them, if you're referring to that bit shown on BBC few days ago
I'm just looking at it a different way than you are, they are expensive for what they are. They are using underpowered (underclocked and mobile parts), to make up for their all-in-one design decision. Also, the second you upgrade from apple, your cost comparisons go to hell.
The problem, again is that you are comparing consumer parts to something that is not made out of general consumer parts. the iMac is built based off of laptop components, which are not generally available to system builders. Seeing as you can't use even remotely similar parts, you might as well use the base model Mac Pro for comparison, as you will be able to get much more direct comparison.
easily 60% of users will not use, need, or even realize that they are missing the features of W7 Pro or Ulitmate. that is the point of multiple versions of the OS.
Give me 5 reasons that using OSX will improve my life over my using Linux and Windows.....
Fair point, well made.
Super-thin laptops such as the Samsung Series 9 and the MacBook Air currently cost around £1,300 (or US$1,500) and rumours suggest the Asus UX21 will achieve a sub-$1,000 price (possibly £900?).
That's a fairly strong reason to favour the UX21 over the others, but is it compelling enough to make you opt for it over a £500 CULV or a mainstream laptop? That's where desirability needs to take over if Intel's project is to claim the 40 per cent market share that the company wants/predicts.
Desirability and only desirability doesn't lead to sales; there are practical considerations too. It's odd that it's these considerations that are Intel's primary focus though.
For most buyers, the price is the price is the price.
Of course there's a top end market that caters for the must-have's at any price.
But in the end, it comes down to affordability.
According to your philosophy, a total of 0 netbooks should have been sold the last few years. ;)
Iphones may be a tad more slick than androids, but they're triple the price, what's selling better?
I bet at least 99 of 100 people really liking a porsche at a car show end up buying a golf. :D
Look at it this way: Intel, other than Apple, thinks VOLUME.
Sales based on Style aren't for the volume market.
I couldn't find the unit sales (I'm not sure either intel nor apple publish them) but just to show you the size of chipzilla:
Apple made a revenue of 65.23 billion in 2010
That's a lot.
Intel made a revenue of 43.623 billion in 2010... ahyupp, that's a digit more in there :D
Mind you, the american system of billions and dots and so on doesn't really make sense to me in my european way, i'm however guessing it's not supposed to be a comma
when i was younger i didn't mind tweaking my computers and spend time with building/upgrading and so on.
these days i want to get done what i need to do as quickly as possible without even thinking about hw/sw, that's why i switched
i'd be happy with ubuntu too but no photoshop for ubuntu and gimp doesn't support cmyk
the thing is that those components might seem underpowered on win but on mac os they are more than enough. i normally run about 15 apps on my macbook pro and no problem at all, couldn't do it on win
mac os x is built around their hw, they know what's inside therefore it's better optimised
Oh well...shame I can't find the unit sales though
Also computers have come a long way in the last few years, and CPU's are a lot more powerful than they used to be, and its nearly impossible for me to make my computer cry and i'm folding 24/7 on skype, got monitoring software going as well as the usual av+firewall.
I think optimisation is important, of which Macs probably are, but you pay for it. I found it amusing when Nvidia released a new quadro part that was £150 quid yet spanked a 580 in CAD design.
Very important detail. Thanks for reminding us.
Speaking of details...
The production price in components for a 16Gb model is $187.51. Add to that manufacture, software development, shipping, patent licensing, marketing/advertising, warranty cover, replacement of defective units and all the R&D that went into creating the thing in the first place, it all mounts up.
The sale price of a 16Gb model is $599,-- or £365,-- at current exchange rates.
Apple has an overall profit margin of 24.27%
If you go onto the Apple store its £510 for the 16gb version. Yea that don't take into account marketing and research, but that is still a heafty margin hence why they make such large profits.
A lot of people though buy stuff just because its Apple, almost like a fashion statement and ashumed quality.
This is the one case where apple is cheaper and it's only because of the screen. Try it with the smaller screen iMac and the PC wins.
Also, imagine two people bought both of the machines you priced up, then fast forward 3-4 years. Both users want to upgrade to a faster machine.
The PC user buys a new box for a few hundred quid, or if they know what they're about just upgrades the core components and spends even less.
The Mac user has to buy a whole new iMac. That's £1399 please! Ker-ching/Ouch (depending on your perspective).
EDIT: Also, premium product? Really? Last time I looked at a Mac it had a foxconn motherboard and low-end RAM, not to mention a glossy IPS screen that is completely trounced in terms of colour accuracy by any consumer level IPS screen you care to mention. They look shiny and have features that can be given names and numbers (usually embelished with words such as "magical"). The only thing positive I have to say about Apple is they have good customer support and they make a decent PC case/laptop shell.
Jobs decided that with the own Apple store he would have more control over how the product was presented and sold. Turns out he was right. Muggles are not like us geeks; we are happy to buy a list of complicated components on the web and put together our own machine. To a muggle that would be tantamount to building their own car from parts that they have to pick out themselves. It's their worst nightmare. They want to buy their PC, like their car, in a nice clean, brightly lit air-conditioned showroom, where they can test drive the thing, and get support, aftercare and servicing/repairs included. For that they will happily pay a premium.
What does this tell us? It tells us that ordinary people, i.e. the majority of PC users will pay a premium for something that is safe and easy to use. Not flexible, not versatile, not customisable, hackable or rootable; easy. Something that does the straightforward stuff muggles want to do transparently, not the esoteric stuff we want to do by applying our hardcore geek-voodoo.
Intel and Microsoft are catching on to that. The future isn't powerful; the future is safe and easy.
So of course the software can be cheap or free, you've already paid through the nose for the hardware. Most Apple products with the exception of the consumer electronics products where Apple shifts massive volumes (up to and including the iPad) they get such a low price on the components compared to their competitors that they can charge a larger premium and still not be much more expensive or cheaper.
Tablets and phones Apple is starting to be overtaken in price. Its hard for, say, Acer to get a low BOM on its components when it is only just sourcing maybe 500,000 screens, or 500,000 SOCs or whatnot when you are up against Apple who is already sourcing 25 million of each at the same time. The Transformer, Iconia and Galaxy tabs are also coming in at or below the price of the iPads now, its only a matter of time unless Apple drops its price that Apple is very much going to be the premium price dealer of tablets, just like they are with computers.
Apple developed a great product at the right time and has made money hand over fist...but just like the iPhone, who's market share is rapidly being overtaken by Android, Apple is failing in a lot of ways to innovate further and incorporate either hardware or software elements that a wide potential user base wants. Micro SD card slot of SD card slot? You're telling me they couldn't have fit one in to the iPad 2 and it almost no additional cost? But then it would "undercut" their higher capacity iPads and the massive premium charged on them (with current price of NAND flash, the 32GB iPad2 is likely only costing Apple around $20-30 extra to make, but they are charging a lot more than 3x the price premium). That is just one example of something that could be easily incorporated in, at little cost and little design compromise that probably 98% of users either want or would appreciate, but Apple says no.
The walled ecosystem is another issue. Speaking from someone who has an Ipad2, it annoys the hell out of me. I WANT access to my file system. I hate that files can't really be shared between applications. I'd love to wirelessly connect to a network share and transfer over some file and then interact with those files in whatever app I want. No chance in heck of that, at best I can wirelessly transfer in a file from a network share directly to the app copying it and then I can interact with it only in that app. Great usability there.
Oh, but it just works and I am protected. Forgot that selling point.
PS As a note, the iPad2 was a gift, and yes I am enjoying it, but there are parts of it that piss me off so much about Apple's walled ecosystem. Some perks, I'll grant that right off, but if it had been my money it would have been a Galaxy tab or an Iconia or a transformer that I would have spent my money on.
I think one of the big reason why apple has done well was the iPod, as that got the brand name around a bit, everyone has one. Similar to the halo effect of GPU's then people started to buy more of their products, think of the first iPhone which the best part of it was the touchscreen, connectivity wise it was shocking.
The stores might be good, but i reckon if you setup a computer shop and allowed people to test drive the stuff you could tell them anything. PC World doesn't do well as they try and sell you loads of bundle crap (i went for an interview there and if they don't sell you the extra stuff they don't make any money)
It would be interesting to see what happens to Apple in the future, as i feel that there could be a trend that they will re-invent something and then people will slowly catchup in sales (thinking of the iPhone losing market share) So what will happen when they run out of ideas?
Fixed
If the price of a laptop had stayed at £1500+, then only 'geeks' and businesses would buy them.
Apple might make nice consumer electronic devices, but they are outside the price range for the vast majority of people in the UK.
Most people just want a gateway to the web and a reasonable hard drive for their snaps/music/pr0n.
Intel IS out of touch with you and me, but not out of touch with Joe Schmo who thinks voting is important (primarily for X-Factor), has an addiction to football and beer will be buying his ultrabook on revolving credit.
The market determines what is developed, and the market is stupid. Like Nexxo is always saying (and I can't remember the exact percentage) but the vast majority of the population are incapable of critical thought of the level at which this debate exists.
Street price and lack of margin has been slowly killing retail in this country for at least a decade. I used to work in pro-audio and it's the same there. Some people will pay for top quality, but very few. So the only places in the market (and it's the same in tourism where I now work) are the best - or the cheapest. Anything else is death.
well said, fully agree
don't forget that apple re-sell value is much higher than of that of regular win based desktops. i paid for my mbp 999 and still can sell it for 800 after 2 years. try it with regular laptop or a win based desktop. you can't, i know for how much i sold my quad based gaming machine after 2 years with new gfx and new psu.
Definitely a good point! I've never sold a Windows PC, I either upgrade them in stages and sell off components (which can hold their value very well, depending on what they are) or keep them until they're so old that they're worthless.
Hmm, except Intel isn't talking about safe and easy, it's talking about cheap. Obviously it's a microprocessor company and doesn't make UIs, so 'safe and easy' is outside their remit, but the curious thing is they're not really talking about end-user benefits (thin, light, quiet, fast, long battery life etc.) they're just talking about lowering the price. Surely that's off the mark these days?
I'f we'd have only had rolls-royce's and no beetles, would mass motorisation have occurred?
If Intel focusses on the top-of-the-line-products, and not on the quick-cheapies, will devices keep selling the way they do?
+1
Funny to watch though - it's like a coliseum for deeply sad people.
that's very true. i like apple products but i can't deny the fact that i switched to mac after many many years and it's mostly down to the fact that i don't play as often as i used to and bought ps3 to cover these precious times and realized that for the rest of the stuff i do on pc i don't need powerful gaming machine and could do with macbook pro which handles everything i need to do on computer really nicely, especially after i installed vertex2 - what a change!!
I have a friend who did exactly this... you're not him are you?
like a pc you can upgrade and upgrade.. apple locks hardware to software- so a guy who buys an older macbook for example is stuck with a certain version of osx.. then there's the price
How long has it taken me to remove all the bloatware? Quartet of an hour to install Linux (openSuse).
How long did it take me to find and install the drivers? 1 second! openSuse offeres to install drivers - then automatically connects to the internet and installs the latest drivers.
How long did it take me to install the softwre I wanted? About five minutes in YaST, and all of it was free.
How long to get antivirus? I didnt. OpenSuse has less viruses than Mac already and AppArmor (preinstalled) blocks them anyway.
And I end up with an incrediabbly secure and efficient system. On a system that uses an Athlon II and a HDD, with openSuse installed for around 2 years and used daily with no maintanence (such as defragmentation) it still only take 20 seconds from pressing the power button to have Firefox loaded.
For games I'll dual boot with Windows - but Mac users need to do this too, and grub does a great job off dual booting.
I've switched over to Linux - PC, Phone and soon Tablet too.
Unlike most people who complain about Apple - I have tried their products. I've used hackintosh and an iPod touch and don't like either.
Just give me an X Terminal and I'm happy.
Anyone who feels annoyed by Apple's walled garden should experience my colleague's annoyance (and by extention, mine, because she then comes to me to sort it) when some botched install messes up her Windows7, she doesn't know why her PC keeps nagging her for file backup settings, and now her IMAP folders don't sync across her PC and Blackberry (they were just fine when I set them up)... Frankly she is a danger with Windows machines, but she'd be the ideal candidate for a CR-48 Google Chrome laptop or something running iOS. There simply is nothing on them she could click to screw things up, so she can focus on doing her work, safely and easily.