My take on the new eMac and new Powerbook

[vanguard]

Originally posted by simX

If I were Apple, this is what I would have done: released the eMac to all educational buyers, whether institutional or not, and have the price start at $899 and the high-end model at $1099.

I just think Apple is confusing the whole lineup: now we have the G4 CRT eMac, the G4 flat-panel iMac, the G3 CRT iMac, and the PowerMac as all desktop solutions. It's just weird and confusing.

Hmm, it seems like you're proposing that the eMac should be widely available then you're saying that there are too many alternatives.

I agree with Apple's lineup. They no longer lead the education market, Dell does. Their offering was old and and slow not cheap enough to make up the difference.

The eMac helps them compete by adressing two major concerns, 1) speed, 2) screen size.

The problem with making it more widely available is that it will canabalize the sales of their other desktops. By not having a superdrive I don't want one. However, I can see somebody else buying it to save money.

Vanguard

PS Besides, charging $1000 for a text editor is crazy.

[simX]

Originally posted by vanguard


Hmm, it seems like you're proposing that the eMac should be widely available then you're saying that there are too many alternatives.

Well, yeah, basically. If Apple thinks there should be a low-cost computer that has a lot of power, why not just allow anyone to buy it, instead of just educational institutions?

And right now, Apple's education lineup is confusing. Like I said, there are the G3 and G4 iMacs, as well as the new G4 eMac. What's particularly confusing is the blurry area between the low-end iMac and the high-end eMac.

I agree with Apple's lineup. They no longer lead the education market, Dell does. Their offering was old and and slow not cheap enough to make up the difference.

Actually, no. Dell was briefly the education leader, but Apple quickly regained that position.

The eMac helps them compete by adressing two major concerns, 1) speed, 2) screen size.

I guess...

The problem with making it more widely available is that it will canabalize the sales of their other desktops. By not having a superdrive I don't want one. However, I can see somebody else buying it to save money.

I understand that it will cannibalize sales of other desktop offerings, but Apple has REALLY blurred the line already for education customers. I mean, you could either go with a G3-based iMac that has a CD-RW drive at $999, or you could forget about the CD-RW drive and instead get a G4 processor, 17" display, and no modem for the same price. Of course, you could get the high-end eMac with a combo drive. But then why would anyone get the low-end iMac over the high-end eMac? The low-end iMac has only a CD-RW drive, has the same speed processor, has a smaller 15" flat-panel display, and is $200 more expensive. Of course, then there's the mid-range and high-end iMacs. But then why not just go ahead and get the PowerMac G4 for $1599 and get a cheap CRT monitor?

It's even further blurred when you consider education INDIVIDUALS, because they can only get the $1299 or $1516 eMac, making the $1399 and $1599 iMacs more attractive buys.

See what I mean? It's just waaaaay too confusing, although I see the need for a high-power-low-price computer like the eMac. However, the power is enough to have it compete directly with the low-end eMac. So people will be confused.

Also, regular consumers are left out in the cold when it comes to a high-power-low-price computer. They have the option of only the G3 or G4 iMacs, the former being underpowered, and the latter being expensive.

I'm just confused as to what Apple is trying to do with the eMac.

[sheepguy42]

I haven't read the editorial articles yet, as far as proffessional opinions, etc. My gripe is with the name. It makes me think of both Emacs and eMachines...both of which I dislike. Don't get me wrong, I have nothing against Emacs for what it is, I just dislike command-line stuff, and using the terminal in general. And eMachines are just annoying. When I was in high school, my school bought some, and they were nothing but trouble.
~Ryan

[scruffy]

If I were in charge at Apple, I would make the thing fully customizable for bulk orders (over 50? over 100?). i.e. you could get any sort of optical drive or none at all, modem or not, internal hard disk or not (netboot), gigabit ethernet (especially useful if you're going diskless, probably). Anything I'm missing.

Right now their cusomization options suck - swivel stand or not, wireless card or not, how much RAM. That's about it. Mind you, I was pretending to be a student at some college in Nebraska. Maybe if you pretend to be a school you get a better set of options. Anyone have the patience to find out?

[mrfluffy]

Originally posted by simX
The modem: Apple decided to take out the modem in the low-end model and keep the modem in for the high-end model. That's silly. What Apple should have done is either leave them in the whole eMac lineup, or taken the whole thing out and allowed education customers to custom-build their eMacs to have modems, if they needed it. That way they could shave a little off the high-end price, too (although I doubt it would be much).

I think the low end one is for networks, so the schools/colleges wouldn't need a modem, and the high end is for students to purchase who are much more likely to need a modem. Although custom building would make it a lot easier.

[.dev.lqd]

Flat panels don't make sense in a lab setting. They're too light and easily moved/stolen/knocked over.

CRT displays are more feasible. So- up until now administrators were forced to choose between stripped down powermacs and cheap displays (which they couldn't get covered under their apple support packages since they didn't get them from apple) or the the older G3 iMacs, assuming they wanted to avoid the flat panel iMac due to screen size (too small) or the other problems of theft/etc..

The eMac fills in a gap. They can get good machines with fast processors and the optical drive they want (except the superdrive... not sure why that isn't an option) without paying a premium for flat panels that they don't want.

[Matrix Agent]

anyone can purchase an eMac. Simply go in, type in the zip code of your past or present HS (I would recommend) and all options are yours. There are no background checks whatsoever.

I did this for Mac OS X. But, I really didn't do anything wrong since I had my teacher buy it under her name and then give it to me.

Seems rather wrong that HS students shouldn't be able to get a discount.

Just goes to show, if you're really intent on giving Apple your money, there are options.


I would imagine iMac/G5(please) speedbumps at MWNY to help differentiate the products. I would estimate Dual 1.5Ghz in the tower, and 1.0-1.1Ghz in the iMac. The eMac would remain the same.

[theCaptain]

I am student, and I know for a fact that you cant give students the new iMac, in fact you cant give them anything with an LCD. It will get destroyed. Thats why this new eMac thing works. I agree with simX on most points about this thing however I was talking to one of the Art Department Chairs today and he says this thing is exactly what the Tech department is looking for for the students, mainly because of the G4 and 17in display. They held off on buying the new iMacs because they figured they might get destroyed, which was wise. Kids play with things. This eMac appears to be very durable and perfect for students. I think this was a good call made by Apple. If they release this thing to the public it undoubtedly will cut into iMac sales. That would be a very foolish decision. Steve spent half an hour at Macworld in January explaing why Apple was dropping the CRT off the consumer product line, why bring it back in. They just need this thing for education, they made the right move!