$499 Mac on MWSF'05?

Right... they also need to protect their intellectual property. Apple likes to work on new technology and keep it secret until the final product is announced. When people spread information about these unreleased items, it harms Apple's driving force: innovation.

Imagine if you could know what produce and what prices all the grocery stores were selling before the advertisements in the paper told you. I worked for a grocery chain once, and they kept their printed advertisements absolute secret until the day of the press run -- no "trash" proofs were allowed to leave the building, put in dumpsters, etc. All a competing grocery chain had to do was find out the prices before the ad, undercut the prices by one penny and that translated into hundreds of thousands of dollars of extra revenue.

Competition between similar businesses can get ugly, especially when rumors or information is leaked. It does hurt Apple's bottom line... it causes the stock to fluctuate and allows competitors to get a peephole into Apple's design room. Both not good.
 
Cat said:
From News.com.com.com
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I just had to comment and laugh... Why don't they just use the news.com top level domain name? It just redirects to news.com.com. Utterly retarded.

And I think it's healthiest for everybody to not speculate... :) Enjoy your surprise. Maybe it's kinda the same with finding out if your baby is a he or a she kinda thing...
 
We had rumor, but Apple's lawyers shut us up before we could even publish it. They are getting really good these days.
 
Hmm, that's nitpicking, Arden. ;) 'headless' has long been used as a term for 'without display'. As in: "Can you use that server headless?" - and it makes sense if people refer to it as an iMac without a screen. I, though, just call it the 'cheap Mac' or cMac.
 
I like the headless image because it reminds me my iMac G4 that looks like the lamp of Pixar that of course has a "head". But that's just me.

lcMac is ok too, Mac LC already existed several times, Mac C too (c for compact, not for cube). So cMac is a good idea. But we know Apple thinks different. Mac2 ? Or as everything comes from iPod now, iMac mini.
 
Captain Code said:
They're really cracking down on these rumors. I think it's a good thing they do though because if they don't release the products that the rumors say they will, it harms their stock prices.
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On the other hand, these rumours give them more publicity. Filing a suit sort of confirms that Apple has at least developed these products. The latest article is on CNet, BBC, NYTimes and many others. How many none Apple users are aware of these products now than would have been if the rumour sites didn't publish the articles.

Cheap advertizing.
 
I disagree. Apple's got plenty of publicity -- I don't think that anyone who didn't know about Apple before now knows about Apple because of these rumors. Plus the iPod is almost a household name now... my mother had heard about iPods and knew about Apple, and didn't even know what the hell an iPod did.

Apple has had about the same amount of hooplah and rumor surrounding it for quite some time now. This is no different -- they're just suing over it now. CNet, BBC, NYTimes, Newsweek -- they've been reporting on Apple rumor for years now. Newsweek has had Apple on their cover at least once (iPod & Steve Jobs).

Rumor is one thing -- reporting on leaked information is another. If all this "Q88" stuff had remained rumor instead of leaked information, that'd be about the same amount of publicity for Apple.
 
As I mentioned several posts back, I used to think the idea of a sub $500 "headless" Mac was utterly stupid. I've done a 180 now.

I have a high school kid working for me after school. He's a PC guy, but I've been slowly working him toward the Mac. regardless, he heard the buzz of this rumored miniMac at school without me telling him, which was interesting. He also seemed to indicate that his peers at least would be seriously interested in it for the following reasons:

1. price
2. great storage place for all their media (MP3s)
3. no viruses
4. no spyware

Outside of a few video enthusiasts, this is the first time I've heard any high school male show interest in a Mac (they're all gamers, let's face it).

I really hope this thing exists, I'm now convinced it will be very successful. I think they've announced the new Xserve early to make room for the big announcement, which will be this miniMac thing. Call me a sucker.
 
ElDiabloConCaca said:
I disagree. Apple's got plenty of publicity -- I don't think that anyone who didn't know about Apple before now knows about Apple because of these rumors. Plus the iPod is almost a household name now... my mother had heard about iPods and knew about Apple, and didn't even know what the hell an iPod did.
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Whatever Apple's real reasons are, they are definately getting more publicity form these law suits. I read BBC news several times a day, and can't remember seeing any rumors on their site although there have been several Apple/Steve Jobs related articles.

I know several PC type folk who also read BBC news who are now aware of the products Apple may release. Normally they would hear about it from me, but this time they are asking me what's going on in the Apple world just because of these stories.

Apple is almost a household name because of the iPod and iMac and certainly spends the money required on advertizing, however by starting these suits, there's no doubt that more people are aware that there are some new products about to appear that may interest be of interest to them.
 
Having watched Bill Gates' presentation at CES, I am thinking more and more that Apple should get into this market. The stuff that Microsoft is doing is actually pretty great, except that it likes to crash.

Their media center software looks amazing.

They are also getting into IPTV where you get your TV over ADSL 2. The set top box is based on MS technology as well. It looks, dare I say it, quite good.

I think this is going to explode. The integration with their media center and windows xp is great. Access all your photos from any XP machine from your tv, and same for music and movies.

This is something Apple should really be doing because if they don't it's going to be all MS based and only work with Windows.
 
Captain Code said:
This is something Apple should really be doing because if they don't it's going to be all MS based and only work with Windows.
Click to expand...

I can stand my PC crashing because let's face it, if we grew up with Windows, we're used to it.

What I can't stand is the thought of my VCR, DVD player, HiFi system, or even TV crashing just because Windows is on it. If this happens frequently (it crashed on Gates while he was demo'ing it on Conan O'Brien), this is going to take off like a rock.

If Apple is going to try take this market, they'd better have a good reliable system.
 
That's true. But FWIW, the Windows PVR didn't crash, but the XBox did. Bill couldn't get the slideshow to work through the tv but that was probably that he had the wrong remote or it was dead, as it worked from another remote.

I hear about how people's non-MS based DVRs are still quite buggy so, if Apple did enter this market I think they could bring a lot of stability.

The things that the windows media center could do was great, but I wouldn't like to see everything based on MS stuff.
 
Finally... they are releasing the iBox. It has taken how long?! And to think, people didn't believe us.
 
If this is fake, it's gotta be one of the best ever. That makes me very excited!

Imagine the lawsuits once Apple sees these pics.
 
WOW that looks very cool...I hope this is real...i bet those things will sell like hotcakes...and i want one...looks like some kind of compact small mac/media center pc thingermahbob...

Excellent find...It would be very good for Apple to take some of the media center market away from microsoft
 
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