Comments on: Apple’s Untapped Marketing Tool: Price

By: Es

Es — Sat, 26 Sep 2009 11:54:12 +0000

I was just thinking the same. That would do so much for them

By: tjrchamp

tjrchamp — Wed, 23 Sep 2009 20:40:31 +0000

“When people buy one of the “entry level” Macs and see how great the Mac is, they will buy a higher priced model later on. They will do so because they understand what the rest of us know… That the Mac is well worth the higher price.”

Totally agree with this, I was one of those cheap people, who knew about macs, used older Mac’s but wouldn’t spend the money. I worked on Mac in the office but never actually owned my own. I finally made the move and got the MacBook White back in 2007 and it was the best experience ever, I’ve recently just brought a brand new Macbook Pro 15 Inch and the cost didn’t cross my mind, i knew what i was buying into and I wanted a bigger slice of it. ( Still waiting for it to come )

By: Alex

Alex — Wed, 23 Sep 2009 17:16:56 +0000

Look it’s simple, there are JETTAs and there are BMWs apple doesn’t want to sell cheap computers, They don’t care for that market either. BMW doesn’t sell cars under 25K because they don’t want that market to feel less special. If you want a quality computer you buy a Mac.

By: Katy

Katy — Sun, 20 Sep 2009 23:49:44 +0000

To be fair, I don’t think price is the only thing that people consider when purchasing a computer, but it is a significant part of their decision making process. People who have never owned a Mac compare the specs between Macs and PCs, and when they see that they can get a comparable machine for a significantly lower price, of COURSE they’re going to go for the PC.

By: Juan T

Juan T — Sun, 20 Sep 2009 18:30:17 +0000

Let me just preface my remarks by conveying that at no time do I ever give unsolicited advice to people when it comes to choosing an operating system. Like politics and religion, many people are extremely passionate about their OS. More often than not, it is fear (often the result of marketing FUD) that makes many people frightened about venturing into anything new. I also believe that no one OS fits everyone and that people should choose the right tool for their needs, though the advent of the OS-agnostic Internet is making this issue more and more moot.

As for the argument presented in the article, I could not agree more. I, too, have converted many Windows PC users to the Macintosh and shared the same experience when conveying to stunned individuals how inexpensive the cost of entry is for the Mac Mini and white MacBook. Oddly, almost all of these converts opted to spring for the more expensive 15″ MacBook Pro when it came time to buy. None of them went the cheapest route. In fact, one of my longest holdouts that I had ever given up trying to persuade that Apple makes great hardware for people that have to work in multiple operating systems (ala Bootcamp, VMWare Fusion or Parallel) is now buying a loaded Mac Pro!

My only hope is that Apple continues to push for open standards and addresses some of the concerns of developers regarding the App Store approval process. I think implementing Open GL and making Grand Central Dispatch open source are steps in the right direction.

By: Josh Pigford

Josh Pigford — Sun, 20 Sep 2009 03:38:53 +0000

Ah, that’s what the “Reply” button is for under each comment…so people can response directly to a comment and we can all avoid feeling a little dumb. :)

By: Howie Isaacks

Howie Isaacks — Sat, 19 Sep 2009 21:55:51 +0000

I don’t think Apple is trying to scare anyone away. They simply don’t market their products based upon the price. The truth be told, Mac OS X has always been less expensive to buy off the shelf than Windows (except maybe older versions of Windows). Apple instead pushes the user experience instead of price. That is more important to me, and I have seen from experience having worked at an Apple store for more than 4 years that the user experience, and reliability of the product are more important for a lot of other people too. If someone is too cheap to buy a Mac, Apple doesn’t need to try and market to them. They’re doing quite well targeting people who care more about quality than price. If I had to have a new computer today, and I couldn’t afford a Mac, I would do without until I could afford it.

By: Howie Isaacks

Howie Isaacks — Sat, 19 Sep 2009 17:07:10 +0000

If price is the only thing that people consider when buying a new computer, I say Apple doesn’t need them. Every Mac at any price point is a better value than their Windows PC counterparts on the market. Mac OS X and iLife are the two major things that make the biggest difference. Add to that beautiful industrial design, and rock solid stability, and the higher price becomes justified. Just because Dell, and other PC vendors, along with Microsoft have made the PC a commodity product, it does not mean that Apple must also do the same. There really is no difference between an HP, a Dell, an Asus, etc. They’re all the same. The Mac is different, and thus, comparisons to the Mac’s market share versus the market share of the rest of the computer industry are meaningless. Let the cheap bastards have their cheap PCs. When people buy one of the “entry level” Macs and see how great the Mac is, they will buy a higher priced model later on. They will do so because they understand what the rest of us know… That the Mac is well worth the higher price.

By: James Dempsey

James Dempsey — Sat, 19 Sep 2009 00:37:42 +0000

I HIGHLY doubt Apple created their image simply to scare “cheap” users away. I am, however, quite certain that Apple wants any customer they can get. What they don’t care about is chasing every user looking for a cheap computer. If those users happen to buy a Mac, Apple is happy. If not, they don’t care.

They don’t list prices because it’s not a selling point for them. Pure and simple. They know they can’t compete on price, so they don’t bother “featuring” it. Instead they focus on the features they can control and ones they know people who aren’t bargain shopping look for.

To use the car analogy (yet again), you don’t see Lexus and Mercedes running coupon ads in the local paper. If Joe Sixpack making $25K a year buys one, great. But they aren’t going to waste marketing dollars trying to fight an eventual losing battle.

By: SHRIKEE

SHRIKEE — Fri, 18 Sep 2009 21:43:11 +0000

Did you consider that apple might not want the regular joe user as its customer? And thus set the image of being a bit more expensive and thus scaring of the cheap users away?

Cheap users expecting a rich “Mac” experience are a pain to support and cost lots of money for Apple (or resellers) in doing so. So what does Apple do? THey don’t tell people about prices, expect the lot of people to think Macs are a bit overpriced and with that loose a bunch of potential customers.
Customers who only would have bought a simple plastic macbook or a knockoff Mac Mini and would require hours of extra support. Support which would be free for the user but costs Apple and resellers dearly in labor at the Genius bars/phone support.

This i gathered from my days working in support for the biggest Apple reseller in the Netherlands.