Jake Clawson
2010-11-26 15:40:49 UTC
From Tech Night Owl:
http://tinyurl.com/2bkkuqm
Cuss and discuss.
A Look at the PC Junk Factor
November 26th, 2010
On several occasions, Apple executives have been famously quoted as
saying, in response to questions about matching the prices of cheap PC
gear, that they didn’t know how to make junk. Of course, the critics
will usually claim Apple is run by a bunch of greedy so-and-sos and all
they want to do is extract as much cash from you as possible.
The skeptics will seldom admit that it’s not just a matter of a company
wanting to earn a decent profit, but to provide extra value for the
customers.
In contrast, most of the rest of the PC industry is busy flooding the
market with loads of sometimes barely different models in hopes that one
or two will catch fire and deliver decent sales. The netbook seems
mostly an attempt to get PC users to just sell something, anything,
during a time of economic downturn. At roughly $300 a pop, these
shrunken notebooks demonstrated no innovation whatever, just a rush to
the bottom and efforts to make something as cheaply as possible, without
regard to whether they even delivered satisfactory performance.
The netbook phenomenon, however, appears to have been short-lived. It
may be that the iPad’s arrival has made it obvious that, with a little
more money, a really usable computer can be bought. What’s more, PC
makers are beginning to offer supposedly full-featured portables for not
much more than a netbook, so the latter may be best offered for $200 or
less.
Now this is not a survey, but I did notice several netbooks on the
closeout counter at the local Sam’s Club, so maybe the point has been
reached where customers have begun to realize that Apple was right about
that cheap stuff all along.
Unfortunately, someone new to the PC marketplace, and there are such
people still, may not understand why a PC notebook can be sold for $400,
yet the cheapest MacBook or MacBook Air is $999. Just why is the Apple
so expensive?
Such suspicions may be compounded by the unfortunate efforts of our
largest product review publication, Consumer Reports. Now CR, as I’ve
said previously, prides itself as being incorruptible. They do not take
advertising from third parties, the magazine is published by a
non-profit corporation, and they buy all of the products they test in
retail outlets. Hence, there’s no opportunity for a manufacturer to
build a “trick” version that will work better than the units sold to
regular customers.
Of course, having reviewed electronics gear for years, I can tell you
from first-hand experience that I’ve never received a “ringer,” or
something I could be suspicious about. The very same defects that
afflict the shipping versions afflict the ones I’ve received direct from
the manufacturer or its marketing agency. Indeed, on some occasions, the
well-worn review sample may actually function worse.
Alas, CR also clouds the issue by comparing Macs with cheaper PC gear,
without regard to whether the core features, hardware configurations,
and bundled software,e are comparable. They fail to distinguish the
well-known differences between Mac OS X and Windows, and thus leave the
impression with their readers that there is no difference. The Mac is
just a pretty, overpriced PC.
In any case, it also seems clear that more and more people are realizing
that it’s better to pay for value than buy an inferior product that may
be less useful and perhaps fail quickly. That probably explains why
Apple’s sales have mostly grown faster than the competition in recent
years. Customer surveys tell the tale, demonstrating that large numbers
of people place Apple on the top of their shopping lists for the next
few months.
A recent NPD Group consumer survey, for example, revealed that some 11%
were planning to buy an iPad between now and February 2011. Just as
fascinating is the fact that use of the iPad appears to increase the
longer they’re owned. It grows from 15 hours a week after two months to
18 hours a week after three months.
I’m more curious about what these iPad owners are giving up. The PC?
Smartphones? Or do they just allocate more and more of their busy lives
to Apple’s newest iconic gadget?
Of course, this explains the rush by other companies to somehow steal
Apple’s thunder. In the PC space, that’s often done simply by using
cheaper parts, or removing features, but with tablets, Apple has already
set a price for the iPad that’s hard to beat.
What’s more, the customer is clearly not listening, as higher and higher
numbers of would-be buyers prefer Macs. According to a ChangeWave
survey, some 36% of buyers who plan to buy new notebooks in the next
three months expect to buy a Mac. Even more intriguing is the fact that
this level of interest has grown by 11% over the past month alone, which
may indicate that the updated MacBook Air might be a factor.
Or perhaps they are just having second thoughts about buying the cheap
junk far too many PC box assemblers continue to offer.
http://tinyurl.com/2bkkuqm
Cuss and discuss.
A Look at the PC Junk Factor
November 26th, 2010
On several occasions, Apple executives have been famously quoted as
saying, in response to questions about matching the prices of cheap PC
gear, that they didn’t know how to make junk. Of course, the critics
will usually claim Apple is run by a bunch of greedy so-and-sos and all
they want to do is extract as much cash from you as possible.
The skeptics will seldom admit that it’s not just a matter of a company
wanting to earn a decent profit, but to provide extra value for the
customers.
In contrast, most of the rest of the PC industry is busy flooding the
market with loads of sometimes barely different models in hopes that one
or two will catch fire and deliver decent sales. The netbook seems
mostly an attempt to get PC users to just sell something, anything,
during a time of economic downturn. At roughly $300 a pop, these
shrunken notebooks demonstrated no innovation whatever, just a rush to
the bottom and efforts to make something as cheaply as possible, without
regard to whether they even delivered satisfactory performance.
The netbook phenomenon, however, appears to have been short-lived. It
may be that the iPad’s arrival has made it obvious that, with a little
more money, a really usable computer can be bought. What’s more, PC
makers are beginning to offer supposedly full-featured portables for not
much more than a netbook, so the latter may be best offered for $200 or
less.
Now this is not a survey, but I did notice several netbooks on the
closeout counter at the local Sam’s Club, so maybe the point has been
reached where customers have begun to realize that Apple was right about
that cheap stuff all along.
Unfortunately, someone new to the PC marketplace, and there are such
people still, may not understand why a PC notebook can be sold for $400,
yet the cheapest MacBook or MacBook Air is $999. Just why is the Apple
so expensive?
Such suspicions may be compounded by the unfortunate efforts of our
largest product review publication, Consumer Reports. Now CR, as I’ve
said previously, prides itself as being incorruptible. They do not take
advertising from third parties, the magazine is published by a
non-profit corporation, and they buy all of the products they test in
retail outlets. Hence, there’s no opportunity for a manufacturer to
build a “trick” version that will work better than the units sold to
regular customers.
Of course, having reviewed electronics gear for years, I can tell you
from first-hand experience that I’ve never received a “ringer,” or
something I could be suspicious about. The very same defects that
afflict the shipping versions afflict the ones I’ve received direct from
the manufacturer or its marketing agency. Indeed, on some occasions, the
well-worn review sample may actually function worse.
Alas, CR also clouds the issue by comparing Macs with cheaper PC gear,
without regard to whether the core features, hardware configurations,
and bundled software,e are comparable. They fail to distinguish the
well-known differences between Mac OS X and Windows, and thus leave the
impression with their readers that there is no difference. The Mac is
just a pretty, overpriced PC.
In any case, it also seems clear that more and more people are realizing
that it’s better to pay for value than buy an inferior product that may
be less useful and perhaps fail quickly. That probably explains why
Apple’s sales have mostly grown faster than the competition in recent
years. Customer surveys tell the tale, demonstrating that large numbers
of people place Apple on the top of their shopping lists for the next
few months.
A recent NPD Group consumer survey, for example, revealed that some 11%
were planning to buy an iPad between now and February 2011. Just as
fascinating is the fact that use of the iPad appears to increase the
longer they’re owned. It grows from 15 hours a week after two months to
18 hours a week after three months.
I’m more curious about what these iPad owners are giving up. The PC?
Smartphones? Or do they just allocate more and more of their busy lives
to Apple’s newest iconic gadget?
Of course, this explains the rush by other companies to somehow steal
Apple’s thunder. In the PC space, that’s often done simply by using
cheaper parts, or removing features, but with tablets, Apple has already
set a price for the iPad that’s hard to beat.
What’s more, the customer is clearly not listening, as higher and higher
numbers of would-be buyers prefer Macs. According to a ChangeWave
survey, some 36% of buyers who plan to buy new notebooks in the next
three months expect to buy a Mac. Even more intriguing is the fact that
this level of interest has grown by 11% over the past month alone, which
may indicate that the updated MacBook Air might be a factor.
Or perhaps they are just having second thoughts about buying the cheap
junk far too many PC box assemblers continue to offer.