At 10:54 AM +0100 02/21/2006, Peter Udbjørg wrote:
From: [EMAIL PROTECTED]
But then again, more of my friends are buying=20
used Macs for themselves and new PCs for their=20
children -- because that's what the kids have at=20
school. A whole new level of Oops.
My kid is not going to get a new PC while dad
hangs on to his old mac. She is using pee-sees
at school, mostly for games & such, and at home
she uses my old mac for games (on-line and
CD-rom's). Never ever is a pee see going to
cross my threshold!
Good! I agree wholeheartedly!
What will schools use pee-sees for? Nothing u
can use a mac for too. Maths? Composition
writing? Maths: Desktop calculators. Composition
writing? Text Edit. The only things I can
imagine one MUST have office for, is to
read/exchange memos with school & other parents.
Its a sad fact that Word has become a de facto
standard for document exchange.
At the elementary / jr.high / high school level
-- many schools here can no longer afford Macs,
so MS, Intel, and Dell have stepped in with deals
for free or low-cost PCs and software and server
infrastructure. This creates certain barriers
for Mac-using students.
A few examples, that I've run into over the past 6 months, via my clients:
1) Student cannot view the powerpoint-based homework.
2) Student cannot fetch or submit class
assignments over the web. The MS-based web site
requires ActiveX for many functions. For others
it uses Java, but Apple's Java hangs.
3) Student cannot run the physics experiment
simulation app. The software is PC-only, and is
unstable and cannot print under Virtual PC.
4) Student cannot run the geometry modeling apps.
There is no student version for the Mac, and the
PC version doesn't run at all under Virtual PC.
5) Student cannot view the teachers assignment
(word doc). The docs open and look great in
Word/Win but parts are missing when viewed in
every Mac app tried, including Word/Mac.
Now, some of these shortcommings can be overcome
if the student is equipped with a *high-end* Mac,
and a product such as Virtual PC. But few can
afford that. And why buy all that when a Dell
box is MUCH cheaper?
Instead of creating new market share, the clone=20
sales simply bit into Apple's. (Proof that there=20
is a BIG need for more reasonably prices Macs,=20
IMO!)
It did, remember the issue of Macworld where
Jobs had taken the helm & cancelled the clone
line. And something that also explains The Dark
Side's need to be so uptight with their
OS-licences, cause that is their only
revenue-making stuff, Dell et al profiting from
the hardware (but not as much as Apple does, was
it about 5% versus 20% profit per unit
Dell/Apple?)
Yea, Apple's profit margin is higher than other
companies. I think as long as they can sustain
product quality, they can maintain that profit.
Two things worry me tho: the DOA rate of the new
x86 iMacs and MacBooks, and the product supply
levels.
I guess my thinking is that: Most Mac users,
right now, are higher-end thinkers, and as such
will probably always lean toward buying "real"
Apple Macs. That right there protects Apple's
current 4% market share and its associated
revenue. Now add a shrinkwrapped OS X product,
that runs on a regular PC... That will attract
*new* market share, at say $129 per unit. Those
are sales that Apple would never have made!
(rpt fm above)
And something that also explains The Dark Side's
need to be so uptight with their OS-licences,
cause that is their only revenue-making stuff,
Copyright infringement is a problem, regretfully.
I think threatening your customers is the wrong
solution. I see only one viable path -- for the
copyright holders to change their marketing
models. It has been shown time and again that if
you lower the price of a highly-pirated product,
revenue recovers and often ultimately increases
as the pirate market wanes.
- Dan.
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