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http://www.insanely-great.com/news.php?id=819
Gateway Aims Profile 4 Squarely at Apple
By Remy Davison, Insanely Great Mac
August 20th 2002
Low prices, low features.
Gateway will release a range of new Profile 4 models on August 26, with specifications
and pricing designed to fire a shot across Apple''s bows in the consumer desktop
market.
The new Gateway models are profiled in a story at ZDNet, which looks at the
flat-panel systems equipped with 2.8GHz P$ processors. Priced between $999 and $1,999,
the all-in-ones are based on Gateway''s ''Platinum PC'' design, itself strongly based
upon Apple''s PowerBook G4 Titanium.
Gateway plans to offer BTO configurations of the Profile 4, unlike its predecessor,
the Profile 3. Options include CPU speed, hard drive capacity and other components.
All models have at least 256MB RAM and a CDRW drive. The high-end model has a combo
DVD/CDRW drive. The base model has a 1.7GHz P4 and a 15" LCD. The high-end model has a
17" LCD.
However, Gateway has made a major error in not offering DVD-R or DVD+RW drives either
as standard or as an option in any of these models, say some analysts quoted in the
article.
"It''s a mistake not to have the DVD rewritable drives," said one analyst. "That''s
the one advantage Apple is going to hold over them. The all-in-one Profile is a
multimedia-enhanced machine, and without that DVD rewritable a big piece is missing."
Greg Joswiak, Apple''s Senior Director of hardware marketing, agrees: "About 50
percent of our iMac customers buy up to the SuperDrive," Joswiak says. Apple''s 15"
and 17" DVD-R-equipped iMacs are priced at $1,799 and $1,999, respectively, line-ball
with Gateway''s price points. Moreover, Apple has a third market entrant in the DVD-R
space, now: the eMac DVD-R, released last week at $1,499, with a 17" CRT and iDVD.
Superseded Power Macs (the 933MHz and Dual 1GHz models) will also be in the channel
for a few weeks to come, at sub-$2,000 prices. Both are equipped with DVD-Rs, although
they lack LCD monitors.
The problem for Gateway is the design of the Profile 4 itself: no DVD-R drive can
currently fit into the PC. Slimline DVD-Rs have been developed, and Gateway may well
take advantage of this in their next model rev.
A Gateway spokesperson quoted in the article said that the company did not aim its
pricing at only one company.
Analysis: Gateway''s also cheaped out on the graphics card, which is an integrated
Intel''s 845, a vastly inferior chipset to Apple''s 32MB Nvidia GeForce2 MX, standard
on iMac G4s. FireWire is an option (and what''s the point, except for hard drives and
the like, unless you add a FireWire external DVD-R? (more $$$).
No, this is just another transparently cheap PC, with more time given to design than
features (this is what happens when you let the Consumer Marketing department take
over the project). Even Dell and Compaq realized consumer interest in DVD-R was vast
and added them soon after Apple began integrating SuperDrives into the Power Macs in
January 2001. Gateway will need those multiGHz CPUs: what else is going to sell these
machines? And, apart from burning CDs (so pass� now), what the hell are you going to
do with them? Decorate your house?
The sooner beleaguered, almost-bankrupt, junk-debted Gateway go to wall, the better.
Post your comments at:
http://www.insanely-great.com/news.php?id=819
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Copyright (c) 2002 Insanely Great Mac. All rights reserved. This article
may not be republished in part or whole without explicit written
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