“Apple is no stranger to AT&T subsidies. It makes far more than $199 on iPhone unit sales in this country because AT&T is sending roughly $375 more Apple’s way in exchange for every two-year data plan commitment that is tethered to the smartphone purchase,” Rick Aristotle Munarriz writes for The Motley Fool. “Why can’t it do the same for its MacBooks?”
“MacBooks start at $999 these days. How well would Apple fare marketing $600 or $700 MacBooks that are tied to data card contracts? It would certainly be one way to respond to the country’s growing fascination with dirt-cheap netbooks at sub-$500 prices. It would also reach a crowd that would be more likely to pay $60 a month for connectivity than someone looking at an entry-level netbook,” Munarriz writes.
“Apple can’t sit quietly and let netbooks with Microsoft and Linux operating systems swipe market share. It may be too late for this holiday season, but if Apple isn’t readying an entry into the netbook market itself, it may as well take advantage of the same AT&T subsidies that shot iPhone sales to the next level this past summer,” Munarriz writes.
Full article here.
Where is the quality in a Mac? Well for me its simple 3 macs since 1989. Days out of operation-3. Costs of repairs, IT specialists or parts- £0 (barring one mouse). I know from my PC using companions including those who are specialist in computers and therefore can repair and sort OS system problems themselves and the record of pc’s at work that the average PC would be lucky to go a year with that record and that is being optimistic on their behalf. I therefore know I have saved thousands on savings through reliability and longevity alone not to mention avoiding loss of work as a result of this not being the case.
Now it may well be that Sony parts are as good as those used by Apple (I couldn’t say) but what I do know is that Sony prices are pretty much comparable to Apples (often more) so it goes a long way to confirm Apple’s approach is valid. Equally while a Sony is probably the only pc I would consider if Apple didn’t exist they are hardly appealing to the average pc user are they. HP are hardly cheap either to the average user yet no one I know seems to rate their reliability so they are certainly not perceived as good value to many, as their declining share probably backs up. Dell of course shouldn’t be judged as selling a computer at the correct price for the simple fact that their reliability is hardly exceptional and the more they sell the less money they seem to make, hardly an intelligent business plan.
ENOUGH WITH SIGNING CONTRACTS!!!!
@PT your ignorance is showing, as is your political half truths. While it may be true that Apple uses parts similar to other PC vendors, they specify higher performance parts. It may not be MIL Spec but they were one of the first computer manufacturers to used head parking software in their laptops in conjunction with sudden motion sensors. I purchased may last Mac Book from which I’m typing this post and replace the hard drive with one without that technology. About 6 months later I had a bearing failure. The Mac Book initially came with a Toshiba 100Gig and I replaced it a 160 Gig Hitachi.
The hard drive was within warranty (3 years ) but while Hitachi would replace my data they would not pay the $1200 to recover my data. I have since upgraded my drive to a Western Digital 250 gig HD and I back up everything on my 1TB Time machine. I know plenty of friends and coworkers that have had hard drive failures on Compaq, HP and Dell machines.
That HD failure was my first ever in a Mac and I’ve owned Macs since my first 512K Fat Mac in 1985. I was doing work on that little 9″ monochrome diagonal screen that could only be done by $50,000 SPARC workstations at that time. I’ve seen the PC industry grow and push the envelope in manufacturing technology pull out all sort of cost and set a de-facto level of quality that is beyond low.
They use the entry level machines as a teaser to get a novice interested and then get you to upgrade components. DELL was a master of this. Using Parade magazine to showcase a sub $500 PC that in order for anyone to do any useful work on with a reasonable level of security you would need to spend another $700 easy.
When it comes to computers the general public you included rarely measures total cost of ownership. As long as that happens there will always be suckers looking for a bargain . Not to paint everyone with a broad brush, I realize that there are a lot of hobbyist out there that prefer the raw mother board that the PC world has offered . These people either are obsessed with the do it yourself approach or aren’t sure how much their time is really worth.
People on this site are constantly calling for apple to enter the low end market or asking apple to make a Mac Mini with a couple of slots. I would simply buy 2 low minis, stack them on a NewerTech 1TB HD and using the fire wire ports you could put together an inexpensive dual monitor quad core work station. Add in a Bluray Driver burner and shut up some of those so called graphic artist that are calling for Blu Ray and Firewire on a low end Mac Book But maybe I’m being as simplistic as you are…guilty.
Buy a laptop with a 2 year contract to AT&T for data &emdash; that’s the funniest line I’ve heard all week!
So many experts. I don’t work in manufacturing, as many of the well informed here must.
There seems a lot of anecdotal evidence…but do we truly know apple does this for certain? As a counter anecdote I’ve had a dell notebook running windows for xp for seven years without reformatting or a single virus. Everything still works perfectly, including no dead pixels. Guess this was back in the day when Dell bought quality parts and put it in their machines?
Personally, having used a mac for a few years I find it quite good. That said I find hard to believe that apple’s suppliers only supply the best parts to apple. That suggests they have varying degrees of quality assurance in their manufacturing processes and actively cherry pick the line for parts. Seems like a crap load of effort. Not working in manufacturing I can only guess that this, but it would seem that as long as the line is within the bounds of whatever statistical control is appropriate then a part passes and is sold. So does the manufacturer run the passing parts through a graduated QA process to grade the parts (like processors once were?). So, if anybody could care to enlighten me on this, I’d be appreciative.
Otherwise, its seems a lot of defensive people offering up unsubstantiated commentary.
@ PT The graduated QA process you describe is exactly what most semiconductor manufacturers do. It is conceivable that a 1.6GHZ, a 1.8GHZ , a 2.0GHZ variety of the same microprocessor comes from the wafer or batches of wafers. The same thing is done with DRAM to check their switching speeds. If you ever managed to upgrade your MAC with aftermarket parts (increase RAM, etc.) you will find that most parts for Apple computers while having the same generic part numbers are more expensive because they have been tested to meet more stringent specifications.
I agree that DELL in the past did make quality machines. But let DELL’s market was primarily corporate and corporate demanded lower prices on high volume buys. Corporate also has large IT staffs for troubleshooting minor problems, virus protection and reinstalls. It didn’t make sense for DELL to design in ruggedized hard drives with SMS software. Laptops were for salesmen or remote field engineers and that was a niche market.
The unintended effect of this was when DELL tried to sell to the general public by a halo effect (people wanting the same machines they use in the workplace at home); their penny pinching blew up in their face by increased tech support which they exacerbated by transferring tech support to India.
DELLs and HP’s are intended to be corporate work horses. They are either on the admins desk in the middle managers cubicle or a server farm in the back room. Corporate probably goes through a bunch of computers every 18 months to 2 years because they are fully depreciated by then. So why not select parts tested to make 95% of that life cycle? It would be stupid to put more cost in (take more profit out) , if your target market was not going to use your machines longer than that. HP for the most part also followed that logic once they absorbed Compaq and Gateway had to match them or die.
Apple refused to go that direction because Apples target market did not have big IT staffs and computer budgets. Even the Tech Pub and Marketing departments in the big corporation that used Macs could not rely on corporate IT so a department head for those services usually had to wear many hats. Better components and more reliable software leads to lower warranty costs. Consumer reports shows Apple products in general more reliable and Apple customer service most satisfactory. Also more Mac have been used by top research universities have been used to create computer clusters that behave as supercomputers than any other make. I think NEC might have made that list once. Apple has made it 3 times. Cheaper than Crays, more reliable and lower support costs.
bobchr: I agree EXACTLY! Thanks for the long posts!
@bobchr
nice answer
Ouch, what a great forum read this was.
I feel for PT though. It is rare to see someone get ripped a new one in so technical and direct a manner. hop you can still wake tomorrow buddy….
$60 US/month gets you 5GB on an AT&T;Data Card (USB or Slot).
$60 US/month gets you unlimited 3G data on an Alltel Data Card (USB or Slot).
Alltel is not being overly generous- AT&T;(really re-named Southwestern Bell Communications) is being incredibly cheap.
Advertising aside, AT&T;’s 3G network sucks like a Dyson™.
“It’ll take the chrome right off a trailer hitch…”
$60 US/month gets you 5GB on an AT&T;Data Card (USB or Slot).
$60 US/month gets you unlimited 3G data on an Alltel Data Card (USB or Slot).
Alltel is not being overly generous- AT&T;(really re-named Southwestern Bell Communications) is being incredibly cheap.
Advertising aside, AT&T;’s 3G network sucks like a Dyson™.
“It’ll take the chrome right off a trailer hitch…”