“Buy a Mac computer at your nearest Apple Store and receive a free 8GB iPod Touch! Just bring the acceptance letter, and you get to participate in one of the better ‘Back to School’ campaigns in recent memory,” Kaminsky reports. “My ‘Call-to-Action’ is to recall what this past Tuesday’s guest, Evercore’s Michael Price, said about Apple: The more hardware they get in people’s hands, the more apps they will buy.”
Kaminsky reports, “What a genius marketing move. Apple is essentially giving away the razor to sell the more expensive razor blades.”
Full article here.
MacDailyNews Take: Great theory, except that’s it’s wrong. Apple makes the vast bulk of their profits on hardware, not iOS apps, which are free or low-priced on average (and Apple only gets 30%, the developers get 70% of the revenue). Most of Apple’s profits are rolled back into iTunes Store operating costs. The “Back to School” campaign (which is nothing new, by the way) is a way to sell more Macs (which don’t (yet) run iOS apps, by the way) to students and teachers by dangling a free iPod touch. It’s not “essentially giving away the razor to sell the more expensive razor blades.” Apple’s “Back to School” promos have usually been genius marketing moves, but not for the reason Kaminshy cites.
It sells more Macs, it blunts the claim that Macs are overpriced, and it gets young adults onto the iPhone OS platform.
But it has NOTHING to do with a razors and blades analogy. MDN’s take is spot on.
More like the ‘Chicken & the Egg’ theory. NOT!
yes – this is definitely nothing new… In fact in the past – you could get this deal and not even have to show going to college… I got a 30GB iPod that way.
The real genius in this marketing – is you entice young (soon to be college educated) people with a high want item (iPod) and get them to become a loyal customer/user of Mac computers. That is the real genius.
You’re right,this has been going on every year for decades. Although not as well publicized, college students (and teachers or school staff persons) also gets a rebate for a printer costing up to $100.
My theory is that they do this promo to not only to sell more macs to the incoming college students (which when they graduate will want a Mac on the job site), but to also reduce inventory of their EOL iPod touches. Notice that they always do this promo in the back to school period, and right after that is the Christmas buying season, when the roll out newer models.
It does addict kids to apps and iOS, though. Which smartphone will those kids want when they grow up?
But it is not good for chairs.
Actually, I was surprised how many fellow students I met who bought macbooks but didn’t really like them that much, and didn’t plan on staying with mac long-term.
It’s the network effects created by having more iOS devices out there. The more devices there are, the more enticing it is developers. The more apps, the more people want to own iOS devices. It’s a never-ending cycle, with everyone (Apple, developers, users) as beneficiaries.
I bet that if I vomited on a piece of paper, scanned it, OCRd it and submitted it to 10 tech news sites, 8 of them would give me a contributor’s gig.
@ @o18837
Actually, I’m never surprised at the number of retarded trolls who use “anecdotal” evidence like your laugh basket to try and flame Apple.
http://www.dailyprincetonian.com/2007/10/05/18871/
Back under your bridge. Or maybe cite something, somewhere that backs your statement?
@ @o18837
They planned on migrating to Dell netbooks. Right. Sure.
Can’t seem to get the Freshman Mac market share any more. Why? 3 years ago, it was about 27%. Last year, a freshman told me it was greater than 75% Mac. So, what is this years? Will anyone report it? Will any of the analysts take their head out of the sand and look? (You can’t hide. We still see your butts.) This tsunami is a silent unreported crushing wave that exists! Like it or not. (I like it a lot.)
It’s giving away the iPod to get more Mac users in Business Management. More Mac users in the Board Room.
It’s working.
Actually, I always thought the free iPod Touch program was all about clearing excess inventory in advance of new stat-of-art iPods that are introduced each fall AND using it to drive new Mac purchases. Whatever the driving force is, it’s a smart sales program.
No, it’s all about getting people to buy their first Mac. I mean seriously does anyone know of a person who switched from a Mac to Winblows?
@ @o18837
hahahahahahah…you know I never have met a single one that haven’t said…I should have done this earlier. I didn’t know they sold Macs in the Ozarks back country.
Yes it’s more about clearing out last year’s model iPods before bringing out the new ones about Labor Day. Apple has done this several years in a row. Also helps clear out end-of-life iMacs with the new models also coming out soon – we looked hard at this promotion before letting it pass and getting a new 21.5 iMac instead.
“Kaminsky reports, “What a genius marketing move. Apple is essentially giving away the razor to sell the more expensive razor blades.” “
You can tell that it’s almost August, when TechTard journalist phone in their articles while on vacation. The analogy above is beyond lazy and stooopid.
It is more like selling an expensive razor with the promise of cheap blades in virtually unlimited styles.
My experience is that the student already has the iPod and the Touch goes to the parents who are thereby introduced to the Apple experience and once introduced are going on to buy iPhones and iMacs for themselves.
As others have said, same back to school strategy that Apple’s been doing year after year.
But the implications of now offering the iPod Touch as zmarc points out is to get students hooked on iTMS and iOS apps. This is a gateway technology which can lead to additional sales of other iOS based products.
@o18837
Actually, I have located one of those students.
@theMacAdvocate, Ringo, Buster: My advice is to chill out. You are living up to the stereotyped chariacature of a rabid Mac user. o18837 never claimed he or she had authoritative proof that most people are unhappy with macbooks. Only their own personal observation, which may or may not be valid in the big scheme of things. Obviously you guys have your own personal observations.
You all sound like you have sand in your hooha’s. Try not being so bitter and defensive for a change.
This is more of a bear hug strategy.
How many people have spent even $50 on iPhone/iPad/touch apps? I’d say a good number.
Those folks are not likely to walk away from the platform because they’re invested. Just like Windows users who have their productivity software investment and used it as an excuse to to switch to Mac: that’s a real cost, and part of any switching expense.
So the iPhone/iOS ecosystem locks folks in. The promotion overcomes this objection at the early stage of a young consumer’s life. And has the potential to lock them in for decades to come.
I bought my first Mac in 1985, along with an external disk drive and an Imagewriter.
I’m on my 18th Mac now, fourth iPhone, and first iPad. Oh, and a Newton and an iPod. my Newton still works. I show it to young people who don’t remember Apple’s darker days.
@theMacAdvocate
You’re in rare form today. Love it