“The iPad invasion has devoured the netbook business and driven the PC industry into the ground, so expect a price war this Christmas as PC manufacturers, led by Acer and Lenovo, struggle to woo new customers with a PC price war,” Jonny Evans writes for Computerworld. “But, with a reputation as a top-tier computer maker which does not compete on price, can Apple’s Mac sales survive the onslaught of the PC price cuts?”
“Apple is expected to sell as many as 4.5 million Macs in its current quarter, and while this isn’t enough (unless you add iPad sales) to drive the firm to the number one slot, it’s none too shabby a record for a company criticized for selling ‘over-priced kit,'” Evans writes. “Perhaps consumers actually want quality products which are packed with features inside well-designed boxes. Perhaps there’s a market for Apple’s design sensibilities. Perhaps that’s why Apple is the most valuable technology company in the world.”
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Evans writes, “Meanwhile the company’s competitors will be looking to the Christmas quarter for just one sign of a chink in the AAPL armor, just a few percentile point slip in its growth. Because that’s how desperate the PC industry in the post-PC era has become. In PCs, as in smartphones, the scent of consolidation is becoming more luminous by the day.”
Read more in the full article here.
Question 1: Has Mac survived the PC price war so far?
Question 2: Will the PC makers survive their price war? Less profits does not a healthy company make.
Have ever Mercedes or BMW cars gone on fire sales due to the multiplicity of car manufacturers?
Great question………. quality trumps quantity…
Don’t you love the scent of consolidation in the morning?
BTW, I’m not a native speaker, but how can a scent be luminous?
Question #3 Can a scent be luminous?
Only if an open flame is in place as the scent issues forth.
Probably related to synesthesia, like smelling a color, I imagine one can trigger light sensors in the brain when smelling something.
When a writer doesn’t bother to check and goes with the CYA (cover-your-@$$) ‘most valuable technology company’ (when Apple is in fact most valuable company — technology or otherwise — in the world), then you know the writer doesn’t have much of value to add.
As far as the headline question is concerned (“Will Mac survive the PC price war?”), the answer is — it simply does not matter, as the winner in such a war will inevitably be the iPad, in which case Apple still has nothing to worry, and Mac users will likely be taken care of, perhaps by being smoothly and elegantly transitioned from Mac OS to iOS without a hiccup.
Jonny is English, so he can’t speak english either.
Still waiting for an updated Mac Pro tower.
Ludicrous question — more and more people are waking up every day to the fact that saving a couple of hundred dollars by buy a crash-prone, virus/spyware ridden computer made of low-grade plastic and tin is simple NOT worth it — when talking about possibly your #1 business and/or entertainment tool.
Perhaps customers are prepared to pay a reasonable price for something that looks good in a living room, and won’t need replacing a year later by another cheap-ass piece of plastic junk.
I’ve just replaced my G3 PowerBook, eight years old and looking like new, with a Mac Mini, 1.1Tb internal storage and 4Gb RAM. cost me £630 with the keyboard and trackpad as it was the superseded model. If that lasts as well as the PowerBook I will be a very happy bunny.
PC’s are having the war, not Macs. Macs have been and continue to sell better and better. Not because there cheaper, but because there better made, better features, better software, and NO VIRUSES. Better service too. Apple has not been in a price war with anyone because Apple’s computers are an overall better value and last longer.
“They’re.”
This article is about as useful as a “How will Mac sales survive high oil prices?”
Had to check the date on this article. I though it was from 2001.
These folks just don’t get it. Apple is producing a whole range of “Giffen goods”.
You don’t see them very often but we sure as hell are now.
So what is a Giffen good?
From Wkipedia:
“In economics and consumer theory, a Giffen good is one which people paradoxically consume more of as the price rises, violating the law of demand. In normal situations, as the price of a good rises, the substitution effect causes consumers to purchase less of it and more of substitute goods. In the Giffen good situation the income effect dominates, leading people to buy more of the good, even as its price rises.”
One could also argue that when all other folks are producing what is perceived to be inferior quality goods, lower price will NOT entice people to buy it!!
Apple does NOT product a slew of Giffen goods. People are rationally buying more Apple products because they perceive them as good value for the money.
Get real, people buy Korean PC garbage every day.
It is like the idiots who continued to by gas hogs simply because they were cheap.
BTW my 2011 Apple MBP uses one tenth the power of my old PC desktop and yet in every way it feels far superior to that four year old Windows PC technology.
No more inflated power bills for me, life is good!
EXACTLY @DMac. This is just more of the same. The cannibalism among Windows box makers continues.
Apple make the great computers (that are NEVER over-priced when ACTUAL costs, including ROI and COO, are included) while everyone else fights for supremacy among the cheap mutt computers.
What is the point of worrying about who’s-the-boss of computer sales when Apple is #1 in quality? I’ll take quality over quantity ANY day! 😀
Can any of the pc makers survive such a price war… IBM gone, HP going I doubt its good news for ant Western ones thats for sure. are you listening Dell.
… hum, what should I do if I was in Dell position?… hum…
Stupid, stupid article.
Apple is dominating the high end and the low end. People don’t want to touch PC garbage with a 10 foot pole and that number is increasing.
Apple make a healthy profit from everything they make. The PC manufacturers are indulging in a price war with diminishing margins which are already razor thin to start with. If they misjudge demand and can’t sell the numbers that they hope to sell, they will be left with catastrophic amounts of unsold inventory to get rid of.
The only way that this price war will affect Apple is that Apple’s competitors will become even more weakened, while Apple will become stronger.
Doubtless some people will start obsessing about market share, but that will be irrelevant if a company cripples itself in the hope of increasing it’s market share.
Apple’s management have the wisdom to understand that they must always act as a profit-making business, that’s why Apple wanted nothing to do with the netbook market. Some large companies appear to be losing sight of that fundamental principle.
Apple’s products have historically been more expensive than PCs/clones. When will they ever learn?
It’s not about price.
Dell + Sony + Lenovo + Samsung + Toshiba + HP still equals Windows. Windows equals loss.
this makes the thought of consolidation hilarious………..