[G4] Apple's New G5 Marketing Approach

[Joseph B. Gurman]

     jgvp wrote:

>I agree with your speculations, Joe; however, another explanation for
>the tailing-off of orders could be the fact that some prospective
>customers are in the "wait-and-see" mode and I could be counted in with
>them. There are those who are leery about buying-in on something
>radically new without the "pudding" test: "The proof of the pudding is
>in the eating." I would suppose that this comes about more now after
>the Enron debacle where lay people no longer accept corporate
>announcements as being gospel, or to continue the metaphors, they're
>inclined to "take everything with a grain of salt", and choose to make
>their decisions based on their own actual experience with the product
>or the experience of others. Act in haste........repent at leisure,
>they say.
>
>Could be Apple are sounding the depths to ascertain the extent of this
>phenomenon. Maybe, but this could be a benefit to all involved, that
>this could introduce a spur to Apple, and others I might add, to get it
>right first time. Not implying, without the evidence, that Apple
>haven't got it right with the G5 first time around. Time will tell.

     Couldn't agree with you more, but Apple may have been just as 
amazed as we were at the strength of the pre-orders for the dual 
2.0's, despite all the marketing hype (and the decapitation of the G4 
line). I think at least once in the past, they've gotten burned by 
very high, initial demand by the installed base for a long-awaited, 
new product, only to find the demand tail off sharply after the 
faithful have their product. However valid your reasons for wanting 
to wait and see, it would help Apple's bottom line to be able to 
predict demand accurately.
-- 
"I love deadlines. I love the whooshing sound they make as they go by."
                                                             - Douglas 
Adams, 1952 - 2001

Joseph B. Gurman, NASA Goddard Space Flight Center, Solar Physics
Branch, Greenbelt MD 20771 USA