[Ti] Re: PowerBook competition

[Chris Olson]

On Sep 21, 2005, at 3:48 PM, Michael Levin wrote:

> The problem is competition. The ThinkPad is not a competitor of the  
> Power Book because, as of this writing, you cannot run Macintosh OS  
> on the Think Pad.

Of course the ThinkPad is competition.  You place the two side by  
side on a display counter at "Computers USA" and let your "average"  
notebook buyer compare the two.

1.)  Which one is going to be perceived as being the better buy, and  
which one appears to be overpriced for what you get?

2.)  Which one has the better warranty (something that's very  
important to many buyers)?

3.)  Which one do you think 90% of people are going to walk out the  
door with?

competition |ˌkämpəˈti sh ən|
noun
• [in sing. ] the person or people with whom one is competing, esp.  
in a commercial or sporting arena; the opposition : Example: "I  
walked around to check out the competition".

The only way you're going to get the buying public to buy your  
overpriced hardware is if you have a compelling reason to justify  
it.  Let's assume that compelling reason is Mac OS.  Now you have to  
get the message out there, which Apple doesn't do.  All I see on TV  
is iPod ads.  When the G5 was introduced all I saw was some poor dude  
getting blown out the side of his house and smacked into a tree.  I  
have yet to see Apple actually advertise Mac OS in recent times.

OTOH, I see Microsoft advertising Windows all the time with their  
"discover the world of software and devices that run on Windows" ad.   
I see IBM with their ThinkPad ads on TV where the klutz in the office  
knocks over the water cooler trying to impress the office babe.  And  
the other one with the guy at the airport with the bionic finger on  
the ThinkPad's fingerprint sensor.  All I see from Apple lately is  
dancing silhouettes.  How much you wanna' bet 75% of the computer  
buying public don't even know Apple *sells* computers anymore?

And meanwhile advertising works - everybody wants iPods.

You'd better believe it's competition.  There's only so much market  
for notebook computers.  Everybody that sells them gets their little  
cut (called market share).  Today the IBM ThinkPad T43 has more  
market share than all of Apple's notebooks combined.  The Z-series  
just raises the bar.
--
Chris