[X4U] How can we compete?

[Richard Gilmore]

Yes but once they've got your money who cares. People rarely look at
possible problems down the road they only care about one thing price. Most
people know PCs are attacked by viruses and other problems all the time but
simply think nothing bad will happen to them and when they do go wrong just
sing the blues. 

And once you've got all your documents/pictures/apps etc... PC formatted
you're most likely not going to switch platforms. Then when your $799
special dies you get on the upgrade treadmill forever. In the long run I'm
sure Macs are cheaper since you're getting a better product to begin with
that will last but the average consumer is short sighted and only looks at
price.

To my mind because PCs are more poorly designed and the various inherent
hardware/software problems and big time because they are the dominant
platform most people *expect* to have problems and *expect* them to be
complicated and hard to use. I don't know how many times I've heard the
subtle put down that Macs are too "easy & simple" to use meaning they're
only for simpletons. I'm going off on a tangent here but I think people feel
their intelligence is insulted when you suggest that a Mac would be simpler
to use. You can't win for losing people say  Macs are either not compatible
with PCs and therefore with the rest of the world even though they might be
better or they don't want to buy one because they are afraid of looking
stupid. The mindset is computers are supposed to be difficult to use and
when they go wrong it's just par for the course.

To end I don't know how Apple is going to compete. The eMac is a good start
but I would like to see them do more. Once you get someone on a Mac you've
got a much better chance of keeping them and having them become future
higher margin machines buyers.

My 2 cents

Richard




> 
> .......... Viruses, durability and other PC problems may
> not make your friend happy with his decision.

> 
>> A friend of mine just bought a new PC at Aldi (a chain of discount/grocery
>> stores here in the US) for $799.