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Does not jive with the prices mentioned later:
Apple Ipad - $599/$699 for the 16/32 GB models
Samsung Galaxy S - $594
HTC A8181 Desire - $527
I don't know what the author's definition of "match" is, but seems to me Android tablet makers have matched prices quite well. *Edit: fixed my formatting
This was especially true in the early days of the PC revolution. The Mac 128K sold for $2495 at the time, which is more than $5000 in today's dollars[1]. I can't find any good stats on what a typical PC cost at the time, but let's say it was half that. That's a HUGE difference; a mortgage payment (or more than one!) and not something many individuals or businesses are going to pay, even for substantially better quality.
Other factors:
* No amount of speed was enough. People bought computers to, well, compute things, and there were real limits users experienced because of slow processors. This is no longer true for most uses. Faster speeds are nice to have, but it's no longer true that 20% faster number crunching is a huge win for many people.
* With such expensive kit, businesses were understandably reluctant to commit to any platform that didn't let them multiple-source parts and perform repairs. Backups were expensive or non-existent. By contrast, a defective mobile device is simply exchanged or written off.
* In 1984, worldwide PC shipments totaled 6.3M units. Commodity parts were the only way to achieve any kind of economy of scale, not to mention the benefits of competition. 20 years later, it was 177M. [2] At that level, even a minority player can get the same economy of scale that the entire PC industry enjoyed a decade earlier.
Anyway. Nobody knows how this will all shake out. But the spectacular success of the modular PC market doesn't mean it's the inevitable outcome.
The iPod touch, Apple TV, and iPad are all variously stripped, screenless, and scaled versions of the iPhone. They share the same processor and underlying OS. This allows Apple to not just sell a lot of stuff, but to sell a lot of the exact same stuff. So not only are their marginal costs lower from buying in bulk, their fixed costs of research and development are lower, too.
Could an iPad's cost $499 or an Apple TV $99 if they didn't sell the iPhone? Probably not, and definitely not if they wanted to keep the kind of margins they command right now.
I see daring fireball has never heard of archos. http://www.engadget.com/2010/08/31/archos-unleashes-five-fiv...
The 2nd paragraph: "Now, even putting quality aside, competitors can’t match Apple’s prices." Does not jive with the prices mentioned later: Apple Ipad - $599/$699 for the 16/32 GB models Samsung Galaxy S - $594 HTC A8181 Desire - $527 I don't know what the author's definition of "match" is, but seems to me Android tablet makers have matched prices quite well. *Edit: fixed my formatting
I see daring fireball has never heard of archos. http://www.engadget.com/2010/08/31/archos-unleashes-five-fiv...
I would love to buy a $229 Android device that’s the
equivalent of the iPod Touch
I see daring fireball has never heard of archos. http://www.engadget.com/2010/08/31/archos-unleashes-five-fiv...
It's difficult to know exactly which point in the article you take issue with. I didn't see anything that indicated Gruber is unaware of the Archos.
I've noticed this even with normal laptops at the smaller end. If you're looking for a 15" laptop, you can find a lot cheaper PCs than the $1,799 MacBook Pro. But if you're looking for a 13" laptop with roughly equivalent processing power and weight, it's hard to find a PC laptop much cheaper than the $1,099 MacBook or $1,199 MacBook Pro. Some are considerably more, because while Apple prices the 13" at the bottom of…
A Dell Inspiron 14" with the same specs clocks in at $665 at 4.9 lbs (which is still under the 5lb "ultraportable" mark). A Lenovo U350 with similar specs clocks in at $700 and 3.5 lbs.
The Apple tax is very definitely still in play.
I see daring fireball has never heard of archos. http://www.engadget.com/2010/08/31/archos-unleashes-five-fiv...
With the hardware volume purchasing advantage combined with the many-year head start they have on the OS, it will be surprising to me if any competitor obtains a 10% market share in the iPad or iPod Touch markets.