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Apple’s $1000 monitor stand is a massive and unnecessary PR fail

9to5mac.com

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Re: Apple’s $1000 monitor stand is a massive and unnecessary PR fail

#21

Post by spbyrne »

happytoexplain wrote: post #4
tomglynch wrote: post #3

It's generated so much extra exposure for WWDC and their other announcements. Although they aren't pronouncing it, I'm sure their marketing department disagree.

I know any press is good press, but come on. You can't just excuse any too-expensive product this way.

Has that not been in Apple's playbook for years? Those in the industry know the $5k monitor is a good deal and they also know they don't need the stand (get the VESA adaptor) since they already probably have a multi-monitor stand. So for their actual target audience no one will bat an eye. But for those of us not interested in an expensive monitor the overpriced stand gives us something to talk about and keeps them in the news cycle.

Re: Apple’s $1000 monitor stand is a massive and unnecessary PR fail

#23

Post by toyg »

happytoexplain wrote: post #4
tomglynch wrote: post #3

It's generated so much extra exposure for WWDC and their other announcements. Although they aren't pronouncing it, I'm sure their marketing department disagree.

I know any press is good press, but come on. You can't just excuse any too-expensive product this way.

Does anybody have to "excuse" the sticker price on luxury cars? You can obviously get cheaper (and likely more comfortable) 4-wheeled transportation instruments elsewhere, but that's hardly the point.

Re: Apple’s $1000 monitor stand is a massive and unnecessary PR fail

#24

Post by toyg »

floor_ wrote: post #12

What's up with Apple's ascetic? It reminds me of the time I raked my hand down the back of an air conditioner radiator. That cheese grater look is only something a brutalist architecture loving nazi would want sitting on a desk.

If you care about aesthetic in a desktop, you buy an iMac.

This is for hardcore Apple customers who fondly remember the original G4/G5 "cheesegraters". It takes an old joke and brings it to its extreme consequences. "So you like cheesegraters, uh? Yo dawg..."

Btw, it's not for sitting on desks but under them; it even has wheels.

Re: Apple’s $1000 monitor stand is a massive and unnecessary PR fail

#25

Post by Bakary »

I predict something similar to the debacle with the AirPods and the lack of a 3.5mm jack in the iPhone. Everyone made fun of the decision at the time but the Veblen good effect asserted itself anyway and now it's a standard to be emulated and a product that insipres envy in many.

Likewise, this product will be hailed as a status symbol in a few months precisely because of its absurdity.

Apple will continue to be contemptuous of its consumers because it keeps being richly rewarded for it. I am not trying to be edgy by making this claim: it was all laid out more than a century ago by a cheeky Norwegian-American, and more recently by patio11.

Re: Apple’s $1000 monitor stand is a massive and unnecessary PR fail

#26

Post by theelous3 »

toyg wrote: post #23
happytoexplain wrote: post #4

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I know any press is good press, but come on. You can't just excuse any too-expensive product this way.

Does anybody have to "excuse" the sticker price on luxury cars? You can obviously get cheaper (and likely more comfortable) 4-wheeled transportation instruments elsewhere, but that's hardly the point.

there is nothing luxury avout the stand, it's essentially identical to any other stand, which is not the point of the cars in your analogy.

Re: Apple’s $1000 monitor stand is a massive and unnecessary PR fail

#27

Post by paulryanrogers »

ianai wrote: post #11
sametmax wrote: post #7

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Excatly. I never heard hate. Only laughts. "apple is doing a stupid apple thing" It's actually good PR: everybody talk about it, but they also they it's a good quality monitor, just that apple is over pricing an accessory, which is a cheap way of making the luxury brand perceptuon stronger... Huge com win for very little effet.

Call it what you like. But I’m pretty sick of having to have the apple is stupid conversation at work. I get it, but it comes up far too often. It’s severely impacted my professional career due to prejudice from the wintel guys...who I also run circles around within Windows and Unix/Linux. But because apple released yet another expensive shiny I’ve got to take time out of my day to deal with this crap.

Why? Does their opinion of Apple (accurate or not) impact your work in any way?

Re: Apple’s $1000 monitor stand is a massive and unnecessary PR fail

#28

Post by save_ferris »

seibelj wrote: post #6

I don’t understand why they announced the stand during the keynote at all. It’s not something to be proud of and it isn’t cutting-edge technology. They could have just put it for sale quietly and the outrage would have been far less.

I was somewhat surprised with their entire Mac Pro strategy. With a base tower configuration starting at $6k (about twice what I was expecting), they seemed to signal a shift in what they consider a “pro” user to be.

They’re pretty clearly chasing after the commercial, high-end computing market, but they’ve kinda left the high-end consumer market behind in some ways.

Still no definitive fix to the fly switch keyboards, lots of complaints about other design issues in MacBooks, basic spec bumps in mainstay products like the iMac. All while they continue to (somewhat unjustifiably) raise prices.

The new Mac Pro is the coolest piece of tech they’ve built in a while, and it’s completely unsuited for 99.9% of users. What’s the point in mass-marketing it? It felt like watching a marketing video to buy an airplane or something.

Re: Apple’s $1000 monitor stand is a massive and unnecessary PR fail

#29

Post by bubblethink »

CPLX wrote: post #9

This is a silly criticism, it’s not a PR fail. The monitor stand is like a $99 hamburger on the menu. For the people rich enough to never care about the cost of a restaurant meal it’s a purchase, and for everyone else it’s a cue that this brand is absolutely top end prestigious and expensive. Im counting the days until I see one in a rap video or all over rich kid Instagram.

But the pricing needs to be internally consistent for the brand to be taken seriously, whether as a luxury brand or otherwise. In other words, a $1k piece of metal with a couple of moving parts undermines the rest of their portfolio. It's one thing to have a uniformly expensive lineup like a watchmaker, and entirely different thing to price your most complicated offering (phone) and the dumbest one (metal piece) the same. Like what's the message here ?

Re: Apple’s $1000 monitor stand is a massive and unnecessary PR fail

#30

Post by usermac »

CPLX wrote: post #9

This is a silly criticism, it’s not a PR fail. The monitor stand is like a $99 hamburger on the menu. For the people rich enough to never care about the cost of a restaurant meal it’s a purchase, and for everyone else it’s a cue that this brand is absolutely top end prestigious and expensive. Im counting the days until I see one in a rap video or all over rich kid Instagram.

With all the press, I'm thinking about just buying the stand, putting it on my desk... alone.
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