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

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

#41

Post by wongarsu »

bubblethink wrote: post #29
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…

While the screen seems decently priced (though hard to tell before reviews), the base configuration of the new Mac Pro is at $6k at least twice as expensive as it has any right to be, and much more expensive than previous base models. And given how low-specced that base model is and how expensive Apple upgrade always are compared to normal market prices we can expect the Mac Pro to be at least twice as expensive as comparable PCs across the entire line.

The price for the phone likely has to be this low, though if this genuinely is a new strategy they might introduce a gold version or something like that. However getting the newest iPhone each year is already mostly a status symbol, while the monitor stand probably has a lifetime more comparable with a watch.

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

#42

Post by SerLava »

CPLX wrote: post #35
bubblethink wrote: post #29

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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…

> Like what's the message here? The message is that Apple shit is so top of the line that even our monitor stand is an uncompromising work of art. It’s really not that complicated, it’s a textbook luxury branding and pricing strategy. Ever seen a Restoration Hardware catalog? They sell painted tree stumps for $1000.

The poster above is trying to say that luxury branding has to have at least a veneer of justification for its pricing. The $1000 painted tree stump supposes its own value as a piece of art. A $1000 watch might cost $200 to produce, but it's jewelry - the whole point is you're paying for the pure aesthetic value of it.

The monitor stand has a nice appearance, but everyone understands that it's a mass-produced, functional product that can't justify its cost artistically or by virtue of materials and construction. The stand is also usually included with the monitor!

There's a clear message change. We've moved from "this is the cost of luxury" to "this is the cost we've greedily slapped onto a random part you need"

The difference between the two isn't vast- you have to pay attention to the nuance here.

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

#43

Post by zzzcpan »

Bakary wrote: post #25

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 cont…

Status symbols have to be visible to others, not hiding behind the monitor in private. It cannot be a status symbol.

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

#44

Post by aloer »

my personal take on this:

Apple did not want people to talk about other things introduced or not introduced at WWDC. With so much attention from non-developers for a developer event, they need to carefully handle expectations until the hardware event in fall, with its focus on the general public, will hopefully introduce the amazing new things everyone always expects.

This year was not a disappointment for sure but the things shown are incremental improvements at best. Putting that stand out there will give the public something largely irrelevant to complain about and at the same time generate more attention for a specific niche product: the new mac pro.

And in doing so they avoid real criticism for all the other products that are so much more important for their success. Apple does not lose anything here

side note: anyone else remember when Tim Cook thanked everyone involved in the end and emphasized the overtime and weekends they worked through? No idea what to make of this, does not sound like a normal thing to admit tbh as CEO. To me that sounded like a plea for something, perhaps to be more understanding and to wait until fall to see how everything plays out?

(timestamp 2:15:56 at https://www.apple.com/apple-events/june-2019/)

> these guys have given up their nights and weekends from their families

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

#45

Post by wongarsu »

mcphage wrote: post #40
save_ferris wrote: post #28

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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 keyboard…

> What’s the point in mass-marketing it? It felt like watching a marketing video to buy an airplane or something. It's because sites like this have been complaining for years that Apple has left the Pro market behind. This was their response to that. And now this site is switching to complaining that Apple's definition of "Pro" is too "Pro" for us.

> switching to complaining that Apple's definition of "Pro" is too "Pro" for us.

If by too Pro you mean someone using an 8 core CPU with 32 GB of RAM ...

The higher end models might be great, with some genuine innovation in the GPU interface that to some will justify high prices. But I don't know who the target demographic for a $6k PC with those specs is supposed to be.

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

#46

Post by falcolas »

wongarsu wrote: post #33
bredren wrote: post #15

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Apparently decent pivoting, weighted stands are $400. So this is still not outrageously expensive if you are in the market for this type of thing. Perhaps Apple figured it would be seen through the same eyes as those considering a $12k Mac Pro workstation, and appreciated in a similar way. Another note: contra-wise, Apple did flirt with “luxury” watches for a time. Though I think they gave up on that direction.

My $200 pivoting stand came with an entire screen for free. Granted, it's not nearly as nice as Apple's stand. But I suspect the reception would have been a lot better if the narrative was "the $5000 screen comes with an ok stand, the great one is $1000 extra" instead of "lol, the $5000 screen is useless unless you buy a $120 Vesa mount plus some off-brand stand, or the $1000 official stand"

My $200, 6 year old stand came with one too, and it even includes the ability to raise and lower the screen, plus the 90° rotation. And wait, there’s more! It also pivots.

Underwhelming indeed.

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

#47

Post by drexlspivey »

> Veblen goods are types of luxury goods for which the quantity demanded increases as the price increases, an apparent contradiction of the law of demand, resulting in an upward-sloping demand curve. A higher price may make a product desirable as a status symbol in the practices of conspicuous consumption and conspicuous leisure. A product may be a Veblen good because it is a positional good, something few others can own.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Veblen_good

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

#48

Post by onebyteman »

cynix wrote: post #38
CPLX wrote: post #35

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> Like what's the message here? The message is that Apple shit is so top of the line that even our monitor stand is an uncompromising work of art. It’s really not that complicated, it’s a textbook luxury branding and pricing strategy. Ever seen a Restoration Hardware catalog? They sell painted tree stumps for $1000.

> it’s a textbook luxury branding and pricing strategy. The problem is that this 10x overpricing strategy doesn't apply to their entire lineup, but that's not made explicit. As a result, people might mistakenly generalise it to their other products such as iPhones, leading people to think that their phones are also 10x overpriced and are actually only worth $100, thus diminishing its value.

Haha, no. The average person does not think that deeply or use that much math.

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

#49

Post by Jotra7 »

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.

"run circles around" What do you even mean? You fan boys are hilarious.

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

#50

Post by pier25 »

toyg wrote: post #24
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.

The first few seconds during the announcement I actually thought it was a joke like what they did with iTunes.
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