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The New Apple Advantage

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Re: The New Apple Advantage

#131

Post by glenra »

jarek wrote: post #113
glenra wrote: post #96

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Speaking from experience as somebody who has done this sort of trip: Yes, it's hugely useful and there is a real business benefit. First off, we're probably talking about a time when there were only a few direct flights a day from SFO to the relevant airport so if he didn't go that afternoon he'd have to wait until the next morning so instead of flying through the night he'd be flying through the day - flying RIGHT T…

> For Apple, if your product isn't ready to ship, it's not ready to show Hm. I guess the iPad that shipped a couple of months after being shown is the special butterfly exception that confirms your nice fluffy rule.

Standard exceptions to the rule in recent memory include:

- products that depend on 3rd-party developer support. If the iPad 3 has a new form factor and new hardware such that developers will want to rewrite their apps to take best advantage, Apple might show it at the developer conference and tell everybody "you've got 3 months to get your apps ready"

- products that get accidentally leaked or need to be leaked early due to regulatory requirements such as filing for FCC approval.

What Apple doesn't do is float trial balloons just to have something to show. Lot of companies will mock up some design that is approximately similar to the expected final product and show/announce that, then finish figuring out how to build it. Apple's ideal is to make a big splash by showing something unexpected that you can buy in the very very near future so people run out and buy it, garnering additional publicity based on the big lines and big numbers of customers.

Which is great if you can pull it off, though it seems inevitable that one of these days they'll guess wrong. If and when they do blow it, it'll be at least a billion-dollar mistake to have built up so much inventory in advance of finding out whether people like the thing.

Re: The New Apple Advantage

#133

Post by cma »

dlss wrote: post #112
endtwist wrote: post #102

Earlier quoted context omitted.

You do know you're not the typical laptop buyer, right? The majority of people buy a laptop, take it home, and want it to just work. Do you buy a new refrigerator expecting to have to clean out the compressor the minute you take it home? I certainly hope not.

If I could make a 100x profit on my time doing it, you bet. To put more forcefully: if I needed to maintain one of those room sized refrigerators, and could save $10,000 for a couple hours of messing with a compressor the decision is a no brainer. I agree that mortals can't/won't do this -- doesn't mean the HN crowd is being intelligent when they say what the guy I replied to was saying :p EDIT: Downvoters, please ex…

Someone with high computing requirements shouldn't be using an ultra light notebook; get a desktop or get an amazon ec2 instance for a few pennies.

Re: The New Apple Advantage

#134

Post by Steko »

jarek wrote: post #108
Steko wrote: post #74

Earlier quoted context omitted.

"The two laptops weigh almost exactly the same" Rofl no. "and are the same thickness at the thickest point" If by the same you mean the Mac Book Air is half the thickness of the Lenovo then yes. [edit]It's really hard to take your comment as anything more then a troll when you call other people dim but make basic factual errors like this.[/edit] This is where "configure your own Macbook Air" arguments always end up:…

Well geez that's a really strong argument in return. "Ugly as shit" is not subjective at all .

Clearly the entirety of my argument. You have delivered internet checkmate tonight sir, bask in the eternal glory.

Re: The New Apple Advantage

#135

Post by gergles »

rayiner wrote: post #81
martingordon wrote: post #22

> It’s even worse if I just browse without searching. The options I get are just… meaningless. Yes, I want “Everyday Computing,” so I want an Inspiron. But hang on, I also want “Design & Performance,” so I want an XPS. Wait a second, I want “Thin & Powerful,” too. This is the crux of the problem with all of Apple's competitors, in the PC business and in mobile. Why choose when you can have everything? Apple's lineup…

I'm a geek and I couldn't care less what WiFi chipset is in my laptop. I was shopping for a ThinkPad X220 for someone, and it had the option of the regular screen or the "premium" screen for $50 more. They don't tell you what the "premium" screen is or why you'd want it. I presume the regular screen is shitty. Can you even imagine Apple offering such an option? A $1000+ laptop with a shitty screen, with a $50 option…

Yeah, it's pretty crazy, isn't it? Apple would never charge for an upgrade from a shitty screen on a $1000+ laptop.

http://dl.dropbox.com/u/40663/2011-09-09_2245.png

Re: The New Apple Advantage

#136

Post by rickmb »

socratic wrote: post #57
jellicle wrote: post #53

What I grasp from this is that John Gruber and Peter Bright are just too dim to understand basic online stores. This qualifies for mockery from Gruber/Bright: > "Everyday Computing" But this is good understandable product description: > "The ultimate everyday notebook" (that second one is Apple's marketing copy for the Macbook Air). The low-end Macbook Air is $999 in Canada. Let's compare. I just priced a Lenovo X220…

I tried to make this point below in a more subtle way, but you take on the issue more directly. Gruber's arguments never make any sense. Historically, he changes his opinions more or less based on what Apple is currently doing. He adds little value, and it seems clear that he's making a lot of money as a pro-Apple cheerleader from his blog posts. (Which is fine, don't get me wrong, but it doesn't make him a good news…

No, it's this kind of comment that start to make HN feel like Eternal September.

Discuss and vote on topics on individual merit is HN, the content-free Gruber/Apple hatefest some people systematically try to engage in every time the author/subject comes up is what devalues HN, not Gruber posts.

Re: The New Apple Advantage

#137

Post by pbreit »

dlss wrote: post #112
endtwist wrote: post #102

Earlier quoted context omitted.

You do know you're not the typical laptop buyer, right? The majority of people buy a laptop, take it home, and want it to just work. Do you buy a new refrigerator expecting to have to clean out the compressor the minute you take it home? I certainly hope not.

If I could make a 100x profit on my time doing it, you bet. To put more forcefully: if I needed to maintain one of those room sized refrigerators, and could save $10,000 for a couple hours of messing with a compressor the decision is a no brainer. I agree that mortals can't/won't do this -- doesn't mean the HN crowd is being intelligent when they say what the guy I replied to was saying :p EDIT: Downvoters, please ex…

Because you are missing the point. The discussion is on basic marketing which implies to the general populace, not HNers who are comfortable re-installing their OS. And you preface with "How odd..." either unknowingly or just plain condescendingly describing 95% of the computer buying public. Then you fib that Macs are not ready for use out-of-the-box. Then you put forth the classic defense of exaggerating the value of your work.

ps I did not downvote.

Re: The New Apple Advantage

#139

Post by nohat »

eropple wrote: post #98
nohat wrote: post #8

The problem with the article he quotes is that it is wrong about the price of the x220. The x220 with default specs on everything except the bluetooth, webcam, ips screen (much nicer than an air btw), 128 GB ssd, and most expensive wifi (includes wimax) is $1290.60 . The ars article claims $1999.

Having owned an X201, test-driven an X220, and having sold the X201 in favor of the 11" Air, I have to disagree - the X220's screen isn't as nice as the Air's. The backlight on the Air can be made about as dim, but also much brighter, and color seems a decent bit more accurate (though that could be that Windows's color management sucks, while OS X's is pretty good).

Was that the ips display? IPS is used by graphic designers because it has higher contrast and better color fidelity (and viewing angle). Not sure about screen brightness though, and the response time is less.

Re: The New Apple Advantage

#140

Post by Steko »

dlss wrote: post #112
endtwist wrote: post #102

Earlier quoted context omitted.

You do know you're not the typical laptop buyer, right? The majority of people buy a laptop, take it home, and want it to just work. Do you buy a new refrigerator expecting to have to clean out the compressor the minute you take it home? I certainly hope not.

If I could make a 100x profit on my time doing it, you bet. To put more forcefully: if I needed to maintain one of those room sized refrigerators, and could save $10,000 for a couple hours of messing with a compressor the decision is a no brainer. I agree that mortals can't/won't do this -- doesn't mean the HN crowd is being intelligent when they say what the guy I replied to was saying :p EDIT: Downvoters, please ex…

Yeah I downvoted you. You claimed it was odd that people would buy based on X when it's clearly you that are the oddball running extremely performance critical tests that demand specific hardware. It's pretty clear what your purchase decision should be and it's also pretty clear that this doesn't apply to over 99% of everyone else in the market for an ultraportable laptop.

This comment continues in that line again and paints your absurd outlier case of 4-10x improvement as "an accurate picture of the return on investment" while again committing the error of thinking these 2 machines have the same form factor.

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