Earlier quoted context omitted.
Don't believe the tablet hype. The only people who want such a thing are the few people blogging about it all the time. (And of course hype is good for getting readers/attention/subscribers etc) (Or trying to justify their own tablet - crunchpad? "Best product of 2009"?!?? http://www.popularmechanics.com/technology/upgrade/4332415.h... ) The usefulness of a 'too big for your pocket, half a laptop that you have to hol…
I'm not disagreeing, but just remember - I heard tons of comments like this about the "iPhone" years before it was actually released. So there very well may be a "iTab" on its way.
Apple declares war on the entire PC industry
41–46 of 46 posts
Re: Apple declares war on the entire PC industry
#42Earlier quoted context omitted.
I think it shows great restraint - the headline for an article like this if it was someones blog would be "Why Microsoft is dead" or "how Apple won the windows 7 war".
Microsoft will still make more money from Windows7 than Apple makes form selling computers. They made more from Vista than Apple makes. There is a big difference between 'fails with the HN/Slashdot crowd' and fails to make money.
Probably true, but it may be closer than you think. According to Yahoo, AAPL had $4.8 billion in profit. According to MSFT's annual report, Windows profit was $10 billion. Some of that is XP sales, so lets say $8 billion for Vista. It took Microsoft 5 years to make Vista, and Apple easily cranks out new versions on gorgeous hardware and makes 50% of Vista's profit. Plus, the Windows sales derivative is flat to negative, while Apple's is steeply positive. Microsoft may be making tons of money, but from a business perspective, Apple is a better business.
Re: Apple declares war on the entire PC industry
#43Earlier quoted context omitted.
Microsoft will still make more money from Windows7 than Apple makes form selling computers. They made more from Vista than Apple makes. There is a big difference between 'fails with the HN/Slashdot crowd' and fails to make money.
"Microsoft will still make more money from Windows7 than Apple makes form selling computers. They made more from Vista than Apple makes." Probably true, but it may be closer than you think. According to Yahoo, AAPL had $4.8 billion in profit. According to MSFT's annual report, Windows profit was $10 billion. Some of that is XP sales, so lets say $8 billion for Vista. It took Microsoft 5 years to make Vista, and Apple…
MS also has a lot of income from licenses/service/support it would still make money for years if it fired all it's devs tomorrow.
The point was that hype aside, an MS 'flop' still makes more money than you can imagine.
Re: Apple declares war on the entire PC industry
#44Earlier quoted context omitted.
From the article: [Netbooks] are cannibalizing Windows PC sales at an alarming rate. By comparison, laptops commanded higher margins and average selling prices when their popularity started to increase. PC manufacturers -- and even Microsoft -- benefited from notebooks' reversing the trend of falling computer ASPs; for a time. By comparison, netbooks are a plague, because they dramatically lower ASPs and margins and…
Translation: "those consumers! We used to force them to accept a bundle of all the unnecessary extra features of a laptop with their netbook-level compute needs. Now the sneaky bastards are un-bundling it and ruining our sweet scam! The cads!"
Re: Apple declares war on the entire PC industry
#45Why are netbooks only the problem of the PC industry? Surely they "cannibalize" Mac sales just as they cannibalize PC sales. Except for the people who would buy Macs no matter what.
Apple sells a high-end product; anyone who might be tempted away by a netbook would likely have already been tempted away by a lower-cost PC. It's the same reason that inexpensive Japanese cars don't cannibalize BMW sales.
Whereas if you are GM you build 10 different cars with different badges from different parts that all compete with each other in the same market.
Re: Apple declares war on the entire PC industry
#46Earlier quoted context omitted.
From the article: [Netbooks] are cannibalizing Windows PC sales at an alarming rate. By comparison, laptops commanded higher margins and average selling prices when their popularity started to increase. PC manufacturers -- and even Microsoft -- benefited from notebooks' reversing the trend of falling computer ASPs; for a time. By comparison, netbooks are a plague, because they dramatically lower ASPs and margins and…
have margins on hardware ever been that high in the world of the commodity PC? Given that most netbooks now run XP, (and shortly should be shipping with Windows 7 given the focus on performance) how can they be "cannibalizing Windows PC sales". The whole quote makes no sense, unless the low margins on netbooks are being passed on to Microsoft. edit: despite the title the actual premise of the article is that Apple ar…
Then everybody switched to netbooks which have a smaller margin than the bag you take it home in.