People still go to Dell, etc, to get the same machine at a lower price to do the same work with.

I think the mac zealots get a little caught up in the idea that their mac is a lifestyle. That is crazy. Yes, the iPod is cool. But…it has a purpose, to play MP3 files. If Dell makes a similar device, maybe it’s not as pretty, but sells it for half as much, why would I want to buy the iPod?

It’s a matter of cost. If two products compete and do the exact same thing, the one that is cheaper is going to win out.

I know numerous people who say: “Man…those powerbooks are nice…too bad they are so expensive.”

On the other side of the coin, I understand what is being said here. I ride a Harley. Harley’s are expensive. Most people don’t understand a Harley. The argument is that you can get a Japanese cruiser for less than half as much. But…the Harley has history, and they have an excellent connection with their clients.

Apple lacks the excellent connection with their clients, if they had it, they would be doing better I believe.

As to the iPod vs Dell DJ, we really don’t know how the pricing will shape up, as Dell hasn’t released any numbers AFAIK, but considering that the iPod retails for about the same price as the 1.8″ drive mechanism inside it, I don’t see how Dell can undercut them by that much. iPods are expensive not so much because they come from Apple, but because they use expensive technology.

What? Apple is one of the strongest “cult brands” around. I would guess it would be comparable with Harley.

When Bill Gates or Michael Dell make a speech, 10′s of thousands of fans around the world don’t sit on the edge or their seats in front of 1″ streams while also watching live textual coverage on dozens of sites. Apple has a following… A “connection”.

The reason why Apple doesn’t have more market share is probably because most people aren’t informed. They just get what their geeky friend recommends. Not surprisingly they are usually unhappy with it.

The iPod came along soon enough and with enough horsepower that all the geeks wanted/got it. Then all the normal people got it with “geek blessings”.

On Apple’s market share, I’d like to point you to these few articles:

Apple laptop market share increasing

MacCentral: Apple’s UK market share unchanged

Across the industry, the European, Middle East and African notebook market grew 39 percent in the second quarter 2003. Apple’s rate of growth eclipsed this industry average. In Europe, Apple saw 46.5 percent growth in the commercial high-end laptop market (PowerBook G4s) and 56.2 percent growth in the consumer market (iBooks) year-on-year.

And of course, again, you have to read Gruber’s Market Share

Here are a few others that are worth taking a look at just for the heck of it:

C|Net: Notebooks eke out more market share

http://www.macopinion.com/columns/tangible/01/06/15/

From the second link we get this:

“It is still at ninth position within the European market,” IDC analyst Ian Gibbs told Macworld UK. However, “Apple’s shipments have decreased year-on-year for a second quarter running — this time by 0.7 percent.”

So they are shipping less units. This is a good thing for Apple?

The Gruber article is interested.

Apple does have a cult following. However, as I have said before and will say until I die, Apple does not have good customer service and their build quality is less than should be expected from such an expensive piece of hardware.

Go read the article on my blog about this, LOTS of people seem to have had very similar past problems. [ http://www.burfield.com/blog/archives/000014.html ]

Ibooks are indeed cheaper than others, however, they lack many features many of us really need. Namely a PCMCIA slot. That single reason is why they are not selling many of them to photographers, same with the 12″ powerbook.

Why do you suppose they do that? Do you think they might want you to spend more money with them to buy a larger powerbook? Hmmmmmm???

And…about listening to steve jobs and his keynotes…I think that most apple zealots do this because they don’t have much else going on! I used to do this as well. Back when I wasn’t working much. These days I don’t have the time to spend listening to jobs yack about his personal vision for 2 hours. I have work to do and clients to make happpy.

Also, “most people are un-informed”??? Huh? Let’s think about this. The reason that I don’t use a Mac is because I am un-informed? Is that the argument? I hope not. That in itself is a very ignorant statement.

The reason I do NOT use apple products is BECAUSE I am informed. Because I have been burned by apple in the past, etc, etc, etc.

It’s easy to say that someone doesn’t do something the way you do because they are un-informed. So, was the majority of the world ‘un-informed’ when it went against Hitler and his ideas? (insert any ill-fated idea here…)

This whole discussion started about the ipod, not the powerbooks. The ipod was a great idea. I think most people agree with that. The fact is, if there are two competing items that do the same thing yet cost drastically different, which one are you going to go with? The cheaper one. It is a very simple business decision.

Until a mac zealot can tell me why that is not a sound business and economic decision I will continue to think this way.

I also find it interesting that no one argues that point, which is really the main point of this whole topic and entry. That is a very mac-like stance. Avoid the real questions and issues and attempt to side track people, sort of like calling them ‘un-informed’, right?

I didn’t read all of the comments on your post about Apple sucking yet (I’m running out to a football game shortly) but I will.

To get back to your iPod points:

I think the thing is… most PC users are looking for an iPod-esque type MP3 player. I’ve got friends with MP3 players from other makers (Creative, Archaos, and on other than I can’t think of right off the top of my head) and none of them are satisfied with them… sure, they play MP3s, but they’re generally a bitch to manage, at least compared to the ease of iTunes + iPod. All of my PC friends agree. Does this drive them to buy an iPod?

It’s driven one to buy an iPod, but he’s not happy with it on his PC, because he doesn’t like Music Match… he loves the iPod, but hates MusicMatch. Apple’s coming out with iTunes for Windows sometime in the near future, but who knows how good it’ll be. Hopefully very good.

People don’t “People still go to Dell, etc, to get the same machine at a lower price to do the same work with.” The go to Dell, etc., to get a like-machine to work with for the same price. In my experience those machines are usually on-par with Macintoshes at the same price level… some a little better, some a little worse, and a few cheapo’s out there that aren’t even close to being on par with a Macintosh, but also are very cheap…

I think Dell will make a good MP3 player, but I don’t think it’ll be better than an iPod, and in fact, I think it’s not going to be as good, but I also haven’t seen it, and thus haven’t made a judgement. I can say that I don’t think Dell can make it too much cheaper than an iPod, because a) they’re outsourcing it to another company, and b) the hardware involved just isn’t that inexpensive.

If Dell cuts too many corners to make it cheaper, it’ll show, and that’ll just suck for users (who will still buy the Dell MP3 player because they’re going to save $20 or so).

We’ll see what comes of the actual product launch and price-points soon enough… and I hope it’s a good thing for consumers, regardless of who wins (Apple v. Dell).

However…the Dell unit might suck, in which case it deserves to die a quick death.

-battery charge lasts only 6 hours (Nomad lasts 14 hours on a single charge)

-you can’t replace the battery (you can with the Nomad)

-the touchpad interface=yuck

-the ridiculous price

I find that the people who blindly say “iPod is the best” are Macheads to begin with and haven’t even tried the other brands.

If you want a pretty paperweight, get an iPod. If you want an MP3 player, get a Nomad.