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> It's sad, but Apple has completely lost it at the low end. When was Apple ever targeting (or winning) the low end? Apple was never the "value proposition" f

by dpark 10y ago

> It's sad, but Apple has completely lost it at the low end. When was Apple ever targeting (or winning) the low end? Apple was never the "value proposition" for affordable devices.

ajmurmann 10y ago
The iBook was solid quality at a competitive price especially if you got their student discounts.
- dpark 10y ago
  So over a decade ago before they even switched to Intel? I actually don't recall them actually being competitive with Windows devices even then, but I wasn't looking very closely at them either.
- snowwrestler 10y ago
  The iBook was more expensive and less powerful than the 13" MacBook Air, which starts at $999 today before student discount.
eon1 10y ago
I seem to remember them flooding schools with low cost grey iMacs called eMacs (though you might have some trouble googling that).
- snowwrestler 10y ago
  eMacs were low cost for Macs, but not necessarily compared to PCs. The real big shift that is killing Apple in schools is the shift from "a few computers in the computer lab" to "issue every child a laptop." When it's just a few computers for all students to share, buying nicer computers doesn't have a huge aggregate impact. When you're buying thousands at a time, even small price differences add up. This is in part why Apple has focused on $500 iPads for education. They know they have no chance of selling $1000 MacBook Airs in lots of thousands to many school districts.
- antfarm 10y ago
  Not so hard: https://www.google.de/search?q=emac https://www.google.de/search?q=emac
antfarm 10y ago
These Apple web pages from 1998/99, just around the introduction of the original iMac, show that around the time they were making quite an effort to regain their leading position as suppliers of schools and universities. https://web.archive.org/web/19980509035831/http://www.apple.com/education/ https://web.archive.org/web/19980509035831/http://www.apple.... https://web.archive.org/web/19990826061209/http://apple.com/education/ https://web.archive.org/web/19990826061209/http://apple.com/...

by dpark 10y ago

> It's sad, but Apple has completely lost it at the low end. When was Apple ever targeting (or winning) the low end? Apple was never the "value proposition" for affordable devices.

ajmurmann 10y ago

The iBook was solid quality at a competitive price especially if you got their student discounts.

dpark 10y ago
So over a decade ago before they even switched to Intel? I actually don't recall them actually being competitive with Windows devices even then, but I wasn't looking very closely at them either.
snowwrestler 10y ago
The iBook was more expensive and less powerful than the 13" MacBook Air, which starts at $999 today before student discount.

eon1 10y ago

I seem to remember them flooding schools with low cost grey iMacs called eMacs (though you might have some trouble googling that).

snowwrestler 10y ago
eMacs were low cost for Macs, but not necessarily compared to PCs. The real big shift that is killing Apple in schools is the shift from "a few computers in the computer lab" to "issue every child a laptop." When it's just a few computers for all students to share, buying nicer computers doesn't have a huge aggregate impact. When you're buying thousands at a time, even small price differences add up. This is in part why Apple has focused on $500 iPads for education. They know they have no chance of selling $1000 MacBook Airs in lots of thousands to many school districts.
antfarm 10y ago
Not so hard: https://www.google.de/search?q=emac https://www.google.de/search?q=emac

antfarm 10y ago

These Apple web pages from 1998/99, just around the introduction of the original iMac, show that around the time they were making quite an effort to regain their leading position as suppliers of schools and universities. https://web.archive.org/web/19980509035831/http://www.apple.com/education/ https://web.archive.org/web/19980509035831/http://www.apple.... https://web.archive.org/web/19990826061209/http://apple.com/education/ https://web.archive.org/web/19990826061209/http://apple.com/...