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94% of people aren't current college enrollees and aren't paying educational prices they are paying the prices listed at store.apple.com. Looking at store.apple

94% of people aren't current college enrollees and aren't paying educational prices they are paying the prices listed at store.apple.com. Looking at store.apple.com the 999 model is a dog nobody should buy because its forever locked in at 8GB of non replacable RAM and it comes with an anemic 256GB of storage. The minimum configuration anyone ought to buy in 2021 comes in at $1400 for 16GB of RAM and 512GB of storage or $1600 if you want to bump it up to 1TB. Meanwhile the average PC is bought for between $600 and $700 meaning half of people actually pay less even than that. Here is an example of a typical PC one can find at Walmart where an average user buys their tires, green beans, and their computers. https://www.walmart.com/ip/HP-2021-New-Touchscreen-laptop-i3-1115G4-512GB-SSD-16GB-RAM-Multi-touch-enabled-UHD-Graphics-Type-C-USB-HDMI-Natural-silver-Windows-10-Pro/708897249 https://www.walmart.com/ip/HP-2021-New-Touchscreen-laptop-i3... It comes with 16GB of RAM and 512GB storage for $649 or 1TB for $719. I do not herein assert that it is an equivalent machine its not. However it is a very typical PC. Here is another with 16GB of RAM but only 256GB of storage but its also only $449 and you wont have to close some applications before opening others partying like its 1998 with your windows CE portable machine. https://www.walmart.com/ip/Gateway-15-6-FHD-Ultra-Slim-Notebook-GWTN156-1/309509930?athcpid=309509930&athpgid=AthenaItempage&athcgid=null&athznid=si&athieid=v0&athstid=CS004&athguid=7wY_8YaWaWPs7OBpqlP-zrmDuE6azzbV_tEf&athancid=null&athena=true&athbdg=L1600 https://www.walmart.com/ip/Gateway-15-6-FHD-Ultra-Slim-Noteb... Yes its a gateway. Gives you a warm fuzzy right. The point is for the majority of PC laptop buyers the M1 macs even the economical models aren't competitors anymore than a Tesla is really competing for the same buyer as KIA even though the goods are absolutely in the same category. PC's are a largely a huge mass of very cheap machines with a minority that compete directly with apple.

kube-system 5y ago
Here's another data point. https://www.amazon.com/Best-Sellers-Computers-Accessories/zgbs/pc/ https://www.amazon.com/Best-Sellers-Computers-Accessories/zg... #1, #2, and #5 are MacBook Airs. The only Windows PC in the top 50 is #39, and has 4GB RAM, and 128GB SSD. Although I really don't think that power users would always be better served with a 16GB RAM Walmart marketplace specials. RAM and storage space are important data points, but the types of machines made specifically for bargain-basement prices often sacrifice other important design features -- particularly anything qualitative. I have family that was recently screwed by one of these marketplace sellers. They bought one of these marketplace laptop with great specs, later to find out that it didn't ship with those specs from the manufacturer, the marketplace seller modified it with crap parts and relisted it. Now it has parts not subject to the manufacturer warranty and the performance of those parts is really bad.
- ksec 5y ago
  And a Chromebook at #25 priced at $179. And that is at current MacBook Air price. There is no reason why a Macbook Air cant be $799, the same price as iPad Pro from a BOM cost prospective with same margin other than market positioning and segmentation. And most consumer dont actually care about spec. They want a computer that works. ( Actually most dont want one, they just have to buy one for different sort of reason ).
  - michaelmrose 5y ago
    There isn't a strong justification for pricing it so aggressively when this would drastically decrease their margin. They would be selling their profit to increase market share which is exactly the opposite of their usual strategy especially when demand is high and fab capacity at a premium. They might well be just trading in a higher profit for a lessor if they couldn't make more units than people would already buy at the higher price.
    - ksec 5y ago
      Like I said, in the future time line. It is not "aggressive". It is the normal margin for Apple. Apple has kept their product margin relatively stable in the past decade. And I know their BOM cost by heart. The only situation where they dont go lower price is to introduce more features, mini LED, Pro Motion etc.
- michaelmrose 5y ago
  This is a good data point for a short term sales trends regarding a new device that is a big upgrade for apple's existing market share. It does not in any fashion show that short term sales suggest that people who who used to buy 200-600 average PCs are now spending 1000 on macbooks. Macs biggest opportunity rests in flipping people who buy machines in the same price range from PC to Mac. It puts substantial pressure on OEMs to improve their premium lines and yet they don't have a great margin so it looks like there is nowhere to go but up in price.
  - 5y ago
tokamak-teapot 5y ago
I have two M1 Airs. The 8GB/256GB is not a dog - far from it. It’s used for ‘family’ stuff. It’s never given the slightest indication of struggling with anything it’s been asked to do.

kube-system 5y ago

Here's another data point. https://www.amazon.com/Best-Sellers-Computers-Accessories/zgbs/pc/ https://www.amazon.com/Best-Sellers-Computers-Accessories/zg... #1, #2, and #5 are MacBook Airs. The only Windows PC in the top 50 is #39, and has 4GB RAM, and 128GB SSD. Although I really don't think that power users would always be better served with a 16GB RAM Walmart marketplace specials. RAM and storage space are important data points, but the types of machines made specifically for bargain-basement prices often sacrifice other important design features -- particularly anything qualitative. I have family that was recently screwed by one of these marketplace sellers. They bought one of these marketplace laptop with great specs, later to find out that it didn't ship with those specs from the manufacturer, the marketplace seller modified it with crap parts and relisted it. Now it has parts not subject to the manufacturer warranty and the performance of those parts is really bad.

ksec 5y ago
And a Chromebook at #25 priced at $179. And that is at current MacBook Air price. There is no reason why a Macbook Air cant be $799, the same price as iPad Pro from a BOM cost prospective with same margin other than market positioning and segmentation. And most consumer dont actually care about spec. They want a computer that works. ( Actually most dont want one, they just have to buy one for different sort of reason ).
- michaelmrose 5y ago
  There isn't a strong justification for pricing it so aggressively when this would drastically decrease their margin. They would be selling their profit to increase market share which is exactly the opposite of their usual strategy especially when demand is high and fab capacity at a premium. They might well be just trading in a higher profit for a lessor if they couldn't make more units than people would already buy at the higher price.
  - ksec 5y ago
    Like I said, in the future time line. It is not "aggressive". It is the normal margin for Apple. Apple has kept their product margin relatively stable in the past decade. And I know their BOM cost by heart. The only situation where they dont go lower price is to introduce more features, mini LED, Pro Motion etc.
michaelmrose 5y ago
This is a good data point for a short term sales trends regarding a new device that is a big upgrade for apple's existing market share. It does not in any fashion show that short term sales suggest that people who who used to buy 200-600 average PCs are now spending 1000 on macbooks. Macs biggest opportunity rests in flipping people who buy machines in the same price range from PC to Mac. It puts substantial pressure on OEMs to improve their premium lines and yet they don't have a great margin so it looks like there is nowhere to go but up in price.
- 5y ago

tokamak-teapot 5y ago

I have two M1 Airs. The 8GB/256GB is not a dog - far from it. It’s used for ‘family’ stuff. It’s never given the slightest indication of struggling with anything it’s been asked to do.