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Apple Archive

Why Apple Could Successfully Build and Market a Low Cost Mac

- 2002.12.20

More thoughts about a low end Mac, and marketing

Almost everyone agrees that Apple should release a low-end desktop Mac to increase their market share in education. However, I've noticed that some people don't seem to think it's a good idea for Apple to venture into the low end.

They've compared it to car companies for the most part, and it's true that high end car manufacturers, such as BMW, are probably not very interested in selling a "cheap" model in order to gain market share. BMWs aren't exactly rare on the road as it is, so why would they need to do it? As has also been said, when Cadillac tried to sell a "cheap" model in the mid 80s, it failed miserably. Why? It was less than what you would expect from a Cadillac. Sure, it was cheap, but its quality and performance suffered.

Computers aren't cars, though. Computers are electronics.

I can bring in the radio analogy here. In the late 1930s and early 1940s, Zenith Radio Corporation was able to do with radios what Apple should be able to do with computers. Sure, it had some high end sets - 15 tube Zenith Stratospheres with dials that would actually move when you changed bands - but it also had a line of inexpensive plastic and wooden table models that it sold to the average consumer at an affordable price. It also had midrange models, its 8, 10, and 12 tube large table models and midsize consoles. These were priced competitively with other consoles at the time, and Zenith was able to compete with other manufacturers in the major markets.

They did it again with television, able to keep black and white portables and table models available for those that weren't willing to shell out the amount necessary for a large 21" color console with built in radio and phonograph. And they were able to successfully sell both types.

You'd think Apple would be able to do this. But all radios are pretty much the same: they all tune in the same stations, they all work in a similar way, so Zenith wasn't selling a completely different product.

Since the Macintosh doesn't work exactly like the PC and needs its own applications, Apple must be careful. Perhaps one way to do this is to really push the message that you can do the same things on a Mac and on a PC - but you can do things better on a Mac, like so many radio companies tried to persuade consumers that everything sounded better on their radios. So far Apple is doing this pretty well with it's Switch ads.

But Apple needs to make the Mac more accessible to more people, and a low-end desktop Mac would accomplish this and allow Apple to compete in all areas of the market, not just the high end.

Recent Apple Archive articles

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More in the Apple Archive index.

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