Do you think Apple is going to take a different path in products?

[DBZmusicboy01]

Like now with all this health stuff and beats and such....Is it possible that apple is planning on taking a different direction to survive? instead of just having macbooks..iphones..ipads.. They would have new things like iCar..iWatch..iShoes
things like that ?
It sounds crazy but apple could become way bigger. I mean apple could do well if they made things like that. Just to have more people buy their things.

Next 3-10 years

 

[maflynn]

Is it possible that apple is planning on taking a different direction to survive?

to survive - that seems a little melodramatic don't you think. They're in no danger of going out of business any time soon.

The only thing I can say is that with the healthbeat stuff, its looking at developing products where they feel they can make money on and expand the brand. Not change directions to avoid going out of business.

 

[Southern Dad]

I don't think that it is vital to the company's survival. I think Apple would survive just fine if it were to just keep updating the products that it has out now. However, since like many others, I love new gadgets and products, I eagerly await Apple venturing into new areas. The iWatch has me drooling. An iCar? My Prius would be in the dealership on release date as I camped to await that release.

Can you imagine the release date of an iCar? What a positive day to be in car sales. No negotiating, no haggling, just a line of people ready to pay.

 

[JohnLT13]

After the death of Jobs I figured Apple would produce a MacBook in the 500 dollar rage to appeal to the masses.
Guess I was wrong.

 

[maflynn]

After the death of Jobs I figured Apple would produce a MacBook in the 500 dollar rage to appeal to the masses.
Guess I was wrong.

They accurately read the market where there was little potential for long term success on producing cut rate products. Just look at Dell and where they are, as they went after that market sector.

 

[JohnLT13]

They accurately read the market where there was little potential for long term success on producing cut rate products. Just look at Dell and where they are, as they went after that market sector.

Aluminum does not improve on performance. Only price.
A plastic macbook is still a macbook. IMO Apple has created a niche market, with exception of phones that is.
If they were priced for the masses as Dell they would outsell windows 2-1 IMO.

 

[TechGod]

Aluminum does not improve on performance. Only price.
A plastic macbook is still a macbook. IMO Apple has created a niche market, with exception of phones that is.
If they were priced for the masses as Dell they would outsell windows 2-1 IMO.

And also lose a lot of profit? Market share isn't everything.

The MBA is cheap enough IMO.

 

[Renzatic]

Aluminum does not improve on performance. Only price.

It can, because the aluminum bodies on the Macbooks act as a pretty decent heatsink. The cooler your hardware runs, the less likely it is to flake out, and the longer life it'll have.

 

[JohnLT13]

It can, because the aluminum bodies on the Macbooks act as a pretty decent heatsink. The cooler your hardware runs, the less likely it is to flake out, and the longer life it'll have.

Ok that has some truth, but my wives plastic 3 year old HP still runs fine as do my daughters old macbook that is plastic. All I'm saying is Apple has priced themselves out of a huge market.

 

[Southern Dad]

I'm not sure that Apple's pricing strategies aren't on purpose. With the higher prices, they are a sign of success. With a Dell, it could be a high end or bargain basement model... But with a Mac? A Mac is a Mac.

When my daughter was younger she attended a prestigious private school. Every day, I would notice the people, mostly women in line to pick up their kids, all would have Starbucks cups and most talking on iPhones. Of course, they were driving SUV's.

It's a status symbol having that Apple logo on the back of your computer, phone or tablet.

 

[LethalWolfe]

Like now with all this health stuff and beats and such....Is it possible that apple is planning on taking a different direction to survive? instead of just having macbooks..iphones..ipads..

Apple will have to expand their product line if they want to keep growing. All products reach a point where sales flatline and if you don't have new product lines out before that happens you are in trouble. There used to be a time when Apple just sold desktop computers.

I'm saying is Apple has priced themselves out of a huge market.

People have been saying that for as long as I've followed the Mac community (about 15 years) yet look at Apple compared to the competition. Compaq? Acquired. IBM? Out of the personal computer business. Sony? Out of the personal computer business. HP? In trouble. Gateway? Acquired. Dell? In trouble and went private to try and right the ship. The race-to-the-bottom approach started by Dell severely damaged the PC hardware industry in the US. Apple abstained (and launched other product lines) and that's a big reason why they are the only major player to come out of that era smelling like roses.

The iPod, iPhone and iPad were all blasted for costing too much and doing too little but they all ended being market leaders and what all competing products get compared to. Apple priced themselves out of a market they didn't want to be a part of and they still managed to be a pretty successful company.

 

[Renzatic]

Ok that has some truth, but my wives plastic 3 year old HP still runs fine as do my daughters old macbook that is plastic. All I'm saying is Apple has priced themselves out of a huge market.

Yeah. As far as build quality goes, you can get plastic computers that are just as well built, and perform just as well as any modern Macbook. Aluminum is nicer overall, but it hardly makes for a night and day difference.

As for Macs being too high priced? I'd say they have the best midmarket lineup they've ever had. The MBA is a great little machine, and pretty inexpensive for what you're getting. With just a bit of searching, you can grab one for around $800 these days. No, it won't beat a budget line computer on price, but that's what the iPad is for. It's meant to cover that market.

Apple will never be a cheap computer company, but right now, I'd say they're the most affordable they've ever been.

 

[roadbloc]

All I'm saying is Apple has priced themselves out of a huge market.

Indeed they have. But is there really any point lowering the prices when people are happy to pay the higher ones?

 

[Scepticalscribe]

Apple will have to expand their product line if they want to keep growing. All products reach a point where sales flatline and if you don't have new product lines out before that happens you are in trouble. There used to be a time when Apple just sold desktop computers.




People have been saying that for as long as I've followed the Mac community (about 15 years) yet look at Apple compared to the competition. Compaq? Acquired. IBM? Out of the personal computer business. Sony? Out of the personal computer business. HP? In trouble. Gateway? Acquired. Dell? In trouble and went private to try and right the ship. The race-to-the-bottom approach started by Dell severely damaged the PC hardware industry in the US. Apple abstained (and launched other product lines) and that's a big reason why they are the only major player to come out of that era smelling like roses.

The iPod, iPhone and iPad were all blasted for costing too much and doing too little but they all ended being market leaders and what all competing products get compared to. Apple priced themselves out of a market they didn't want to be a part of and they still managed to be a pretty successful company.

Excellent and well argued post.

Indeed they have. But is there really any point lowering the prices when people are happy to pay the higher ones?

Very good point, and well made.

To answer the OP's question, yes.

On the question of pricing, and pursuing a rather affluent section of the market with attractively designed products, I don't think that this will change, and nor does Apple wish for it to change. It has worked.

Excellent design has worked, too, as has innovation. The latter area is the challenge for the future for Apple and - at least while the late Mr Jobs was alive - we saw Apple come up with revolutionary new products every few years, a number of which turned out to be game changers not just in their fields, but in terms of defining whole new fields of endeavour and enterprise, fields which nobody had even known existed, but which competitors sought to enter within a matter of months or years.

Here, the obvious game-changing products which Apple introduced to the market included iPods, which transformed how music was consumed and listened to, and iTunes; then, there was the complete redefining of the phone market with iPhones, (a decade ago, who would have ever thought to see Nokia struggle such was their dominance - with good reason - in the field of mobile phones?)

The MBA revolutionised portable computing and the iPad transformed that world still further.

No, the challenge for Apple is not pricing, or niche markets - that comes after the invention of transformational products - but the continued investment in research and innovation so that new products can be invented that nobody ever knew existed or knew that they needed or wanted. Being able to do that - identify and address these gaps - was a large part of Mr Job's genius, along with the capacity to translate that vision into attractive designed products that people wanted to buy, almost irrespective of price charged.

 

[maflynn]

If they were priced for the masses as Dell they would outsell windows 2-1 IMO.

Let me ask you this - why would a company follow in the foot steps of Dell? That's ludicrous.

Dell went after the low end of the market and now they're paying for it - sure they initially made a lot of money but as others cut the price they had to, until the point where they're not making much money on their consumer line (if any). Now Dell is in deep weeds financially struggling to survive. It doesn't make sense that apple should follow in their foots steps.

Apple is raking in billions, why should they change directions.

Their use of aluminum is there to provide a sense of premium. You can get a timex at walmart made of plastic or you can get a rolex from a jeweler made of fine materials. Would you ask rolex to start making plastic watches and cut the price so make it more enticing to every consumer? They'd destroy the brand.

Apple isn't about selling to the masses as much as providing a premium product.

 

[JohnLT13]

Apple isn't about selling to the masses as much as providing a premium product.

They are not huh?
https://forums.macrumors.com/showthread.php?p=19241104#post19241104

 

[chown33]

They are not huh?
https://forums.macrumors.com/showthread.php?p=19241104#post19241104

You're pointing to a Best Buy promotion, not an Apple one.

And the price reduction is temporary, not permanent.

 

[rdowns]

Ok that has some truth, but my wives plastic 3 year old HP still runs fine as do my daughters old macbook that is plastic. All I'm saying is Apple has priced themselves out of a huge market.

Seriously?

Using publicly available data from quarterly financial reports issued by five of the top PC makers in the world — HP, Dell, Lenovo, Acer and Asus — Arthur calculated how much it costs these Windows PC makers to build each computer and how much profit each box yields. The five aforementioned vendors combine to make up 60% of global Windows PC shipments, so this is likely a good measure of the industry as a whole.

According to Arthur’s number crunching, Windows PC ASPs have declined from $614.60 as of the first quarter in 2010 to $544.30 in Q3 2013. Last quarter’s financial results have not yet been reported, so revenue and operating profit data is not yet available for the fourth quarter.

It’s no mystery that PC prices are falling, of course, but another figure unearthed in Arthur’s calculations will likely surprise you: $14.87.

That figure represents the amount of profit Windows PC makers earn on average for each PC they sell, as of the third quarter last year. Less than fifteen bucks. That number is down from $15.71 in Q1 2010 even though margins have actually improved from 2.55% to 2.73% during that time, with sinking retail prices the obvious culprit.

Tell us again about this huge market Apple is pricing themselves out of.


http://bgr.com/2014/01/10/pc-profits-analysis-margins/

 

[JohnLT13]

Seriously?
Tell us again about this huge market Apple is pricing themselves out of.

That would be the market that can't afford them. Is it that mysterious or do you not recognize that demographic?

 

[LethalWolfe]

That would be the market that can't afford them. Is it that mysterious or are you an Apple snob that does not recognize that demographic?

Apple's computer marketshare is growing despite the overall shrinking of the personal computer market (Apple's domestic Mac sales surge 28.5% as overall PC market shrinks 7.5% )and, to riff off of rdown's post, Apple gets more profit per Mac than Dell, HP, ASUS, Acer and Lenovo combined (Mac Makes More Profit Than the Entire PC Industry).

What does Apple gain from offering a 'budget Mac' and expending time and energy to fight it out in the low margin, low end of a dead end market? Yes, desktops (and to a lesser extent laptops) are dead ends in terms of growth. The growth is happening in mobile devices.

 

[DeltaMac]

but

Apple doesn't need to drop their prices to sell to the "market that can't afford them", mostly because they continue to sell at the prices that they charge - and quite successfully, too - and a few folks do actually buy Apple products.
It makes no sense to drop prices, when there's no need to do so.
I'm thinking that Apple is not really in for market share, but to make money - by selling products that people want. (What a shock!)
I'm also thinking that Apple's business strategy works, (or, maybe Apple is still _doomed_ )

 

[JohnLT13]

I'm thinking that Apple is not really in for market share,

In multiple keynotes they have gloated about iPhone outselling other brands. I think they are very concerned about market share in phones at least.

I predict a lower cost Mac in the future. It only makes sense. IMO.

 

[LethalWolfe]

In multiple keynotes they have gloated about iPhone outselling other brands. I think they are very concerned about market share in phones at least.

I predict a lower cost Mac in the future. It only makes sense. IMO.

They might, the future is a big place, but even when Mac's had less than 2% marketshare the least expensive desktop was the eMac for $800 (entry level) even though an entry level Dell or Gateway could be bought for $400 (and possibly included a free printer).

Since Jobs returned in the '90's Apple's priorities have been to create products that give the best overall user experience and to make lots of profit. They doesn't chase hardware marketshare by trying to be the cheapest option. Profitable is profitable regardless of marketshare but marketshare without profitability is useless.

Even their iPhone success is limited to being the best selling single handset even though the iPhone platform has less users than the Android platform. In terms of marketshare Apple is at a disadvantage because only their hardware can run iOS (where as many hardware makers use Android) but in terms of profitability Apple makes about twice as much per phone than a company selling an Android product does.

Desktops, laptops, MP3 players, smartphones, monitors, tablets... when has Apple put out the cheapest product on the market? Until Apple stops raking in the dough I doubt we will see drastic change in their business model.

 

[tdale]

Different path, no.

But I feel they will go hard in those other markets, iWatch, Healthkit, Homekit

For these reasons.

If the Health, Watch and Homekits became best of class (as iPod did in music players), that will add to profits. It will also help iPhone, iPad, Mac marketshare as if these new products sold very very well, there will be many non Apple users buying them, they will intentionally or otherwise migrate to Apple. More new sales, new App sales, etc.

Adding new iPhone, iPad, Mac users is huge as these new sales will stay and provide ongoing sales in apps and iTunes content. Factor in a more useable Apple TV, and why would you buy various brands if you can get everything under one roof that are so heavily integrated

 

[JohnLT13]

Different path, no.

But I feel they will go hard in those other markets, iWatch, Healthkit, Homekit

Looking forward to a possible iWatch, But what I want more is the ability to pay for anything with any card I have with my phone. Being able to pay or take payment from someone with just a touch of my phone. I know the retailer side of this will need to be addressed also. May be some years before we see it but boy it will be great.

I just hope Apple has the brilliant minds to bring us to the next level. As far as tech devices the market has seem to top out on innovation. What ever comes next will be BIG!!