Mac... an elitist brand?

[divinemercy]

Ok... So first of all let me point out that i do NOT think that mac is an elitist brand.... yet.

But recently i've noticed, and i am certainly not alone, a bit of a change in mac's cost philosophy. Small instances like having to pay for the ipod touch upgrade even if you had just purchased the device. How old applications have mysteriously doubled in price when released for the touch/iphone... Lots of little things like that...

At this point in the game i think that mac's consumer loyalty is more than adequate enough to bear the burden of these small increases on the price-tag... But how much longer will this be the case? How much longer before a huge section of the consumer base is driven off by rising prices and the increasing gap between mac products and those of their competitors?

Anyways, i was just curious to see what everyone thought, and to find out if anyone else out there is at all afraid their our beloved brand is going to become an 'elitist' brand....

ryan

 

[Dimwhit]

Like any company, Apple is out to make a buck. They've just learned that they can get it from their user base easier than most...

 

[BlakTornado]

It's an elitist brand because the users are elitist

 

[spork183]

oh yeah, but it the elitist that drives the expensive hybrid, rather than the elitist who drives supercar. I'd like to think that cuz of environmental conscience, but more likely cuz no competition means mac will never push the top performance envelope. We can however be happy that hybrids getting pretty quick now, as is the mac.

 

[DeaconGraves]

Apple is not elitist. How dare you.

Now if you'll excuse me I have to go back to sipping Dom on my patio while laughing at poor people.

 

[Chundles]

Apple is not elitist. How dare you.

Now if you'll excuse me I have to go back to sipping Dom on my patio while laughing at poor people.

Oh how I hate the poor.

 

[spork183]

Oh how I hate the poor.

that the problem with the youth of today. They have no perspective. Without the poor, there would be no yardstick. Just like, without the PC, we have no one to laugh at...

Edit: Just reread my post and it don't sound right. Been poor most of my life and not happy to be laughed at... So, poor is to yardstick as PC is to laughter? I have no clue what I just said...

 

[748s]

Oh how I hate the poor.

I've got my car windows tinted on the inside so I never have to see that kind of person.

 

[mcarnes]

I actually think Apple gear is priced way too low. The Apple logo shouldn't be anywhere near the idiot poor. It just makes the company look bad.

 

[BlakTornado]

I actually think Apple gear is priced way too low. The Apple logo shouldn't be anywhere near the idiot poor. It just makes the company look bad.

Why yes. I hate seeing all these plebs with iPods. Honestly, only the rich should have such marvelous, luxurious devices. Not PC-using plebeians who can't afford the nicety known as Mac.

Damn the poor for ruining Apple.

This thread is full of win

 

[macworkerbee]

Agreed I think that people should only be allowed to purchase an ipod or iphone if they also buy on of the high end macs, that will cut down on the poor having apple merch!

 

[chagla]

i despise the snob apple users more than i loathe apple products.
very repulsive.

 

[IJ Reilly]

Oh how I hate the poor.

I don't worry about them anymore.

 

[divinemercy]

Ok, very cute/funny everyone...

But does anyone want to answer seriously? I mean, I am really worried about it cause i love mac and would hate to see this trend continue or augment...

 

[carlosbutler]

im guessing that apple will not be able to increase the prices too much otherwise people will stop buying them. but there are plenty parts of the world where apple products are not stupidly priced. for example i live in woking (the better side of it) in surrey, UK. surrey i think is the most expensive place to live in the UK but for a lot of friends who have got computers, even the ones that dont use them a lot have expensive machines.

im only 18 and so far ive had 4 computers, 3 ipods and ive got an iphone and tv and more crap and thats usualish for someone in surrey. but in poorer parts people will naturally go for something cheaper, such as £250 windows laptop.

even if apple priced the update at $20-30 people would still buy it. im part time working and earn about $16 an hour in a not that high earning job, i'd easily pay $30 for an update

 

[qacjared]

Owning a mac is less about being elitist and more about being smart. Most people just don't care about the type of computer they own. Most people just look at the sticker price and *think* they are saving money by going for the $599 Dell Crapbook. They don't factor in the $100 a year anti virus, the tech support, or the fact that they will probably replace their computer about a year or so more often than we do. They do no understand all the hassle they could be saving by going to their local apple store. There is a reason macs are taking over College Students.

Its not that we are elitist its just we look at the bigger picture.

 

[Jak3]

if you're buying a computer for 600$, you definitely won't be upgrading anytime soon, as obviously, the crap you're buying there is enough to support what you're doing.

The only people who upgrade more than Mac users are maybe gamers, and they usually upgrade parts at a time and pro app users, which may be using macs anyway, who need the extra speed everytime it becomes available.

At least that's my view of it...

 

[BlakTornado]

Owning a mac is less about being elitist and more about being smart. Most people just don't care about the type of computer they own. Most people just look at the sticker price and *think* they are saving money by going for the $599 Dell Crapbook. They don't factor in the $100 a year anti virus, the tech support, or the fact that they will probably replace their computer about a year or so more often than we do. They do no understand all the hassle they could be saving by going to their local apple store. There is a reason macs are taking over College Students.

Quoted for Truth.

However, I would disagree on two points.

While Anti-viruses, do cost money, some like AVG don't. I used to use it on my PC and it did it's job. Same with the other PCs in my house. And some people don't need them, as router's with NAT block any direct access to people's PCs from hackers and spyware that just attempt to access random IP addresses, and now-a-days, a lot of people aren't dumb enough to click random things on websites.

Secondly, I would disagree about the replacing computers bit. There are Mac users who upgrade their computer when a speed bump of their model is released. We're talking every six months. Of course, there aren't as well, but from my experiences, there are a lot of PC users I know who haven't had a new PC in 6 or more years.
Of course, I also know a lot of people (myself included) who have lost computer because of viruses, malware, etc, but still, it's not like Mac Users who willingly get new computers because their current one isn't the best on the market anymore. Both sides are equally to blame.

And iPods and so on get replaced every couple of years, as well. Heck, there are Mac users who got rid of their YEAR OLD iPhones to get a new one with two new features.

So really, both sides are to blame

However, I agree with the rest of your post. They don't know about/don't care about the alternatives (Even Linux!) so they just buy the cheapest they can get, despite them not being very good.

 

[iShater]

Ok, very cute/funny everyone...

But does anyone want to answer seriously? I mean, I am really worried about it cause i love mac and would hate to see this trend continue or augment...

Your examples for conveying your point are not accurate.

The iTouch update has been discussed in many threads, legal issue with claiming the price of the change, plus the fact that it is an operating system upgrade (just like your computer going to Leopard from Tiger), etc. make it worth the money IF YOU WANT IT.

The price of the application is the choice of the developer as I understand it, so if the developer used to give apps for free cause the iPhone was jailbroken, and now that there is an official store to do it wants to recover the money from their hard work, then it is up to them. They can choose to sell it to you for free, but I am not sure Apple can dictate a minimum price of an application.

Edit: what is poor?

 

[qacjared]

Quoted for Truth.

However, I would disagree on two points.

While Anti-viruses, do cost money, some like AVG don't. I used to use it on my PC and it did it's job. Same with the other PCs in my house. And some people don't need them, as router's with NAT block any direct access to people's PCs from hackers and spyware that just attempt to access random IP addresses, and now-a-days, a lot of people aren't dumb enough to click random things on websites.

Secondly, I would disagree about the replacing computers bit. There are Mac users who upgrade their computer when a speed bump of their model is released. We're talking every six months. Of course, there aren't as well, but from my experiences, there are a lot of PC users I know who haven't had a new PC in 6 or more years.
Of course, I also know a lot of people (myself included) who have lost computer because of viruses, malware, etc, but still, it's not like Mac Users who willingly get new computers because their current one isn't the best on the market anymore. Both sides are equally to blame.

And iPods and so on get replaced every couple of years, as well. Heck, there are Mac users who got rid of their YEAR OLD iPhones to get a new one with two new features.

So really, both sides are to blame

However, I agree with the rest of your post. They don't know about/don't care about the alternatives (Even Linux!) so they just buy the cheapest they can get, despite them not being very good.

Yes and there are PC users who do that same thing. And not to disagree with you but what is the oldest mac that can officially run leopard? now tell me the oldest computer that can run vista? I believe the oldest mac is about 6 years old while you would be hard pressed to find a 3 year old windows box that could run vista. (Not that you couldn't it just wouldn't be that common. All 3 year old macs can run leopard after all right?)

 

[qacjared]

Your examples for conveying your point are not accurate.

The iTouch update has been discussed in many threads, legal issue with claiming the price of the change, plus the fact that it is an operating system upgrade (just like your computer going to Leopard from Tiger), etc. make it worth the money IF YOU WANT IT.

The price of the application is the choice of the developer as I understand it, so if the developer used to give apps for free cause the iPhone was jailbroken, and now that there is an official store to do it wants to recover the money from their hard work, then it is up to them. They can choose to sell it to you for free, but I am not sure Apple can dictate a minimum price of an application.

Edit: what is poor?

The problem with looking at the iTouch upgrade as apple trying to nickel and dime us is the fact that we are still looking at iTouch/iPhone updates as third-digit(10.5.x) Point releases of OS X, a new version of airport utility, or a firmware upgrade for a iPod Nano. The fact is that the iPhone Platform is running a full version of OS X thats just on uses a different kind of processor so we should treat it as a full fledged Unix OS. The friggen thing could be a wifi web-server if apple or jailbreaks allowed it.

Ten Bucks for a major operating system upgrade is dirt cheap. Snow leopard is going to introduce exchange support, and bring all the work done on the iPhone platform and it is defiantly not gonna only be ten bucks. Honestly this whole iTouch Upgrade thing is like saying my original November 2006 Core 2 Macbook should get leopard for free. Its absurd.

 

[djellison]

Owning a mac is less about being elitist and more about being smart. .

And if saying that isn't being elitist, I don't know what is!!!

 

[qacjared]

And if saying that isn't being elitist, I don't know what is!!!

It is not being elitist even if it may sound like such. I mean't that owning a mac is about knowing there is a better way to do things. Put it this way. When we talk about purchasing new computers on here don't we say buy a PC but when its a Mac we say choose a mac. Its a given that people have windows but odd and cool when they pick a mac instead. It's just like that 1984 commercial where we go against the head winds.

 

[Virgil-TB2]

Ok... So first of all let me point out that i do NOT think that mac is an elitist brand.... yet.

But recently i've noticed, and i am certainly not alone, a bit of a change in mac's cost philosophy. Small instances like having to pay for the ipod touch upgrade even if you had just purchased the device. How old applications have mysteriously doubled in price when released for the touch/iphone... Lots of little things like that...

At this point in the game i think that mac's consumer loyalty is more than adequate enough to bear the burden of these small increases on the price-tag... But how much longer will this be the case? How much longer before a huge section of the consumer base is driven off by rising prices and the increasing gap between mac products and those of their competitors?

Anyways, i was just curious to see what everyone thought, and to find out if anyone else out there is at all afraid their our beloved brand is going to become an 'elitist' brand....

Hate to say it but I think you've got it pretty much entirely backwards.

Apple has a long history of being an elitist brand that is more expensive than other computers and aimed mostly at a wealthy or "upper-middle" consumer. So yeah, Apple is elitist and always has been to that degree.

Far from changing towards being an elitist brand however, Apple is changing away from that.

Today's Macs are price competitive with other computers and the average Mac consumer is no longer rich dudes in turtle necks who have the scratch to go to University. The build quality of apple's products has taken a big dip lately also, along with the drop in prices and the increased market share.

it would be more accurate to argue that Apple is headed "down-market," rather than the other way around.

.

 

[qacjared]

Today's Macs are price competitive with other computers and the average Mac consumer is no longer rich dudes in turtle necks who have the scratch to go to University. The build quality of apple's products has taken a big dip lately also, along with the drop in prices and the increased market share.

it would be more accurate to argue that Apple is headed "down-market," rather than the other way around.

.

The problem is that even apple is not immune to rising energy costs and inflation. The simple fact is it costs apple alot more money to make is products then it did two years ago and the value of the money apple uses to pay for it has decreased by about 10 percent in the last few years. Cuts have to be made somewhere or prices have to be raised. If prices are raised people will buy less product and us shareholders will not like it so apple really only have one option cut cost. (note im talking about macs here not high margin iPods or iPhones)