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Another Cheap Apple Product Rumor

February 11th, 2009

So only a few weeks ago, Apple COO (and acting CEO) Tim Cook announced that it’s not in Apple’s DNA to build cheap junk. But that’s nothing new, as he and Steve Jobs have been saying the very same thing for an awfully long time. You’d think that some folks would get the message.

Despite such claims to the contrary, however, some tech and financial pundits just won’t give up. To them, Apple is missing the boat not building cheap Macs, or a cheap whatever-it-is at the moment.

Oh yes, there is a cheap iPod out there, the shuffle, but a music player, aside from the software, is pretty inexpensive to make, so there’s nothing lost here. In fact, you can probably credit the shuffle with saving iPod sales this past holiday quarter. At a starting price of just $49, it is a sufficiently casual purchase to attract even those on a tight budget.

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Do You Really Want an Apple Label on All This Stuff?

October 23rd, 2008

It’s hard to believe how many product lines used to bear the Apple logo — or at least the rainbow-colored version that was in vogue in the last century. The original PostScript laser printers, known under the collective moniker of LaserWriter, came from Apple, although the guts of the early versions were actually built by Canon.

More recently, Apple was one of the first manufacturers to sell digital cameras, and let’s not forget the late, lamented Newton, not to mention its larger cousin, the eMate.

Indeed, at one time, it was very possible to equip your entire computer system, from mouse to output device, with Apple-branded products. But no more.

When Steve Jobs became Apple’s interim or iCEO in 1997, the company was hemorrhaging millions of dollars, and he savagely ditched a number of products that he felt did detracted from their core competency. Of course, those product lines — and the Mac OS cloning program — were mostly money losers (or earned very little), the primary consideration when he put his scalpel to them.

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Microsoft Resorts to Desperate Measures to Boost Vista

August 21st, 2008

Imagine if you were the CEO of the world’s largest software company, and that some of your products had shares of upwards of 90% in certain market segments. You are sitting at the top of the mountain, reasonably secure in your knowledge that there were no credible competitors out there, and that your place in the sun was assured.

Then along comes an aging but still scrappy upstart, one whom you thought you’d defeated long ago, poised for battle all over again. Can you just use your marketing muscle and huge wad of cash to stomp out that tiny offender before they gain too much traction?

That, of course, becomes complicated when the companies in question are Microsoft and Apple. Because of ongoing antitrust issues, and the fact that they earn plenty of high-profit cash from Macs, Microsoft has been pulling its punches. Some believe they could easily vanquish Apple if they wanted, or at least so they say.

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Not a Rumor: Why Apple Might Release Pro Desktops Early

June 30th, 2006

Not so long ago, a lot of us suggested that the Mac Pro, the expected successor to the Power Mac, would probably be announced in August during the keynote at the WWDC. It makes sense, since the newest updates to Intel’s chip line will be in full production.

But wait just a moment! Maybe we’re missing something. You see, it’s clear that the next great version of Mac OS X, code-named Leopard, heads the August agenda. Apple has said as much in a recent press release, which is why you’re going to read lots and lots of stories about what might appear in the new release, along with various and sundry wish lists.

I know I’ve given mine, but what about the remaining members of Apple’s Mac lineup? With consumer desktops and consumer and professional notebooks out the door, only the release of the latest members of Intel’s revised chip family might have held up the new Power Mac and, of course, the Xserve.

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