One comment about the online store... since there are no clones, people can ask questions at the online store and buy somewhere else, at a discount, and Apple still ultimately gets the sale. No matter where you buy the Mac, Apple gets the sale.
Mac products have traditionally been available through greater discounts than PC products. When I had to shop for some PC software I was surprised that the mail order houses for the PC, often the sister companies of the Mac mail order houses, were not discounted and all had standard retail pricing, with expensive shipping. While the Mac side had about a 30% discount on retail pricing and cheap shipping.
For this reason, the Maccers might shop around more, after questioning on the online store. I did, though I'd have gone for the store if they'd been able to ship faster. I bet Dell ships right away from their online store.
One negative thought I had about an unrelated comment. Someone mentioned that people don't stop buying Compaq, saying the company is going out of business, when CPQ comes up with really bad sales results.
The difference is that the PC platform won't go down with Compaq even if Compaq does entirely fail. The software will still be supported and compatible hardware will still be made, because IBM and other clonemakers will continue.
When Apple starts to go under we lose our software base, possibly forever and we also lose our third party hardware enhancements. Without a significant clone industry, and maybe even with that, as long as Apple controls so much related to the Macintosh, the platform goes down with Apple.
The software I personally published was truly excellent and I still use it and appreciate it, on System 8.1. Today is the first time I have realized on more than an intellectual level, that I might be wealthy today if I'd published on the PC instead of the Mac. A lot of Mac software and companies have folded, not by choice, but because they didn't have the money to continue as if they were charities.
Linda |
