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Technology Stocks : Apple Inc. -- Ignore unavailable to you. Want to Upgrade?

To: Doren who wrote (8389)	2/10/1998 10:28:00 PM
From: Sowbug	Respond to of 213177

Since they already have the design of older somewhat outdated computers, why do they stop building them? Apple's pretty greedy. They 86'd the clone makers because they were killing Apple on price. Apple could have really tightened the ship back then and sold computers profitably at prices maybe 5% higher than the clone competition, kind of like what IBM does (did?). Instead they played their proprietary card and dealt the clone makers out. Also, I doubt Apple could sell a 7200 profitably. A 7200 is worth so little nowadays that it might sell for less than it would cost to bring to market.

To: Doren who wrote (8389)	2/11/1998 12:45:00 PM
From: HerbVic	Respond to of 213177

Doren, I have wondered the same thing. Take the education bundled 5400 as an example. An all in one unit, cheap to manufacture. 603e CPU. 180mhz. 1.6mb HD. 16mb RAM. All inexpensive components. It has been available via mail order at $1295 since mid-summer that I know of. During the pre-Christmas buying frenzy, everyone was sold out. I wanted two and couldn't even find one. Now, they are back in the mail order ads again. $1295. Perhaps the older chips, as they become cheaper, reach a price plateau at which they can no longer be produced if they go any lower. Then the computer manufacturer has to decide whether or not demand will support their continued production at a profitable level. It still seems that if contracting companies can manufacture Compaq computers at under $1k, making a profit for both them and Compaq, then the low cost 603e Apple Macs could be highly profitable in that price range as well. Is it a matter of economies of scale? One would think that the law of diminishing returns would necessarily reduce the competitive advantage there. Apple is already a high volume fully automated manufacturer. It is a mystery to me. Good hunting, HerbVic