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

To: Alomex who wrote (12328)	4/29/1998 12:07:00 PM
From: rhet0ric	Read Replies (3) \| Respond to of 213177

To reiterate. Any estimates about percentage of users that will upgrade to G3? Ultimately I think the 80% repurchase figure is accurate. The harder question to answer is "When?", i.e. on what kind of upgrade cycle. Incidentally, we got a new G3 on Monday, and we like it a lot. Anybody out there with a list of software titles for the Mac in April 1997 and another in April 1998, to compare drop out rates? Quicken is the most significant one I can think of. Before that, Quickbooks. A number of games, like Quake2 (although usually the best ones do get ported eventually). There was another significant one, but I can't think of it. Is an SGI box useful for advertisement work? Could it replace a Mac? Yes/no? Why? Not for advertising, no. There aren't enough apps on SGI that designers would need to use. Also, at agencies the Macs often need to function as productivity machines, or coexist with PC productivity machines, and there are few of those apps for SGIs. SGIs only really out-compete Macs in 3D, and as servers, from my experience. If Rhapsody is a success, SGI and even Sun will have a new competitor in their core markets, while Apple's core markets remain fairly solid. rhet0ric

To: Alomex who wrote (12328)	4/29/1998 12:23:00 PM
From: IanBruce	Respond to of 213177

To reiterate. Any estimates about percentage of users that will upgrade to G3? This still amounts to rumor, but check out: <http://www.maccentral.com/news/9804/29.migration2.shtml> Sources have told us that Disney (yep, that Disney) is considering a large Mac purchase. Ditto for NTB (National Tire & Battery), the automotive service chain. Will Royal Dutch Airlines be flying the friendly skies of the Mac OS? That's the buzz. Finally, we're told that Forbes has gotten rid of their ATAX machines and gone with the Mac and Quark XPress. And while it's not exactly a "forward migration" story, another source tells us that CNN is a Mac-only business, using around 1,500 Macs throughout their Atlanta, Georgia offices. More stuff at this site. Ian Bruce

To: Alomex who wrote (12328)	4/29/1998 12:36:00 PM
From: Dirk Dawson	Respond to of 213177

From the field... Re: G3 upgrade % Our clients are small-to-medium (mostly small) businesses with 2-50 employees. No huge budgets, but all are adding G3s at the top ends of their organizations and migrating older machines downward. In fact, they are all pretty excited that they can get two G3s for the price of one of the design stations they bought two years ago. No disgruntlement, no griping, no intention to switch. BTW, I also don't have to do a lot of evangelizing to prevent PC migration, the question doesn't come up. This small business niche is fairly diverse: ad agencies, PR firms, law offices, design firms, contractors, print shops, and ad and PR depts of banks, insurance companies, etc. Software: Design software is converging, but I don't expect Adobe or Macromedia to abandon the Mac. Most of our design clients feel that the current features address all their needs and don't even pay enough attention to the PC versions of software to be concerned if there is some new PC-only gee-whiz feature released. Small business clients use MS Office, ClarisWorks, Quicken, MYOB, QuickBooks, Timeslips, Filemaker, Eudora, Netscape and Retrospect. Only Quicken and QuickBooks can be considered "at risk" and the current versions work fine. Most importantly, none of our clients are concerned about software availability. What they have works great and that's what matters to them. SGI as a competitor: SGI's image as a high end workstation works against them in the small design firm arena. Perception of high price/steep learning curve is enough to keep designers with their Macs. Webservers, on the other hand, are foreign enough in concept to small business users that SGI might be able to make some headway into the Mac market here if the price is right. SGI's "cheap" NT boxes are as much a threat as the Intergraph machines, that is, the learning of a new OS and interfaces just to be able to do what they already do with (perhaps) a speed boost. All comments above are based on my experience with the small business niche only. I agree the points you bring up are definitely worth considering in general. However, in the small business niche (where I make my living), I'm not too worried. Dirk

To: Alomex who wrote (12328)	4/29/1998 12:50:00 PM
From: Marc Newman	Read Replies (2) \| Respond to of 213177

You son of a gun. You're getting ready to buy, aren't you? Assuming your questions are answered to your satisfaction, of course. Marc

To: Alomex who wrote (12328)	4/30/1998 10:01:00 PM
From: Doren	Respond to of 213177

Alomex, Most everybody I know in the advertising field will be upgrading. However, many are delaying buying a new Mac because upgrade cards are finally cost effective. I"m putting a 220/110 powerlogix G3 card in my 150 (604). It'll be 4X as fast for less than $500 bucks. I'll also be buying a new G3 but not until the 6 bay machines come out and then I'll wait until the price drops a rung. Photoshop runs like a turtle on SGI machines. I doubt if Quark is even available for them. Unless you do some type of video compositing I don't think many add agencies would use them. Most use AfterEffects anyway. doren