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

To: soup who wrote (13064)	5/7/1998 12:09:00 PM
From: rhet0ric	Respond to of 213177

Re: upgradability of the iMac My take on this is that the lack of upgradability is one element in the strategy. It's a good thing. It goes like this: you want to the price point to be as low as possible to catch new customers; cutting costs by not providing upgradability helps that; once they buy, they're committed to the platform, because they become used to the OS and have software for it; then, when they want to upgrade, they buy a higher margin computer, or a new non-upgradable one (return to step one). If you make your entry level computer upgradable, your costs rise, which means fewer new customers, and you lose out on later purchases. It's hardball in the sense that they screw the new buyer who doesn't know enough to think ahead on upgradability, but hey, as an investor I'm all for Apple playing hardball. Finally. rhet0ric

To: soup who wrote (13064)	5/7/1998 12:12:00 PM
From: Sam Scrutchins	Read Replies (1) \| Respond to of 213177

Re: floppy drive -- This unit is the iMac. It is designed for internet use, with appropriate methods of data storage and file transfer -- USB, IR, Ethernet-Server, Net, etc. Soup, I haven't seen a lot of discussion yet on the board about all the ports the iMac has. It seems to me that one can hook a Zip drive, a floppy, a CD, or any other type of input/output device to a USB if the correct attachment hardware is available. In the P&P environment, I don't think it would be very hard for a user to buy this hardware. Consequently, I don't see this model limited in terms of document transfer. More intriguing to me is the built-in IR and ethernet capabilities. This suggests to me that we may get the other 'half' of this story next week or a little further down the road. I have a feeling that Apple will push this model as its NC. With a Rhapsody based server, it seems perfect for networking in schools or businesses. It is faster than the Pentium II (useful for engineering and database crunching, as well as publishing), and loading software is clearly not a problem with a LAN or internet connection (and I think the USB). Also, how does Intuit fit into this? They see this machine (I think it is this one??) as a window of opportunity to push their internet sales concepts such as 'do your books online and don't worry about software purchases. What other companies would possibly use the iMac to experiment with internet products? The possibilities with this machine seem endless to me. Just my 2 cents. Sam