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

To: Richard Habib who wrote (14375)	6/7/1998 4:06:00 PM
From: Dirk Dawson	Respond to of 213182

The iMac, AIO, low end G3 desktops, represent a fuzzy portion of the product lineup. I definitely agree with you on this. I'm having a hard time explaining the choices and differences to my clients. However, what I don't have a hard time doing is knowing which solution of the three is the "right" one for each individual instance. I would hate to see any one of the three low-end options disappear. Jobs, in his almost-overzealous consolidation/simplification of the product line, has created this fuzziness. Everyone seems to have gotten on this bandwagon and this threatens the AIO which is a great machine. I hope it still has a future outside of education. I have many non-education clients who would buy them immediately. The iMac will do fine with consumers and in some educational environments, particularly with college students. With the right marketing, we might even be able to sell them to style-conscious yuppies (can you see ads in Beautiful Homes type magazines?). Low-end desktops serve conservative business users who have been buying "boxes w/monitors" for so long they can't think different. I mean, let's face it, these are the same damn motherboard for the Minitower, Desktop and AIO. I love the fact that the product line has been simplified, but I hope it doesn't kill the AIO. It's a great deal and really serves a purpose in the product line. Let's hope they add it to the Good option at the store, alongside the low-end desktop. Dirk

To: Richard Habib who wrote (14375)	6/7/1998 5:22:00 PM
From: Zen Dollar Round	Respond to of 213182

Since USB takes the place of serials and for many devices scsi that leaves a floppy and 3 slots to differentiate the products from the iMac while low end G3 desktops are selling at the same price point as the AIO with everything you mentioned. Next time around I hope to see a more straight forward product line down at the bottom. You're forgetting that the G3s do not come with a monitor, and of course, with the AIO it's built in. That adds at least another $200 to the price of a G3 even if it's only as good as the one in the AIO. Reports are that education sales are just fine (didn't the Apple Store recently announce a record day with it?), so while there may be a little cannibalization of the AIO with the iMac, I doubt it's much. The feature sets are different enough that the AIO is fine right where it is. Remember, the iMac is targeted at first time buyers wanting an inexpensive Internet capable computer. In that vein, I think it will succeed well.