Silicon Investor (SI) -- The First Internet Community

STOCKTALK

We've detected that you're using an ad content blocking browser plug-in or feature. Ads provide a critical source of revenue to the continued operation of Silicon Investor. We ask that you disable ad blocking while on Silicon Investor in the best interests of our community. If you are not using an ad blocker but are still receiving this message, make sure your browser's tracking protection is set to the 'standard' level.

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

To: Richard Habib who wrote (23105)	2/11/1999 8:22:00 AM
From: soup	Read Replies (3) \| Respond to of 213173

>Soup, I may be wrong about the P1 not selling that much more than PBs.< Richard, It comes down to price. In Tekserve's waiting area sits a massive mechanical 1930s (?) era calculator with a paper roll on its own table. How many homes at the time do you think owned one? Currently, I own two calculators: an old 5 lb. Royal 320 PD desktop with paper roll that I got at the Salvation Army for $5 (new $50-70?) that I drag out at tax time, and; a 2" x 3" solar powered hand-held-made-in-China AT&T AT140 "Big Number" which I picked up in a convenience store for $3.19 and use every day. Right now, rule-of-thumb dictates that a consumer should expect to pay 50-100% over a desktop for a laptop with the comparable features. Right now an iMac 266 goes for $1200 and comparable 266 mhz Powerbook goes for more than twice that. [Note: IMO, the price differential is not totally unreasonable when you figure you're taking 40 lbs. of crap, sticking it into a 7.5 lb container and getting it to run on batteries ... etc.] Yet many new buyers (consumers or non-corporate business persons) come into a store thinking they'd like a laptop 'cause it will be smaller (New York City apartments) and easier to take to work, libraries, vacations -- but still expecting that the costs will be comparable to a desktop. Right now, I lay out the cost differential, and ask how much do you really need vs. like the portability? How much is it worth to you? Obviously, the answer will vary according to need and income level, but IMO if the price differential narrows significantly, sales for the "consumer laptop" will easily surpass that of the iMac. And, if they can incorporate something like wireless internet connectivity as a no, low or even mid-cost option ... stand back.

To: Richard Habib who wrote (23105)	2/11/1999 8:29:00 AM
From: soup	Read Replies (1) \| Respond to of 213173

MacCentral Interviews Palm: PDAs that love the Mac >We also touched briefly on Apple's upcoming consumer portable, and whether or not it would affect Palm's sales to Mac users. Wirnowski had this to say: "I have no place to comment on Apple's products, but all I'll say is I don't think there will be a problem. Obviously, Apple wouldn't push the Palm platform so much if they were going to develop a competing product." The highly extensible conduit architecture used by Palm, which allows developers to make their apps able to sync with Palm devices, came into the conversation as well. Wirnowski named several developers who had already begun supporting the architecture and painted a bright picture for the future of Mac conduits. One quote from Wirnowski seemed to sum up Palm's attitude toward the Mac platform: "I honestly think that our Mac users are going to be the envy of our Windows users, because of some fo the features you'll find in the Palm desktop for Mac, that won't be there for Windows."< maccentral.com