On 7 Mar 2006 at 7:04, Phil Daley wrote:

> At 3/6/2006 04:57 PM, David W. Fenton wrote:
> 
>  >On 6 Mar 2006 at 14:31, Phil Daley wrote:
>  >> Because PC desktops are very much cheaper than MACs, off-the
>  shelf, >> and have many more hardware add-on options. > >I thought
>  we just demonstrated that on a head-to-head comparison >basis, this
>  is not true?
> 
> No.  I was talking about the WHOLE market. Not the "premium" market.

If Frigidaire made only freezers, you wouldn't compare their product
line to the whole product line of a manufacturer that made both
refrigerators and freezers, so why would you compare the entire PC
market to Apple's product line? The only fair comparisons are between
Apple's products and similar PC products.

>  >Mac is a premium product line.
> 
> Exactly the reason that they have such a low market share.

Why does that matter to you? Or anyone, for that matter? As someone
said, BMW has about the same market share, but nobody sees this as a
bad thing.

>  >The Apple low end corresponds to the
>  >middle range of most PC product lines. Thus, there are many PCs
>  >that are cheaper than Macs.
> 
> Isn't that what I just said?  You are arguing my case for me. 
> Thanks.

No, you didn't say that at all. You just said that PCs are cheaper
than Macs, with no qualifications at all.

>  >But they aren't comparable in components, or specifications (they
>  may >be in performance -- that's a different issue, much harder to
>  >quantify).
> 
> But that only applies to people who need some premium hardware
> advantage.

Not necessarily. 

> Probably only 25% of the PC market, at best.

I don't know about that. None of my clients buy at the bottom of the
PC market.

Secondly, if you *do* buy at the bottom, you almost always have to
replace your PC more often. If you spend $2,500 ever 5 years you're
better off than spending $1,200 every two years. That's $500/year vs.
$600/year, plus the costs and aggravation of migrating from the first
to the second PC. Add in also the lower relative productivity at the
beginning of the comparison (in the first couple of years, the 5-year
computer will be a performance champion in comparison to the $1,200
PC), and you've got a substantial advantage in cost and benefit for
the more expensive PC.

The smart PC buyer should be looking for a PC in the price range that
Apple occupies, and that means Apple's offerings are comparable.

> If you are only working with 25% of the market, it is going to be
> really tough to get anything above a 20% market share of the whole
> market.

When people like you make misleading statements like you've done, 
yes, it does make it hard for Apple to escape it's completely 
completely undeserved reputation for being too expensive.

-- 
David W. Fenton                    http://dfenton.com
David Fenton Associates       http://dfenton.com/DFA/

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