Can Apple afford to stay high-end only?

[Ipheuria]

Apple has never really offered a low end computer. They've continued to offer $1000+ notebooks, $1000+ all-in-one desktops, and $3000 work stations... The most affordable entry in to the Mac world is the Mac Mini, and it's still priced high, considering you must buy a monitor, keyboard, and mouse, separate.

People constantly said, if Apple wants to compete with PC/Windows, they have to make cheap computers. They're losing market share. They're doomed. Blah blah blah...

And here we are today. Apple is still going strong. The Mac is still known to be a fantastic high end machine, at a slightly "high end" price. Windows is still dominant in market share.

And again, I hate to have to keep bringing it up, but Apple is only losing market share because the lower end of the market is increasing. A market Apple doesn't sell to. Just like their loss of market share to the PC. It had nothing to do with Apple's Mac sales decreasing, it was just cheap PC sales increasing,

The iPhone's apparent loss in overall mobile market share is not because Apple's sales are decreasing. They are continually increasing, year over year. It's really hard to take talk of Apples downfall seriously when they haven't even shown signs of hitting a plateau. Let alone a decline, or a decline serious enough to worry about their future in the industry.

This is exactly my point the analogy is so close it's a great one to use. Microsoft until recently never sold hardware they just made the OS and then the other manufacturers put out the computers (Toshiba, Dell, LG, HP, etc). The same with smartphones Google makes Android but it is LG, Samsung, HTC, etc that make and sell the hardware. I think just like when Windows PCs had the lions share of the market but now the market is just jam packed and sales are falling. The same will eventually happen with Android devices when they have sold all the cheap devices they can and the sales start to fall. In this scenario Apple is much better along because unlike what happened in the PC market the iPhone and especially the iPad is still close to the number one Android device maker.

The only reason I would be concerned about the emerging markets is that Apple needs to look away from the customers buying the devices today and instead look at the customers of the future. It used to be what the iPod Touch was geared at doing because it hooked them young and got them into the ecosystem where they would continue as they grew. Now that the iPod Touch is becoming more and more irrelevant they need something that caters to the younger generation. Also these markets are emerging but this is where customers of tomorrow are and if you let them get into the Android ecosystem and accustomed to Android devices those customers when they start to buy more serious devices may just stick with the Android devices.

There's one other thing that is a consideration too and it's experience. Just like buying an Apple computer the experience of being able to get it fixed or diagnosed more easily than the competitors. The experience of iOS is also a part of the pull of the devices. So while you can get a cheap device the frustrating experience associated with it is getting what you pay for most times.

 

[jmr1015]

But that's because Apple has gained so much popularity that people aren't only overlooking the flaws of the devices but they are in fact simply willing to pay the high prices to get them as well. It's how powerful the brand name has become.

You're saying, Apple can stay high end because they're popular. I'm saying, they're popular because they've stayed high end. They've always been pricey pieces if hardware, even in the 80's and 90's... So, they're popularity grew despite being expensive... They didn't get expensive because of their popularity.

 

[Ipheuria]

I think Apple is smart enough to actually get the balance between overly expensive and cheap. While Apple devices are expensive they are not out of the reach of the majority of people like high end watches, purses, etc. So people are still able to afford it but it's not so cheap that just about anyone can pick one up like netbooks used to be/ are. I think it's a tricky thing to balance and you have to be comitted to it otherwise you'll start cutting prices as soon as you see a competitor selling more because they sell for a cheaper price.

 

[Not Quite Right]

The only reason I would be concerned about the emerging markets is that Apple needs to look away from the customers buying the devices today and instead look at the customers of the future. It used to be what the iPod Touch was geared at doing because it hooked them young and got them into the ecosystem where they would continue as they grew. Now that the iPod Touch is becoming more and more irrelevant they need something that caters to the younger generation. Also these markets are emerging but this is where customers of tomorrow are and if you let them get into the Android ecosystem and accustomed to Android devices those customers when they start to buy more serious devices may just stick with the Android devices.

Boy is it ever comforting to see that there are others out there that get the subject at hand without having to argue your point for days ... :yes:

 

[Speedygi]

You're saying, Apple can stay high end because they're popular. I'm saying, they're popular because they've stayed high end. They've always been pricey pieces if hardware, even in the 80's and 90's... So, they're popularity grew despite being expensive... They didn't get expensive because of their popularity.

I know of people who buy Apple products simply because. And that's just at my dinner table on a family outing. Most of them don't really care about how good Apple phones or computers are either. They don't use Mac software all that much too.

One common thing they always say is that they just want something easy to use. That is as far as the reasoning they give. That is quite a leap in terms of reasoning to get to computers that Apple are pricing at a premium price.

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