CompuServe Messages

"Yea, but your _original_ point was that the Mac was doomed to be be a non-player in the real world because they are more expensive." I don't think that was the intent of my words. The Macintosh is basically a non-player to begin with. It's a niche machine with 11% of the market and even that share is shrinking. Part of the reason is that there are a lot of bright people in the world who will not pay a premium for a slower machine that is only marginally easier to use. (And, lest ye forget, I own a lot of Macintoshes.) "I just think the deal you got is not typical and therefor has no influence on the survival of the Mac in the market." To claim that a widely advertised price is "not typical" is disingenuous. I can buy it at that price. You can buy it at that price. Anyone who reads the advertisement can buy it at that price. The reality is that most people don't price shop to begin with – and they pay for not being willing to take the time to do so. Most business people do price shop – and they save money in return. The market, in my opinion, says it all. Macintosh has a firm – but not inviolable grip – on the desktop publishing market. Everywhere else, it just hasn't made much of an impression. With every major application now available for Intel based machines, I don't see Apple as being in a position to gain a whole lot of marketshare, the PowerPC not withstanding. Yes, Apple is currently one of the five largest manufacturers of personal computers, but that's today, not forever. I'm not for or against Apple or anyone else. I'm just as comfortable working with Windows or the Mac OS or whatever tools are available to me. In the last two years, the majority of our machine purchases have been Intel-based for the simple reason that paying a premium of any kind for Macintoshes just doesn't make sense any more. With Windows95, I personally feel that the last vestiges of the Mac's ease of use will simply become a non-issue. The task facing Apple is to compete against a universe of commodity like machines with no clearly discernible advantage for themselves. Frankly I don't think Apple is capable of doing that. It's noteworthy that first announced Apple cloner is a start-up company and not one of the established producers. Obviously no one with experience in the business wants to invest the resources to manufacture and market Mac clones. In my opinion, there's a lot of weight in that message.