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Apple’s need to regain casual customers

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Apple has not been doing well since Steve Job’s untimely death from cancer. While Apple still holds a dominant lead in the mobile marketplace, with iPad and iPhone owning the handheld market in a vise grip of steel, Apple is losing touch with both its power users and casual users of Macintosh computers.

The new Macbook Pro lacks several essential features from previous releases. For one, HDMI has become removed, not to mention Firewire. Want to connect your phone to your computer?

You’ll need a 50$ cord extension for each and every device you want to connect to your Macbook Pro, leading to a tangled mess of cables no one wants to clean up. Not to mention that for an average of $2,000 to $3,000, you’re getting an ATI chipset with only 4 GB of GDDR3 VRAM. In comparison, my laptop for a thousand dollars less has built in a graphics card with twice the performance and VRAM, for a fraction of the price. You are getting less value, for more money, and Apple needs to change course, in which the upcoming WWDC Convention on June 5th may finally remain Apple’s golden opportunity to turn the tide of consumer confidence.

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Apple has largely ignored the casual consumers, by pricing their consumer electronics well outside the price range of most buyers. It continues to release desktop platforms with no way to upgrade the internal chassis to ensure constant updates. The Mac Pro cannot become renewed without substantial fees, and the iMac, as an all-in-one desktop platform has no replaceable internal components, making upgrades a right headache.

Apple needs to begin pricing consumer computers at affordable prices to compete with the PC market and needs to start subsidizing upgrades for users who are not ready to purchase a new desktop or laptop, by offering upgradable parts instead of having to toss out the entire computer and only buy a new one. They will not be able to meet consumer demand if Macintosh computers continue to remain so overpriced that no one but upper-class consumers will buy frequently.

 

Simon Stravitz

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