Wednesday, June 9, 2004
Apple Introduces New PowerMac G5 Systems
Posted by Kent Pribbernow in "HARDWARE" @ 08:00 AM
Apple today announced new PowerMac G5 workstations which offer faster clock speeds, though not the long promised 3GHZ and beyond range. The new G5's come in three configurations; 1.8GHz, 2GHz and 2.5GHz. Priced at $1,999, $2,499, and $2,999 respectively. The machines come pretty well speced, with 900mzh-1.25GHZ frontside bus, 512K L2 Cache, expandable memory up to 8GB, 8x SuperDrives, and nVidia GeForce FX 5200 Ultra video cards as standard features. No one can accuse these bad boys of coming up short on the performance curve, that much is certain.
However, I am somewhat troubled by the new price scheme. Is Apple pricing its desktops for the zealot market? PowerMac's keep increasing in price with every product refresh. Prior to this release you could purchase a G5 starting at $1,799. Before that, a G4 system cost under $1,499. Now you have to drop down two grand to walk away with one these computers. Why are prices constantly going up? Apple is the only vendor in the PC industry that doesn't lower prices to stay competitive. No wonder Mac desktop sales are in decline.
The same situation is happening with the iMac line as well, with an entry level model starting at $1,300...but the next step up from that unit is an $1,800 machine? What happened to the $1,400-1,500 price bracket? It seems Apple is using the dependancy Mac users have on their products to inflate revenues, which is perfectly sound business strategy..in the short term...but could have potentially devastating long term effects as businesses that use PowerMac systems may eventually be foreced to move over to the PC side in order to save money in hardware costs.
Time for Apple to become aggressive with its product pricing. Macintosh marketshare is continuing to decline, and if we don't start seeing some real growth, the Mac platform will fade into irrelevance.
However, I am somewhat troubled by the new price scheme. Is Apple pricing its desktops for the zealot market? PowerMac's keep increasing in price with every product refresh. Prior to this release you could purchase a G5 starting at $1,799. Before that, a G4 system cost under $1,499. Now you have to drop down two grand to walk away with one these computers. Why are prices constantly going up? Apple is the only vendor in the PC industry that doesn't lower prices to stay competitive. No wonder Mac desktop sales are in decline.
The same situation is happening with the iMac line as well, with an entry level model starting at $1,300...but the next step up from that unit is an $1,800 machine? What happened to the $1,400-1,500 price bracket? It seems Apple is using the dependancy Mac users have on their products to inflate revenues, which is perfectly sound business strategy..in the short term...but could have potentially devastating long term effects as businesses that use PowerMac systems may eventually be foreced to move over to the PC side in order to save money in hardware costs.
Time for Apple to become aggressive with its product pricing. Macintosh marketshare is continuing to decline, and if we don't start seeing some real growth, the Mac platform will fade into irrelevance.
