Collaboration

• Faced with a deflated stock price paired with a financial crisis, analysts such as Ezra Gottheil from Technology Business Research (TBR) are claiming Apple no longer has the ability to charge such a premium for their machines and is looking into offering a low priced alternative.
• In the companies past, pricing has risen consistently for their computers as they find new ways to find ‘upgrade’ their specifications to deem the price worthy. While Apple has largely avoided penetrating markets such as developing nations due to high prices, the coming years in America might see similar spending patterns for luxury computers.
• At $999, one can buy Apple’s cheapest MacBook, which is twice the price of a mid-range Windows based systems. With the future’s focus on software as a service (SAAS) from companies like Google, Salesforce, Zoho, and more, we are seeing a rapid shift in productivity moving to the cloud. People are listening to their music, collaborating on documents, communicating and watching television all while online. Why is this important for Apple? Because more and more people are realizing that they really just need a computer that is capable of getting them online.
• Enter the low-priced netbook . Low cost, high emphasis on just getting online and less focus on hardware storage. Once considered too little to be effective (9 inch screen, 3/4 size keyboard), companies like Dell have now started to roll out 12″ netbooks with full keyboards at an average price of $600. Smaller screen netbooks are seeing prices in the $300 range.
• TBR is confident that Apple will release a computer in the netbook class within the first half of next year, but one that is up to Apple’s standards.  Steve Jobs’ has said that $500 systems are typically “junk”, however Apple changing the market by offering a low-priced, functional machine with high quality yet lower specifications could make waves for the entire industry.
• Apple would  have to accept the risk of cannibalizing sales for some of its more lucrative notebooks, but this would protect them in the event of a shift away from consumers looking elsewhere to get a new computer from a reputable brand.
• Jobs currently believes netbooks are part of a “nascent” category that may not pan out and has said he would be “surprised” if large volumes of notebook buyers shifted to the very bottom of the price spectrum and created problems for Apple (Apple Insider)
• Myself being an Apple user, I have been avidly searching for a low-priced netbook to replace my aging Macbook that will satisfy my needs. As a writer and heavy user of online applications, my wants of having a computer with the quality and specifications of Apple are being comprimized by my needs of getting a new computer with great reviews for a price under $600. I constantly ask myself the question while shopping, what can I personally get done on a Mac that I can’t get done on a netbook and the answer is well, nothing. This consumer mindset which is only further becoming a mainstream reality has surely passed onto the higher minds in Cupertino. There is high speculation that at Jobs’ next keynote speech, that he will address the economic state and offer his solution to customers and investors wondering how Apple will take advantage of it. Maybe Apple’s newest executive from IBM will take charge of this agenda.

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