Apple’s Jobs: No Excuse Not to Switch
By George Anderson
To all those who have cited the high price of Macintosh computers as a reason for sticking with Windows, Apple Computer’s Steve Jobs has a message for you. You no longer have an excuse not to switch.
Mr. Jobs introduced a number of new, lower priced products at yesterday’s MacWorld convention in San Francisco including a $499 Mini iMac and a $99 digital music player called the iPod Shuffle.
The introduction of lower priced products from Apple was met with approval from Wall Street types.
“Apple has hit a real nerve,” independent analyst Tim Bajarin of Creative Strategies told USA Today. “For the first time, people are going to have to seriously consider switching.”
Gene Munster, an analyst with Piper Jaffray, said the lower price computer takes away Apple’s “big negative” with many consumers. He believes Mac Mini “will have a dramatic effect on computer sales.”
Moderator’s Comment: Will Apple’s new lower priced computer and iPod increase its market share in both the PC and digital music categories?
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George Anderson – Moderator
Apple’s introduction of the Mac Mini coupled with the continued growth of the iPod will very much have an effect on Apple’s PC market share. Apple has already boosted its share before the Mac Mini and Wall Street is touting the iPod’s “halo effect” whereby nearly 20% of iPod Windows users are switching to Macs and this is predicted to rise to 25% by end of 2005. I agree with another poster that stated Apple is making huge inroads to the younger generation. Also, Windows and Internet Explorer continues to get more and more negative press about security problems. Apple’s OS X Tiger is an incredible system and very secure. Tiger offers many of the features Bill Gates is promising with Windows Longhorn which will not be out till mid 2006, if then. I own a Dell and two Macs and without a doubt the Macs are better, more dependable, more secure, and trouble free compared to any Windows machine I’ve used.