[Gunner1954]

As a Mac consultant I get a lot of inquiries from PC folk wanting to switch. These inquiries are from people in the 50+ years of age category. They primarily want a machine for emailing their children and grand children, and for cruising web sites (home and garden variety). They want something inexpensive, but well built, can accept their current or hand-me-down investment in peripherals (SVGA monitor, USB printer, maybe a digital sitll camera) and maybe view photos or listen to their CDs. They do want to be able to write letters, possibly newsletters, and a greeting card or two -- printed! They consider the iLife suite a plus, but not particularly necessary, however, they like the idea of AirTunes. They are looking for a price of under $500 without monitor or printer. They don't want to have to immediately add RAM to make things work right, nor do they want it to be difficult to add more RAM, (if 128 is the minimum, they want 256 already with the ability to add a little extra), connect to modem and/or broadband, or have wireless capability. They want something that will look 'smart', not fancy, sitting upon a desk or a corner table.

25% of these people want a complete box solution (computer, monitor, printer in one box) while 50% of these people want just the computing box with an optical recorder. The final 25% really don't know what they want. These are not people that need a lot of speed or computing capacity, and the latest-greatest video card is a waste upon them (solitaire, blackjack, casino, etc). Expansion capability is less a concern than reliability.

[Zoom]

I would get them all refurbished eMacs and eBay any monitors they already have to defray some costs.

What's an "optical recorder"? CDR drive? DVDR drive? I think all recent eMacs come with combo drives (read DVDs, read/write CDs).

I checked SmallDog and the cheapest refurb they have is $850. You're going to be hard pressed to buy a Mac under $500, unless you try eBay and get an OLD one.

I don't usually buy used/refurb Macs, so there may be better places to look than SmallDog.

Finally, wait till the WWDC keynote next Monday. (a) There may be a new iMac/eMac or even a new "headless" Mac (no monitor), and (b) if nothing else, all existing Macs should drop in price.

[Randman]

iBook.

[Zoom]

Originally posted by Randman:
iBook.

I disagree...

- For older folks, you're going to want a large keyboard and monitor.
- It sounds like the don't need portability.
- iBooks are more expensive.
- iBooks are more fragile.

I have an iBook and love it, but it's not right for this application.

[Zoom]

Looks like you can find cheap eMacs at the Apple Store! See this item on dealmac.

[iREZ]

How bout something like this?

Also there are lots of MacNN members who are selling their cubes in the Marketplace, why don't you give that a looksee (perfect for the people who want a headless mac).

[gumby5647]

My suggestion to these people would be a 400Mhz iMac DV SE.

The DV SE offers everything they need.

a subtle graphite color.
a nice 400Mhz G3
Firewire for iPod
USB for printer
Airport for Airtunes
and a VGA port (even though you can only mirror)

with a little shopping on eBay, I'll bet you could pick up a 400Mhz iMac DV SE for about 350.00 to 375.00. Add on about 42.00 for a 256MB stick of RAM. And for about 400.00-425.00 you can have a small, sexy, and silent (NO FANS!), graphite iMac that will do everything they want.

[macaddict0001]

yeah I know these type want a computer that will just work no flaws the aforementioned graphite would be almost perfect but I think that these people want the security of a warrenty Apple undoubtably has access to old boards to repair models I think that if they took the boards from the graphite and had a 10 gb hard drive slightly modified the video to not allow for internal monitor and had a cdrw/combo drive and 1 less firewire port they could sell millions a la mac lc. oh and the price would be around 250

[dandbj]

Originally posted by Gunner1954:
As a Mac consultant I get a lot of inquiries from PC folk wanting to switch.

[snip]

25% of these people want a complete box solution (computer, monitor, printer in one box) while 50% of these people want just the computing box with an optical recorder. The final 25% really don't know what they want. These are not people that need a lot of speed or computing capacity, and the latest-greatest video card is a waste upon them (solitaire, blackjack, casino, etc). Expansion capability is less a concern than reliability.

Help me understand why you are posting this garbage. If you are really a Mac consultant, then you already know that Apple does not now, nor will they likely ever make the type of computer you describe at the price point you mentioned. You have already ruled out pre-owned units because you want a warranty. So again, please help me understand what your motive is for posting this type of (help me find an Apple product that I know does not exist) thread.

[Zoom]

Originally posted by dandbj:
Help me understand why you are posting this garbage.

Help me understand why you would bother to reply to someone asking for help by putting him down. Just ignore it and move on, leave this to the rest of us that actually want to help. Really, folks, if you don't like what you see here, get the funk out.

[Luca Rescigno]

Their old monitors probably suck and should be ditched. eMacs are the way to go. Unfortunately, Apple doesn't have any cheap refurb eMacs anymore... if they did, I'd suggest one of those.

Or you could just buy my tower. </shameless plug>