[Mallrat]

It's time. They have the mac mini. Apple can do it.

They need to have around a $500 dollar laptop option. Apple would probably charge 600 to 700, but that's still good.

But to compete with PC guys, they keep missing the people that just want a laptop for e-mail, Internet and typing college papers, writing. A laptop doesn't have to do everything.

Anyway, I'm sure it will happen in 2020, but they need one now. I just read Dell is trying to make sub 500 15inch laptops...

i know Apple won't do it soon, but I wish they would. I mean they still sell G4 for pretty much the same price they used to be. You think when the Intels came out that the G4 and G5 would go down in price a ton, but not really.

Anyway, shouldn't apple do this?

And how can they make it cheap enough to do without making crap.

[Millennium]

Can they? Yes. Will they? No. Apple is too addicted to its price points to offer a laptop in a configuration that cheap.

[macfantn]

just give us a core solo wifi 30 gid hd cdrw drive 12" monitor price it $699 it should sell well.

[Atheist]

Originally Posted by macfantn 

just give us a core solo wifi 30 gid hd cdrw drive 12" monitor price it $699 it should sell well.

I totally agree... my neice needs a laptop for college but doesn't have a lot of money to spend. She'd love to get a MacBook but can get a great entry level PC notebook for half the cost.

[Eriamjh]

Apple is not after the sub $1000 laptop market. Apple is high end.

[Atheist]

Originally Posted by Eriamjh 

Apple is not after the sub $1000 laptop market. Apple is high end.

Then why did they give us the Mac Mini and the iPod Shuffle? I don't think it would be out of character for Apple to enter the entry level laptop market.

[Gossamer]

Originally Posted by Atheist 

Then why did they give us the Mac Mini and the iPod Shuffle? I don't think it would be out of character for Apple to enter the entry level laptop market.

$600 still isn't entry level for a desktop. Not when you can pick up a dell or other off brand pos for $300 or $400 at Best Buy.

[olePigeon]

I think a $400/$500 price tag on a mini-tower with 3 PCI-Express slots would be awesome. It could be the same specs as a Mac mini, just give it 3 slots to customize it.

[Chuckit]

So…less money than the mini with more value? That seems…unlikely.

[olePigeon]

Originally Posted by Chuckit 

So…less money than the mini with more value? That seems…unlikely.

They don't have to worry about making it small, they can use a normal ATX motherboard and save $$. Maybe make it the same price, or, make it slightly slower and put a lower price.

[ort888]

They need to get the Mini back down to $500 and the MacBook back to $999 first.

[JoshuaZ]

ort888 makes a good point. dropping the price down a bit would solve a lot of problems.

Apple won`t change their laptop line. They`re already selling tons of laptops, and making good money to boot. Why change a good thing right now?

[Railroader]

Originally Posted by ort888 

They need to get the Mini back down to $500 and the MacBook back to $999 first.

Agreed.

[finboy]

Originally Posted by Mallrat 

It's time. They have the mac mini. Apple can do it.

They need to have around a $500 dollar laptop option. Apple would probably charge 600 to 700, but that's still good.

untitled

Or even better:

untitled

[itai195]

Originally Posted by finboy 

untitled

2001's technology, today!

But no, seriously, I can't see Apple doing a sub-$1k laptop at this time.

[volcano]

Originally Posted by finboy 

untitled

They actually sound excited about this:

8MB ATI Rage Mobility AGP 2x video!

And these two points are in bold! Excitement!

128 and up to 1gb MB RAM
10 or 20 GB Hard Drive

OMGZ! Tahts amazing!!11!

I do find it quite amusing that a standard installation of Tiger takes up over 10GB these days, and back then 10GB was the capacity of the entire hard-drive.

[kick52]

i actually would love a laptop in this price range...

i dont have much money, and i need a portable machine...

and that g3 pismo looks good/cheap but its got crap ram which puts me off..

[houstonmacbro]

Originally Posted by Millennium 

Can they? Yes. Will they? No. Apple is too addicted to its price points to offer a laptop in a configuration that cheap.

i think i gotta agree with you. apple likes making money ... they claim to want to change the world, but they still like raking in dollars.

i agree. they can (make a $500 - $700 lappy).

... but they won't.

[Gossamer]

Originally Posted by volcano 

I do find it quite amusing that a standard installation of Tiger takes up over 10GB these days, and back then 10GB was the capacity of the entire hard-drive.

What the heck did you install? If you're talking Tiger with every possible language, printer driver, iLife, iWork, etc then maybe...but my Library and System folders combined after a fresh install take up less than 2 gigs.

[Tuoder]

Originally Posted by finboy 

untitled

Or even better:

untitled

That site is very overpriced. eBay is better. Craigslist is even better, if you can actually find what you want on it.

[Zeeb]

Most of the $500 laptops that other companies make are a terrible value. Out of the box they are usually outdated and won't serve the basic needs of even someone who isn't that demanding. As other's have stated Apple doesn't want to be associated with making cheap flimsy computers. As soon as Apple released a sub $500 notebook it would immediately be criticized and held up by PC people as proof that Apple is a lousy computer maker.

[imitchellg5]

Originally Posted by Atheist 

Then why did they give us the Mac Mini and the iPod Shuffle? I don't think it would be out of character for Apple to enter the entry level laptop market.

Because they are into making affordable quality desktops and iPods. Apple's laptops have always been more expensive than desktops, and I doubt that it will change anytime soon.

[OldManMac]

Originally Posted by ort888 

They need to get the Mini back down to $500 and the MacBook back to $999 first.

On the MacMini, I'll agree, but they've just had another record quarter, with somehwere around 750,000 MacBooks sold, so it doesn't seem that the MacBook is as price sensitive. I don't know how many Minis they've sold, but we don't sell a lot of them.

[Big Mac]

Apple can't even justify putting real GPUs in its MacBooks, despite their relatively high prices. I highly doubt we'll ever see that price point for an Apple laptop.

[Dakar²]

I can't imagine how bad the specs would have to be to get to $500.

[Gossamer]

Originally Posted by Zeeb 

Most of the $500 laptops that other companies make are a terrible value. Out of the box they are usually outdated and won't serve the basic needs of even someone who isn't that demanding.

That's not true. 'basic needs of someone who isn't that demanding' would be, what, web surfing, email, Office, maybe basic image viewing and editing, music, maybe watching videos? My Pismo could do all of that, and a $500 Dell with a 1.6GHz Celeron M surely can.

[SSharon]

Why oh why doesn't Lexus make a sub $15k car. They make such great quality stuff, and I'm sure they could do it if they wanted to.

How does this always come up. For apple to make a $500 laptop it would have to go from integrated video to grayscale.

[finboy]

Originally Posted by Tuoder 

That site is very overpriced. eBay is better. Craigslist is even better, if you can actually find what you want on it.

That site is way overpriced b/c you pay for the presence. They've been in business a while, are dependable, and have everything in the whole wide world if you just ask for it.

[Tuoder]

Originally Posted by finboy 

That site is way overpriced b/c you pay for the presence. They've been in business a while, are dependable, and have everything in the whole wide world if you just ask for it.

eBay search goes a long way toward making that site obsolete. Also, if you do your 2 secs of homework on the seller, the risks are near-nil.

[hayesk]

The misconception is that when new technology becomes as cheap as the old technology, the old technology must have gotten cheaper too.

That's not the case. If that were true, I'd complain that Apple isn't selling MacSEs for $1.99.

If Apple built a $699 laptop it would be a piece of garbage, like the cheap PC laptops out there.

[Salty]

In all fairness Apple tends to bundle software with their Machines, would you want to have people running some of the more demanding iLife apps on a low end core solo? Especially when Apple isn't going to be saving much money by going single core?
Really what they should be doing is upping the standard RAM in their laptops. Nearly everyone I've met has complained about how the MacBooks perform with 512 RAM, and I have to agree, though I've got a gig and it works out great. For what they charge for these machines 1 gig should be standard.

[Mallrat]

Originally Posted by SSharon 

Why oh why doesn't Lexus make a sub $15k car. They make such great quality stuff, and I'm sure they could do it if they wanted to.

How does this always come up. For apple to make a $500 laptop it would have to go from integrated video to grayscale.

Are you kidding? You're telling me Apple could only make a $500 dollar laptop that was complete crap? B.S.

A 12.1inch screen, less RAM, SMALL HD, CD-ROM DRIVE, ETHERNET. That is all I'm talking about.

A writing machine. An internet machine. Not a gaming machine. Or a video editing machine.

They CAN do it. Yes, they probably won't.

I would just be happy if they offer a more ultraportable laptop at any cost.

But dell is going to sell millions of these 500 laptops.

[JoshuaZ]

Originally Posted by Mallrat 

Are you kidding? You're telling me Apple could only make a $500 dollar laptop that was complete crap? B.S.

A 12.1inch screen, less RAM, SMALL HD, CD-ROM DRIVE, ETHERNET. That is all I'm talking about.

A writing machine. An internet machine. Not a gaming machine. Or a video editing machine.

They CAN do it. Yes, they probably won't.

I would just be happy if they offer a more ultraportable laptop at any cost.

But dell is going to sell millions of these 500 laptops.

Great. They'll sell a million computers and make $5 on each one, plus still have to provide support on them as they break and cause many many problems. Whereas Apple will sell 100,000 computers and make $200 on each one, which will have less hardware issues and make a lot more money.

Last time I checked Apple was in the business of making money. They're doing it well. Their laptops are making big strides in the industry marketshare. Plus, those $500 computers are to bring people to the site or the store. Most of the time they pressure you, or show you much better 'deals', for better computers. Just go to Best Buy and see what they do to you.

Apple=Quality. (Or most of the time)

[Y3a]

No they don't! YOU need a higher paying job.

[Apple Pro Underwear]

Originally Posted by Mallrat 

It's time. They have the mac mini. Apple can do it.


But to compete with PC guys, they keep missing the people that just want a laptop for e-mail, Internet and typing college papers, writing. A laptop doesn't have to do everything.

The attitude of "I don't do anything on a PC except email and internet" is exactly the type of customer that Apple does not prefer.

Music, movies, pictures, creating stuff is what makes Apple shine.

[turtle777]

Originally Posted by Y3a 

No they don't! YOU need a higher paying job.

Well, that's an option. Maybe Apple will hire him

-t

[moonmonkey]

Originally Posted by Apple Pro Underwear 

The attitude of "I don't do anything on a PC except email and internet" is exactly the type of customer that Apple does not prefer.

Music, movies, pictures, creating stuff is what makes Apple shine.

exactly.

[Hash]

I would say that lower price mac notebooks would be great. But they will not do it. Instead, they will bring 10-11 inch MacbookPro mini for 2000$ (aka successor to G4 12 inch powerbook) and they will sell great. I am tired of advocating for lower Mac prices.

[mitchell_pgh]

I'd be interested in a computer that didn't have a optical drive. I would also go so far to say that I would like a portable Mac without a battery (or perhaps combine the battery with the power brick?l).

I wonder how slim Apple could make such a computer?

[mitchell_pgh]

Originally Posted by Apple Pro Underwear 

The attitude of "I don't do anything on a PC except email and internet" is exactly the type of customer that Apple does not prefer.

Music, movies, pictures, creating stuff is what makes Apple shine.

I don't agree...

The Mac still shins even when all you do is email/chat/surf/write papers.

[Nicko]

Forget that,



The proposed $100 machine will be a Linux-based, with a dual-mode display—both a full-color, transmissive DVD mode, and a second display option that is black and white reflective and sunlight-readable at 3× the resolution. The laptop will have a 500MHz processor and 128MB of DRAM, with 500MB of Flash memory; it will not have a hard disk, but it will have four USB ports. The laptops will have wireless broadband that, among other things, allows them to work as a mesh network; each laptop will be able to talk to its nearest neighbors, creating an ad hoc, local area network. The laptops will use innovative power (including wind-up) and will be able to do most everything except store huge amounts of data.
MIT Media Lab & $100 Laptop

[mitchell_pgh]

Originally Posted by Nicko 

Forget that,



The proposed $100 machine will be a Linux-based, with a dual-mode display—both a full-color, transmissive DVD mode, and a second display option that is black and white reflective and sunlight-readable at 3× the resolution. The laptop will have a 500MHz processor and 128MB of DRAM, with 500MB of Flash memory; it will not have a hard disk, but it will have four USB ports. The laptops will have wireless broadband that, among other things, allows them to work as a mesh network; each laptop will be able to talk to its nearest neighbors, creating an ad hoc, local area network. The laptops will use innovative power (including wind-up) and will be able to do most everything except store huge amounts of data.
MIT Media Lab & $100 Laptop

Hmmmmmmmmmm... wonder if you could make a $300-$400 micro laptop that used the iPod for storage?

[TheoCryst]

The last thing Apple wants is to manufacture a sub-$500 computer. Honestly, what could they possibly eliminate from the $1100 MacBook to reach such a low price point? Sure, they could remove the optical bay, the IR port, the iSight... but that's about it. Any other cost reduction would have to stem directly from using poorer-quality components, which leads to service nightmares in the long run.

Besides, like several people have stated already, Apple is a specialty company. They pride themselves in producing high-quality, high-end machines for people who expect refinement. Do you really want Apple to make something like this? (In case my link doesn't work, it's a Dell Inspiron B130 with a 1.4 GHz Celeron, XP Home, and weighing in at 6.7 lbs. Oh, and it looks like crap.)

[TheoCryst]

Originally Posted by mitchell_pgh 

Hmmmmmmmmmm... wonder if you could make a $300-$400 micro laptop that used the iPod for storage?

Interesting idea... but I doubt that the iPod's hard drive could handle the type of stress it would be under as a full-time laptop hard drive.

[Mallrat]

I don't know which comment is funnier

a) get a higher paying job
b) you are the exact type of consumer Apple doesn't want

Priceless.

I love Apple, but man are some of you guys out there, what's the word I'm looking for:

ASSHOLES

I mean, I'm an asshole too, but I mean you guys are major dicks.

And someone said Apple will only make $5 dollars on each notebook. I have no idea what their profit margin is on their systems, but I don't think it's as high as you think. they sell cars for 10,000 dollars and the dealer might only might a few hundred dollars profit if they are dealing with a savvy consumer.

Do you think they make 200 bucks off each iPod? Please. They probably make like 10 to 20% of the price and their goal is to sell as many as they can to make a profit.

So of course they would never make money with a cheaper laptop.

Look, I understand Apple probably has 5% interest in keeping up with the PC guys, but they did make a 2 button mouse and iPod work for PCs.

So this isn't Apple circa 1987. This is 2006.

And seriously, why do some of you get so mad at the idea of a $500 dollar laptop.

You make it sound like I demanded it from the heavens. I was saying, in order for Apple to survive, they'll need to make cheaper laptops or they may loss even their 3% hold of the market.

Either way, I'm working on that better job now. It invovles kicking your ass for 500 bucks an hour. What a dick.

(I said this all in a joking manner before you call the police)

[Apple Pro Underwear]

Originally Posted by mitchell_pgh 

I don't agree...

The Mac still shins even when all you do is email/chat/surf/write papers.

I AGREE! But that's not a good place to position yourself!

You don't want to market to the lowest common denominator (LCN) when you can aim high. Especially since the LCN is taken care of by the glutton of PC manufacturers already.

[mitchell_pgh]

Originally Posted by Mallrat 

I was saying, in order for Apple to survive, they'll need to make cheaper laptops or they may loss even their 3% hold of the market.

But that's not true... it's clear that Apple IS surviving... with their $1000 laptops and above.

I'm not sure they want to deal with the people that buy $500 laptops IMHO. Having worked retail, it usually wasn't the middle of the road that caused the most problems, it was the big spenders and the low end that consumed all your time.

[Gossamer]

Originally Posted by Mallrat 

You make it sound like I demanded it from the heavens. I was saying, in order for Apple to survive, they'll need to make cheaper laptops or they may loss even their 3% hold of the market.

Because no one at all is buying MacBooks and MacBook Pros. Apple is losing money left and right and is just about out of business. Just about

[Chuckit]

Aren't Apple's laptops outselling their desktops by a good margin?

[xsphat]

What about that touch screen patent? Think about an Apple UMPC with a touch screen, wouldn't that be cool?