[geeks] Article: Sun's not so cheap trick doesn't work

[Geoffrey S. Mendelson]

On Sun, Oct 12, 2008 at 11:50:09AM -0500, Jonathan C. Patschke wrote:

Note that I wrote the original comments (GSM)

>>Eventually the stockholders will realize that force managment to
>>concentrate on those products and their Windows support.
>
>Maybe, maybe not.  The Macintosh platform is not a loss-leader.

Loss leader no, but a higher cost per item and with lower profit. 



>
>>Expectation that people buying iPods, iTunes and iPhones would convince
>>them to buy a Mac, and either convert some or all of their functions to
>>MacOS has not been realized.
>
>Not yet.  If Apple continues to hit home runs[0] with their OS, and they
>continue to price their systems within some margin of Dell (complicated by
>the fact that Apple's product line and Dell's are not congruent), they'll
>continue to win people over.  I know more people going Mac than going
>back.

Maybe in the U.S., I can't tell from here. A top of the line HP or Dell
thin laptop is around $1000, a MacBook Air is $3000. 

>
>>If Apple wants to be continue being a computer company it will have to
>>split off of the iPhone, etc company.
>
>I don't think that would hurt either side of the company, really.  The
>iPhone and iPod family are great products capable of standing on their
>own; so is the Macintosh.

No in fact, I think it would be a good idea. Apple Computer would concentrate
on COMPUTERS and iPod Inc would concentrate on toys. 

>>Wall Street is too busy panicing about the free fall in stock prices,
>>mostly caused by the panic about the free fall of stock prices, to
>>think.
>
>I can't help but laugh.  Wall Street is what happens when the marketing
>phenomenon of "breathing your own exhaust" is taken to its most illogical
>extreme.  And companies actually base their future efforts on what these
>traders and analysts want to happen?  It's amazing America is in business
>at all, anymore.

Yes. 


>Me?  I'm glad I invested in land.  I'm not going to be ploughing my field
>and find out I have junk mortgages instead of rich black Texas soil out
>there.

I sure hope so. Of course it looks like if you hung on with your sub-prime
mortgage and over priced real-estate, the US Government is going to reduce
your debt to the point you can pay what you pay now and have a prime rate+ 
mortgage. E.g. if you pay 4% interest and the prime rate is 6%, then they
will reduce your debt by 30%, so your payment will now cover 6% interest.

What happens when mortgages go up, (anyone remember 21% mortgages besides me?)
I don't know.


>>Personally, I think this will be good for startups.
>
>Financial cataclysm always is.  The best time for hard-working folks is
>when times are tough.
>
>
>[0] for most folks.  Every time I launch into a screaming rant about how
>     Leopard is a steaming pile, I say that knowing full-well that I am
>     likely not the target market.

You are not being fair. From what I remember, I have yet to see one rant
on how bad Vista is. Is that because you use Leopard?

Geoff.
-- 
Geoffrey S. Mendelson, Jerusalem, Israel gsm at mendelson.com  N3OWJ/4X1GM