Who said Macs are expensive? If you don't believe me, check out your local Sam's Wholesale. But you better do it quick, because the low-cost Macs I saw were flying off the shelves!
I'm talking about the $699 iMacs at Sam's. They're not the latest and greatest, but last year's 333 mhz, no-DVD version. They only have 32 megs of ram, but hey, they're Macs. A Sam's I visited over Christmas had a ton of these Macs on display for $849 (Grape and Tangerine only). That wasn't bad, but still not all that good, considering Apple had just introduced the $999 iMacs running at 350 mhz. I image some folks who have been curious about Apple and its products over the years bought one. But at $849, it probably wasn't many.
With a "6" in front that number (around Christmas) I would venture to say the boxes wouldn't have lasted long at all. In some ways, it could have been a real marketing coupe had Apple sold the machines to Sam's at a loss to get the iMac prices down and into homes and businesses. That way a lot of folks who are not exposed to the quality and reliability of Apple products would have purchased one. After all, the only competition in the $600-price range are some PC boxes with a name no one has ever heard of!
Many Mac watchers have dreamed of a sub-$500 Macintosh for years. While $699 is still a far cry from that, it sure is getting close and if you would have told me just two years ago that Macs would be selling below $700, I would have said you were crazy.
I would love to see sales figures of the iMacs once the price was reduced at Sam's. After all, Sam's shoppers are supposed to be bargain shoppers. People who know value when they see it. Once the price dropped, I bet the iMacs flew off the shelves, both into the hands of long-time Mac users and newbies as well.
While PC users will argue with Mac users about a lot of things, rarely does the argument ever focus on the shoddy quality of Apple products. That's because Apple is known in the industry as the leader in manufacturing good quality computers.
That's something the Sam's shopper who picked up a bargain-basement iMac will discover and who knows, perhaps one day, they'll buy Mac No. 2.