How Apple makes more profit on their systems...

[Alex Hewitt]

Tom Buskey wrote:
>
>
> On Sun, Oct 4, 2009 at 10:33 PM, Kenny Lussier <klussier at gmail.com 
> <mailto:klussier at gmail.com>> wrote:
>
>
>
>     On Sun, Oct 4, 2009 at 10:03 PM, Hewitt_Tech
>     <hewitt_tech at comcast.net <mailto:hewitt_tech at comcast.net>> wrote:
>
>
>
>          What bugged me about the way Apple sells the Mini is their
>         deliberate
>         withholding of information from the customer so that the
>         customer would
>         feel obligated to buy much more expensive gear from them.
>         Check out
>         their web site and see if you can figure out what would be
>         necessary to
>         get the Mini setup using an existing monitor, keyboard and mouse.
>
>         -Alex
>
>         P.S. There's "making money" and then there's "screwing the
>         customer".
>
>
>     I just spent about 30 seconds on their site, and found the Mac
>     Mini tech specs. You need this:
>     http://store.apple.com/us/product/MB570Z/A?fnode=MTY1NDA5OQ&mco=MTA4NTYxMDQ
>     <http://store.apple.com/us/product/MB570Z/A?fnode=MTY1NDA5OQ&mco=MTA4NTYxMDQ>
>     . As for a mouse and keyboard, since it has 5 USB ports, you don't
>     need anything. 
>
>
> I bought a mini in March to use as a media center.  I bought the Apple 
> remote which "just works".  I had USB keyboards.  I bought a bluetooth 
> keyboard and mouse - they just worked.  I bought a mini dvi to VGA 
> adapter that just worked with my display.
>
> I have a standard TV with svideo input.  I got a mini displayport to 
> composite adapter.  *bzzt*.  The mini is digital only output.  I had 
> to get a vga to composite converter to get analog output to my TV.  
> That was about $30 and not available from apple.
>
> I've since gotten an HDTV and a cheap 3rd party mini displayport to 
> hdmi adapter.  It just works.
>
> I could've built a low power PC as a media center, but the mini just 
> works for everything I want to do.  I didn't have to spend lots of 
> time researching compatible parts.  It's one of the lowest power 
> desktops availble.   And it looks pretty good next to the TV, Wii, etc.

Apple does a great job with their power management software. In fact I 
can't think of anyone who does a better job. Recently I had a customer 
bring me their moderately expensive Acer laptop. The user had the Vista 
system "hang" on them. Thinking they were doing the right thing they 
closed the lid. The laptop didn't power down and since they left it 
running at full power with the lid closed, the motherboard cooked 
itself. The system was barely a year old (but out of warranty).  I have 
clients who have bought more than twenty Mac Minis over the last few 
years. There has only been one failure (a hard drive) and I'm pretty 
sure that was due to someone sitting the Mini on edge and then knocking 
it over. So they definitely have reliability going for them. I think I 
mentioned that Apple has the highest customer satisfaction numbers and 
it's easy to see why. If you have a Dell product, unless you bought a 
business model, you might have a hard time with the off-shore support. 
For Apple, off shore is Canada and I defy most people to figure out the 
difference.

-Alex

>
> Now, if I wanted a server or general use system that didn't run 
> MacOSX, then I'd choose something else.
>