Apple's heavily hyped line of new laptops is finally in front of us. As exciting as all the added bells and whistles may be to Mac fanatics, though, the systems have a serious challenge: Can they beat the economic blues to win over weary wallets and fly off store shelves?
Pricing Predicament
The new notebooks, revealed at an event inside its Cupertino, Calif. campus Tuesday, range in price from $999 to $2499. The lower-end product -- the basic MacBook -- did see a $100 drop in price from the previous model. Missing from the lineup, though, was the rumored $800 laptop that was believed to have been in the works. Already, the blogosphere is buzzing with reaction -- and questions over whether the price tags will be able to draw PC users in. Some are doubtful.
"Apple has always put a price premium on its products, and people pay it, which is great for them," writes Adam Frucci at Gizmodo. "But for people who aren't already on the Apple bandwagon and for people who aren't having their computers bought for them by rich parents, like the college kids who snap up these laptops every August, there's no incentive to switch," he says.
"When you have netbooks coming in around the $400 to $500 range and entry-level PC laptops starting at $700, that extra $200 to $300 is a lot of money, especially in light of the current economic situation," blogger Steven Hodson at The Inquisitr agrees. "I think that the price spread is enough that [the] 'Cult of Mac' can be assured that their legion won't be invaded by those horrible 'Windows noobs' anytime soon," he says.
The Other Side
Analysts see it differently. While a couple hundred bucks may mean a lot more now than it did a year ago, some speculate the booming educational support behind Apple will be enough to make it a price worth paying.
"Education is a hugely growing sector for them, and you're starting to see institutions now recommending Apple as a product," says Ben Bajarin, director of the consumer technology practice for Creative Strategies.
"Parents will now say, 'This is not just an oh you want it but you don't really need it [situation] -- but your school is actually recommending this product, so I'm going to spend the [few hundred] extra for you to have it," he speculates.
Factor in a positive PR spin against Windows, and Bajarin thinks Jobs has done his job, and has little reason for concern.
"They're addressing some of those core issues that are frustrating with the Windows environment. For that reason, I think there's a good chance they can weather the storm with a couple hundred dollar differential between them and the really low cost notebooks," he says.
Taking on the "Tax"
Microsoft has its own message: Apple is "taxing" you for the "cool factor," it says, and you shouldn't buy into it. Their stance is that you end up paying more for a Mac once you factor in customizations and additional applications.
"There's a choice tax that we talked about, which is, hey, you want to buy a machine that's other than black, white, or silver, and if you want to get it in multiple different configurations or price points, you're going to be paying a tax if you go the Apple way," says Brad Brooks, vice president of Windows Consumer Product Marketing.
Bajarin doesn't buy it, saying he's seen no real indication of that concept holding true.
"Obviously, Microsoft and those folks are getting frustrated because of the margin that Apple is continuing to receive," he suggests.
In the end, it all comes down to an election-esque campaign -- and in this case, your dollars are the ballots. Here, though, hanging on to your ballot is as much of a vote as handing it in. Give it till the end of December, post-holiday shopping rush, and one candidate will be claiming a victory.
