Here’s a thought experiment for you Windows developers out there: the fact that Apple pretty much owns the $1000+ computer market is in fact an opportunity. Discuss.
(This article appears with slightly different wording – to try things from a different perspective – on the official Microsoft Canada developer blog, Canadian Developer Connection.)
5 replies on “The Sub-$1000 Opportunity?”
Might be, but anybody who would like to take advantage should be careful not to get painted as being just the cheaper alternative. Consider the first Microsoft Laptop Hunter commercial where the lady is filmed saying “Guess I’m not cool enough for a Mac.” I can’t imagine why the Microsoft marketing people didn’t leave that on the cutting room floor. That one statement right there implicitly cheapened the brand. =P
By the bye, one clarification: by “opportunity”, I mean opportunity for developers.
I get the impression from the blogs I read that nearly everyone either runs Linux or Apple. They either pay nothing for their software or they pay dearly for it. Of course the vast majority are in the middle, running inexpensive commercial software (i.e. Windows). I suppose the middle isn’t as fun to blog about as the extremes.
It occurs to me there’s a fantastic $1000+ opportunity for manufacturers like Dell, HP, etc. to establish “Lexus” brands that “just work”, have great power-on experiences, have tested peripheral lists, etc. and still substantially undercut Apple.
@Joey: I’m not sure I see how this is advantageous for developers, except that this should encourage people to develop software for Macs because they are now dominating the part of the market that’s willing to pay good money for well-performing hardware and software…
I’m pretty sure that PC’s still dominate the $3000-4000+ computer market, though. You just can’t play as many games on Macs. =)