A Pilgrim’s Digression

Excuse me if I politely ignore the new Intel-based iMacs and focus instead on these absolutely lust-inducing new Apple laptops, the MacBook.

The pace of development of Intel Macs was not supposed to proceed this quickly. The first Intel Mac was to be unveiled in June, and everyone figured the iMac would be the first (and only) Mac to get a makeover this summer. So I was really shocked when a colleague informed me today that Apple had released not only a desktop machine running on Intel, but an entirely new laptop line called the MacBook. I forsook all work for fifteen minutes and went straight to the website to check it out.

Really, all I have to say is that a whole new world lies ahead of us, folks. This is big. As I sat at my computer, two colleagues looking over my shoulder, I heard one of them say, “You know, my wife and I have been talking about buying a new computer; maybe we’ll have to take a good look at Apple.” And the other colleague said, “Damn, I just bought an iMac not three months ago! What’s the Exchange Policy in an Apple store?”

I don’t think it was merely the look of the machines that made both these guys desire a Mac; the MacBook looks essentially the same as the PowerBook and the iMac is unchanged. What attracted them had to be the enormous potential that this move to Intel represents for Apple. Who can say where Apple will be in two or three years? I don’t think anyone will be talking about breaking up the company and giving the money back to the investors, as Mike Dell suggested not so many years ago.

In the interest of full disclosure, the guy who is thinking about switching to Mac got one of the new, black Video iPods for Christmas, and I have been teaching him about it. So he is primed and ready for the switch, I feel, and in a sense his case illustrates prefectly Apple’s strategy for expanding indefinitely into the future: hook ‘em with the iPod, and they will want a Mac, too.

My other colleague, the one who decried the fact that he’d bought an iMac only three months ago, also complained (with a smile) that Apple updates its products too frequently. It’s disheartening to buy a computer, or an OS, and find it obsolete in a few months. This, too, is a brilliant part of Apple’s strategy for overcoming the Microsoft advantage.

Constant renewal, even when nothing is obviously “new,” is the oldest trick in the Madison Avenue ad man’s book. Microsoft releases an OS update once every five or six years, if then; Apple releases a major OS update every year (and charges people a hundred bucks for the upgrade, as well). New Mac hardware is released ever six months or so. And people don’t think twice about buying it.

They don’t just want it; they are convinced they need it. This describes me as well: after a week of tinkering with my coworker’s Video iPod, I am convinced I need one; and maybe I will buy one at the next update (likely to occur this summer). At least I have enough self-control not to buy a device until I have waited at least one upgrade cycle. At the very least, if you can wait for the minor upgrade, you end up paying less for a better product.

Thus, though I am passionate about all things Apple, I can wait another six months for the MacBook to come down in price. It is very pricey, starting at $1999.00. Even with my wife’s K-12 educator discount, the price drops just $200.00 to $1799.00. I gaurantee the base price will drop even more in six months time.

I just need to wait. If I can. In the meantime, maybe I’ll check out another Apple-related product released just today, the iPod-compatible Levi’s. If you’re an investor, I’d say now is the time to buy stock in Apple. Any company that can effortlessly and successfully incorporate one of its products into high-end merchandise like Levi’s and BMW automobiles is a company just at the beggining of a great and wondrous future.