dmt@hocsl.UUCP (09/23/84)
SUBJECT: re: Re: Apple Shafts America; or, The Computer For the Rich of Us REFERENCE: <1164@hao.UUCP> [] > Why is it that any sleezy, slimy, dirty action by a corporation > is excused as the corporation's obligation to it's stockholders? > Are there no decent owners of stock in this country? Is it really > a businessman's ethic to be a greedy, moneygrubbing SOB at the > expense of his customers? I know of no people who buy stock in order to lose money for some "noble social goal." In any event, I hardly believe that subsidizing your computer play qualifies. I would qualify lying about the product as "sleazy, slimy, dirty", as would failure to deliver the product, etc. But I have seen no action taken by Apple with respect to the Mac that wasn't pretty predictable (except for the University consortium, not a part of your flame). Certainly, every hi-tech product I've ever seen offered charged what the traffic would bear, saturated the high-price market while sliding down the learning curve, then dropped the price in increments to pick up more of the market, at, of course, maximum profit for the shareholders. **IT COSTS** to be the first on your block with the latest gimmick. > For some reason, I thought Apple was a little different. Note > the past tense. Have YOU ever invested in a business? What would YOU DO if you found they were using your money to run a charity? There ARE organizations that are reconized and advertised as non-profit charities. I don't believe Apple is among them. > I paid list price because when I got mine that's all there was. > If I had thought the $2400 machine I was buying would devaluate ~$1000 > in six months, I can assure you that I would have waited. I could duplicate my [non-Apple, compatible with IBM] one-year-old system today for about half its cost last year. That's a fact of life in our fast-moving industry. Anyone who can't live with that will wait years before the situation "stabilizes" (indeed, if ever). I console myself with the year of use I got out of the system; look on it as a sort of "rental fee". This is NOT a defense of the MAC; I'm not crazy about it myself. But let's remember that Apple developed it to make money, and they're not doing anything DISHONEST in so doing. I don't usually flame like this. I take solace in the fact that there's much more heat in the article I'm answering. Dave Tutelman