Opinion: Apple Is Profit-Driven Just Like Everyone Else

5:56 am, October 16th, 2008, Giles Turnbull

Now we’ve seen them, now we know. The new MacBooks and MacBook Pros are quite nice in some respects, and quite frustrating in others.

What amuses me about the whole thing, though, is how astoundingly far-out some of the pre-event speculation was. It’s always part of the fun, exploring the gamut of people’s expectations and imaginations as they dream up the kind of product they’d like Apple to create for them.

My favorite this year was the iMac-as-docking-station concept, which showed an iMac-like monitor with a huge hole in one side, into which a folded MacBook could be slotted. A nice fantasy indeed, but still a fantasy. And Apple’s not in the business of fulfilling every fanboy’s fantasy.

No, Apple’s in business to make profit, like every other computer manufacturer. As such, it’s product development decisions are, and will be, driven by the profit they can be reasonably expected to generate.

Which is why the MacBook range has been designed in the way that it has.

The MacBook has been the biggest-selling Mac ever, combining decent computing power in an attractive and easily portable case. Apple wants to continue that trend: it wants to make sure that the MacBook carries on selling well, selling better than all the other Macs. To do that, Apple does not need to lower the price (because, whatever the reality, Macs are percieved to be more luxurious items, so people tend to be willing to spend more on them).

No, to keep them selling well it has to make them better at the first part of the equation: providing decent computing power. That’s what this is all about. They need to be excellent general purpose machines for the consumer - because that is what will keep them flying off the shelves in Apple Stores around the world.

So it doesn’t matter to Apple that existing Mac users want to keep the legacy FireWire port. It doesn’t matter to Apple that graphics professionals want a matte option for the display. The goal of selling more Macs to new Apple customers is too alluring - there’s too much profit to be made - to ignore by catering for the whims of us old-timers.

The Pro machines are for Pros, says Apple. If you care about FireWire, you will buy Pro, and you will be Pro enough not to worry about the extra weight.

It’s a generalization, of course it is. But that’s what profitable companies do; they cater for the majority, they generalize. Apple cares about product quality more than most, but it still cares about profit, and that’s why it must follow this path.

This is also why Apple’s not going to produce a “netbook” style mini computer. Well, not another one. The MacBook Air is Apple’s netbook; it’s just fabulously expensive in comparison to its rivals.

But: Apple could not produce something that matches those rivals’ price points and still lives up to Apple’s expectations for quality. And if it weren’t a quality product, it wouldn’t sell, and the profit wouldn’t be made.

Like all tech products, the MacBooks are going to evolve. Despite evidence to the contrary this week, they are going to get cheaper. The Air, as a concept, will grow and thrive and eventually be fabulously good value; perhaps more expensive still than most netbooks, but obviously, visably better. That’s what sells, that’s what makes a profit.

Posted by Giles Turnbull in Apple, Hardware, Opinions | Comment on this article