Apple Inc (AAPL)

[baldrick]

Re Apple and Towers.

Because Mikey McDell has that covered ?

But Mikey McDell doesn't have OSX or iLife, or don't those count any more?
Mind you OSX on white boxes isn't far away, so Mikey will have that covered too.

Mikey McDell has Dual Core laptops covered too, maybe Apple shouldn't bother building those either?

Apple sells more laptops and AIO's than Mid-range towers

Apple doesn't sell 'mid-range' towers, their cheapest tower in the UK is £1400, that's top-end. Mid-range is at least 40% lower than that. The Quad tower is for those that need that power and are willing to pay the premium.
Release dual core Intels in the mid-range, and have only quad G5s at the high-end. No reason I can see that they couldn't do a quad 2Ghz right now.

I think some of the resistance to the idea of a mid-range tower is that towers are 'dull', Stevie can't unveil a tower and we all go 'wow!'
All of Apple's products (with the exception of the G5s) are regarded as design icons, hell, most of them are in our Design Museum right now.

The towers are there to keep the the Pros quiet, they'll buy them it they're what they need. A mid-range tower would be in Apple's 'mainstream' space, and by it's very nature is unlikely be regarded as 'cool', and that's a big part of Apple's brand.

...unless they are able to make a superior tower that equals the Quad Power Mac G5 what compelling reason exists to build one ?

Firsltly why do they have to be superior to the quad G5, it's a different price point. Compelling reason - So people buy them?

I was really excited when the Mini was released, I (foolishly) expected them to really push it agressively. Unfortuntely the perception is still that Macs cost double their PC equivalent. This Intel transition has real potential to increase market share, but only if they handle it right, the signs aren't promising so far. BTW AFAIAC they should be (quietly) doing their damnedest to ensure Winblows runs on these machines. That's the real way in I feel.