Replies to post #52150 on Apple Inc (AAPL)

[Bootz]

roni, that's what I'm talking about: the key to "their commodity-priced commodities" is volume.

That new Toshiba is going into WalMart, the single largest commercial concern in the world.

Is that new iBook?

By your lights, I guess the cream has been rising to the top ever since the introduction of the original Mac?

The problem with that rosy scenario is that Apple CPU market share has been declining almost ever since.

And pricing has been one of the contributory factors in that decline.

Now that all the hardware specs are essentially the same -- from the prospective mass consumer's point of view -- Apple's hardware margins will come under more pressure, not less.

And selling perceived software advantages is a hard sell any way you look at it. In fact, when you think about it, that's one reason why iTunes is free and iLife isn't.

Again, I'm not one of those predicting the ultimate demise of Apple.

I'm just saying its hardware margins are going to have to take a serious hit or there will never be a significant increase in Apple CPU market share.

Yes, Virginia, computers are commodities.

And Apple's no longer have those superhyped Power PC chips to distinguish them; they now have the exact same Intel chips (and screens, and hard drives, and video cards, etc) as almost everyone else.

Forget cream and skim milk metaphors/allusions and just read between the lines.

Me and you being willing to pay a premium for iLife in no way translates into a significant growth in market share.

Again, it's a jungle out there, not a cake walk in a park.