Re: [NTLK] Dot-mac overpriced - glee in the lawyers' eyes..

From: Dave Christensen (dc623_at_mac.com)
Date: Thu Jul 18 2002 - 14:49:17 EDT


I'd like to add to your comments about a 'lite' itools.
Considering a lot of it is a way to coerce people to upgrade
to X.2, there still isnt a killer, must have thats better,
app for X that wasnt on OS 9. That being said, my Pismo
will be on 9 for quite some time to come.... Its also
geared to those of us with broadband. I could NEVER see
myself using 100mb of online space. Imagine uploading that
with my 22.4k dial-up connection?? Ouch....

I could easily justify a lite version, maybe $35 a year,
compared to hotmails 20/year. It would be similar to the
current iTools like you suggested, but drop the virus
scanner (I have SAM 7, doesnt crash like McCrapee did
before), drop the online stoarage down to none, maybe 5-7mb
(like now) for mail, drop backup (Retrospect anyone?), keep
pop, imap, webmail access, and drop the icards and web pages
to 50?

Hate saying this, but even with 10 spams a day, hotmail is
looking better.

Jim Witte wrote:
> That's exactly what I was thinking.. <$$ looks of glee in the =
> trial-lawyers' eyes $$> Anyway, as one person on Slashdot said, the =
> online petitions usually don't do anything at all - he suggested they =
> make things worse because people "think they've done something" when =
> they really haven't - they should actually be outside of 1 Infinite Loop =
> protesting..
>
> Another issue that's come up on the Apple student developer list is =
> "what about students". Since students usually don't have much money =
> anyway (or so said that particular one), and student devs use iTools to =
> promote their own apps a lot (which is to Apple's benefit after all), =
> $100 seems a bit steep. I'd personally like a "lite" version that =
> included ONLY pop email (5-7MB) and maybe some disk space (more like =
> 15MB, certainly not 100) for something like $20 per year. Or a lite =
> version for paid ADC members that had POP email and 25MB iDisk space for =
> $20 a year. I think this would work out very nicely for Apple, because =
> since POP boxes are probably rarely full (of course, at Denison U. =
> people left all sorts of stuff in their POP boxes.. but half the campus =
> just telneted in.), the disk space requirements would be minimal, =
> especially considering that ~80% of the $100/yr members aren't going to =
> be using their full 100MB quota (aren't externalities great?). Then the =
> $20/yr from the lite members is basically gravy for Apple (excluding =
> bandwidth costs - I don't know if Apple pays a fixed rate, or a per =
> 100-GB rate, or what) Of course, this scenario only works if there are =
> still enough $100 members around - it's quite possible that 80% would =
> drop down to the lite membership, which would force the cost of the full =
> service down too - to about $50 I'd say. But that's 1/2 the revenue =
> projection that Apple has made (I assume)
>
> Oh well, Apple's stock promptly dropped (though it'll never be clear =
> if it was that, it always drops after the keynote, even if it dropped =
> the day before because of earnings), and if Apple does introduce a =
> change like that, you know they'll put a good spin on it - "Due to =
> overwhelming positive customer feedback [whatever], we are today =
> unvailing the next stage of the evolution of iTools [whatever]. Now you =
> get basic features like [blah blah] for only $20 a year, but for only =
> $30 more (new lower prices!), you'll get even more than before. And of =
> course, for $100 a year, we will send an Apple VP to your house to clean =
> your shoes every month [oops, did I say clean your shoes? I meant pay =
> attention to the customers..]" Jobs is such a spin-master (or did the =
> reality distorsion field get to me? through the streaming quicktime link =
> to boot!)
>
> Jim
>
>
>>lawsuit, class action, against Apple by people who purchased Apple
>>hardware with the understanding that iTools was "free for life" as =
>
> Apple
>
>>claimed it was.=
>
>
>

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