Tuesday, April 30, 2002
[posted by jaed at 12:29 AM]What the hell is wrong with Apple? Part 1,356
So my mom, who has an original iMac, has been asking me for years when Apple is going introduce one with a 17" screen that would let her crank down the resolution a bit and be easier on her eyes. Apple's just introduced such a beast: the eMac. It's got a 17" screen, a little smaller footprint than the original iMac, G4 chip, respectable clock rate, and it has a combo drive. It's perfect for her. She'd buy one in a New York minute, as soon as they start coming off the production line. There's just one catch: it's education-only. Yes, this machine that my mom (who, if I read my markets right, stands for hundreds of thousands of potential buyers) can't buy it.
There's a word for companies that look at a customer who's eager to buy with cash in hand and turn away, saying "No, we don't want to sell this to you. Nyah." Several words come to mind, actually. Morons. Incompetents. Sheer lunacy!
(It's not the first time Apple's pulled this same stunt, either. A few years ago they introduced the eMate, basically a hardened Newton on steroids in a clamshell case with built-in keyboard and software. It ran for weeks on a set of AA batteries. It was designed so you could throw it across the room without hurting it. It was lighter and smaller than almost any laptop around at the time. And if you weren't a K-12 student or teacher, you couldn't have it. (Nyah.)
