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And Even Cheaper Still (4/5/98)
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We certainly hope that Apple's preparing to enter the sub-$1000 market before they miss the boat entirely, but it seems the competition in that arena is about to get even nastier. Cyrix, a producer of x86/Intel-compatible chips for low-cost PC's, plans to announce tomorrow that they are working on a new processor destined for sub-$500 computers. Details can be found at News.com.
Now, we assume that a sub-$500 machine doesn't include a display, but that's still a really, really low price for a computer. In order to build a chip for a system that cheap that can still bring in a profit, Cyrix is building pretty much the whole PC onto its new chip. Not only will it be the central processing unit, but it will also include video and other functions necessary for a basic PC all soldered onto the same piece of silicon. That means the motherboard for such a system basically only needs this new chip, some RAM, and a cheap hard disk. It's the ultimate in non-modular and non-upgradeable design, but it's incredibly cheap; after all, if a system only costs $499, it's essentially disposable.
The new chip is due next year, and is expected to be used in set-top boxes and sub-$1000 laptop computers as well as sub-$500 desktop machines. As for whether or not Apple could possibly compete in an arena that requires them to keep costs so low but still deliver a machine of Apple quality, we're not betting either way; Apple just hasn't been able to produce low-cost home systems in the past, but the "New Apple" continues to surprise us constantly. We're adopting a "wait and see" attitude.
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And Now For A Word From Our Sponsors |
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 | | The above scene was taken from the 4/5/98 episode: April 5, 1998: The masses still wait and hope, but Apple may in fact enter the sub-$1000 market this summer. Meanwhile, PC chipmaker Cyrix plans to create a chip that will drive prices down still further, and a former co-founder of Microsoft finds himself embroiled in a particularly sleazy sexual harassment case...
Other scenes from that episode: 599: Ready For The Cheap Stuff (4/5/98) Okay, so Artemis finally got here and it's not the $1000 wonder many of us expected it to be. For those of you who still wonder about whether Apple is ever going to address the needs of the sub-$1000 computer market, you may be interested to know that Mac the Knife is discussing some very intriguing possibilities in the upcoming Mac lineup... 601: The Sleaze We Crave (4/5/98) The following is not directly relevant to anything we're usually dealing with. In fact, it's not even indirectly relevant, really, but it's just too apt for our show to ignore. It appears that Paul Allen, Bill Gates' co-founder of Microsoft, is being sued for sexual harrassment by a woman who claims she was fired after she rebuffed his advances...
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