Apple explodes mass marketing

SPECIAL REPORT

After decades of developing a reputation for class - at a price - IT company Apple are finally breaking into the mass consumer market. Today, at 9am, shops will open up Apple’s newest point of attack: the Mac Mini.

Forcing their way on products such as the Mac Mini, iPod, and iPod shuffle, the ultimate goal of Apple to to develop and maintain strong consumer ties in general consumer markets - and attack the traditional consumer bases of rivals such as Microsoft.

At Christmas, Amazon stocks leapt nearly 10% in value after the company saw it’s best sales for 10 sales - which it particularly attributed to purchases of Apple Computers and iPods: Amazon trumpets record Christmas.

And at the MacWorld conference last week, the company unveiled it’s thrust of attack into the budget PC market: the Mac Mini - which ships worlwide today.

The Mac Mini represents something of a compromise - it is expected to retail at less than ��500, but the cost is for the PC only, with no monitor, keyword, or even mouse supplied.

However, IT markets are buzzing with what is sees as a major incursion into mass consumer shopping that Apple had previously failed to try and tap into.

Even still, the success of the Mac Mini has yet to be demonstrated - but with a loyal following of consumers sold on Apple quality, and untested millions to whom the exhalted Apple brand has always been over-budget, retail outlets are preparing for key test sales.

The Mac Mini is especially expected to appeal to existing Windows users, who throughout 2004 were afflicted with sometimes appalling security exploits and patches from Microsoft. And the buzz seems to be working.

Internet technology news outlet, ZDnet, has reported in Apple mindshare explodes that Apple topics have seen an increase from 3% readership to a formidable 70%, showing the extent of interest in the company and its products outside of its normal following.

Commentators, such as Paul Nixon at the University of Arizona, detail thoughts on Apple’s long-term strategy in Apple’s Tipping Point: Macs For The Masses Infographic, and also provides an extremely helpful graphical representation of the tectical marketing and development so far as they converge on today’s announcement, in Apples for the Masses: Apple’s Tipping Point.

Michael Gartenberg of JupiterResearch in Entelligence: Understanding the success of the iPod and iPod mini has also described how the Apple approach has depended upon the very careful balancing of consumer requirements without compromising one or the other.

And as Alan Graham nicely explains in Dell, Creative, and the iPod: Sour grapes?, companies who are in direct marketing competition in key areas, have been reduced to empty aggressive posturing when faced with Apple gains.

Adalbert Duda in Apple�Ls tipping point continues the analysis, and demonstrates that even if all Window users won’t necessarily be immediately converted to the Mac Mini, the lure of iPod and the iPod Shuffle are bringing about a consumer market to Apple’s way of thinking - and acceptance of their products.

However, as was pointed out in the earlier Platinax report Microsoft beats Apple at Media, Apple still maintain one key weakness - their DRM technology could become a fatal Achilles Heel in the longer term, unless Apple agrees to open this up for other companies to develop.