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From: saj@chinet.chi.il.us (Stephen Jacobs)
Newsgroups: comp.sys.atari.st
Subject: Re: New Apple Mac rumored...
Summary: Apple would have as much trouble as anyone in a price war
Message-ID: <1990Oct16.213742.1148@chinet.chi.il.us>
Date: 16 Oct 90 21:37:42 GMT
References: <1990Oct11.205554.14111@cunixf.cc.columbia.edu> <4b5T8dC00Vor8OekRA@andrew.cmu.edu> <1990Oct15.212324.23704@cunixf.cc.columbia.edu>
Distribution: usa
Organization: Chinet - Chicago Public Access UNIX
Lines: 20

In article <1990Oct15.212324.23704@cunixf.cc.columbia.edu> cmm1@cunixa.cc.columbia.edu (Christopher M Mauritz) writes:
>In article <4b5T8dC00Vor8OekRA@andrew.cmu.edu> jk44+@andrew.cmu.edu (John Knight) writes:
>
>>yet. I kind'a hope they *do* get a low end system out the door at really
>>competitive prices since that would tend to drive A3000 and TT prices
>>more into my range :-).
>
>Yes, that would make sense.  However, the quesiton you have to ask 
>yourself is this: "Can companies like Atari and Commodore survive on
>even lower margins?"  They are in no position to have a protracted
>pricing war with a company like Apple.

Last time I looked, Apple was in no shape to wage a serious price war them-
selves.  Plenty of magazines carry 'Can Apple Survive?' stories.  They carry
relatively high overhead, and their advertising needs pretty substantial
margins to pay for it too.  If you look at the probable prices to manufacture
products, all 3 companies could cut prices a fair bit before it started to look
like selling the machines was a bad proposition.  A serious price war would
delay product improvements, though.
                                     Steve J.