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From: dgary@ecsvax.UUCP (D Gary Grady)
Newsgroups: net.micro
Subject: Re: Base price for popular micros
Message-ID: <1464@ecsvax.UUCP>
Date: Wed, 12-Jun-85 11:46:58 EDT
Article-I.D.: ecsvax.1464
Posted: Wed Jun 12 11:46:58 1985
Date-Received: Fri, 14-Jun-85 06:12:47 EDT
References: <5864@ucla-cs.ARPA>, <705@wlcrjs.UUCP>
Organization: Duke U Comp Ctr
Lines: 22

Far be it from me to run to the defense of Apple, but it's interesting
what an unrealistic picture of business most of us have.  Saying that it
costs Apple $200 to make a Mac makes it seem that Apple is really
ripping off the public.  But the fact is that this figure probably
doesn't reflect fixed costs (as someone else has pointed out), and those
costs can be considerable.  If anyone thinks Apple is really stealing
from people, take a look at their profitability (and layoffs) of late.

A similar misunderstanding has contributed to part of the outrage over
the miliary spending $600 for a toilet seat or an ashtray.  Actually, in
some of the cases cited the item was part of a tiny production run.  It
costs thousands of dollars to engineer and gear up to manufacture
anything.  If you can only sell 20 of them you have to charge a lot for
each one.  (One could argue that the designers should have been smart
enough to design things so that an ordinary toilet seat or ashtray would
work.  There's a lot to be said for that.  On the other hand, I'm not
sure I'd want to be in a plane designed around a toilet seat.)
-- 
D Gary Grady
Duke U Comp Center, Durham, NC  27706
(919) 684-3695
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