Greg
http://www.news.com/News/Item/0,4,32615,00.html?st.ne.lh..ni
Blueberry iMacs tough to
find
By Jim Davis
Staff Writer, CNET News.com
February 19, 1999, 10:05 a.m. PT
update Blueberry is out of season.
Apple Computer has rotated its crop of older "Bondi Blue" iMacs in favor of the
fruit-flavored systems now on store shelves, but the original model is still
outselling its newer counterparts thanks to price cuts.
And a pecking order has already been established among the new models, an
imbalance in availability that could cause tension for dealers and customers.
Blueberry is tough to find, but there are plenty of strawberries around.
Tangerine, meanwhile, is big in Denver, home of the NFL champion Broncos and
their legion of orange-clad fans.
The colorful iMacs are an extension of Apple's marketing and design
philosophy, which is: Stand out from the crowd. It's a strategy that tries to
convince buyers to go with Apple over Windows-based machines, even if
they're more expensive.
For instance, market surveys have shown many first-time buyers equate
computer performance solely with chip speed. Many companies are offering less
expensive systems than the iMac which have 333 and 350-MHz processors,
compared to the iMac's 266-MHz chip. Apple is trying to change the focus from
specs to the design and identity of the machine.