Chuq gets the idea right and Tom gets the spelling wrong. Chuq says "The Osborne Effect is a non-issue. Fun (and easy, and lazy) for the pundits to play with, but not really relevant at allow."
For those of you non-geezers (although Chuq and Tom can certainly fit in the geezer category as well as I can), the Osborne Effect is what happens to potential computer buyers when you tell them that you will be releasing a better or faster computer in a few months: your current sales dry up and your dealers start shipping back the current machines. Osborne Computers went out of business pretty much because of this. (And I'm kinda glad that they didn't listen to me as I tried hard to get a technical writing job with them earlier that year...)
This doesn't pertain to Apple. The new Intel-based machines won't be better (and may be less stable), and they probably won't be much faster than any normal Apple increase in speed. Over the past decade, Apple has completely mastered the art of pricing their hardware based on the new models coming out. Announce new faster computers being available later in the month: drop the price on the current ones by enough to keep the market steady. They do this like clockwork; watch them do it again late this summer.
Having said that, I'm really really really hoping that they have an Intel-based 14-inch iBook replacement around next spring, when this one will be feeling a bit creaky. But, I'm also happy to keep buying G4 iBooks for another couple of years.
Posted by lookit at June 7, 2005 07:35 PM