Like many Mac users, I've dismissed talk of Apple's miniscule share of the personal computer market by (a) pointing out that many of those PCs are just glorified 3270s/VT100s/Wang word processors/cash registers, and (b) invoking the "BMW argument": what market share does BMW have - and does that stop them from being a really important, cool, desirable brand? So now Apple goes and releases a couple of down-market products, and various people are asking, understandably, "is Apple blowing its BMW model?". Frank Steele has a nice response: "Perhaps BMW could create (or purchase) a second brand that sold cars that were not quite so expensive. Maybe comparable in price to other cars, but maybe a little smaller, and fun. [...] But what could BMW possibly call such a company?"
(Via Oren.)
Posted by geoff2 at January 19, 2005 02:23 PMBMW does have an economy class that's fun, the 3 series! LOL
Posted by: Susan in St. Paul at January 19, 2005 10:12 PMHmmmm... it's depressing to think that the 325i (base price $28K) could be thought of as "economy". The article was obviously referring to the Mini Cooper (which brand BMW snapped up during the recent sell-off of the British auto industry). Base price for the Mini Cooper is $17.5K, which is closer to what I mean by "economy".
Posted by: Geoff Arnold at January 19, 2005 10:54 PMYes, I understood the reference to the Mini Cooper, but it did not seem like an accurate parallel. The Mac Mini is still an Apple Macintosh running the same processor, same OS as some of it's more expensive siblings.
As a current car shopper, I agree that a base price of $28k is depressing for an "economy" car, but for a BMW whose next series starts at $42, it is their economy car. While the 325i is a real BMW and fun to drive, it has its limitations just like the Mac Mini. Among other things, it is much smaller and a pain to get in and out of ;)
I don't think it's fair to call the 3 series BMW's "economy car". BMW has never marketed it as such... some people like myself would rather drive a 3 series over a 5 any day, even if I had the money to buy a 5. It's smaller, agile, etc. etc. all of which makes it more fun to drive. The fact that it's cheaper is a bonus - but I don't know anyone who would consider it an economy car. :)
(though, maybe y'all hang with a higher class crowd than my friends :-D)
Posted by: steve at January 20, 2005 11:52 AM