Zettabyte Shut Down 67
jpt.d writes "Zettabyte (those who put the SuperDrive in the eMac) have been shut down without detailed explaination. They only say, 'Due to Legal Restrictions we will no longer be able to sell our SuperDrive equipped eMac.' Does anyone have any more details about this?"
Not much information (Score:1)
Sigh... (Score:1)
I used to agree with Bob Metcalfe that "Steve Jobs could do no wrong" but every now and then I have to eat his words and it is getting tired.
Educational market issues? (Score:2)
I can see why Zettabyte would not think this was an issue because Apple is selling them to the general public -- but they're still "educational products", methinks.
Re:Educational market issues? (Score:1, Informative)
An educated guess.. (Score:3, Insightful)
Re:An educated guess.. (Score:1, Flamebait)
Let's just say they're content with tiny market share and pat them on their little heads and IGNORE THEM like we've been doing for, oh, about twenty years.
Oy, I'm really cranky today, sorry.
Re:An educated guess.. (Score:2)
Re:You've been waiting to use that one (Score:2)
I find it most interesting that you're ready to make personal attacks against others while hiding behind the AC skirt, especially considering that your main point against my original post is "people like you...just don't add anything here and worsen the signal to noise ratio." Me thinks your kettle is seriously black; in other words, you're a hypocrite or at least you're acting hypocritically today.
Cheers,
Re:An educated guess.. (Score:2, Insightful)
First of all, I tend to agree that this is a less-than-good idea (not a bad one mind you) - but I can understand it. My gut-reaction is that Apple is thinking, "If they want a SuperDrive, they're going to get an iMac/G4 Tower. If they want inexpensive, eMac/CRT iMac." It all boils down to Money. Which many will say is bad, but Apple is in it to make money, no matter how cool I think Apple is, they still mainly want some of my money (which I'm happy to give considering what I get). So I can understand it. Here's a grain of salt, though: I have no desire to buy an eMac - SuperDrive or no.
That being said, I'd like to briefly comment on a few of the comments made in this post (the one I'm replying to) and it's parent:
1. Quantax wrote: "...they have not been on really solid ground for a couple years..." Which I don't think is entirely fair. Nor is it entirely accurate. Apple has been doing pretty darn well, as far as I'm concerned, in the past few years. Many consecutive quarters with black ink (even if it could have been blacker), 4-5 billion in cash in the bank, many industry-shaping products introduced (original iMac, PBG4, iBook, iPod and now the flat-panel iMac, OS X) to excellent sales AND reviews and some wickedly awesome applications (iTunes rocks the pants off a horse with the "search field" alone). I wouldn't exactly call that shaky ground. Sure, before a couple years ago things looked bad, and sure, the industry as a whole is slumping, but I think Apple is doing a bang-up job providing a great user experience - not just "bigger, faster, better" hype.
2. eyepeepackets says a. "[Apple is] ... slow to adapt to changing markets and technologies... I would humbly state that this may be almost exactly the opposite of truth. They got rid of the insipid floppy (good riddance), made USB what it is today practically single-handedly, FireWire. Not to mention the way the rest of the industry tends to follow Apple's footsteps in many ways: colorful cases (one could argue for or against this, I'll leave that for another discussion), the whole "Desktop Video" thing, I'll not even mention This little thing [forbes.com] (oops, I just did). I believe it is misinformed to say that Apple is behind the curve, or that they don't innovate.
3. eyepeepackets also seems to completely ignore the fact that the Mac was the "first" "personal" computer when he/she states: "It's going on twenty years since the first Macs came out and look where they are in the market -- hey, about where they were twenty or so years ago. It's simply irresponsible to even attempt to compare the marketshare they had when the first Macs came out (which, I would imagine, was somewhere around 100% of the 4 people that could afford such a thing back then) and today.
4. eyepeepackets then went on to write: ... Oh wait, your second-to-last statement was just flamebait, so I'll pat you on your little, patronizing head and IGNORE IT. (Mostly because of your "cranky" disclaimer! ;)
Perhaps I have Apple-tinted glasses on, I'm not trying to attack anybody here, but, please, try to give Apple credit where credit is due. Even if you are wearing penguin-(or more likely, MSFT-)tinted glasses.
Re:An educated guess.. (Score:2)
Yes, you make some good points in defense of Apple and I'll agree that my statement is a bit over the top.
"3. eyepeepackets also seems to completely ignore the fact that the Mac was the "first" "personal" computer when he/she states: "It's going on twenty years since the first Macs came out and look where they are in the market -- hey, about where they were twenty or so years ago. It's simply irresponsible to even attempt to compare the marketshare they had when the first Macs came out (which, I would imagine, was somewhere around 100% of the 4 people that could afford such a thing back then) and today."
Umm, wrong, way wrong; check your history.
"4. eyepeepackets then went on to write:
Perhaps I have Apple-tinted glasses on, I'm not trying to attack anybody here, but, please, try to give Apple credit where credit is due. Even if you are wearing penguin-(or more likely, MSFT-)tinted glasses."
You're a kind soul and I thank you for your generousity. I'll go on record here and now by saying that whilst I would never allow Apple to lock me into their proprietary hardware hell, I do really appreciate the fact that they've been in the market over the past thirty years or so; in many ways they have helped keep the game interesting even if more so at some times than others.
Thanks for the interesting (well thought and well fought) reply.
Re:An educated guess.. (Score:1)
One quick note, as per your response to #3: I don't really know what I was thinking with that 100% thing. I admit that I didn't research it, but I'd still be willing to bet that Apple had more than 2.7-5% market-share in the "Personal Computer" market. But I digress...
Side note: eyepeepackets, thanks right back at you for not flaming my very first post on slashdot!
(Damn, I actually get a 2 [on an Apple-related thread, no less!] on my very first post and what do I follow it up with? A -1 offtopic... Shoot! Oh well, best not to think too hard on it, it'll be another 6 months before there's something else for me to say that hasn't already been said.
Re:An educated guess.. (Score:2)
The Mac was not the first personal computer... but it was the first personal computer with a REAL gui.
At one time the Apple II series did in fact dominate the market... and then IBM saw that market... and wanted in
I suppose the Mac did dominate the graphical user interface market fairly well for a while...
And from there, it grew to dominate the page layout, graphics, video etc markets...
ie, any market which relied on a visual rather than textual representation.
And then windows happened
Re:An educated guess.. (Score:1)
20 years ago, Apple had a much bigger share of a much smaller market. These days, 5% of the computer market is enough to be considered a "playa". A lot of PC makers wish they could do 5%, especially with Apple's margins.
Re:An educated guess.. (Score:1)
ummmm (Score:3, Insightful)
ibm also did, but they do lots of things other then just pc's
Earth to Apple: Duh (Score:1)
No Kidding... (Score:4, Informative)
You will learn that Apple told them to stop selling the upgraded devices, and that now they are going to sell kits instead, and perhaps a service where customers can send in their eMac to get it upgraded. They are not "shut down" or closed, or out of business by any means.
I don't see the big deal in this at all. If someone were to take boxed Dells and modify them and resell them, I think Dell would have a problem with that too... But, then again, what about the rack mounted Quicksilvers that Terra Soft [terrasoftsolutions.com] sells as the GVS 9000? They're repackaged Power Macs.
Honestly, I don't see why the heck people don't just buy an external DVD-R. SuperDrives are too slow anyways. It's convenient, yes, but limiting. The built-in CDRW is 24/16/32 or something like that. Aren't the SuperDrives 4 speed?
Ironically enough, you can still get to the order page by going here [zettabytesolutions.com]
Re:No Kidding... (Score:2, Interesting)
Re:No Kidding... (Score:1)
"We filled most of the orders; there was a certain point in time where I was not able to acquire any more eMacs and because of that some of the orders did have to be canceled and the money refunded to the customer," said Thompson.
I'm guessing that they were just purchasing them either from Apple directly, through Apple stores or perhaps other resellers like MacMall, MacWarehouse, etc. Then again, I could be completely wrong about this.
Re:No Kidding... (Score:1)
Re:No Kidding... (Score:2)
A reseller has a relationship with the manufacturer which allows them to acquire the computers at wholesale prices. Somebody selling a used box probably bought it at full price.
For reference... (Score:2, Informative)
Re:No Kidding... (Score:1)
Those who think . . . (Score:1, Flamebait)
Re:Those who think . . . (Score:2)
This is pretty simple. Apple is the lesser of two evils right now. Rest assured that when Apple turns to the dark side the tide will turn.
Re:Those who think . . . (Score:1)
Re:Those who think . . . (Score:1)
Re:Those who think . . . (Score:2)
Until then I'll pay for Apple's GUI and APIs and use them on a Free Software foundation (Darwin).
right of first sale? (or whatever) (Score:1)
I don't get it. I can buy paper, write stuff on it, and sell it to someone else without a paper company coming after me. Why couldn't I buy a computer, modify it, and resell it? (provided I wasn't purporting to be Apple, etc...)
Or am I missing the point here...
Re:right of first sale? (or whatever) (Score:2)
thats why apple went after them
Re:right of first sale? (or whatever) (Score:2)
Re:right of first sale? (or whatever) (Score:3, Insightful)
your right it is an emac, made by apple, however the product as sold is not an apple model, and should not be called one.
calling the product an emac causes confusion because consumers will go into stores and ask for the superdrive emac, which does not exist.
apple sold an emac to zettybyte. zettybyte changed it from its original form, and design options, and therefore shouldnt use apple marketing names for their product.
it would be perfectly ok to tell people its a modified emac with a super drive (that is what it is) it just should nto be marketed as an apple emac, which it was
Re:right of first sale? (or whatever) (Score:2)
People buy computers, make upgrades, and resell them all the time and nobody complains. Usually they resell it months or years after they buy it, whereas I assume Zettabyte tries to sell their computers as quickly as possible, but I don't see what the difference is legally.
The same situation happens with cars, and I haven't heard any complaints there either... you can buy a Honda Civic, put in a fancy CD player and hang fuzzy dice on the rear view mirror, then put an ad in the paper saying that you're selling a Honda Civic, and I doubt Honda is gonna complain that you can't call it a Civic anymore because it has a Blaupunkt stereo in it. (And I also doubt other people are gonna go to a Honda dealership and ask why none of the Civics there have fuzzy dice :)
it would be perfectly ok to tell people its a modified emac with a super drive (that is what it is) it just should nto be marketed as an apple emac, which it was
It was marketed as a Apple eMac modified to include a SuperDrive... I still don't see any problem.
Re:right of first sale? (or whatever) (Score:2, Insightful)
In your example, you're not an "authorized Honda reseller", so there are fewer guarantees to the buyer. In fact, I believe you would be required to sell the Civic as "used" because you, as a consumer, did get the "right of first sale."
-J
Re:right of first sale? (or whatever) (Score:2)
That's not the impression I got... from what I remember, Zettabyte was going to provide the warranty and service on their modified machines. I just tried going to their website to see what they say, but their home page seems to have been replaced by a 9 megabyte MPEG!? (FWIW, I have no idea what the MPEG is of, but it looks interesting :)
Anyways, some guy in the previous discussion [slashdot.org] did say that Zettabyte was providing their own warranty.
Re:right of first sale? (or whatever) (Score:2)
the point about the honda civic expresses my idea, better then i did. once it is modified, and resold, the original warranty is no longer applicable.
Re:right of first sale? (or whatever) (Score:2)
Anyways, it's weird that their web site is completely gone... it'd be nice to have some facts about what happened instead of all of our speculation :)
Re:right of first sale? (or whatever) (Score:1)
Yahoo News Article. (Score:2)
Using Apple trademarks most likely.. (Score:4, Insightful)
the company that makes the rackable g4's doesnt call them powermac g4's, they have their own model name. and package them differently.
Apple sells the emacs to Zettybyte, apple doesnt care what happens to them, what they likely have the issue with is people buying these, thinking that they are supported by apple, when they are not.
Zettybyte doesnt call them the z-1000, they call them an apple emac, and likely ship the modified units in apple boxes, with apple documentation.
and buyers (at least a percentage) call apple for support on these machines, with voided warrantys.
this likely causes customer confusion, and dissatisfaction with the Apple Brand and is the reson for the halting of production.
Re:Using Apple trademarks most likely.. (Score:1)
"They're just like Microsoft!" whatever... Often times, things happen for legitimate reasons. Like it or not, if this product breached legal or contractual restrictions, then Apple did exactly the right thing.
Re:Using Apple trademarks most likely.. (Score:1)
If I got it right, they buy eMacs from Apple, put in the drive, and ship it on. So it IS an Apple eMac plus the Superdrive that isn't from Apple, a point that should be absolutely clear to the buyer (which is the reason they go to Zettybyte in the first place). It's not that they take some crap parts of their own, stuff them in a faked eMac case and sell it as an original eMac to unsuspecting customers. So I don't see any problems calling the eMacs what they are, eMacs.
Admitted, the warranty question is tricky. OTOH, I don't know how invasive swapping the drive is for the machine, but if it is just a question of taking out one drive and putting in the other, in a professional way in a professional workshop (no welding, no cutting things, whatever bad things one can do to a computer), the question really is if this really voids the warranty.
At least by German law, e.g. doing the same to a G4 tower shouldn't void the warranty as the drive (as well as PCI cards, RAM etc.) is meant to be end-user swappable by design (if not, adding parts to your new Mac or PC like more RAM, PCI cards, whatsoever would always void the warranty. Some PC companies over here tried to pull that stunt a couple of years ago and failed miserably in court, as a PC (and a G4 tower just the same) are designed with the purpose of changing parts in mind). So the core question is: Is the drive in the eMac meant to be changed by a customer or not ? The warranty for the superdrive certainly has to come from Zettybyte, but come on, where is the problem ? It can't be that expensive for Apple phone support to tell exactly that to people, and they made money by selling the original system in the first place anyway.
In any case I don't like Apple's behaviour in that case. It is one of those somewhat childish wannabe-big brother attempts of Apple to dictate to their customers what they should buy and what they should use in, on or with their computers. When will they start going after retailers selling Macs with RAM-upgrades, graphics cards or other stuff not from Apple (exactly same situation and a AFAIK not very uncommon practise) ?
Re:Using Apple trademarks most likely.. (Score:2)
yes they are emacs, but they are modified to an unsupported config
more sketchy info at (Score:1)
Hello? (Score:2, Insightful)
Well, Apple did something to protect itself and now everyones goign to go screaming about how "its just this type of stuff that keeps macs costing $10,000 and rquiring a refrigerator compresser to cool them" or some equivilent nonesense.
Think about it.
This company was taking new machines, modifying them, and selling them.
How is apple supposed to provide warrantee work for them? How is apple supposed to deal with the damage to its brand when these machines don't work and the warrantee is violated?
If you're going to sell apple technology-- and this is true of Dell, and other brands, and any seller from TechData down to CompUSA you HAVE To have a license. No license, you don't get to sell.
Just as I can't go out and start selling high end Sony car stereos -- a license they only give to their biggest volume dealers-- Apple protecting its brand in this way is exactly what every hardware manufacturer in the world does as well.
Course this won't mean anything to the bigots that see apple as evil and don't understand business at all so they conjecture up some moral law that this supposedly violates. "SEE! This is what happens when you don't sell yourh ardware under GPL! You're a SLAVE TO STEVE JOBS!!!!"
Even the GPL is a *license*!
Re:Gray market? illegal copies of iDVD? (Score:2, Informative)
Remember the HyperDrive... (Score:2)
GCC in Cambridge started cobbling together Macs with (big!) internal 10 megabyte drives. I don't remember whether they had any legal issues with Apple; IIRC there were minor skirmishes but Apple permitted them to do it with appropriate disclaimers.
I won't go so far as to say the HyperDrive saved the Mac, but certainly it helped. An awful lot of people who needed to do serious work on Macs (using that hot new program, PageMaker, for example) needed a hard drive and used the HyperDrive, and it was a very good proof of concept in showing everyone what the Mac was like with a decent hard drive instead of a 400K floppy.
What?! (Score:1)
Re:Remember the HyperDrive... (Score:1)
Re:Remember the HyperDrive... (Score:1)
Early hard drives were so famously unreliable back in the Apple ][ days that I can understand why some companies were slow to jump in.
Re:Remember the HyperDrive... (Score:2)
Re:Remember the HyperDrive... (Score:3, Informative)
Re:Remember the HyperDrive... (Score:1)
Zettabyte *Solutions* (Score:2)
You wouldn't report "McDonald's goes Bankrupt" when "McDonald's Foreign Auto Body of Kenosha" folds, right?