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Architosh Staff ([email protected])

27 Sep 00

Apple Store Architecture Bundle Concept @ Architosh!

As many of you know Architosh was invited to be an Apple Store Affiliate member some time ago. The program is great and gives us incentive to keep fighting for the Mac in CAD/AEC/3D markets.

One of the comments made to us a few different times about the affiliation concerned store bundles for particular industries. It seems that many of our professional readers are looking for basic incentives to buying at the Apple Store compared to shopping somewhere else.

Here was one thought to help spike interest in shopping at the Apple Store, sent to us by Architosh reader, architect Louis B. Smith Jr., AIA:

Architecture Bundle: SOHO Startup Edition

• PowerBook 500 MHz, 256MB/30GB/DVD-ROM
• HP-DesignJet Color Plotter 24"
• VectorWorks ARCHITECT (CAD package)
• MOYB (Finance package)
• AppleWorks 6 or MS Office 2001 (general biz, presentations)
• PageMaker (reports, portfolio, etc.)
• 17" Apple Studio Monitor
• VST ZIP drive bay
• HP DeskJet

Such a package is nearly everything you need to get started in architecture professionally, in a SOHO setup. One could add SoftWindows or VirtualPC to the mix so that you can gain access to PC-only building industry CD-ROMs (containing DXF CAD files, etc.) and PC-only accounting programs.

While the above represents a SOHO architecture bundle you could easily add a small office bundle to the mix, configurable with 5 or more-G4's. Such a bundle might include the additional following items:

Architecture Bundle: Small Practice Edition

• Same as above plus,
• FormZ (advanced 3D modeling)
• Strata 3D Pro or Art-lantis Render (rendering)
• ArchiCAD with Teamwork in lieu of VectorWorks
• CADviewer (Java applet for viewing Autocad files)
• FileMaker Pro
• FastTrack Schedule (project scheduler)
• 5 or more Power Mac G4's (optional 17" Studio Displays)

Apple could offer bundles like these at seriously reduced prices, similar to the Web publishing bundle that was offered recently. There a number of excellent architecture specific programs for marketing, proposals, government forms, construction estimating, and structural analysis. All of these are to be found at Architosh.

The purpose of presenting this "Architecture Bundle at the Apple Store" idea is to solicit feedback from our many readers who pass by our Apple Store ads each day at Architosh. Apple is clearly interested in getting users to try the Apple Store. That came off very clearly at the Jobs keynote in Paris and in Apple's current Apple Store-only offerings (Lime iBook, etc.). What we are trying to do is define bundles that address our market focus: CAD/AEC/3D on the Mac, so that Apple can reach its objectives and we at Architosh can succeed as well.

We sincerely appreciate all those who help support what we do at Architosh by shopping at both the Amazon and Apple Stores via our links. Many thanks.

So give us some feedback. Tell us what you think about the Apple Store in general and how it might succeed in serving you in your technical design industry. Thanks :-)