<b>Global Village 56K/Ethernet Combo card: Mac version can cost $140 more than Windows version; here's why and here's how to sav

A reader writes that he ordered a Global Village 56K/Ethernet Combo card from a mail order catalog for $229 (it normally sells for $350-$369)! However, it turned out to be a "Windows" card and would not work in his Mac. When he called to get the Mac version, he was told that it would cost $369. The only differences between the two versions of the card are their firmware and software. The actual card hardware is identical. Even the model numbers are the same. As such, rather than pay the higher price for the Mac version, the reader downloaded the latest Mac firmware and software from the Global Village site. He installed them and the supposed "Windows" card now worked "flawlessly" in his Mac, saving him over $140.

But maybe you are asking the bigger question: why is Global Village doing this? Why are they charging so much more for the Mac version of the product? The unofficial off-the-record answer I received from a Global Village contact was a depressing one: "Global Village is relatively new in the Wintel arena and is trying to build up marketshare. We are currently losing money on every Win95 PC card we sell, but, with the Mac market going down the tubes, we don't have much choice but to try to build Windows marketshare. So it's not so much our raising the price on Mac modems but rather us trying to sell more Windows modems by lowering the price on the Windows products. I realize it's a fine line, but we can't survive on the number of Mac units we sell anymore."