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Apple financial success secret - some iMac components are overpriced up to 13 times!!

D

DigitalFreedom

macrumors newbie
Original poster
Feb 16, 2012
9
0
It has come to my attention that Apple charges just INCREDIBLE price for the memory upgrade of iMacs.
If you visit the Apple online store, you'll see Apple wants $600 for memory upgrade from 4 Gb to 16 Gb.
i.e. 12 Gb of memory costs $600.

If you visit Amazon or NewEgg, you'll be able to buy a compatible and proven Corsair 4 Gb stick for $22.

Apple assembles iMacs in China, and they purchase memory in bulk there (Apple install Chinese memory), so we can freely assume they order it for $15 for 4 Gb.

Total price for 12 Gb will be $45

So, Apple sells $45 memory for $600, making $555 of profit!

If you divide $600/$45 you'll see Apple prices are more than 13 times (!!!!) higher than real prices.

So are you still amazed they are world's most financially successful company?
 
DigitalFreedom said:
It has come to my attention that Apple charges just INCREDIBLE price for the memory upgrade of iMacs.
If you visit the Apple online store, you'll see Apple wants $600 for memory upgrade from 4 Gb to 16 Gb.
i.e. 12 Gb of memory costs $600.

If you visit Amazon or NewEgg, you'll be able to buy a compatible and proven Corsair 4 Gb stick for $22.

Apple assembles iMacs in China, and they purchase memory in bulk there (Apple install Chinese memory), so we can freely assume they order it for $15 for 4 Gb.

Total price for 12 Gb will be $45

So, Apple sells $45 memory for $600, making $555 of profit!

If you divide $600/$45 you'll see Apple prices are more than 13 times (!!!!) higher than real prices.

So are you still amazed they are world's most financially successful company?
Click to expand...

Not amazed in the least. The market will bear what the market will bear.
 
Apple is not a memory seller. They price it hight to prevent them against market fluctuation. There was a time where prices were moving all the time.

Apple computers are expensive, but they select only premium components (never entry lever cpus for example), an exclusive case and OS plus you pay this 'hype' image (marketing cost). There is no secret. You pay what you get.
 
Not exactly news. Everyone here knows
to buy ram elsewhere. If you want a
cheaper machine with cheap components
buy a PC. But add on the repairs, anti virus
software and work out if it's still cheaper.
Especially as you will only get a couple of
years from your OS before Microsoft make
you pay a few hundred quid to upgrade. Then
your machine has no resale value. Apple is
a choice. If you don't like the company move
on.
 
DigitalFreedom said:
It has come to my attention that Apple charges just INCREDIBLE price for the memory upgrade of iMacs.
If you visit the Apple online store, you'll see Apple wants $600 for memory upgrade from 4 Gb to 16 Gb.
i.e. 12 Gb of memory costs $600.
Click to expand...

Any profits from selling additional RAM are counted under "customer cash donations" in Apple's annual financial report. Check it in three weeks time :D

But your comparison between a component price that you are guessing and that a customer can't buy for, and the price for the same component in a finished product, that is disingenious and not how reality works.

And Apple is just in line with about every other computer manufacturer here.
 
RAM is not a component: its a user choice

You don't have to buy the RAM from Apple; that is up to you, and the machines are easy for you to make the RAM choice yourself, and add the RAM too. Maybe its expensive, for the corporate market?

As to the real components, they typically have not been expensive. Look at the cost of a 27" screen of such technology, say the LG screen from Dell, and then add the computer components ... the Apple is good value.

I recently had a power supply fail on a 24" white mac that has run continuously since ... errhh ... perhaps 2006? And it cost $133 including tax ... for the diagnosis, the installation, and the new power supply. Not bad iMO ... of course if it had of been a motherboard, I'd have been furious at Apple, because they are way overpriced.

How come the motherboards are so overpriced? It goes back to Apple preventing people buying an Apple motherboard, and putting it into their own case, and then increasing the CPU speed, and such, and then having a better Mac than Mac did. So ... Apple had very high prices on Apple spare parts ... and what they did, was trade in the part for a new part. But ... these days, they often do not allow for a proper "balancing" trade in price. So the dealer can show the high parts cost, but they don't show the trade in price on the blown up part ... I don't like that behaviour from Apple dealers, when they just show the invoice price from Apple ... but not the trade back price that Apple gives them ... and it make Apple component prices seem much higher. Shame that ...
 
Last edited:
Only a fool would buy iMac RAM upgrade directly from Apple.

Actually all Apple's CTO options for Mac are overpriced, CPU, HDD, SSD, VRAM and obviously RAM. They're all cost more than they should when you compare to MSRP difference.

But yeah, RAM is definitely the craziest one, definitely marked up 400 - 600%. So, like I said .. you're a fool to buy RAM directly from Apple, especially when you are allowed to upgrade them yourself on your iMac.

Different case for MBA though, you're basically have nothing to bargain with. You're stuck on whatever parts it comes with. You're SOL :D
 
You should know what a car dealer wants for a simple replacement screw ^^

Anyway, you are free to go to a shop and build you a computer with features of an iMac (speed, build quality, component quality, power consumption, dimensions) for €1000. So why won't you do it... oh right, because this is not possible.
 
Fantastic logic there. You're essentially saying that if someone overcharges for a product, they are thusly financially successful.

Another spanner in your theory: Apple sells more MacBooks than desktops, and Apple's iPhone division makes more money than their Mac division. Making the iMac a small part of their balance sheet.
 
Last edited:
Wirelessly posted (iPhone 4s)

There financial success if you take 5 seconds to look is from there iPhone, iPad and iPod side of the business and iOS (app and iTunes stores)
 
DigitalFreedom said:
It has come to my attention that Apple charges just INCREDIBLE price for the memory upgrade of iMacs.
If you visit the Apple online store, you'll see Apple wants $600 for memory upgrade from 4 Gb to 16 Gb.
i.e. 12 Gb of memory costs $600.

If you visit Amazon or NewEgg, you'll be able to buy a compatible and proven Corsair 4 Gb stick for $22.

Apple assembles iMacs in China, and they purchase memory in bulk there (Apple install Chinese memory), so we can freely assume they order it for $15 for 4 Gb.

Total price for 12 Gb will be $45

So, Apple sells $45 memory for $600, making $555 of profit!

If you divide $600/$45 you'll see Apple prices are more than 13 times (!!!!) higher than real prices.

So are you still amazed they are world's most financially successful company?
Click to expand...

"It is better to keep your mouth closed and let people think you are a fool than to open it and remove all doubt."

--Mark Twain
 
DigitalFreedom said:
It has come to my attention that Apple charges just INCREDIBLE price for the memory upgrade of iMacs.
If you visit the Apple online store, you'll see Apple wants $600 for memory upgrade from 4 Gb to 16 Gb.
i.e. 12 Gb of memory costs $600.

If you visit Amazon or NewEgg, you'll be able to buy a compatible and proven Corsair 4 Gb stick for $22.

Apple assembles iMacs in China, and they purchase memory in bulk there (Apple install Chinese memory), so we can freely assume they order it for $15 for 4 Gb.

Total price for 12 Gb will be $45

So, Apple sells $45 memory for $600, making $555 of profit!

If you divide $600/$45 you'll see Apple prices are more than 13 times (!!!!) higher than real prices.

So are you still amazed they are world's most financially successful company?
Click to expand...

No, apple's financial success can be seen in how no one here thinks that this is a really bad thing (and the negative votes I get will prove it). Brainwash the public into believing that this is acceptable. Then charge ridiculous prices. No one will really complain (its just apple) and you will make money off the poor smucks who don'n know better.

in my opinion, apple's pricing is absolutely disgusting, as is any OEM who so grosely overcharges for components. There is nothing wrong with making a nice profit, I just have a problem with absurd margins.
 
A couple of things don't add up in the OP's figures.

A 16GB RAM upgrade goes from 2 x 2GB to 4 x 4GB, so you cannot just consider the price of 3 x 4GB.

And there is too much guess work on what Apple will pay. The price would have been set quite a while in advance, and prices fluctuate.

The big one though is the BTO option means the computer doesn't go through the route a stock item will. It needs to have that different RAM fitted, and go through a different delivery process. That costs money.

Look at option prices on cars, the prices are totally different to what it would be to buy and fit the components yourself. The same thing.

RAM is usually a lot cheaper to buy yourself. You will find this especially true when it has been a long time since a refresh (which is currently the case for most Macs), because it is so long since Apple last revised the prices.
 
Its not an upgrade by 12GB because the iMac comes with 4GB (2x2GB) and then you have 16GB (4x4GB). Going on about what apple and other companies charge for things like that is pointless. You see it everywhere. When you upgrade the CPU aswell for example. They will charge you $250 to upgrade to a 2.5GHz quad on the MBP, when this CPU is sold by Intel for like $500 per 1000 of them. And its not only apple who charges like that all companies do. Thats just how it is nowadays and there is nothing you can do about it.
 
Apple will sell items at the level "they can get away with". Vehicle sales reps sell a vehicle at level "they can get away with". Government makes one pay taxes at level "they can get away with".... If you ran your own company, bet you'd sell at level "you can get away with" as well...
 
I could comment on alot of your post...but i will only comment on this.

"So, Apple sells $45 memory for $600, making $555 of profit!"

Do you even know what the word profit means? No seriously do you have a college degree or even a G.E.D. I think I can dummy it down for you.

Revenue-expenses=profit.

Revenue is money made from selling goods or services. Expenses are things like overhead, labor, shipping. Profit is the amount of money left of the revenue after paying expenses.

If any words used in this are beyond your vocabulary please visit www.dictionary.com
 
To be fair - and ask anyone, I'm a Dell fanboy much more so than an Apple fanboy - Dell charges $340 for a 16gb upgrade, and that's coming from 8gb's already. $600 to go from 4gb to 16 sounds about accurate, even compared to PC prices.
 
Apple 27" Thunderbolt monitor: $999
Aftermarket 27" IPS 2560x2440 monitor: $350

*The aftermarket monitor uses the same LG panel.

:)
 
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