2 years later 13" MBP still same price?

ImAlwaysRight

ImAlwaysRight

macrumors 6502a
Apple released the 13.3-inch MacBook Pro 2.5GHz Dual-core Intel i5 in June 2012 at a price of $1199. Almost two years later they still sell this same computer for $1199.

Refurb is $999 through the Apple store. In July 2012, Fry's Electronics in Houston had the same computer, brand new, on sale for $999. Glad I bought it back then for that price. I upgraded it with a 256GB Samsung SSD and upped the RAM to 16GB (which I got for $65 at the time).


It would cost me more for this same setup today, for a REFURB (SSD is a little lower in price, but RAM is much higher in price). Talk about something holding its value.
 
ImAlwaysRight said:
Apple released the 13.3-inch MacBook Pro 2.5GHz Dual-core Intel i5 in June 2012 at a price of $1199. Almost two years later they still sell this same computer for $1199.

Refurb is $999 through the Apple store. In July 2012, Fry's Electronics in Houston had the same computer, brand new, on sale for $999. Glad I bought it back then for that price. I upgraded it with a 256GB Samsung SSD and upped the RAM to 16GB (which I got for $65 at the time).


It would cost me more for this same setup today, for a REFURB (SSD is a little lower in price, but RAM is much higher in price). Talk about something holding its value.
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Why lower the price on something when so many people are willing to buy it at its original price?
 
IMHO, it's still around for the few people that absolutely want a DVD drive or a large HDD for cheap. I doubt it sells a lot and it's on it's way out. I don't see why would want to lower the price to sell more of it.
 
I view it as apple motivating people to the rMBP or to put it another way, you want the optical drive and upgradeable ram/storage then you'll be paying a premium for it.
 
In germany the cmbp can be had for 950,- € new from retailers. As opposed to 1200,- from apple.
So the price definetely went down here.
 
This happened with the White Macbook mid-2010. It was sold for a long time after Apple have launched the "Core i" models.

Introduction Date: May 18, 2010 Discontinued Date: February 8, 2012*
Details: The "Introduction Date" refers to the date a model was introduced via press release. The "Discontinued Date" typically refers to the date a model either was replaced by a subsequent system or production otherwise ended. In this case, Apple stopped selling this model to the consumer channel on July 20, 2011 and stopped selling it to the education market on February 8, 2012.

http://www.everymac.com/systems/app...-13-polycarbonate-unibody-mid-2010-specs.html
 
It's not that uncommon for retailers of any capacity to do this.

Reasons why? The base Retina offers zero upgrade compatibility. It has 4GB of memory, 128GB of storage, no ethernet port, no optical disk drive.

Some people buy a machine with the intention of upgrading it later. I was one of those people with my 2012 Classic before I sold it. I bought it for $949 at my bookstore on sale and a month later I picked up a 16GB DDR3 kit and threw in a 750GB Seagate XT Hybrid drive. I had relative performance of a solid state, tons of storage space, a ton of ram and I didn't have to spend $1600 on the first purchase to get there.

Plus, getting a sale price on Retina upgrades is a tall order. Finding a sale price on laptop DDR3 memory and an SSD? That's not a tall order at all.

And at the end of the day, not everyone cares about specifications to that degree. If you told my mom, "Hey, this one has a Haswell and that one has Ivy Bridge..." She would be confused. It's dual core with 4GB of ram! It's like asking why Honda still sells a Civic DX when it has the same engine as the DX from the prior generation. Some people are buying an experience and not a spec sheet and the 2012 cMBP is just as much an Apple experience as a Mac Mini or MacBook Air for them.
 
kelon111 said:
Why lower the price on something when so many people are willing to buy it at its original price?
Click to expand...

Yeah I agree with this. Apple is in the business of making money. Period. If you're willing pay, they'll make the sale. This is great for shareholders :apple:
 
I bet at this point, it's just an afterthought and Apple list keeps selling it and will "discontinue" it when their inventory levels run out. iPods are also basically afterthoughts to Apple these days.
 
These still sell because they are upgradeable. It will last longer than the lowest 13" rMBP because of upgradeability.
 
Because when they stop selling it they will have to lower the retina to the lower price or make a budget model. Also there needs to be substantial differences between the different levels.

Look at ipads, they finished the ipad 3 after about 6 months but continued selling the ipad 2 for 25% less than the new ipad 4. In simple terms if you want retina and a faster slimmer ipad then you pay the premium. The ipad 3 and 4 were similar oh and the lightening port.

Iphones, if I remember they kept the 3gs on the market for ages, even when the 4s was released(might be wrong) purely as the budget phone and there had to be enough difference between the 2. Infact the 5 was finished dead on a year after release yet the 4s is still available.

Maybe not on the apple store but certainly seem to still be available to buy new.

Personally I doubt it is to do with the dvd drive or upgradibilty purely as part of the product pyramid. Will be interesting to see if they drop a retina pro down to the bottom tier this time.
 
They have no reason to incentivize you to it.

They want people buying the MacBook Air and the Retina MacBook Pro.

Unless you really need that optical drive all the time or you can't use a Thunderbolt to Gigabit Ethernet adapter, then there really isn't a reason to get the old machine.

People who care about upgrades shouldn't even want that computer either since the parts are too old at this point.
 
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