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Amazon Begins Selling More Apple Products, Including Latest Macs, iPad Pro, and Apple Watch Series 4

iMi said:
Amazon is the Walmart of the internet.
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You're joking, right? Walmart, for its entire history, has been targeting low income folks with poor to fair quality products. Sure, Walmart has sprinkled in some nicer (and albeit very common) products such as iPods and iPads and some select tvs. There's also the clientele that shop at Walmart that has spawned thousands of "Walmart shopper" videos displaying some really trashy and freaky people.

In general, when you call a company "the Walmart of ______" you are really calling that other company a bad name. Like a trashy store. I don't consider Amazon remotely close to Walmart as far as quality of products, vastness of selection, and by far superior customer service and experience.

Amazon has been the king of online retail for a long time...and will likely dominate for even longer. Amazon sells everything. Everything. The first place people search for a product is Amazon...not Google.
 
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iMi said:
Amazon is the Walmart of the internet. Doesn't seem like the best place for Apple to be targeting as a retail channel. Apple has its own e-commerce website and no doubt gets millions of hits daily. Plus, all those beautiful (and expensive) stores they built all over the place? Seems like Amazon will cannibalize at least some of those sales. Third party sellers already sell some Apple products on Amazon, so I don't see the advantage of formally launching with Amazon. Plus, Amazon will take some margins from Apple. This is also a company that competes with Apple in other areas.

The partnership with Best Buy makes a lot of sense, but this really does not.
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Wouldn’t mind betting that Amazon get huge numbers more hits than Apple does.
Could be that somebody shopping for hair clippers sees an add for a MacBook that they might otherwise not have seen?
 
Sevanw said:
Just another sign of how dwindling sales require closing down production lines, and opening up more points of sale to get rid of as much accumulated stock as possible through the biggest sales and discounts channel, Amazon. Alibaba is next.
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Same was said when they partnered with Kohl's for the AW sales...
 
thei3ug said:
It makes sense if apple has fully utilized its distribution channel and it would cost more to move into AMZs network than to simply partner, and apple doesn’t see a long term benefit to developing new distribution channels.

They’ve completely occupied the largest central e-commerce channel for low cost apple products (refurbished). Now apple can better capture the value of the resale market through limited high volume partners, crowd out resellers they do not extract value from, while controlling quality for that market in hardware QC and extended software support timelines , and hopefully stabilizing install base during the device transition.

They’ve been planning for iPhone slowdowns for years. Amazon partnerships are a component of that plan.
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Interesting perspective!
 
Maybe a silly question but if I buy a rMBP from Amazon can I go to an Apple Store and buy applecare for it there? Thanks.
 
zea said:
Ordered a new iPad Pro yesterday from Amazon when they started to officially post the Apple products. It had a guaranteed delivery date of today, but it hasn't even been shipped yet. I guess they still have some kinks to work out.
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I've seen this too. They can ship it at 1:00pm and have it to my house by 2:30pm. Yes, shipping times under two hours. in some cases with high volume items.

They sometimes use a shipping service that works like Uber/Lyft. People sign up to be Amazon contract drivers. They drive their normal cars and some cell phone app tells them where to go and gives them directions. They make almost no money doing this, same as Uber but for packages. Amazon is smart and gives each driver only as many boxes as they can deliver based on traffic and routing

So I order some parts, like a 10 pound box of stainless steel nails for my nail gun (I always use stainless for outdoor projects like fences) to be delivered to a job site "same day". Then in the afternoon this girl, about 20 years old drives up in a 10-year-old Honda Civic and drops the box off. I thought she lived in the area and was handing over a misdelivered box. But no. she was a contract delivery driver, "just like Uber" she said.


Someday Amazon will start using catapult launchers to hurle the boxes through the air and promise "free 1-minute delivery" if you live within catapult range. They make it sound like they are doing you a favor, maybe they are, but really these way-fast delivery systems are saving Amazon a ton of money.
 
Sevanw said:
Just another sign of how dwindling sales require closing down production lines, and opening up more points of sale to get rid of as much accumulated stock as possible through the biggest sales and discounts channel, Amazon. Alibaba is next.
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Amaxon sells products from almost every manufacturer and there are many people who only shop there. I might start ording my apple products on amazon because of free 2 and same day delivery
 
iapplelove said:
I don’t really see the big deal. Amazon sells google products as well. Same as Microsoft.
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Give him a break. He’s still coming down from his Samsung foldable display high from another thread.

Anyway, it’s always good to have more choices where to buy Apple products.
 
iMi said:
Amazon is the Walmart of the internet. Doesn't seem like the best place for Apple to be targeting as a retail channel. Apple has its own e-commerce website and no doubt gets millions of hits daily. Plus, all those beautiful (and expensive) stores they built all over the place? Seems like Amazon will cannibalize at least some of those sales. Third party sellers already sell some Apple products on Amazon, so I don't see the advantage of formally launching with Amazon. Plus, Amazon will take some margins from Apple. This is also a company that competes with Apple in other areas.

The partnership with Best Buy makes a lot of sense, but this really does not.
Click to expand...
Apple cares more about getting devices in costumers hands so they can make money off of services. They already sell many products in Walmart’s and targets. In fact when I mostly buy non flagship devices from 3rd parties because the price is often dramatically cheaper
 
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wayoutwest5505 said:
Yeah, 17 in. MacBook Pro, 16 G, 1 TB ssd, Intel i7. Late 2011. Runs great and paid for. Bought Refurbished from Apple.
in 2012
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They sell all the 2018 products on amazon as well in fact the only thing that seems to be missing is HomePod. There is also an entire market of costumers who buy older devices because it fits into their budget. I was able to sell a 2012 non retina MacBook to a coworker a year ago for $500
 
Sevanw said:
Just another sign of how dwindling sales require closing down production lines, and opening up more points of sale to get rid of as much accumulated stock as possible through the biggest sales and discounts channel, Amazon. Alibaba is next.
Click to expand...

Amazon was selling Apple products for years before that counterfeit lawsuit made Amazon stop selling certain products without Apples permission I believe. I bough quite a few macs and iPods from amazon back then. Now it’s just (presumably) going through more official channels. As for Alibaba, Apple has also been selling there for years, and has a dedicated flagship store on Alibaba’s Tmall.
 
Bad news for all the mom and pops who will be unceremoniously barred from reselling apple 2nd hand products without Apple’s blessing which for most will not occur. Note that the resllers had little warning and were with Amazon before Amazon became what they are today.
 
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I like that it provides other avenues of acquiring the products.

What’s next for amazon.....cars?!?! Truly a behemoth in e-commerce.
 
Good to see too Amazon are ramping up their Apple products...

Makes their previous "not selling Apple products" statement, totally wasteful.

redneckitengineer said:
Amazon’s finally big enough to not care about selling a competitors products. There’s some hidden messages in this announcement.
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They already were big in the past year, Nothing much had changed except their attitude towards Apple products.
 
Latest Mac Pro? From 2014?
And questions about it were answered more than 3 years ago.

And the Mac Mini link is to a Core i3 (or Core i5) model. Where are the Core i7 models?
 
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