Deals: First Discounts Hit New 13-Inch MacBook Pro at Expercom

[69Mustang]

How do these discounts work? Do they buy them from Apple in thousands at a wholesale price, increase the price somewhat and sell them on, still making a profit? If so, what is Apple’s interest in doing it, versus selling directly to the customers at the price they want?

Retailers sell Apple just like they sell any other product. They sell on the difference between MSRP and their wholesale cost. The closer they can get the consumer to paying the MSRP, the more profit they make. Some retailers are willing to forego some of the profit to make up for it with (hopefully) more volume. That's the simplest version. There are things like Volume Cash Discount and Rebates to consider but that's more of a rabbit hole.

Apple's interest are primarily satisfied when their customers take shipment of the goods. Most of Apple's sales are counted when they ship product to their customers (retailers and carriers). The volume of products sold through their stores and online portal are only approx. a third of their total. The split is ~70/30 Retail & Carriers/Apple Stores & Online.

Of course they'd prefer customers to buy in-store and online, but they realize their 3rd party network of resellers has far greater reach.

 

[NavySilver]

Hi all,
So I have a 2016 MBP with the specs listed below. I've been looking to upgrade so that I can get a MBP with more ram but the processors are still either i5 or i7 for years now. Would I see any significant speed gains?

For reference, I use Excel and Tableau for most of the day.

View attachment 912091

I am using (almost) the exact same model as you are, besides with four ports. If you're not consistently running very demanding tasks on your computer, I think it is a good idea to hold out; next year (or even late this year) could be when we see a 14-inch model or ARM model. That's when the meaningful changes kick in.

 

[CheesePuff]

Wow, 2GHz! I think I have an old laptop from 15 years ago that is faster that that. But at the end of the day I guess people don't need much to process their email.

You need to read https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Megahertz_myth

 

[Emanuel Rodriguez]

The same way a discount for a new car works.

Dealers deciding that they get more overall profits if they reduce the margins that Apple planned (price gap between what they pay and what Apple lists).

Or that the list prices are so high that noone is expected to pay them, but everybody will get worked up bout a "deal" that really is the price that should have been listed in the 1st place.

Yep. It's often obvious when that happens. 50% off should never be a thing (but it does happen) if the margins aren't obscene, but for many people, a deal like that is hard to pass up.

 

[gpat]

You can't compare the clock speed from two different processor generations, especially a 15 year old one. That old, even an iPhone would mop the floor with it.

Pretty sure an iPhone could mop the floor even with the new one

 

[Emanuel Rodriguez]

Pretty sure an iPhone could mop the floor even with the new one

No, it can't. The iPhone 11 Pro Max actually beats the 2020 MacBook Air (benchmark 1, benchmark 2), but I'd estimate the processor in the new 13 inch would be roughly the same as the iPhone 11 Pro Max. The iPhone certainly wouldn't "mop the floor" with it.

 

[827538]

Has anyone got any experience buying from here?
Always skeptical of places like these offering discounts on new stuff.

 

[darkslide29]

No, it can't. The iPhone 11 Pro Max actually beats the 2020 MacBook Air (benchmark 1, benchmark 2), but I'd estimate the processor in the new 13 inch would be roughly the same as the iPhone 11 Pro Max. The iPhone certainly wouldn't "mop the floor" with it.

I am not very knowledgeable in comparing processors across architecture and generations, but I am still very shocked to see that the iPhone 11 Pro Max beats the newest i7 MacBook Air. I realize iPhone's are getting a lot more powerful with each release, but had no idea it was at or better than MacBook power. I suppose this erases concerns (at least when it comes to CPU power) about Apple moving to ARM in the near future. Thanks for sharing.

 

[sdhalpern]

This "update" is trash. Same old 13" screen, giant bezels, 8th gen processors in all but the most expensive model. This is junk. Wait for the 14".

 

[darkslide29]

Has anyone got any experience buying from here?
Always skeptical of places like these offering discounts on new stuff.

I don't have personal experience, but they were also the 'first' to offer a discount on the 2020 iPad Pro / MacBook Air and given a front page article then too. One commented that they've been shopping there for years, and another confirmed Expercom to be a 'Premiere Partner' per Apple.

Expercom Provides First Discounts for New MacBook Air and iPad Pro

Apple reseller Expercom has launched pre-orders for the just-announced MacBook Air and iPad Pro updates, offering up to $104 off these devices,...

www.macrumors.com

 

[GuruZac]

Surprised there is already a discount but I guess given the economic circumstances probably a good idea. Unless you just absolutely need to upgrade I feel it would make more sense to hold out for the often rumored about 14” MBP no?

 

[Metrosey]

No idea bout the US, bur around that would be illegal.

Just checked a German distributor and all configs at least 150€ less than on Apple's site, just like when I bought my maxed 12" just days after it's release.
A.k.a. business as usual.

I don't think it's illegal since many luxury brands do such an action. It's all about brand presentation.

 

[Dr.Konfusir]

Cheaper with education discount.

 

[kittycat40]

The new one still uses 8th generation... Apple charges you premium for a PC with 3 year-old internals, slow processing speeds, tiny hard drives, little RAM and one of their buggiest OS yet...

Actually you're partailly correct and partially incorrect.

Yes Apple gives you the 8th gen processor, in the $1,299 configuration. However, if you step up to the $1,799 configuration than you get faster ram, and the 10 gen intel processors.

 

[GeoStructural]

Actually you're partailly correct and partially incorrect.

Yes Apple gives you the 8th gen processor, in the $1,299 configuration. However, if you step up to the $1,799 configuration than you get faster ram, and the 10 gen intel processors.

For that price you can get a better computer from other providers.

 

[The Cappy]

Won't happen, ever. Apple doesn't believe in choice or respect consumers. They don't have removable batteries, headphone jacks, or expansion slots on their phones. They took away all but the headphone jack on their laptops as well.

I do agree with you, they should add it.... but this is Apple, this is what they are known for.

Well in their defense, each one of these things takes up space internally. You might say, "Not much space." But look inside. There's absolutely no wasted space inside these machines any more. So what will they do? Make the batteries smaller to compensate? But battery life is important to absolutely everyone, and SD slots and so forth are important only to a minority. Are they going to make their iPhone or laptops larger? But they won't. They'll sacrifice something internally. Removable batteries involve nontrivial extra thickness: two partitions that didn't previously have to exist, one on the battery-side of the phone and one on the phone side of the battery. *Shrug* Most of their models get pretty good battery life. (Not always, of course. When I visit the FSU, my battery life is trash. As nearly as I can tell, the phone spends its whole time vainly trying to find something better than 2G or 3G connections.)

 

[sirozha]

This article IS about the new Macbook Pro 🤔

That’s the point.
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Waiting for the 14 inch MBP with a SD card slot

Will wait forever.
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Hi all,
So I have a 2016 MBP with the specs listed below. I've been looking to upgrade so that I can get a MBP with more ram but the processors are still either i5 or i7 for years now. Would I see any significant speed gains?

For reference, I use Excel and Tableau for most of the day.

View attachment 912091

No. Stick with what you have.

 

[nylonsteel]

would buy the 3rd config
if
it had 1tb ssd +32gb ram @ same price
aapl tax - ugh

 

[tharitm]

Anyone who ordered through this site? I've seen it been discounted through this site from MacRumors but is it reputable?

 

[Acorn]

I miss the days I didn’t have to sink 1800 dollars just to get a normal speed apple laptop. I will pass on this update and proceed with building my windows pc.

 

[redfarsi]

How are these not price protected by Apple?

they are price protected. Apple sells these directly to you at pretty much the same price.
1. Go to Apple.com
2. Scroll to the very bottom of the page or use the search/find feature.
3. click “shop for college”
4. It takes you the product page, click on Mac. Starting price is $1,199 which is better than any 3rd party offers.
All these discounts you guys are seeing are just the student discount factored in which Apple also offers too


No, you don’t have have be a student, you don’t have to verify your email, or prove what school you go to. This is an open discount to anyone. If you go to the store they will sell it to you at this price too.

Here is another fun one, find out who the three major corporations are near your local Apple store. Go to the store and tell them you work at one of them then find out whether you get the blue or green discount. They don’t check proof of employment.

 

[Ulfric]

Apple should permanently discount the new 13" MacBook Pro instead... they still charge $1300 for an 8th gen Intel Processor lol

To be honest though 8th gen to 10th gen barely makes any difference ( Thanks to Intel ofc)

10750 only 2 % faster on avg than 9750 9th gen

and only 7% faster on avg than 8750 6th gen

But 21% slower than Ryzen 4800H

 

[Dozer_Zaibatsu]

I notice that on Pricewatch you can always find price cuts from vendors on the factory-base model of each version. So when there is a $100 price cut on a lower-spec base model with 8GB of RAM, it's still an effective $200 cost to double the RAM to 16, because the BTO options like that are rarely on sale.

I didn't buy a MacBookPro for our home business last round for that reason. The base 1.4GHz 8th gen was plenty fine. But the 8GB/128GB spec wasn't, and to get it to a usable 16GB/256GB was effectively $400 more. That blows when you're getting a machine without replaceable RAM and drives.
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To be honest though 8th gen to 10th gen barely makes any difference ( Thanks to Intel ofc)

This is true. But I'm not paying full price for an 8th gen chip for a machine I want to make last. The improved Iris graphics alone make [the newer 10th gen] effectively a better chip.

 

[IrishInIsengard]

Expercom doesn't offer payment financing the way Apple does, correct? I'd prefer to buy with financing right now because of the economy (and at 0%, why not?).

 

[nt5672]

You can't compare the clock speed from two different processor generations, especially a 15 year old one. That old, even an iPhone would mop the floor with it.

. . . .

Duh, but 4 processors at the same speed is not 4 times the processing and 4 or 6 processors at 1/2 the speed may or may not be an improvement. Certain types of loads require fast processors. Watching YouTube, Tweeting, and answering email do not. There is a lot of marketing hype in the new computers that hide the dismal failure to make processing improvements that are any more than marketing BS.