The entire internet is up in arms about the "high" prices but seriously people just have very short memories about how Apple prices first generation macs. Lets take a walk down memory lane for the sake of simplicity, lets just look at the 15" model. All these prices can be found here: http://www.everymac.com/global-mac-prices/mac-prices-us-usa-united-states-america.html
Late 2008: We get the first unibody macbook pro's with the following prices. Again, all three laptops come with GeForce 9600m GPUs. The three price points are the familiar $2000, $2500, and $2800.
Mid 2012: This is the new retina macbook pros. We see the first major bump in prices for a new for a new product. The cost of entry increased by $200 but the justification was the retina screen for the first time along with a fully redesigned chassis. All three models received 650M nvidia GPUs.
Late 2013: After a small Early 2013 refresh with CPU speed increases, we saw a bigger late 2013 update to both the CPU and GPU. It was at this time when prices came back down and the introduction of the integrated graphics card, with the dedicated graphics card reserved only for the $2600+ price range.
In 2014 and into 2015, we got another $100 price drop for the dedicated graphics versions. Integrated versions remained similar to previous years.
This year, we have the three models:
1) Apple likes to increase prices when they introduce something "new". It may be because of either the cost of the new equipment or the new factor.
2) Between 2013 and 2015, we got price decreases primarily because of the use of integrated graphics chips instead of dedicated GPUs on the low end, not because of cost cuts across the board.
3) Because intel screwed Apple in not providing a decent iGPU upgrade (which laptop actually has a 580 iGPU on the market?), they were unable to update the integrated $2000 version so they carried over the 2015 model to fill that price point. The $2400 & $2800 model price points fall in line with 2013, 2014, and 2015 dedicated GPU models.
4) More likely than not, we will see Apple update that $2000 model with an integrated model in 2017 but the dedicated GPU versions will probably keep those historical prices so again we will have the $2000, $2400, & $2800 price points.
5)We can probably expect a marginal $100 or $200 price decrease over the next couple years but these prices are not unprecedented.
The recent lower barrier of entry is primarily due to lower performance parts. Top end macs have held their prices pretty consistently.
Late 2008: We get the first unibody macbook pro's with the following prices. Again, all three laptops come with GeForce 9600m GPUs. The three price points are the familiar $2000, $2500, and $2800.
Mid 2012: This is the new retina macbook pros. We see the first major bump in prices for a new for a new product. The cost of entry increased by $200 but the justification was the retina screen for the first time along with a fully redesigned chassis. All three models received 650M nvidia GPUs.
Late 2013: After a small Early 2013 refresh with CPU speed increases, we saw a bigger late 2013 update to both the CPU and GPU. It was at this time when prices came back down and the introduction of the integrated graphics card, with the dedicated graphics card reserved only for the $2600+ price range.
In 2014 and into 2015, we got another $100 price drop for the dedicated graphics versions. Integrated versions remained similar to previous years.
This year, we have the three models:
- Macbook Pro 15" Non Touch Bar with integrated graphics (Essentially 2015): US $2000
- Macbook Pro 15" Touch Bar & R450 GPU: US$2399
- Macbook Pro 15" Touch Bar & R455 GPU: US$2799
1) Apple likes to increase prices when they introduce something "new". It may be because of either the cost of the new equipment or the new factor.
2) Between 2013 and 2015, we got price decreases primarily because of the use of integrated graphics chips instead of dedicated GPUs on the low end, not because of cost cuts across the board.
3) Because intel screwed Apple in not providing a decent iGPU upgrade (which laptop actually has a 580 iGPU on the market?), they were unable to update the integrated $2000 version so they carried over the 2015 model to fill that price point. The $2400 & $2800 model price points fall in line with 2013, 2014, and 2015 dedicated GPU models.
4) More likely than not, we will see Apple update that $2000 model with an integrated model in 2017 but the dedicated GPU versions will probably keep those historical prices so again we will have the $2000, $2400, & $2800 price points.
5)We can probably expect a marginal $100 or $200 price decrease over the next couple years but these prices are not unprecedented.
The recent lower barrier of entry is primarily due to lower performance parts. Top end macs have held their prices pretty consistently.
Last edited by a moderator:
