on apple.com, the 12 watt power adapter is only 19, while the 10w is 29. Anyone have any ideas why that might be the case?
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New 12watt power adapter cheaper than 10w?
- Thread starter busterbluth
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Exactly. Another sneaky maneuver by apple to keep increasing prices.
Apple increase prices of 13 inch MacBook Pro, iMac 27 inch base. They increased the retail price of the iPhone from $599 to $650 in April 2012.
Usually tech is supposed to get cheaper. Apple is going the other way around
So offering it for LESS money by not including what you already have and may not want/need (especially if buying for 30 pin device) is a price increase?
The previous iPad charger was $29. It came with 10w charger, a 6 foot extension, plus a USB cord with the 30 pin connector.So offering it for LESS money by not including what you already have and may not want/need (especially if buying for 30 pin device) is a price increase?
So if apple offered same $29 price with either 30 pin connector or lightning connector for $29 than it would not be a price increase.
Now they charge $19 for just the charger. Plus $19 for separate 30 pin USB connector. Totals $38 vs $29. And they don't have the six foot extension.
The math is simple. Apple is charging more for less.
So offering it for LESS money by not including what you already have and may not want/need (especially if buying for 30 pin device) is a price increase?
They are not offering it for less. The are selling it in a different configuration.
Actually, the one with the dock cable and extension cord was $39, which should be $44 in today's dollars adjusting for inflation. And that's for a 10W brick. Getting rid of the heat produced by a 12W adapter and keeping the parts small adds to the cost on top of that. Even if it's only $2 more. Then there's the much higher cost of the Lightning cable itself.
We're long past the days when technology drops in price that much faster than inflation. Things bottom out eventually, and you start to hit a point where the retail prices aren't going to go much lower, and you just start getting better components for the same prices. It's not like power adapters are a new technology ripe for additional efficiencies.
You're not getting less. You're getting different things entirely, and if anything, getting more hardware for your money. You may not care about the improvements and work that went into the new products, but that doesn't change the fact that they're there.
Incorrect. The 10w iPad charger was $29. Not sure what u are smoking. Charger, USB cord, 6 foot extension all for $29.
Obviously apple took it off their website so can't link it.
But here are discussions about the $29 charger.
https://discussions.apple.com/thread/3013681?start=0&tstart=0
Not originally, it wasn't. They have sold a number of versions over the years, and like that thread you posted indicates, most come with either the 30-pin cable or the extension cable, but not both.
They did temporarily sell one model with all 3, which you're right I did not realize was ever priced at $29 and not $39 if that poster is correct (which I'm not sure about), but that has not been the norm. Here is one link showing a 39.99 original MSRP: http://www.wirelessemporium.com/p-8...t-w-dock-cable-power-cord-a1357-ma591g-b-.asp
I guess we are both correct
I am just confused why apple would just sell just the charger separately from the USB cable.
Most people like myself like to leave an extra charger in our workplace. But it kinda of defeats the purpose if we have to unplug our USB cable from home, throw same USB cable in ur work bag and reconnect USB cable again at work.
Apple knows this. It's a pure profit move to make people buy a seperate usb cable.
They sell it separately because people don't always need both. When you have a situation, like here, where component costs have gone up dramatically, it makes more sense to allocate expenses more carefully.
It cuts both ways. Yes, Apple might bring in a few bucks more when people buy both at $19 apiece, but it is also easier for someone to buy just a $19 cable and use a different charger setup (another brand or a computer instead), or just a charger and no cable, which means the customer's now saving $10 on the charger by not paying for a cable he didn't need. The only person who pays more is the guy who previously got the bundle at a relative discount because it was subsidized by customers paying for more than they wanted in the charger kit.
In the end it's probably roughly revenue neutral and it helps with what are apparently still somewhat limited Lightning cable supplies.
It cuts both ways. Yes, Apple might bring in a few bucks more when people buy both at $19 apiece, but it is also easier for someone to buy just a $19 cable and use a different charger setup (another brand or a computer instead), or just a charger and no cable, which means the customer's now saving $10 on the charger by not paying for a cable he didn't need. The only person who pays more is the guy who previously got the bundle at a relative discount because it was subsidized by customers paying for more than they wanted in the charger kit.
In the end it's probably roughly revenue neutral and it helps with what are apparently still somewhat limited Lightning cable supplies.
Some people can complain about anything, and go through Orwellian acrobatics to claim that decreasing the price is increasing the price.
They are selling less for less. That's the only thing you can correctly and objectively state about this.
As far as motivation goes, it's exceptionally simple: which cable should it include, the 30-pin cable for the 100's of millions of 30-pin dock connector devices currently in use? Or the Lightning cable for the millions currently in use, and eventually hundreds of millions down the line?
Instead of multiplying out the SKU's (something Apple goes through great effort to avoid), and selling two almost identical products which will absolutely lead to people inadvertently purchasing the wrong one, it's much simpler to sell just the one.
And all for $19, which is the cheapest possible price for Apple to sell this at given their standard price points. Their other choices are $9 (which is way too low) or $29 (which is way too high).
There's nothing nefarious about this, it's simply the most logical option.