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FWIW:

it's quite silly to think that the casing is a substantial cost difference in a sense of differing tens of dollars. As someone said earlier, in this volume we are talking cents.

Also, AIQW is indeed the only one trying to supply facts over "gut feelings" and "logic". He's being unfairly singled out in this case.

And yes, experts have made silly remarks: Like Alu is heavier, so will cost more to transport.

1. It seems the poly is heavier.
2. It seems the poly is bigger, which is just as important in shipping costs.

AIQW was completely right challenging that... I do not understand why he's being scolded for that.

I'll do an assumption, with the @ss in mind as I'm no expert in this field, but do know a bit about retail: The manufacturing costs are not that important compared to what happens after it gets pooped form the bandwagon: marketing, shipping&handling, packaging, sales, administration etc.

I could be very wrong here, so I say this with the @sshat on my head^^. It's making a paralel with how it usually works (it's why cutting out a retail chain, like Dell did, is more important than cheap manufacturing)
 
So the box was wrong; 2 x 2GB instead of the 2 x 1GB on the box. Not to mention the copyright (2009 instead of 2010). Hmm.
 
So the box was wrong; 2 x 2GB instead of the 2 x 1GB on the box. Not to mention the copyright (2009 instead of 2010). Hmm.

Yeah... the box is... cryptic. But why should someone fake it?
The specs are exactly what is expected, so the machine could be legit, or??
 
So the box was wrong; 2 x 2GB instead of the 2 x 1GB on the box. Not to mention the copyright (2009 instead of 2010). Hmm.

No, it's an easy trap to fall into. The "leak" is a MacBook. The pricing and specs is a MacBook Pro released last month.

Oddly, both purport to use the 320M graphics. I find that odd, but not impossible obviously.

Regarding the box, if the box printing hadn't changed, I'd expect to see the first wave to perhaps show a copyright of 2009. Spec labels on the boxes are usually a sticker (at least they are in AU).

However, un-skewing the front of the box, the width of the closed MacBook picture isn't as wide as it is on the 2009 MacBook. Hmmmm....

Also, on the pics of the "Apple System Profiler" pages, there is a very obvious cut and paste of a blank area over the unit's serial number. However, on the graphics card info, the "Device ID", "Revision ID" and "ROM Revision" have also been blanked out but it's not obvious until you reduce the brightness of the image. Why take the trouble to obliterate the graphics card info (and perhaps making it a LESS obvious edit)?

And with respect to the serial number, I imagine it would be quite easy for Apple to trace the unit via any of the 3 clearly shown MAC Addresses on the box.

My 2c
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F700
 
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FWIW:

it's quite silly to think that the casing is a substantial cost difference in a sense of differing tens of dollars. As someone said earlier, in this volume we are talking cents.

Also, AIQW is indeed the only one trying to supply facts over "gut feelings" and "logic". He's being unfairly singled out in this case.

And yes, experts have made silly remarks: Like Alu is heavier, so will cost more to transport.

1. It seems the poly is heavier.
2. It seems the poly is bigger, which is just as important in shipping costs.

AIQW was completely right challenging that... I do not understand why he's being scolded for that.

I'll do an assumption, with the @ss in mind as I'm no expert in this field, but do know a bit about retail: The manufacturing costs are not that important compared to what happens after it gets pooped form the bandwagon: marketing, shipping&handling, packaging, sales, administration etc.

I could be very wrong here, so I say this with the @sshat on my head^^. It's making a parralel with how it usually works (it's why cutting out a retail chain, like Dell did, is more important than cheap manufacturing)

You are wrong. The information I am posting has been posted before. And aiqw is only looking for an argument; it seems to be his/her purpose.

Some Proof Below

Oppenheimer:

"...The level of quality these products deliver to customers is mind-blowing for their price points. The unibody precision aluminum enclosures would normally cost hundreds of dollars by themselves."

Source: http://seekingalpha.com/article/1009...nscript?page=4

Peter Oppenheimer

We would certainly sell our new MacBooks cheaper if we just delivered them with a block of aluminum but we have to machine that aluminum and it’s a fairly precision operation, so the cost of the aluminum matters some but is not a dominant cost.
 
What someone needs to do is scan those barcodes.


Ok I scanned them.

SKU comes back to 885909401574 (Anyways I think thats the SKU)
Serial Number for that unit pictured is WQ019ZU1F5W. Running a check on support.apple.com the serial comes back to as "not found."
 
And yes, experts have made silly remarks: Like Alu is heavier, so will cost more to transport.

1. It seems the poly is heavier.
2. It seems the poly is bigger, which is just as important in shipping costs.

AIQW was completely right challenging that... I do not understand why he's being scolded for that.

Sorry, someone already gave a concrete number. Alu weights 2x+ as poly given the same volume.

Please go back and read.

I'll do an assumption, with the @ss in mind as I'm no expert in this field, but do know a bit about retail: The manufacturing costs are not that important compared to what happens after it gets pooped form the bandwagon: marketing, shipping&handling, packaging, sales, administration etc.

Manufacturing cost, packaging, shipping&handling is used to calculate the gross margin, which is asked every single Apple conference calls after each quarterly report. A 2% change in gross margin is HUGE for a company like Apple.

Marketing and admin costs are not included in gross margin calculation. Generally they are independent from # of unit shipped.

Apple's gross margin is about 35%. That means for a $1000 MB, about $650 is on manufacturing+packaging+shipping. You think manufacturing cost is not that important?

Computer retail is quite different from clothing and toys (whose manufacturing cost is maybe 5% to 10% of the final retail price). Please, restrain from talking about something you don't know.
 
Maybe you should just not post stupid **** because holy crap there is enough of it as is on this forum.
I guess that means you had nothing to come back with. Sorry kid, this forum might not be for you. Maybe you should put your parents on so they can be reminded not to leave you in front of the keyboard.
 
Question?? If this is something that's built in 2010, shouldn't the box reflect that? (check the copyright at the bottom) I see a scam. The boxing looks suspect. All the stickers are off.

97594bee660593b24_DSC_0103.jpg

I see.
 
Anyway, the model number of current macbook is A1342. So at least the box is fake.

Nope. Those particular "model" numbers refer to a form-factor. The real model determination is the last three characters of the serial number.

You then get an "order" number which is often prefixed with "M" - you'll see those on the Apple Store and on dealer pricelists.
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roor bongs
 
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Ok I scanned them.

SKU comes back to 885909401574 (Anyways I think thats the SKU)
Serial Number for that unit pictured is WQ019ZU1F5W. Running a check on support.apple.com the serial comes back to as "not found."

If it is indeed possible to get an accurate scan of the barcode, and this is the actual serial number, then I'm surprised that this isn't the new 12 character serial number.

New barcodes notwithstanding, that serial number makes this week 19 which is a factory serialized date of last week... hmmmm....
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herbalaire vaporizer
 
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If it is indeed possible to get an accurate scan of the barcode, and this is the actual serial number, then I'm surprised that this isn't the new 12 character serial number.

It's definitely possible. I couldn't get it via the screen but I printed it out via a color laser printer.

I just tried again and got the Part number to scan it's MC516X/A
 
It's definitely possible. I couldn't get it via the screen but I printed it out via a color laser printer.

I just tried again and got the Part number to scan it's MC516X/A

Well, that's pretty good. the current model is an "MC207X/A"

EDIT: and it confirms the order number that's been floating around too.
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extreme vaporizer
 
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wow ....
Are you proud of a military victory against a third world country ???
I think it is better to stick with aluminum vs plastic debate ;)

Wow. You don't even know we LOST that war (against Communists no less)? By the context of your post, you obviously think we won. Kids today.... They don't know ANYTHING. :rolleyes:

No wonder kids think trade with China is good. They don't even know what the heck Communism is or why we fought against it. They probably have no idea that the USSR (what's that?) was our #1 enemy for several decades and was also Communist. Yes, send our jobs to Communist countries so we can have slightly lower prices at Wal-Mart (and they are slight once you factor in the immense costs of shipping those goods around the entire world to get here). And I don't think it's just me when I can say goods today are lower quality than goods made years ago. The fact that most are made in China at slave labor rates is probably not a coincidence. Look at all the lead and other poison laced goods (in toys even) we get from China in the past few years and yet I see no progress in slowing manufacturing of U.S. company based goods over there. Keep making poison for our kids. Keep shipping poison seafood over here too. Sell it at Wal-Mart. You reap what you sow.

I remember when MADE IN THE U.S.A meant something and little flag tags were posted on t-shirts and other goods. Now almost nothing is made over here. Minimum wage service jobs were created to fill the loss of high-paying Middle Class income jobs and Corporate America just told people to "learn new skills". You mean like Computer Science? We told kids in the '90s that Computer Science was one of the top 5 jobs of the future. Then Y2K happened and we outsourced most of them to India.... Face it. There is no such thing as a "safe" job anymore. You can have a PHD and not be able to get work because there is almost NOTHING LEFT here. And people wonder why we have record high unemployment and insane levels of welfare and unemployment compensation while we still run federal budgets like we're living in the 1950's with no taxes (that happens when there are no jobs to tax) to cover the expenses so up goes the deficit level like a rocket. The TRUTH is we are ALREADY a 3rd World Country and we just don't seem to know it yet. No Middle Class jobs = 3rd World Country.

Yet you got the Greed brigade on here telling people it's just business and we'd have to pay 2x-3x the retail prices if we made things over here which is patent NONSENSE. If we had some FAIR TRADE laws instead of "free" trade laws, this wouldn't have happened. And any U.S. company that moves overseas and then sells goods back should be tariffed such that their goods cost people here MORE than if they were made in the USA. That is the ONLY way to keep jobs in this country. The only people that benefits is the people at the very top and sometimes the stock holders. The employees and the country as a whole (through lost taxes) suffers tremendously. That should be the price of doing business in the U.S. We provide the military protection and the safe business environment here and Corporations should pay like everyone else to reap the benefits of that atmosphere. If people hate this country so much they want to move their companies to China, then they should have to move WITH the factories over there and learn Chinese because they shouldn't be U.S. citizens anymore, IMO. Patriotism is DEAD apparently. Generation Why has had everything handed to them. They don't know what it's like to suffer to win freedom and other rights. They'll learn soon enough the cost of selling the country out by the greedy for the benefit of the top 5%, though....
 
so it's basically the hardware of a 13" Macbook Pro in a white plastic shell, right?

Still happy with the screen and haptic feel of the MBP :p
 
You will find that your subjective appraisal of yourself is not shared by people who know "factual information" when they see it.

Your appraisal of this post is not shared by people who know Engrish when they see it.:D Wait, wait, it's context! :D

Also, AIQW is indeed the only one trying to supply facts over "gut feelings" and "logic". He's being unfairly singled out in this case.

And yes, experts have made silly remarks: Like Alu is heavier, so will cost more to transport.

1. It seems the poly is heavier.
2. It seems the poly is bigger, which is just as important in shipping costs.

AIQW was completely right challenging that... I do not understand why he's being scolded for that.

To be fair, I singled him out solely because he just seemed so emotionally involved. His posts were very involved. And, the "aluminum is more expensive" side seemed to be tiring of him. I could single you out as well if only you would post some gibberish as well, but your post is intelligible.

Here's a fact, though: Oppenheimer (he works for Apple, in case you don't know) said aluminum is more expensive. At least, that was when it was adopted in 2008. Aiqw has been strangely silent about this. And when you think about it, if you're smart, you'll know that the only opinion that matters is Apple's - it wouldn't even matter if they were wrong in their cost analysis. That's why, to put an end to this, I directed people to Apple's quarterly conference calls. Facts without the logic of which facts are relevant are facts that nobody needs. This is why anyone speculating about transport costs, weight, etc - this is the reasoning of people who don't really know the what's what of business. There's a lot of factors. You need to be Apple to know. End of story.

Does it matter who won? Still, the answer is NO. If you agree and think Oppenheimer's sentiments are better than idle speculation, you may think I have won this argument. I did not, and I don't even care that kny3twalker didn't credit me - no doubt it was quicker to just copy paste the relevant part, and I don't deserve the credit for Apple's publications. The quote is old, anyway, and the costs could change any time.

EDIT: Seydlitz - you're totally right about the post-manufacture factors as well. I don't think you need an "@asshat" or anything.
 
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