Price Drops on PowerBooks?

[Delta-9]

Re: Re: My new 12" 867 powerbook

Originally posted by Bear

I think this purchase falls under "pennywise and pound foolish".

Actually, what I failed to mention was the fact that the model on the Apple site hadn't been available for sometime. In the days that I waited I decided to make those phone calls. Phone calls are essentually free since I have a cell phone. LD Charges, what are they?

Had the product became available on the apple.com website it might've bought from them, but in the end, I wanted it and didn't want to wait. I plan on buying AppleCare before the warranty is up, so the difference in warranty isn't a concern. As far as the laptop itself goes. I was told that it was a return and went through testing and works 100%. No problems with it in the least. My guess is that it was a gift of some sort and was returned in MicroCenter's 7day window where you don't need a reason to return an item.

 

[SiliconAddict]

Originally posted by john123
gross...

Would it have helped if I had said

I like tech. But not THAT much!!

 

[SiliconAddict]

Oh. Another wish list item. Laptop docking stations. This would be soo simple to impliment with having an interface on the bottem of the laptop that attaches to a dock. Life is soo much simpler with a docking station. Plug in your power, monitor, keyboard, mouse, PDA, scanner, Eithernet, and printer into the dock vs. needing to take the time to plug these things into the PowerBook itself.

 

[segundo]

I totally agree, a docking station (or a port replicator) would be so nice. This could be yet another feature that would distinguish the PowerBooks from the iBooks.

 

[singletrack]

I do hope they drop the UK prices more. With the USD <> GBP exchange rate at the moment, I can fly to New York from London with the girlfriend for the weekend, buy a PB15 with Superdrive and get back and still have money left over in comparison to the UK price.

 

[john123]

Originally posted by SiliconAddict
Would it have helped if I had said

I like tech. But not THAT much!!

It just created a powerful yet disturbing visual.....

 

[cancerward]

xchg rates

Originally posted by singletrack
I do hope they drop the UK prices more. With the USD <> GBP exchange rate at the moment, I can fly to New York from London with the girlfriend for the weekend, buy a PB15 with Superdrive and get back and still have money left over in comparison to the UK price.

Seconded, as an Aussie I can see that the CA, SG, KR, TW, US and HK prices have all dropped significantly in $A. Only UK, EU, AU and NZ have stayed about the same over the last two months. I used to be angry about it, but the only way to force a change is to stop buying. What happens is that Apple passes on exchange rate improvements much much more slowly than exchange rate depreciations. Mac buyers must be suckers!

Still, doing a lexis-nexis search, I see that the PB15SD dropped from $A4995 to $A3799 in June 03. And since $A1 is slightly more than $C1, I only need to look at the Canada store to see about what the price SHOULD be - it's set at the US price + 10%.

 

[durvivor]

Missing PowerBooks from my Apple Store

I was in the Apple store at Aspen Grove in Colorado yesterday evening.

I was just there to pick up iLife & noticed that there were NO PowerBooks on display except for one. The one was on the table where they keep the sample photo book.

The regular display table for PowerBooks (to the left of the front doors as you enter the store) was empty.

Could this mean anything? Or were they just in the back for a cleaning?

 

[aswitcher]

Re: xchg rates

Originally posted by cancerward
Seconded, as an Aussie I can see that the CA, SG, KR, TW, US and HK prices have all dropped significantly in $A. Only UK, EU, AU and NZ have stayed about the same over the last two months. I used to be angry about it, but the only way to force a change is to stop buying. What happens is that Apple passes on exchange rate improvements much much more slowly than exchange rate depreciations. Mac buyers must be suckers!

Still, doing a lexis-nexis search, I see that the PB15SD dropped from $A4995 to $A3799 in June 03. And since $A1 is slightly more than $C1, I only need to look at the Canada store to see about what the price SHOULD be - it's set at the US price + 10%.

Australian pricing really seems unreasonable with the Aussie dollar at 77 US cents

iMacs are 37% above US - thats $1042AUD more than in USA for 20"
PMacs are 36% - thats $1404.19 more than in USA for Dual 2Ghz
Screens are 40% - thats $902.90 more than in USA for 23"
iBooks are 34% - thats $652.25 for 14" 1Ghz
PBooks are 43% - The highest is the 12"PB Super at 45.5%! or $1062.64 more. And try $1604.19 for 17" PB

Yet servers are only 24%
and iPods are barely GST at about 10%

Why are we paying SO much more - real terms

Jason

 

[ghostboy]

I am soooo hanging out for a price drop here in Ozzie Land....I want it now already!

 

[iChan]

you can't compare desktop machines and portables... portables are always going to be more expensive because of the minurisation.

Originally posted by rog
I think the portable line would sell a lot better if a few things happened regarding prices. $999 tops for a 12" ibook. $1199 for a 14" iBook that does 1152x854. $1399 for a 1.33 GHz 12" PB, $1499 with SuperDrive. Make the highest priced 15" only $1999, and the top 17" only $2499. They need to be far cheaper considering how much slower they are than G5 desktops and PC world offerings. Put Airport Extreme cards in all the PBs and AE option in the iBooks. Put 7200 RPM drives in the 15 & 17" PBs and 5400 RPM in iBooks and 12" PBs. Give the iBooks the 512kb L2 model G4s and add substantial L3 cache to all the PBs.

 

[iChan]

what i'd like to see is a PB with a 13" widescreen...

then all the PB's will have widescreen and the ibooks will have 4:3.

now what bigger differentiator could there be?

coupled with the fact that the PB's are aluminium!!!

Originally posted by MacNut
First off I love my 15PB that i got just after xmas, no complaints here. But i remember hearing a rumor of a 15.4 inch Powerbook. What are the chances that those could be in the works. Now lets take that a step further and say that Apple could release a 12.2 inch Powerbook.

 

[iChan]

what makes you think that the current powerbook require an overhaul if they are moved to the G5...
did ibook when it moved to G4?
I think the current poewrbook enclosures are as damn-near perfect as you can get right now. and any changed will be subject to the law of diminishing returns...

Originally posted by reyesmac
Anyone that wants G5 powerbooks needs to see what happened to all the people that wanted G5 macs. They waited since the Powermac was stuck at 500mhz. Many rumors came and went about how the powermacs were going to go past the 1ghz barrier. The G4 went to 1.25 and 1.44 with over-clocking. I think powerbook users will have to wait for quite some time until IBM makes a new chip just for laptops that runs nice and cool and can be sold to apple in large quantities. Once they have it, it will be another half year until G5 Powerbooks hit the streets.

Just because Apple came out with the G5 eventually that doesn't mean they are going to start coming out with great updates to the powerbook line in a timely manner. They never have and they probably never will under Steve Jobs. I think major overhauls in the Powerbook line every 2-3 years is going to have to be good enough. Just keep the price right and the OS fast and people will have less to complain about.

 

[iChan]

seeing as there are always so many problems with rev-a products. is a g5 in the current pb enclosure considered to be a rev-a? or rev-b/c?

 

[Devlin_du_GEnie]

Hello ... surefire predictions, well duh!

If rumor-mongers keep predicting hardware updates on Mondays and Tuesdays after a keynote, eventually one of the dates will be right.

Duh.

 

[back2bondi]

re: exchange rates

I'm waiting for a price correction by Apple Oz before buying my PB15. Doesn't need to be much.

Visiting the US in 2 months and will pick one up then if no price drop here.

Apple Oz, the clock is ticking if you want my purchase, otherwise, it'll go to the Apple US guys.

 

[beebjunk]

Yup, I'm in exactly the same situation. Even with the educational discount AND applecare thrown in, buying a Mac from the states is way cheaper. It's getting out of hand.

 

[centauratlas]

Given that it is 8:35am (EST, US) on Feb 3 and the Apple Store is still up, it kind of looks like this rumor was wrong AGAIN.

I want a PB, haven't had one since my old 540c. I want a 17 with at least 2GB and I'd like a G5, but don't know if I want to wait another 6-9 months.I might get a 15 to hold me over.

[I am hoping that by posting this, Apple will release something just to make me look bad...ha ha ha]

 

[Vashti]

Not Happening?

I also have been waiting to buy a new powerbook to see if prices will drop today. Does this mean it won't happen today? I've been waiting for a month for new announcements/price drops/whatever. This seems like the last day there were rumors of announcements. Any reason to wait any longer?

 

[kenaustus]

I was holding back a business trip to the Land of Oz until I could take advantage of a price break today. Should have known - should have flown - now scheduled for surgery on the 16th and there is no price drop. At least I have 6 - 8 weeks now to take advantage of any new price cut . . .

 

[Plastic Avatar]

Originally posted by centauratlas
GI want a PB, haven't had one since my old 540c. I want a 17 with at least 2GB and I'd like a G5, but don't know if I want to wait another 6-9 months.I might get a 15 to hold me over.

Ah, the 540c...

<far-away look>

That was a great portable, a tank. Good design, and slapping that second battery in made me the envy of my friends.

<looks away, again>

<sighs>

-Plastic Avatar

 

[EK03]

guess this was false too think its worth waiting more i should just order my powerbook? Also i wanted to know how long shipping normally is and if its worth goin to the apple store in the mall or just buy it thru apple.com

 

[centauratlas]

Originally posted by Plastic Avatar
Ah, the 540c...

<far-away look>

I think it is pretty clear it won't happen today! Alas.

If I get one, I am going to get a bare bones one and then get the PB G5 whenever it is out (either a Rev A or B).

I still have my 540c and it works, just it doesn't work for anything that I need to do! Particularly now that everything else is OS X, Airport Extreme etc. It was nice, just WAY out of date now - its been 5 years since I used it regularly. I had a PB 170 before that and was so psyched to replace it with the 540c. Amazing how our expectations change. I remember when I got my 512K Mac to replace the 128K...that was heaven. Upping it to 1MB, then 4MB too. (Of course 128K was great compared to the 48K Apple ][ then 64K with the 16K RAM card. The guy at ComputerLand couldn't think why I'd need an extra 16K, but was more than happy to sell it to me even though "I'd never use it."). Ha ha.

Now a 15 inch display seems kind of cramped! And the cable modem seems kind of slow (compared to 100 baud and 300 baud BBSing it isn't)!

 

[brhmac]

Just heard that Apple is testing a new marketing program

Everyone that posts to this thread about new PowerBooks and/or lower-priced PowerBooks on Feb. 3 or tomorrow will receive a free G5 PowerBook from Steve Jobs when they're announced tomorrow.

 

[Infinitenothing]

Something's up. They just dropped the prices at my bookstore. Prices good 'till supplies last so I'm guessing a speed boost is in very short order.