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Reason for 13" Retina RIPOFF

D

DVD9

macrumors 6502a
Original poster
Feb 18, 2010
818
582
Profit margins.

Mr. Kuo had the price right at under $1,300.

If Apple does this then everything else in the 13" size has to be slashed or no one buys it.

The 13" "classic" is simply grotesquely overpriced. It is a four year old design. The profit margin must exceed 60 percent by now. These things are stamped out by Chinese slave labor and so are all the internals.

New pricing should have been:

Retina $1,299

Air $999

cMBP $899

Apple is not going to dump the other two products and they refuse to make anything they sell reasonably priced. So all this 13" Retina does is highlight how egregious the Apple tax is.
 
Then don't buy it, I managed to do so with the iPhone 3GS, iPhone 4S, every flavor of Mac desktop and Apple TV. It's not difficult.
 
If it was a reasonable price I'd have sold my 13" for a retina, but it's nearly 50% more for a screen considering I have a 128gb ssd.
 
DVD9 said:
Profit margins.

Mr. Kuo had the price right at under $1,300.

If Apple does this then everything else in the 13" size has to be slashed or no one buys it.

The 13" "classic" is simply grotesquely overpriced. It is a four year old design. The profit margin must exceed 60 percent by now. These things are stamped out by Chinese slave labor and so are all the internals.

New pricing should have been:

Retina $1,299

Air $999

cMBP $899

Apple is not going to dump the other two products and they refuse to make anything they sell reasonably priced. So all this 13" Retina does is highlight how egregious the Apple tax is.
Click to expand...

So, everyone vote with your wallet and refuse to buy it. Apple will get the message and lower prices. Apple doesn't care if you rage about it, they buy it anyway.

Agree with the total ripoff.
 
cirus said:
So, everyone vote with your wallet and refuse to buy it. Apple will get the message and lower prices. Apple doesn't care if you rage about it, they buy it anyway.

Agree with the total ripoff.
Click to expand...

Has Apple ever actually lowered prices due to low sale numbers?
 
aristobrat said:
The original iPhone dropped $200 shortly after its launch?
Click to expand...

Oh they did? That was a while back, plus my first iPhone was the iPhone 4 so I couldn't confirm or deny that. However, I know that the first iPhone was the first of its kind in the phone field, so it must have been looked at with much scrutiny, hence the possibility that Apple would lower its price. The MBP, on the other hand, has been on the playing field for years now and there's already a fan base for it. Everyone knows what it is and is aware of what it can do. That's why I don't think Apple would lower prices any time soon.
 
aristobrat said:
The original iPhone dropped $200 shortly after its launch?
Click to expand...

Didn't it just go from non-subsidy to subsidy? I bought 3 of the original ones at full price but I don't remember what happened after since I only JB and sold them.
 
aristobrat said:
The original iPhone dropped $200 shortly after its launch?
Click to expand...

It was being sold for £179 in the UK - at the time you had to activate your contract at home, so you could buy it, and not activate it.

It was clearly a way of just getting it out there - take a hit on the 1st gen so the hype builds, etc. Worked a treat though!
 
They also gave us early adopters of the iphone 1 a credit if we bought them before the price dropped.
 
Suno said:
Has Apple ever actually lowered prices due to low sale numbers?
Click to expand...

Apple just cut the price of the Air by a hundred dollars in June. Are you suggesting that Apple lowers prices out of kindness?

They recently stopped producing the white plastic MacBook. You don't think they stopped production due to a lack of sales?

Do you think Apple is run by a collection of hippies living in a commune?
 
That's the problem of monopolies.

Apple became a monster because people made it a monster.

Apple sells Macs, iPhones and iPads, and, because of all the hype associated with it, as well as the proprietary operating systems, are seem as unique. How many people have you seem rage about that OS X is much superior to Windows?

Well, then, you have only one company making the products, and everybody is just so delighted at how much these unique products are so much better than anything else. To the point that this uniqueness turned Apple into the largest company in the world (by market cap).

Oh, then, here are the consequences. Apple will charge as much as it wants to, because people will buy it, either because it's Apple or because they hate Windows.

Now, repeat after me... Apple is not a religion... a Mac is just a regular computer... OS X is not necessarily better than Windows...

Don't be trapped by Apple. If your only choices are cutting-edge technology for an absurd price (rMBP), or second-tier products at a more accessible price (cMBP, MBA), then go look for a Windows alternative. So Apple has some healthy competition. And perhaps this whole overpricing thing will go away some day.
 
Apple has never been in the business of competitive pricing. Look how screwed they were in the 1990's because of how they stuck to their pricing strategy. But with heavy investment in R & D and future investments, they were able to carve out a niche in the technology sector and revive its brand image. You've gotta be crazy if you think Apple is going to price their products at lower prices just because you think it's too expensive.
 
AoS said:
Apple has never been in the business of competitive pricing. Look how screwed they were in the 1990's because of how they stuck to their pricing strategy. But with heavy investment in R & D and future investments, they were able to carve out a niche in the technology sector and revive its brand image. You've gotta be crazy if you think Apple is going to price their products at lower prices just because you think it's too expensive.
Click to expand...

Apple is a price-conscious company now. It's just benefitting from all the hype. But it's very aware of the price it charges for its products. Here's some evidence:

1. The price of all but the most basic MBA were lowered in the last refresh... that does have something to do with the release of ultrabooks which are direct competitors to the MBA.

2. Apple keeps old versions of its iOS devices for sale for a lower price, in order to appeal to price-sensitive consumers. The iPad 2 or the iPhone 4 should have been discontinued right now if the focus of Apple were only high-end devices.

3. Apple only released a lesser iPad (the iPad mini) for a lower price to compete with Android and Windows tablets and also to appeal to a larger consumer base.

Apple is too big right now. Like every company in the world, Apple knows that pricing matters. And it will not simply destroy equity value (like it did in the past) for not having competitive prices. It will try to push the limits of hardware as far as it can in order to charge more for products that are perceived as unique. Other than that, it will have to charge as much as everybody else.
 
I fully agree, you should take your dollars to another manufacturer that makes a laptop with identical features, build quality, keyboard and trackpad quality, software quality, MagSafe connector, Thunderbolt and an equivalent display.

Oh, wait...
 
skaertus said:
Apple is a price-conscious company now. It's just benefitting from all the hype. But it's very aware of the price it charges for its products. Here's some evidence:

1. The price of all but the most basic MBA were lowered in the last refresh... that does have something to do with the release of ultrabooks which are direct competitors to the MBA.

2. Apple keeps old versions of its iOS devices for sale for a lower price, in order to appeal to price-sensitive consumers. The iPad 2 or the iPhone 4 should have been discontinued right now if the focus of Apple were only high-end devices.

3. Apple only released a lesser iPad (the iPad mini) for a lower price to compete with Android and Windows tablets and also to appeal to a larger consumer base.

Apple is too big right now. Like every company in the world, Apple knows that pricing matters. And it will not simply destroy equity value (like it did in the past) for not having competitive prices. It will try to push the limits of hardware as far as it can in order to charge more for products that are perceived as unique. Other than that, it will have to charge as much as everybody else.
Click to expand...

No doubt Apple is the hot product right now; has been for many years now actually. And while of course they're going to release products in response to market demands, it doesn't mean that Apple is a monopoly in the sector at all. PC's still sell more products annually versus Apple, and Android phones far outsell iPhones as well. They don't care because their average profit margin per product is so much higher than any competitor, and to lower their prices to meet complaining consumers that DVD9 suggested would be foolish of them.
 
cirus said:
So, everyone vote with your wallet and refuse to buy it. Apple will get the message and lower prices. Apple doesn't care if you rage about it, they buy it anyway.

Agree with the total ripoff.
Click to expand...

That is the only way things will really change. The original macbook air was priced much higher with terrible specs. It didn't do well. The machine was eventually replaced with design adjustments, ssd standard, and a price reduction.
 
AoS said:
No doubt Apple is the hot product right now; has been for many years now actually. And while of course they're going to release products in response to market demands, it doesn't mean that Apple is a monopoly in the sector at all. PC's still sell more products annually versus Apple, and Android phones far outsell iPhones as well. They don't care because their average profit margin per product is so much higher than any competitor, and to lower their prices to meet complaining consumers that DVD9 suggested would be foolish of them.
Click to expand...

Being or not a monopoly depends on the industry you're considering.

Coffee and tea are not competitors; however, they may be if you consider the "hot beverages" market.

If you consider the laptop business as the relevant market, then Apple is certainly not a monopolist. However, if you consider laptops running OS X as the relevant market, then Apple has a monopoly, because it's the only company that makes such devices. And the thing is, people are becoming so aware of the Apple brand that they are starting to consider any Windows device as a very poor substitute for a Mac laptop (just as tea is a poor substitute to coffee and vice-versa). Of course, it shouldn't be this way and it's just ridiculous. But people are somehow becoming voluntary slaves of Apple, and can't just buy a Windows laptop instead... and the same things happen with the iPhone and the iPad.
 
Suno said:
Has Apple ever actually lowered prices due to low sale numbers?
Click to expand...
Not that I'm aware of. Apples very hard line when it comes to pricing. About the only markdown of significance is the $200 reduction in the original iPhone. But iOS devices are in a different class of Apple's product lineup.
 
Buy refurbs.

Their 17" MBP refurbs are about the BEST value for your money, upgrade the f out of them and call it a day. Don't buy their 'latest greatest' gimmicks. If you buy it, return it after a good test drive, that is what I have been doing with all their new line ups, all of it. It is so fun. That is what they deserve. I'll do it sever times a month, just get it on credit, their apple finance is great, get it and return it and get more and return them too. I racked up over 12, 680 bucks in refunded balance with them in less than 3 months.

I got two of my nephews their own late 2011 17" MBPs for graduating medicine this year, now we all have maxed out 17" MBPs, we're singing and zipping along, no problems at all, watching all the 15" retina users burn in image history all around us. I see more Airs than 15" anything every where I go. Seventeen inch notebooks are on the rise, no matter Mac or the other guys.

Have fun with your credit cards, don't buy to keep apple toys, buy, play with it real hard and then return it. Show them that your cash is not for them.
 
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