MacTruck said:
I'll tell you why this is wrong. Its not a bonus its deceptive. By shipping better minis in the old packaging they are not allowing resellers to discount the 1.42 units. The older units need to be cheaper now and the 1.5ghz units same price as before.
Profit margins are sufficiently small on the Mac minis, that I fail to see how Apple or resellers would benefit from discounting anything. I think it's more like, this move keeps resellers from having to discount older models, and secures their expected revenues.
Let's say I sell version 1 of a product, for $100, from the beginning of January until the end of April. In May, version 2, which is better than version 1, becomes available. Let's say the market will not support paying more than $100 for either version 1 or 2. This means that I have to sell version 2 for $100. That will create downward pressure on version 1's price, if I advertise version 2, while I still have version 1 in stock.
So, I have two scenarios, try to sell all version 1 units before version 2 is available, or come up with a strategy for selling both simultaneously. Keep in
mind that there are multiple variants of version 1 and several variants of version 2, and some variants sell better than others. Also, other retailers might sell out of version 1 first, and so move onto version 2 before I can, meaning that even if I try as best as I can to sell out at the right time, if they do a better job, then they'll take business from me with their version 2 sales, leaving me with unsellable version 1s. And if I sell out too early, then I'll have no product, version 1 or 2 to sell, which might reduce consumer's confidence in my store. So, no matter which way you stack it, I really can only reallistically employ a strategy of selling version 1 and 2 simultaneously.
Ok, so we're back to the fact that knowledge of version 2's superiority putting downward price pressure on version 1. Now, I purchased version 1s for $50 and expected to sell them for $100, and make $50 profit. If I discount version 1s, then I lose profit. Potentially, the improved features in version 2 might cause sufficient downward price pressure on version 1, that it can no longer be sold for a profit. My only recourse is to have a contract with my supplier that allows me to return products that I can't sell. If their margins are sufficiently small, then that might wipe out their profits as well. So, I might have to sell it at a loss. In this scenario, either me or my supplier lose out. Most likely we both lose out. Not a good business strategy.
So, we now look at Apple's current strategy of not advertising the improvements in version 2, and continuing to label both as version 1, until all true version 1s have been flushed through the supply chain. There is no downside. In fact, I posit that only people who read rumor sites, and who have bizarre ideas of self-entitlement, are the only ones who lose out, in their own minds.
