Still waiting for SSD falling prices??

[squeakr]

Apple product prices don't drop because they have much greater longevity than other products, they don't have the competition, and Apple don't release several revisions per year (whereas others use all sorts of silly names to identify their mass of products such as HP g6-1204sa).

Apple hasn't got a valid reason for such a huge markup on upgradeables like RAM and SSDs. It's not as if they mass-ordered them years ago when prices were huge and keep stock for ages.

You now all of this for sure and have proof? Some companies do purchase the products in advance. Just because the release cycles are farther apart speaks nothing to a products longevity. I will agree that their products hold value better in the long run than others, but that speaks nothing to longevity. Apple does release revisions during the cycle as well, they don't really differentiate them though, this is how we have issues with taking firmware updates and support of SATA 3 appears on the ODD drive that didn't exist in the early releases.

 

[Dangerous Theory]

You now all of this for sure and have proof? Some companies do purchase the products in advance. Just because the release cycles are farther apart speaks nothing to a products longevity. I will agree that their products hold value better in the long run than others, but that speaks nothing to longevity. Apple does release revisions during the cycle as well, they don't really differentiate them though, this is how we have issues with taking firmware updates and support of SATA 3 appears on the ODD drive that didn't exist in the early releases.

I don't need to prove to you that Apple products last a long time. Ask anyone on these forums. They are very well built and still perform very optimally years down the line.

 

[ano0oj]

And I paid $289 for my 128GB Vertex 3 12 months ago!!

that's more expensive than 256gb now days! It's remarkable how much cheaper they keep getting, and will eventually replace HDDs as the standard for storage..

 

[squeakr]

I don't need to prove to you that Apple products last a long time. Ask anyone on these forums. They are very well built and still perform very optimally years down the line.

You missed the entire point. The question was not about longevity but about your claims as to Apple's parts procurement procedures and their long term pricing being related to longevity of their products. I agree that they are well built and last, but then again, so do lots of products of years past. Just go to any elementary or middle school and the computers still in use are generally at least 6-10 years old and the majority aren't Macs (and the modern computers are using generally the same parts as their PC counterparts, with the exception of a few specialized parts such as power supplies, logic boards, and keyboards but even these specialized parts are built by the same manufacturing companies that build the pc parts).

The reasons the older computers are retired is they are too slow to be able to run the needed modern software packages, in fact lots of the computers distributed at schools are retired computers donated from major corporations or universities, at least that is the fact in the state where I live as school districts don't have the money to replace them, which only hurts our children in the long run).

So once again, I would like to see proof that their pricing structures are driven by longevity and theta they don't buy upfront (lots of companies buy upfront taking the risk that prices will increase, this worked for Southwest buying fuel futures and thus being able to keep their prices low when others were forced to increase due to fuel prices). I ask as I see it as a marketing scheme in place for Apple, yet have no insight either way, but you seemed to be quite sure, like you had some special insight, about how Apple works.

 

[Dangerous Theory]

So once again, I would like to see proof that their pricing structures are driven by longevity and theta they don't buy upfront (lots of companies buy upfront taking the risk that prices will increase, this worked for Southwest buying fuel futures and thus being able to keep their prices low when others were forced to increase due to fuel prices). I ask as I see it as a marketing scheme in place for Apple, yet have no insight either way, but you seemed to be quite sure, like you had some special insight, about how Apple works.

You seemed just as sure in your original post as I did. We both presented our opinions, ommitting the "I think this..." part. Like you, I have no special insight, but I debated what I think to be realistic reasons for Apple keeping their hardware prices constant throughout their sale period.

As for the matter of SSDs and RAM, I do not believe that Apple would stockpile these items years in advance, with the (very obvious) knowledge that they would inevitably fall in price and the technology would improve in many cases down the line. It makes much more sense for them to order inventory incrementally as and when it's needed (simple supply and demand that any company will understand).

Fuel is in the opposite ball park. It is a much more finite resource that is extremely well sought after.

 

[squeakr]

As for the matter of SSDs and RAM, I do not believe that Apple would stockpile these items years in advance, with the (very obvious) knowledge that they would inevitably fall in price and the technology would improve in many cases down the line. It makes much more sense for them to order inventory incrementally as and when it's needed (simple supply and demand that any company will understand).

They have to purchase the SSDs in advance as they put their own firmware on them (this is how they get the tags recognized and allow the TRIM option with the OS), and they have to do the same with memory to get the lowest price possible. They purchase these items in advance (not necessarily stockpile them, and most definitely not years in advance), but they negotiate the price based upon a lot purchase, exactly how large they think they will project to need and then pay for the parts in advance.

Simple supply and demand really only works to the advantage of the producer/seller as they are the one that gets to set the price based upon the demand within the market place (this is not the case here as Apple would be negotiating based upon what they perceive to be a demand in the future and not the immediate demand that the supply and demand model relies on). Now the supply and demand ideal gets negated when a buyer is willing to negotiate large lot purchases, as they can negotiate a price based upon the amount of product they are willing to buy, so they usually get the upper hand and get to set their price. Apple has already bought and negotiated these prices based on their perceived need in the future market place. Apple would have already negotiated the contracts for the parts for the next MBPs by the end of the last year or the 1st quarter of this year, in order to insure that everything is in place and ready to go to meet their deadlines for production. True supply and demand only comes into effect in an immediate marketplace scenario (usually a JIT, Just In Time scenario).

 

[icewing]

FYI, Electronista just posted an article about an SSD price war between the manufacturers.

Is it kosher to post links to other "rumors" sites?

 

[basesloaded190]

FYI, Electronista just posted an article about an SSD price war between the manufacturers.

Is it kosher to post links to other "rumors" sites?

Yup go for it. I would like to read the article

 

[Eidorian]

FYI, Electronista just posted an article about an SSD price war between the manufacturers.

Is it kosher to post links to other "rumors" sites?

OCZ is dumping their Sandforce based lineup for the new Vertex 4 flagship based on Marvell hardware. In some cases you are getting close to 80¢/GB after rebate.

I am sure the Agility 4 will show up when they deplete more of their current stocks but I have rarely seen them sell out even at cut-rate prices. OCZ was burned hard in customer reviews based on the old BSOD issues.

There is also the Everest based Octane and Petrol lines with a few teething issues to resolve.

 

[Weaselboy]

FYI, Electronista just posted an article about an SSD price war between the manufacturers.

Is it kosher to post links to other "rumors" sites?

Is this the article you mean? Interesting.

Looks like some of the big players want to price out the smaller ones.

From the article:

A number of channel retailers, which usually sell commodity memory products including flash drives and memory cards, recently began to offer SSDs, the sources observed. Some of the leading SSD producers are concerned about inferior products that might disrupt development of the market, and therefore have resorted to price-cutting measures to force the retailers to leave the market, the sources indicated.

 

[icewing]

Here's the link: http://iphone.macnn.com/fullarticles/12/04/25/price.drops.aimed.at.forcing.out.small.players/

 

[Eidorian]

Is this the article you mean? Interesting.

Looks like some of the big players want to price out the smaller ones.

From the article:

Some of those smaller players are probably vendors you will never see stateside. A lot of DRAM DIMM/SODIMM vendors are jumping onboard the SSD train with the SF-2281 in tow. Mushkin and Sandisk are recent entries even after OCZ abandoned the Sandforce ship.

 

[Hellhammer]

Some of those smaller players are probably vendors you will never see stateside. A lot of DRAM DIMM/SODIMM vendors are jumping onboard the SSD train with the SF-2281 in tow. Mushkin and Sandisk are recent entries even after OCZ abandoned the Sandforce ship.

OCZ has not abandoned SandForce yet. While their focus is on in-house controllers, SandForce drives are still shipping. If SF-3000 series turns out to be good, it's definitely in OCZ's interest to use them as well.

 

[Eidorian]

OCZ has not abandoned SandForce yet. While their focus is on in-house controllers, SandForce drives are still shipping. If SF-3000 series turns out to be good, it's definitely in OCZ's interest to use them as well.

OCZ might be back with SF-3xxx. They did make their name with Indilinx and Sandforce with some controller/firmware teething issues. They are just dumping the SF-2281 harder than their other SSD lines.

Indilinx is now in-house but Everest is the only controller they have out with the experience more than likely going for firm on the Vertex 4 for now.