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UK Price Increases - Your Thoughts

gazfocus

gazfocus

macrumors 68000
Original poster
Jan 3, 2008
1,650
0
Liverpool, UK
Ok, so have been waiting for a new Mac Pro to be released so I can buy one but the prices have literally gone through the roof...the current 8 core being £2499 (up from £1799).

I know the exchange rates have gone to pot but do you think these prices will stay like this or will they drop again at some point? I just can't justify the kind of prices even the iMacs are at the moment.
 
It likely won't change until new Mac Pros come. Unless there is a huge shift in the exchange rate.
 
They could lower them at any point. They lowered the MacBook Pro's couple of years ago.

I'd hope they'll assess the UK prices. They are ridiculous and makes me sick Apple thinks they can charge that.

They did the same with the White MacBook - they boasted about how it was cheaper, yet it actually went up in price in the UK.
 
Guys you got it wrong.

The base model is 8 Cores. 4 physical and 4 Virtual. The new Xeon's have Hyper-threading enabled. So the only increase is £150 from the previous recommended configuration.

Although it is a bloody cheek, our price increase in more than covering the decrease in cost to the US. It seems everywhere else in the world has seen the price go up.
 
It's a tricky one in my opinion. On one hand Apple has to protect its profit margins and on the other it has to sell products. Some people will buy regardless of price (within reason obviously) and others will undoubtedly be put off by these rises.

I have a friend who has been waiting since last October to buy an iMac and has followed the rumours that they would be refreshed every month since. Now that they have been refreshed he has been given pause by the price rise. He understands why it has happened but his credit card is still in his wallet and may well remain there. I find myself in a difficult position now because I can't, hand-on-heart, recommend that he blow £1799 on a top of the range iMac when this machine (or equivalent of) back in October 2008 would have cost him £1359 (or something like that). And yet, he won't be happy with a lower spec machine.

I'm no Apple "fanboy" but I do strongly believe that the iMac would be a great machine for my friend as he is into photography and video etc. However, I am really finding it difficult to spend his money for him since the current prices are really stretching things from a value for money standpoint. If the top end machine was even a quad-core then at least he would be getting something for his extra cash other than just some extra RAM, a bigger disk and better graphics which you kinda take for granted due to general technology advances.

In summary, I think that Apple should have made some margin sacrifice in the UK in order to maintain momentum. I know they couldn't absorb the whole currency difference but they should at least have showed some willingness.

Regards,
Craig.
 
To be honest, these price increases have really put me off...I am now considering Windows on a self built i7 system.
 
G4DP said:
Guys you got it wrong.

The base model is 8 Cores. 4 physical and 4 Virtual. The new Xeon's have Hyper-threading enabled. So the only increase is £150 from the previous recommended configuration.
Click to expand...

No it is 4 physical and 8 logical, it isn't like a real 8 core processor. You can't have 8 cores working at 2.66GHz.

Even if you could, the fact remains that you used to get two £550 processors and now you get one £240 one and the only other thing that really changed is the logicboard costs Apple less and the price went up £150.
 
The price of the 8 core Mac Pro went up from $2799 to $3299, because Intel charges more for the new chips.

Saying an 8 core Mac Pro went from £1799 to £2499 purely do to the exchange rate would be incorrect, because the chips cost a hell of a lot more.

And the 4 core 2.66ghz will outperform yesterdays 2.8ghz 8 core, thats how fast the new chips are. I know this because many have reported the consumer i7 chips outperforming the old Mac Pro. So basically its £100 more for a faster computer, with more memory, hard drive, and graphics standard.

As for the iMac, yes it sucks, but what can you do? If Apple lose sales perhaps they will start being more competitive.
 
gazfocus said:
To be honest, these price increases have really put me off...I am now considering Windows on a self built i7 system.
Click to expand...

Bear in mind that refurbs of these new machines will come along in due course and offer 15-20% off the RRP prices for no real loss (other than glossy packaging). I would always recommend buying refurbs if you can afford to wait, and let's face it you have waited this long for the refresh so what is another month or so... ;)

Another thing to consider if it is important to you is energy consumption. I recently bought a little electricity consumption monitor and it is scary how much power an idle PC consumes compared to an idle iMac. An i7 will certainly cost you a good few hundred pounds over its lifetime compared to an iMac. For reference, my iMac consumes 93watts when idle with screen on. A typical PC will consume at least twice this amount and an i7 probably more. When I upgraded my PC to an iMac in Aug 07 I used this to help justify about £300 of the cost of my iMac over 4 years compared to my outgoing PC.

Cheers,
Craig.
 
Before today my thoughts were "I can't wait to build my own desktop PC"
Today my thoughts are "I can't wait to build my own desktop PC, and what a bloody cheek Apple has".
 
"UK Price Increases - Your Thoughts"

Good, more profit for Apple and its share holders, so Apple can make more, newer and better products.
 
It's actually quite sickening that in the US the price of the 24" iMac went down to the price of the previous 20" iMac where as in the UK the price of the 20" iMac has gone up to the price of the previous 24" iMac!!!
 
I was considering getting a new Mini when they came out but the price of £499 for the lowest model is just crazy for what the machine is.
I am just going to stick with my self built osx compatable machine and keep my money in my pocket.
 
kastenbrust said:
"UK Price Increases - Your Thoughts"

Good, more profit for Apple and its share holders, so Apple can make more, newer and better products.
Click to expand...

Only if they sell.

I fully understand why the prices have gone up so much but I think it's going to have a big impact on UK sales figures in the current recession.
 
kastenbrust said:
"UK Price Increases - Your Thoughts"

Good, more profit for Apple and its share holders, so Apple can make more, newer and better products.
Click to expand...

Judging by recent output they really need to get cracking on those 'newer and better products' before they lose a shed load of customers. I don't really mind expensive products if there's a clear tech advantage to the product.

They've lost a macbook and imac sale from me and my family recently and I've bought a lot of apple hardware/software over the years.
 
OllyW - absolutely, I know of two media corporates who are not renewing as planned, it's over budget now unless the dealer can discount more deeply.

I'm not renewing either this year unless I see dealer discounting. The Pro stays as it is and the home machines can wait another year.
 
Good old Rip Off Britain. Isn't it cheaper to import goods now, how can they charge us more ffs?

But I'd never buy a desktop Mac anyway. As long as the laptop prices stay reasonable, I'm happy.

One wonders whether, if Apple prices in the US have gone down, they're trying to protect their 'home' market by shifting the profit margins onto Europe and elsewhere. Not having a pop at the Yank on the street mind, more the corporate machine.

Edit: Interesting that the new desktops all have prices of £xx99 too, so they're also taking what used to be another 2.5% VAT from us too.
 
The prices were raised to match to the prices of the countries in the euro-zone. Not so long ago members of a belgian mac forum were reporting to get their macs in the UK since the exchange rate dropped so critical that they could do real bargians in comparision to the prices they had to pay .
 
Whilst I understand that the weak pound impacts on the cost of the machines, to the UK customer this is irrelevant - they're still earning the same sum they did last week. This means that the price increases are real and quantitative in terms of how much it costs a UK customer.

Essentially, for a UK buyer it means you can't buy an iMac for £749 any more, nor a Mac Mini for £399. You have to spend £100-150 more to get the entry models, which in this economic time some people simply don't have.

So I understand why they've gone up, but it won't mean people will buy regardless - Apple are going to lose sales in the UK due to high prices.
 
Biolizard said:
Good old Rip Off Britain. Isn't it cheaper to import goods now, how can they charge us more ffs?
Click to expand...

Your British Pound was worth $2.00 a while ago, now it is worth $1.40. Apple didn't change the prices of existing products, which means Apple actually got 30 percent less money when you bought a computer than a year before. Unfortunately, that hasn't lasted forever.

That said, I can't see anyone buying the higher end MacMini in the UK, when the white MacBook is just a lot lot better for practically the same money.
 
kastenbrust said:
"UK Price Increases - Your Thoughts"

Good, more profit for Apple and its share holders, so Apple can make more, newer and better products.
Click to expand...

More profit from shrinking sales? :confused:

It took them to years to replace a 2Ghz Mac Mini with a more expensive 2Ghz Mac Mini. Think different indeed :p

I think Steve Jobs has been training up Baldrick as his replacement.
"I have a cunning plan...":rolleyes:
 
OllyW said:
You are totally wrong.

12 months ago, £1 was worth around $2. Now it is only worth $1.40.

Imports based on the dollar now cost around 40% more than this time last year.

I would recommend everyone reads this report before ranting on here. ;)
Click to expand...



I recommend people learn more about international trade, currency hedge options and global multi-location manufacture issues before accepting what an IT journo with a caculator says! :p

That's why I subscribe to the Economist and not Macworld for finanancial insight and comment. :)
 
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