How does Apple justify the cost of their RAM? Yeah I know, they have to make money but $1000 for 4GB of RAM??? I sometimes wonder how much more business they would get if they dropped the prices on their RAM. I would not even consider spending $150 for just one stick!
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Where does Apple get the $1000 price tag for 4GB of memory?
- Thread starter AppleFan360
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They talk to this little birdie and the birdie shoots out a figure and bam thats how they come to that figure. At least thats what I heard and last time I saw that birdie doing speed and crack too so I would not be taking advice from it if I was you.
**** they better give you a free round trip ticket to Malaysia or wherever its made so you can see it made yourself!
I upgraded my white iMac to 3 gb. I think it was around $75 to do some from Crucial. I had to remove both 512 mb stick and inserted a 2 gb and a 1 gb stick.
It's ridiculous Apple is charging that much for ram. Either they are counting on people not knowing the difference about prices or they are fleecing contracts with businesses requiring them to use the Apple store. Maybe both.
It's ridiculous Apple is charging that much for ram. Either they are counting on people not knowing the difference about prices or they are fleecing contracts with businesses requiring them to use the Apple store. Maybe both.
They don't.
They give you some B.S. about how it's 'Apple certified & tested with their machines'.
Silly Apple....RAM is RAM.
I totally agree. Even with a slight markup I would buy from Apple. It's really a shame.I'm pretty sure it's from their ass. It is a shame too because I'd rather give Apple my money for the additional ram I buy but they'd like you to sell your organs to pay for it.
Same thing that happened to Apple when they price the RAM. I lost my F*&Uing mind.
You get what you pay for. There is cheap and cheaply made RAM and better quality RAM.
I'm not saying what Apple sells is better quality RAM than whatever is sold by others, because I have no proof of that. However, the companies that produce computer components do quality grade them and, who knows, maybe Apple's working behind the scenes to buy lots of the highest graded stuff. They don't try to compete in the low-end market so it wouldn't surprise me if they do that, leaving the lower rated stuff for others. Steve Jobs stated on stage that they do exactly this with LCDs. It's possible they do it with other components as well.
Anecdotally, I've never seen Apple-bought RAM go bad. I *have* seen lots of non-Apple RAM go bad, including the RAM that was installed by MacMall, where I bought my last Mac. Also, Consumer Reports has reported now for many years that Apple has a much lower hardware failure rate (especially when it comes to critical failures--i.e., where the computer is no longer usable) than other PC makers despite them using what is ostensibly the exact same components. Something has to explain that.
I'm not saying what Apple sells is better quality RAM than whatever is sold by others, because I have no proof of that. However, the companies that produce computer components do quality grade them and, who knows, maybe Apple's working behind the scenes to buy lots of the highest graded stuff. They don't try to compete in the low-end market so it wouldn't surprise me if they do that, leaving the lower rated stuff for others. Steve Jobs stated on stage that they do exactly this with LCDs. It's possible they do it with other components as well.
Anecdotally, I've never seen Apple-bought RAM go bad. I *have* seen lots of non-Apple RAM go bad, including the RAM that was installed by MacMall, where I bought my last Mac. Also, Consumer Reports has reported now for many years that Apple has a much lower hardware failure rate (especially when it comes to critical failures--i.e., where the computer is no longer usable) than other PC makers despite them using what is ostensibly the exact same components. Something has to explain that.
LOL,
I too, would not mind paying Apple a premium for their RAM. But when its more than double, almost triple. What other vendors are charging, No way. Sorry Apple.
Math..
Double? Tripple? Try 8x. My 4gb from OWC was $99, current Apple.com site has 4gb for the iMac listed as an $850 option. Holy bejeesuz!! They is qwackers in la cabeza.
Double? Tripple? Try 8x. My 4gb from OWC was $99, current Apple.com site has 4gb for the iMac listed as an $850 option. Holy bejeesuz!!
They is qwackers in la cabeza.I'm just throwing something out there. Is it possible that Apple is fulfilling contract obligations that it has with RAM manufacturers? The same could possibly be said with other components as well. I'm sure I'll be shot down here but its just a thought. You have to figure that Apple would be happier to get the added RAM business, and many of us probably give it to them, even if they charged slightly more than the online retailers. Having said that, keeping the prices up where they are promotes consistent pricing amongst their products over the long run. That way, you wouldn't spend $300.00 more for RAM in an iMac that you bought six months ago. How much would that tick you off? They are well aware of the fluctuating RAM prices and this is why they make that part of the system easy to upgrade without having any affect on the warranty.
Mick
Mick
I don't care one bit if Apple's ram is quality tested or has a much better non-failure rate. Even if Crucial.com decided to not honor their warranties, I can buy 8 sets of ram from them before matching the price of Apple's ram. I don't think Apple's ram has 8x the non-failure rate of any memory out there. I'll take my chances and buy ram that is reputable. If it fails, so be it. I'll just buy a new stick at greatly reduced prices.
Let's assume the sake of argument that the premise that Apple is buying higher QA'd RAM than other buyers is true. As I said before, I have no evidence for that. I'm just guessing this is the case based on a comment Jobs made concerning this practice with LCDs and the remarkably lower rate of failure of Macs compared to other PCs.
Assuming that's true then you're missing the big picture. Faulty RAM isn't just a matter of replacing it for most users. For the average customer, that translates to hassle, RAM-inspired kernel panics, lost work/data, frustration and downtime as well as all the time, energy and possible costs of having someone look the machine to diagnose the problem to begin with. There are lots of people out there more than happy to pay for not having to deal with that. Maybe you're not that person. Maybe your only concern is cost. Fine. But to isolate the value of quality RAM to cost alone really misses what is likely Apple's reason for doing it in the first place.
Im sure Apple charges for it's overhead. To pay someone to deviate from standard assembly probably cost Apple more than $1k for 4gb RAM. I'm sure it's more like an underline deterrent?!? Maybe...
This answer is suprisingly correct. If it werent true, there would be Apple Brand Ram, and it would be almost free.
I know this is maybe a crazy way to look at it,. but thats really not their selling point. In a sense it's like a car dealership that has their own auto repair and they offer brake service yet they charge an arm & a leg for brake but thats not were they make there money so they can pretty much charge what ever they want. So I would assume the same applies to apple when it comes to selling ram.
If you get your ram from Crucial then its the same Micron branded ram Apple and many others use. Plus it's very cheap at the moment (though not looked at global ram prices for a week, they could've had 15 factory fires in this time).
I have no clue ... I looked at their website to buy 4 gb of ram for my MBP and it was $1000.00!! I bought it for $90.00 on OWC. 10% of the cost. We are APPLE we can charge what we want for RAM. Anyone who is foolish enough to buy it from them deserves to get ripped off.
What I think their reasoning is, when large businesses (e.g schools, corporations, hospitals) purchase computer products they have a preferred vendor (e.g. Apple) so they have to purchase from them regardless of the price. So if a institution want to buy memory they are stuck.