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Why are lightning adapters so expensive?

Arran

Arran

macrumors 603
Original poster
Mar 7, 2008
5,005
4,128
Atlanta, USA
Could the high prices be a way for Apple to ration what'll be a hot item (at least initially) and make sure everyone has a chance of getting some?

In the past, hot items have been bulk-bought then flipped on ebay to bag handsome profit for the flippers (remember the iP4 scalpers?). It infuriated and alienated many loyal customers who couldn't buy the devices at retail. At the same time, Apple was giving away margin to the scalpers, because folks were obviously prepared to pay the scalper's ridiculous prices.

Thoughts?
 
Arran said:
Could the high prices be a way for Apple to ration what'll be a hot item (at least initially) and make sure everyone has a chance of getting some?

In the past, hot items have been bulk-bought then flipped on ebay to bag handsome profit for the flippers (remember the iP4 scalpers?). It infuriated and alienated many loyal customers who couldn't buy the devices at retail. At the same time, Apple was giving away margin to the scalpers, because folks were obviously prepared to pay the scalper's ridiculous prices.

Thoughts?
Click to expand...

Conspiracy theorize much?

Since the Lightning pinouts are all digital, there most likely is circuitry in the Lightning-30 pin Dock adapter to convert a digital audio signal to analog line-out. That's probably the reason why these things cost $30.

How would artificially boosting the price of these discourage resellers?
 
IllIllIll said:
Conspiracy theorize much?
Click to expand...

Hardly a conspiracy. I was thinking Apple's intent was (relatively) benevolent. They will, of course, make more themselves.

IllIllIll said:
...How would artificially boosting the price of these discourage resellers?
Click to expand...

Because it eats into the reseller's margins (working on the assumption there's a fixed upper price the consumer will bear).

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rwilliams said:
Apple sells everything for $29, whether they're worth that price or not. It's just what they do.
Click to expand...

Can't argue with that. It seems to be some sort of psychological price point of theirs.
 
IllIllIll said:
And when has a tactic like this ever worked? I think you're way off base.
Click to expand...

I was just thinking of it as "skimming". The common pricing tactic of charging a high price initially, because the market will bear it. One thing the scalpers proved was that, initially, the market would bear it.

Ref: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pricing_strategies#Creaming_or_skimming

But, you know, I guess it could backfire on Apple if the early adopters see the price drop and complain. Thinking about it, that's exactly what happened with the original iPhone. Apple had to backpedal and issue partial refunds via Steve Jobs' open letter: http://www.apple.com/hotnews/openiphoneletter/

Okay, okay, maybe it's not such a smart strategy after all :)
 
Last edited:
Because Apple knows people will buy them. All I can say is I can't wait for the Monoprice/Amazon versions that are 1/10 the cost
 
Apple loves it's customers money. As long as it's in Apples coffers :)

They are the masters at grabbing huge margins.

Welcome to the world of Apple.
 
There's at least a proprietary a/d chip in there. You are not likely to see cheap knockoffs for quite some time.
 
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