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Why don't they discount the older MBP.s?
- Thread starter lukester
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Ask them. Apple sells them with a discount so they should too. It's up to the store, they decide but I'm sure you negotiate a nice price
Call them and negotiate
As with so many stores in New York, the prices listed are just a starting point. B&H is definitely one of those. If you're good on the phone, they'll come down a bit. Just talk reason to them.
As with so many stores in New York, the prices listed are just a starting point. B&H is definitely one of those. If you're good on the phone, they'll come down a bit. Just talk reason to them.
I'd love to get an answer from the retailers/Apple about this. The current, bottom-end 15" is better than the former top-end 15". My suspicion is that Apple is expecting the retailers to eat the entire price difference. The retailers may have paid a bit more for the former top-ends and don't want to lose money by discounting them below the price of the current bottom-ends.
Benchmarks are here:
http://www.primatelabs.ca/blog/2010/04/macbookpro-benchmarks/
I'm looking at the 13" and although the situation isn't as obvious as it is with the 15" it is still pretty bad in my opinion. I am thinking the former 2.53 13" should be priced less than the current 2.4 13" simply because the new 2.4 13" has updated "killer" graphics, longer battery life, and improved displayport (audio included). However, the retailers are still charging more for a 2.53 last-gen. So, i'm holding out for a good deal on the last-gen 2.53 13" but I'm actually not too hopeful since the discounts haven't been forthcoming.
Benchmarks are here:
http://www.primatelabs.ca/blog/2010/04/macbookpro-benchmarks/
I'm looking at the 13" and although the situation isn't as obvious as it is with the 15" it is still pretty bad in my opinion. I am thinking the former 2.53 13" should be priced less than the current 2.4 13" simply because the new 2.4 13" has updated "killer" graphics, longer battery life, and improved displayport (audio included). However, the retailers are still charging more for a 2.53 last-gen. So, i'm holding out for a good deal on the last-gen 2.53 13" but I'm actually not too hopeful since the discounts haven't been forthcoming.
Actually I worked for 3 years on an apple reseller and I can tell you that apple has an internal fix pricing on all of its models depending on how much the reseller sells. A reseller makes about 20%(it was that when i worked until 3 months ago) earning from the laptops and desktops of apple and thats when you pay the suggested apple price. They don't lower the price because its a business and you want to maximize your earnings with the little you've got. The way resellers really make money and thats universal its through 3rd party accessories and i now that because i also worked in compusa when it existed. thats why when you go to a store they try to push almost everything related to the purchase.
One note apple already makes a profit when they sell the items to the reseller and the reseller is obliged to sell the item at apples suggested retail or no more than 20 dollars on top of what apple says, so i imagine that when apple sells its merchandising through its retail stores they make the normal profit plus the % that is the suggested retail price, giving them the incredible profit margins we see. Remember that some of the shipping estimated units are in resellers warehouses and in not real costumers hands since essentially they buy so they can resell it.
One note apple already makes a profit when they sell the items to the reseller and the reseller is obliged to sell the item at apples suggested retail or no more than 20 dollars on top of what apple says, so i imagine that when apple sells its merchandising through its retail stores they make the normal profit plus the % that is the suggested retail price, giving them the incredible profit margins we see. Remember that some of the shipping estimated units are in resellers warehouses and in not real costumers hands since essentially they buy so they can resell it.
The 20% amount could be big problem for resellers with old inventory. The 13" 2.53 was $1,499, and 20% off that is $1,199 which is exactly the same amount as the new 13" 2.4. So by your numbers, if they go less than $1,199 they would lose money.
Now, there is macconnection selling the new 13" 2.4 for $1,050. So I think a "deal" on the last-gen 13" 2.53 would be $50-100 less than that- so around $999. If the reseller bought the laptop from Apple for $1,199, there is a huge loss to them if they sell at $999 which is only $50 less than the macconnection price.
The situation is probably worse for the 15" laptops since the lowest new one is better than the highest last-gen.
This assumes old models are in inventory.
Many online retailers, B&H included, work on a partial dropship model where boutique items that aren't a part of the core business are available for purchase, though that purchase is fulfilled by a third party warehouse that maintains inventory for multiple storefronts.
In such a model, it doesn't make any sense to drop the price of online product, since you'd make less margin on the sale and you don't gain anything by moving inventory. It'd be up to the fulfilling warehouse to perform any price drops, which might be performed through an eBay or Yahoo storefront but rarely through their merchant partners (too hard to guarantee the inventory and customers hate cancellations).
I've been to B&H's retail store many times (everybody should go if they're in NY, it's like Disneyworld for photographers) and while they do have laptop sales in house, it's a very very small part of their business.
Many online retailers, B&H included, work on a partial dropship model where boutique items that aren't a part of the core business are available for purchase, though that purchase is fulfilled by a third party warehouse that maintains inventory for multiple storefronts.
In such a model, it doesn't make any sense to drop the price of online product, since you'd make less margin on the sale and you don't gain anything by moving inventory. It'd be up to the fulfilling warehouse to perform any price drops, which might be performed through an eBay or Yahoo storefront but rarely through their merchant partners (too hard to guarantee the inventory and customers hate cancellations).
I've been to B&H's retail store many times (everybody should go if they're in NY, it's like Disneyworld for photographers) and while they do have laptop sales in house, it's a very very small part of their business.
In your model, who owns the inventory in the third party warehouse and what is their cut? If Apple owns the inventory then they can drop the price on the last-gen models whenever they want- clearly it never cost Apple $300 more to make the 2.53 13" model the the lower end model.
My point is there is inventory out there and how does the cost get reduced to an appropriate level? In my example of the 13" MBP the cost should be reduced well over 20% to be a compelling alternative to the current gen offerings. For example, my university has 40 of the 2.53 13" in inventory and they are trying to sell them for $200 more than the 2.4 13" new model.
I think the thread starter raised a very good question, and the fact of the matter is there is inventory out there (be it at BH, third party warehouse, local reseller, etc.) and why hasn't it been further discounted?
I also failed to mention that depending in sales is the way apple charges the resellers. If you sell more, the cheaper you get the new units. I know this because the reseller i worked for once sold old generation imacs left over in the apple werehouses for $749 in a back to school promo in PR. if the store sold more than 200 units apple let us sell them at that price, if we dindt, we had to cook up the money for the established % for all products even when they were last revision units