A 2GB PC2-5300 667Mhz module for Aluminum iMac is $500 at the Apple Store, but less than $100 in other places. Why the extreme difference? I know components from Apple are more expensive, having own 68k Macs in the past, but this seems extreme.
Got a tip for us?
Let us know
Become a MacRumors Supporter for $50/year with no ads, ability to filter front page stories, and private forums.
Why is memory at Apple Store so expensive?
- Thread starter yoda9999
- Start date
- Sort by reaction score
I totally agree, it's easier let Apple supply and fit ram than have the bother of contacting a ram supplier and then having to fit it your self.
Because it's easier to be a "Lazy-arse" Apple punish us ......
So they make more money.
"...It's not technological, yoda9999. It's strictly business..."
Some people don't have time to save money by buying ram from a third party just like some people don't bother to USE the search feature before starting new threads.
Apple will charge those $***$ rates as long as PEOPLE PAY THEM.
I am GLAD people keep paying Apple for 'expensive' ram, as long as they do Apple can afford to continue to FedEx me free replacement mighty mice when they malfunction or become unusable before the 1 year warranty expires.
Apple will charge those $***$ rates as long as PEOPLE PAY THEM.
I am GLAD people keep paying Apple for 'expensive' ram, as long as they do Apple can afford to continue to FedEx me free replacement mighty mice when they malfunction or become unusable before the 1 year warranty expires.
The one and only correct answer why Apple memory is more expensive: Because Apple charges more.
Fortunately, there isn't much reason at all to buy a Macintosh with lots of memory built-in, it is very easy to add memory to all Macs except the Mac Mini.
I am GLAD people keep paying Apple for 'expensive' ram, as long as they do Apple can afford to continue to FedEx me free replacement mighty mice when they malfunction or become unusable before the 1 year warranty expires.
You could just buy a decent mouse instead. The mighty mouse is so annoying to use.
Thanks for all the replies. I definitely expect Apple's RAM to be more expensive than 3rd parties. If the 2GB was around $200, okay I can understand. But there's a big difference between $500 and $100. I just thought it was kinda strange, that's all.
Apple likes to keep its prices the same between revisions and RAM prices have come down enormously over the last few months. A year ago I bought 2 GB RAM for my Macbook which was £160, now I can get it for £30.
I think the high prices that Apple charges for RAM is just dumb business.
If they charged a more competitive price for RAM, something much closer to what the 3rd party price is, more people would buy it from Apple, and they would make more money from higher volume RAM sales. It would be a no brainer purchase.
I think that there are a greater number of informed Mac users (users that know or can figure out that you can buy RAM for way less than what Apple sells it for) than lazy Mac users (users that are too stupid or lazy to know better than to pay $850 for 4 GB of RAM). And there are way less users that have so much money that buying it from Apple doesn't make a difference to them.
I'd love to see a poll taken of Mac users that have upgraded their RAM with a 3rd party supplier versus Apple supplier. The one I found in these forums is this:
Apple ram - 2- 6.67%
Third pary ram - 28- 93.33%
30 people is not a large enough sample size, and considering the poll is on this website, it probably consists of informed users (although, sometimes it's hard to tell from some posts), but it's still a little telling.
If they charged a more competitive price for RAM, something much closer to what the 3rd party price is, more people would buy it from Apple, and they would make more money from higher volume RAM sales. It would be a no brainer purchase.
I think that there are a greater number of informed Mac users (users that know or can figure out that you can buy RAM for way less than what Apple sells it for) than lazy Mac users (users that are too stupid or lazy to know better than to pay $850 for 4 GB of RAM). And there are way less users that have so much money that buying it from Apple doesn't make a difference to them.
I'd love to see a poll taken of Mac users that have upgraded their RAM with a 3rd party supplier versus Apple supplier. The one I found in these forums is this:
Apple ram - 2- 6.67%
Third pary ram - 28- 93.33%
30 people is not a large enough sample size, and considering the poll is on this website, it probably consists of informed users (although, sometimes it's hard to tell from some posts
), but it's still a little telling.
If you think this you'd be wrong. Apple targets "lazy" users. It's the whole basis of their marketing scheme.
I disagree. Their marketing scheme is that their products are extremely user-friendly, look great, and have easy to understand UI's. "It just works." That's not a lazy thing, it's a simple, cool, not-scary-to-use thing. It's not, "Hey lazy-ass, get off your butt and buy a Mac."
My baseline is this: if my mother knew enough to say to me: "Hey, I want to buy more RAM for my Mac, but Apple's price seems way too high. Since newegg doesn't deliver to Canada, should I go with memoryamerica.com or CanadaRAM?", then there are probably more out there like her. That was classic.
All of the Mac users that I know know way too much about Apple than they should. You don't see Dell users with the same knowledge base.
This is the definition of targeting lazy users. Their marketing scheme focuses on a shiny, simple OS that "isn't Windows". What in the world could a "just works" slogan be targeting other than lazy people? Apple sells expensive RAM because they know a significant number of people will buy it without knowing better, or caring to save money elsewhere. And if 30% of the population on a highly specialized Mac forum could be persuaded to pay the Apple tax on RAM, the percentage is almost certainly higher in the general population.
Um, people with better things to do with their time than futz around with an OS and multi-vendor apps that may or may not work together well, if at all?
30%? It was 6.67% (2 out of 30 people in the poll). Where did you get 30% from?
It's not targeting lazy users. I bought an iPod, not a Zune or other mp3 player, because it has an intuitive UI, looks great, and just works better. I didn't think that if I bought the Zune I would be less lazy and would enjoy the challenge.
People who like things to be simple to use and just work aren't lazy.
That sounds like the "lazy" person we're talking about. Note the lazy is in quotes.
My mistake. I meant the 7%, but wrote the number of people in the poll instead.
Lazy isn't bad; we're just saying Apple targets people who don't want to think about their products more than they have to (ie, most people). This is how all advertising works. Very few companies promise to make you work harder when you use whatever they sell; marketing technology is built on promising less work for more results.
By looking for the simplest product possible, you're lazy, I'm lazy, everyone's lazy. The difference is that we're not lazy enough to buy our RAM from Apple. After all, if we wanted things to be 'simple' and 'just work', we'd fork over the cash instead of buying it 3rd party and doing the job ourselves. However, lots of people *are* lazy enough to buy their RAM from Apple, which is why Apple charges so much for getting the job done.
Don't get caught up in the use of the word lazy. I just carried it over from someone else's post.
But yeah, wanting something that "just works" implies that you don't want to have to think or worry about it. That would definitely encompass manually adding RAM from a 3rd party supplier.
Ok, the post above says the same thing only better.
But yeah, wanting something that "just works" implies that you don't want to have to think or worry about it. That would definitely encompass manually adding RAM from a 3rd party supplier.
Ok, the post above says the same thing only better.
It's not quite that simple, but yeah if people weren't buying it at that price, they wouldn't keep it priced that high.
I still can't figure out how the iMac can sell so well being that I wouldn't buy an integrated cpu / monitor in a milion years, but it sells like crazy. Different strokes for different folks.