150€ just to have it in black??

[Reno404]

Hello!

I'm considering buying a Mac Book and leaving the PC-world, so I surfed around the Apple store. In my country (Belgium), there's a 200€ difference beween the white and the black Mac Book. Sure the black one has a bigger hard-drive, but you can have an equally big hard drive on the white one for only 50€ extra. So there's 150€ that just "goes to waste", just for having it black... I know it's only a matter of taste but I think the matt black version looks way cooler than the glossy white one.
So, FOR SHAME!

I'm a newbee, do you guys think this will last, or are there any chances apple will level the prices with the white one, or at least stop charging an extra 150€ just for the color? It really is a pain in the bum.

 

[®îçhå®?]

I'm a newbee, do you guys think this will last, or are there any chances apple will level the prices with the white one, or at least stop charging an extra 150€ just for the color? It really is a pain in the bum.

I think Apple will drop the prices in a couple of months, probably in August, but not to the same price as the white one.

 

[dan-o-mac]

You should check out the black before you consider buying one. I thought it was hot until I saw it today in person, it looks kinda ugly. a glossy black would have been sweeter.

 

[Queso]

With it's larger price tag, the black one is obviously being pitched at the business customers who previously would have bought a 12" PowerBook. Businesses prefer metal or muted colours. The true consumer iBook replacement is still the white one.

 

[oclor]

I took a trip to the apple store a couple of days ago planning on buying the white macbook because the black "looked too pc-like". I was stunned when i saw it in person and now i'm typing this on my new BLACK MacBook which I love. I don't think a glossy finish would have been better, i love this and think its even nicer than the MacBook Pro's aluminum casing. Bottom line, go check it out in person and decide for yourself, because some will tell you they hate it and some will tell you they love it. Personally, i think its worth the $150 extra, but you should go check it out for yourself

 

[MRU]

With it's larger price tag, the black one is obviously being pitched at the business customers who previously would have bought a 12" PowerBook. Businesses prefer metal or muted colours. The true consumer iBook replacement is still the white one.

Bull, a business is not going to spend extra money needlesly to give you a colour option.


Dont fool yourself

The reason apple charge 150 more for black, is because a hell of a lot of people will pay for it. The black ipod is more popular than white now, so they know they are onto a winner.

The smarter people will go for white. When it comes to resale, those who spent 150 extra are going to feel the burn far more than those who bought white.

 

[Queso]

Not only do I have my own business and do adopt this poiicy, but I've done consultancy for large media companies that think the same way. Your image in front of your customers is very important. If consumers also want them fair enough, but the business users wanting the smaller form factor will be buying the black, you mark my words.

 

[MRU]

Not only do I have my own business and do adopt this poiicy, but I've done consultancy for large media companies that think the same way. Your image in front of your customers is very important. If consumers also want them fair enough, but the business users wanting the smaller form factor will be buying the black, you mark my words.

Well I work in design and a nice apple logo is all I ever see regardless of color Biggest faux par would be to see a dell

 

[Reno404]

The reason apple charge 150 more for black, is because a hell of a lot of people will pay for it. The black ipod is more popular than white now, so they know they are onto a winner.

I figured it would have been some like that. "I know you want it, but I want your money". Frustrating.

 

[tuartboy]

It's cheaper than they used to charge for the 12" aluminum ibook!

 

[Deepdale]

... are there any chances apple will level the prices with the white one, or at least stop charging an extra 150€ just for the color? It really is a pain in the bum.

Welcome to the world of Apple, where price premiums for reasons that are legitimate (as well as those of a more dubious nature) exist. Keep your good thoughts alive but temper them with a heavy dose of reality. I look at it this way ... I was expecting the black to be $250.00 higher than its counterpart.

 

[MRU]

As they say

once youve gone macbook black its hard to go mac white back.

 

[matticus008]

I know what follows is long, but if people are actually wondering how something like a black MacBook ends up costing so much more than a white one (outside the "let's screw the customers" conspiracy theory), this is actually a rough example of how the pricing process works in the real world.

~~~~

Say a MacBook, back when Apple started work on it, not knowing there would be multiple colors, cost 850 units in parts/labor. And say that their existing markup formula said that they would add 150 units to get the retail price (a nice, round, 1000 units). I'm purposely abstracting away from dollars/Euros here so that people don't think I'm using exact figures from Apple.

Now, with the colors added, the price goes up because the bulk order volume decreases. 1 million MacBooks are no longer being made with 1 million white case pieces--they're being made with say, 600,000 white and 400,000 black. If your order drops 40% (from 1M to 600k), you get a worse price. And the black unit price is even worse. So now the white MacBook costs 860 units, and the black costs 880 units.

Apple has already set its price point for the "standard" ones (white) at a certain level (1000 units), and it has a certain percentage overhead such that it needs to add 150 units to the price for other expenses and profit. So the white one should sell for 1010 (860+150), but they already decided it would sell for 1000, so the 10 get transferred to the black ones which have no price set yet (and let's say their market research shows would sell 2:3 against the white, so each black MacBook has to cover the price increase of 1.5 white ones or 10*1.5=15 units per black MacBook).

So the black MacBooks have 15 units carried from the white, plus the 20 units extra to begin with, and their percentage overhead calculation says that they need 160 units markup on parts:
15+880+160=1055

But wait. Upgrades and BTO options are never sold at cost! Let's triple it. 20(3)=60

15+60+860+160=1095

Now 1095 isn't an attractive price, so let's just round it up to 1100, and there you are. The black one costs 10% more, even though it was originally only REALLY 2% more expensive.