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Apple gone too far with new pricing?

J

Janglo

macrumors member
Original poster
May 7, 2008
47
0
Mac Mini - no significant processor boost looks like the Mac Mini will fall behind standards soon.

iMac - £950 for a standard, entry level computer is quite alot of money. Nearly a grand... I know the Mac Mini is cheaper, but alot of people dont want to be limited to a lower standard computer because of insane pricing.

I can't see apple taking over the computer market too soon - people said the old macs were expensive.

imacspoof.png
 
What an awesome photoshop :rolleyes:

Apple's hardly going to crumble by over charging the UK. The US prices don't include sales tax and the UK prices do include VAT.
 
Sky Blue said:
What an awesome photoshop :rolleyes:

Apple's hardly going to crumble by over charging the UK. The US prices don't include sales tax and the UK prices do include VAT.
Click to expand...

Meh, I'm a newb - not everybody starts out painting a mona lisa with their first go. It doesn't really make it right to charge the UK more though - Everyone now is saying that it's because of the exchange rate change. But when we talked about the exchange rate a year ago, everyone came back with "There's loads more to it than the exchange rate".
 
Apple can be pricey. They're pricks like that and for many more reasons than their pricing. They've become a brand and a fashion statement and they know they can get away with a bit of shenanigans. That's life. I can't afford an Aston Martin but I'm not outraged at them for it, just my finances.
 
iBlue said:
Apple can be pricey. They're pricks like that and for many more reasons than their pricing. They've become a brand and a fashion statement and they know they can get away with a bit of shenanigans. That's life. I can't afford an Aston Martin but I'm not outraged at them for it, just my finances.
Click to expand...

Not forgetting the £ is worth less than it was.
 
iBlue said:
Apple can be pricey. They're pricks like that and for many more reasons than their pricing. They've become a brand and a fashion statement and they know they can get away with a bit of shenanigans. That's life. I can't afford an Aston Martin but I'm not outraged at them for it, just my finances.
Click to expand...

Real good point actually. I think all I wanted was a full size wireless keyboard.

I guess i'll buy that center channel speaker after all. It's $300 even after today's update ... then again it's not apple. :D
 
I like how they advertise the core 2 duo chip on the mac mini Store page...

"blazing fast comes standard"

what a bunch of bull crap.
 
Three words:

Not ...

F**king ...

Amused ...

I've found out that the order I had for the "old" 20" 2.4GHz through RBS Select, which I was getting at a discounted £612.47 no longer stands due to the new model being launched.

Under the terms and conditions if a new model is launched it is automatically ordered for you, and we were made aware that the "list" or "RRP" price could change accordingly, which as we all know it has.

I now NEED to pay £759 for the new £949 iMac through RBS Select. Some of you will cry, "That's a brilliant deal", and it is. But it's an extra £150 or so I was not expecting to have to pay.

The cost of the iMac, due to it being an employee offer, comes off my Father in Law's salary at the end of March, and there is no way to cancel. I can return it unopened, but the time between returning and getting refunded means my Father in Law would be at a loss in terms of income and paying his bills.

Not amused, Apple. I know the Dollar and Pound have dropped in value, but a jump from £782 to £949 is appalling.
 
With you on the insane pricing. I was REALLY looking forward to a new mini. I was going to buy one for my girlfriend (who wants a desktop Mac). But for the price they're charging (CAD$730), I could get -- at retail, even -- a quad-core, 2.93GHz Dell or HP machine with 3-4GB RAM, 1TB drive, etc.

I know the Apple premium well, but they seem to really be squeezing it at the low end. The price on the minis actually went up rather substantially this time. They were already too high, and now they're in line with machines roughly 3x as fast. That's just ridiculous.
 
Janglo said:
Mac Mini - no significant processor boost looks like the Mac Mini will fall behind standards soon.

iMac - £950 for a standard, entry level computer is quite alot of money. Nearly a grand... I know the Mac Mini is cheaper, but alot of people dont want to be limited to a lower standard computer because of insane pricing.

I can't see apple taking over the computer market too soon - people said the old macs were expensive.

imacspoof.png
Click to expand...

LOL! "Gone too far"? LOL!!!
BTW I don't care if Apple 'takes over' the computer market. All that will do is ruin Apple quality and attract diggiots. Give me high quality, high priced computers anyday.
 
iBlue said:
Apple can be pricey. They're pricks like that and for many more reasons than their pricing. They've become a brand and a fashion statement and they know they can get away with a bit of shenanigans. That's life. I can't afford an Aston Martin but I'm not outraged at them for it, just my finances.
Click to expand...

So true. On the positive side, at least you are getting one of the best computers on the market along with Sony and Alien, and guess what? ... they are pricey, too.

In most cases, you get what you pay for.

But Apple does have the mini, which now with Superdrive, finally, is competitive with the PC side in features. A similarly priced small footprint PC may have slightly better graphics, but that is the case on all PC desktops. Apple skimps on GPUs for the dollar, but offer a more sturdy case, better packaging, and better service instead.

But in the end, it comes down to whether you like OS X, or Windows Vista.
 
Janglo said:
Mac Mini - no significant processor boost looks like the Mac Mini will fall behind standards soon.
Click to expand...


The mini has always had similar standards as the low end MacBook. It is what it is, and has never been marketed as a headless iMac. It's more of a NetTop.
 
Chupa Chupa said:
The mini has always had similar standards as the low end MacBook. It is what it is, and has never been marketed as a headless iMac. It's more of a NetTop.
Click to expand...

No, I don't think it is. Minis are good for full desktop computer duties. A NetTop, not so much. An EeeBox, with a single-core Atom just isn't the same class of machine as the mini.

It's also more than twice as expensive as the real net tops.
 
Janglo said:
Mac Mini - no significant processor boost looks like the Mac Mini will fall behind standards soon.

iMac - £950 for a standard, entry level computer is quite alot of money. Nearly a grand... I know the Mac Mini is cheaper, but alot of people dont want to be limited to a lower standard computer because of insane pricing.

I can't see apple taking over the computer market too soon - people said the old macs were expensive.

imacspoof.png
Click to expand...

Long time lurker. I signed up because I don't understand how you find this unfair. In the US, the price of the entry-level iMac is $1,199. I live in California where sales tax is 7.75%. That means that if I went to my local Apple store I would drop $1291.92 total. You say that it is now 949 pounds for the same system. Well from what I have heard that includes VAT...Correct me if I'm wrong, but according to Wikipedia, it is currently 15% (UK). That means without VAT it would be 806.65 pounds. NOW- According to x-rates.com, the current exchange rate is $1.41/pound. Using that rate to convert to dollars it would be $1137 without VAT and $1338 with VAT. As you can see, that is almost identical in dollar value to what I would pay. I don't understand your argument. I was in the UK last year when withdrawing 250 pounds cost me $500. Of course, that sucked for me. Now you cry foul when the shoe is on the other foot?

Kris

P.S. Like I said, I grabbed VAT and exchange rate information from good sources, but feel free to correct me.
 
shadax said:
Long time lurker. I signed up because I don't understand how you find this unfair. In the US, the price of the entry-level iMac is $1,199. I live in California where sales tax is 7.75%. That means that if I went to my local Apple store I would drop $1291.92 total. You say that it is now 949 pounds for the same system. Well from what I have heard that includes VAT...Correct me if I'm wrong, but according to Wikipedia, it is currently 15% (UK). That means without VAT it would be 806.65 pounds. NOW- According to x-rates.com, the current exchange rate is $1.41/pound. Using that rate to convert to dollars it would be $1137 without VAT and $1338 with VAT. As you can see, that is almost identical in dollar value to what I would pay. I don't understand your argument. I was in the UK last year when withdrawing 250 pounds cost me $500. Of course, that sucked for me. Now you cry foul when the shoe is on the other foot?

Kris

P.S. Like I said, I grabbed VAT and exchange rate information from good sources, but feel free to correct me.
Click to expand...

Post of the day
 
entry level mac mini price increased by €100 in Ireland. That is a 20% increase :mad:
 
Consultant said:
It's well known that RAM upgrades are cheaper to do it yourself.
Click to expand...

I hope by now most people know this. But some don't and this adds to Apple Inc's margins, along with the great margins of profit they make off of iPods and iPhones.
 
The exchange rate is screwed in case you hadn't noticed.

I predicted at least £150 increase on the baseline iMac back in October :)

Until this update, we were getting Macs for a complete steal compared to the US.
 
shadax said:
Of course, that sucked for me. Now you cry foul when the shoe is on the other foot?
Click to expand...

We all understand exchange rates. What you don't seem to realize is that just because the US dollar is worth more in relation does NOT translate into Britons suddenly having more stirling than they did previously. Same with other currencies. No one's salary is weighted against the US dollar, so to people outside the US, this is a real, significant price increase.

For example:

The mini, yesterday, would have cost me CAD$650. Today, it would cost me CAD$730. But I do not magically have $80 more just because the value of the Canadian dollar has dropped in the past six months. A mini now costs me 13% more than it did previously, even if the real (US) price hasn't moved.

I'm not saying this isn't fair, or anything. Apple can charge what they like, of course. But this IS a real price increase for the rest of us.
 
DannySmurf said:
The mini, yesterday, would have cost me CAD$650. Today, it would cost me CAD$730. But I do not magically have $80 more just because the value of the Canadian dollar has dropped in the past six months. A mini now costs me 13% more than it did previously, even if the real (US) price hasn't moved.
Click to expand...

Actually, this is post of the day ;-)

- D
 
In another topic I posted the cost comparison I did between the UK prices and the US ones. On many of the new models, the UK price is lower:

Mac mini:
1
UK price: $611.19
US price: $599.00

2
UK price: $794.89
US price: $799.00

iMac:
1
UK price: $1161.95
US price: $1199.00

2
UK price: $1467.12
US price: $1499.00

3
UK price: $1834.21
US price: $1799.00

4
UK price: $2201.03
US price: $2199.00
 
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