Best place to buy 4GB ver. of MBA?

[tivoboy]

yes

I paid $1,250 for a 13" MBA with 4 gb of ram. So the prices are not always exactly as Apple sets them. Resellers buy the units at a lower price than they sell them for and the difference is called "margin". Some resellers realize that if they sell the units at a lower price, they will sell more of them and hence the overall profit to the business is higher... i.e. Capitalism is reborn during the rein of Mr. Jobs.

With that said, it's a small discount - nothing too get excited about. I also got it without sales tax. Overall I'm happy. I can afford that price and it was a deciding factor in my purchase, so hopefully Mr. Jobs is also happy to convert one more PC user over at the breaking point and leaving very little money on the table.

Well, as much as this is a nice lesson in business models and pricing, it doesn't really apply to apple. Apple firmly sets the pricing and does not allow authorized resellers to "discount", HISTORICALLY.

Till now, we have always seen this in the form of a rebate. Then, we started to see companies like Amazon (they were first, with both the rebate AND he posted discount to retail) and macmall offering products below full retail. I don't think it ever exceeds 10%, is is usually 3-5% and I'm not really sure how they get away with it. There must be some threshold that apple just isn't interested in going after them for. 10% seems to BE that level, stay under, they won't unleash the hounds, go over, you done!

 

[reddirt14]

I think Apple is walking a very fine line with price setting. I recall a ruthless hotel owner in NYC who once said paying taxes is for the poor. The laws apply to all, regardless of how big you are.

 

[mattwallace24]

I purchased my maxed out MBA (faster processor, larger drive, and 4GB RAM) yesterday at my local Apple Retail Store. They now include this configuration in their price lists throughout the store, so I suspect you can get them in almost any Apple Retail Store pending inventory.

No price discounts, but the Apple employee asked where I worked and I found out my employees at my company get a discount. Wasn't a lot, but covered a little more than my tax.

 

[slipkid]

apple store

i fortunately live very close to an Apple Store in NJ. I tend to buy the big ticket items at the store. There is a definite piece of mind that i can pop over there if something happens to the device, and when they say, did u buy it here, and I say yes, it seems to open the door to a more robust set of repair replace options. I do buy some other apple hardware (airport express) from big box stores. Good Luck