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"do not open" stock arriving in stores today
- Thread starter getyup
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I'm new to this first day stuff. What time will they announce it exactly? Midnight PST?
The only reason why I see that not being the case is because the Airs have been hinted at replacing the current white Macbooks which come standard with 2 GB.
Let's go over the realistic values of a baseline model though:
Screen - $100
OS - $50
Casing - $100
Keyboard & Touchpad - $100
Processor (let's say baseline) - $220
Motherboard & Misc Internals - $150
RAM - $50
SSD - ~$150
Facetime camera - Let's just top it off let's say $30
Total:
$950... I'd say that's a good estimate of what it's worth to a consumer. Some of the estimations are a tad bit higher, some are a tad bit lower... you can agree or disagree with me, it's fine... I'm just giving a quick once-over to give a very general idea.
The base price of the Macbook Air is $1000. And the amount I tallied above comes to $950. You're not paying much of a premium for the device in my opinion. That's why I am looking forward to buying one.
The design and form factor of the Air is the main reason for its price, and rightfully so...
What hole did you pull these values out of? I'd say cut each of your numbers by half, and you'll be a little closer to accurate.
Anyhow, to answer the question of value, technology is priced comparable to market, not based on cost. If that were the case, batteries would all cost $0.10 for a 8 pack of AAs, and HDMI cables at Best Buy would all be $2...
Price is set by demand and market allowance\competition. Apple's competitors based on size\features are priced about where the MB Air is, which is how Apple sets their price.
Well of course they don't sell their products at the same cost it costs them to produce it! I'm talking about its market value. Are you that blind? Do you really not understand the concept of market value? Or are you trying to teach it to me? Because I just demonstrated what market value means. The screen is worth about $100 at market value. Why? Because it's high quality. Don't go lecturing me about how it costs them less to produce: Every product sold on the market costs less to produce than its sold for (with the few exceptions). That's a given. But I'm arguing the point that the Macbook Air is not overpriced, and actually isn't priced at a premium for its looks... that every part in it at its respective market value adds up to the correct amount. When you add the price of every part thrown into the Macbook Air, there's no extra $500 price tagged on just for it being an Air. Of course you end up paying some premiums for certain upgrades.
The OS is worth $50, plain and simple. They're selling it for $30, but that requires that you already have Snow Leopard before-hand. So I'd say $50 is a conservative value.
The screen is obviously worth $100. Look at the quality of it. You'd be a fool to say it's worth less. Yes, of course it costs Apple less to produce: It's called retail. They don't run a charity. You can't get a basic laser mouse for the $1 it costs companies to make them, or a fancy mouse for the $5 that it costs them.
The casing again, is worth about $100. This is the one where you might go a bit lower on the estimates. But look at the cost of a nice iPad case (when I say case here I'm talking about the leather cases or otherwise that you put over them), or a nice Macbook case, or anything else... you're looking at around $50. And those cases aren't made of trade-secret assembled aluminum (or aluminium or whatever it is).
Keyboard & Touchpad: Again, together these are about worth $100. Again, you could argue that it's just slightly less. But the touchpad is extremely large and extremely nice. To buy such a thing (for USB), you're looking at $60-$70. The keyboard is also very nice quality. One could argue together they're only worth $80-ish, but still... rough estimate. I value them together at about $100 if I were able to assemble every part of my laptop in a custom manner.
Processor: I based this on the low-mid end mobile processors by Intel. Maybe you're just misinformed, but why don't you look at their price-points? The suggested retail value of their chips are between $180 and $300. I'm talking about the 17W chips and 25W chips.
Motherboard & Misc Internals: Why don't you look at the price of decent motherboards and get back to me. I assemble and repair computers for friends & family regularly (between 5 and 10 in a year usually). Usually these are basic desktops, or gaming rigs. The cost of even a basic motherboard is going to be about $60 for anything functional and old. An up-to-date motherboard with recent technologies built in is going to cost more (a basic Sandy Bridge motherboard for a desktop starts at just above $100, and something of decent quality in a desktop can't be bought for less than $130... on initial release, you were looking at $140-$150 minimum). My estimate of $150 is quite reasonable. That's including the cost of the bluetooth, the motherboard, assuming thunderbolt is in there as well, the built-in wireless, etc, etc.
RAM: I gave a very conservative price on this. Again, I'm assuming 4GB of RAM will be baseline. I said it's worth $50. Based on a bit of an assumption here.
SSD: Why don't you look at the price of a quality SSD and get back to me. Don't reference a cheap OCZ SSD or a Corsair or anything of the like. Apple purchases products based on A-grade quality (for the most part). If they bought OCZ SSD's, Macbook Airs would be failing left right and center. $150 is a very good estimate.
Facetime Camera: I think $30 is a great estimate. In fact, if they up the quality of the facetime camera, I think its value is a little higher. I just picked $30 to round off my total to $950 in the end.
So there's where I got my numbers from. All these numbers are informed. And I did disclaim in my post that they are rough numbers just for a general idea. Now don't you feel foolish?
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No, kinda feel bad you spent all that time typing that out, when it's clear you have no idea how the industry works.
If you don't like the price, don't buy one.
I'm replacing my Dell Mini Hackintosh with an AIr (hopefully tomorrow). The Dell was great for taking notes in class, but I kept finding myself wanting to use it at home to surf, listen to music, ect. For those tasks, the Dell absolutely blows. The Apple hardware is worth the premium.
Woah! Woah!
The OS that Apple makes itself isn't going to cost anywhere near $50. Even we, the regular consumers are only going to pay $30. I don't think Apple would make itself pay for something they created.
These prices are really high that you just made up.
You do know that apple has to make a profit thats more than $50 on a $1000 item right?
I would say that the total after assembling them in China, shipping them to the US, etc. it would cost under $700.
Why not get back to friendly, ON TOPIC discussion, hmm?
I hope that these boxes have new MBAs in them, because I'm really itching to get my hands on one. It'll probably just sit in my apartment though until Friday since I'll be at a Harry Potter-a-thon all day tomorrow (with a short jaunt out to buy a new MBA if they are released)!
I hope that these boxes have new MBAs in them, because I'm really itching to get my hands on one. It'll probably just sit in my apartment though until Friday since I'll be at a Harry Potter-a-thon all day tomorrow (with a short jaunt out to buy a new MBA if they are released)!
+10000
Great Post PaulWog!!
To the people who think its overpriced:How the hell is it overpriced when the Windows Competitor (Samsun Series) costs more?
That's arguable. The case, touchpad, and keyboard are not worth close to $200. Maybe $100-$150. How could they sell Chromebooks, with a very similar case, for $500?
The macbook pro 15" case costs around 250$.
So I don't think the macbook air's case (even the 11") will be less than 100$.
No offense, but I'd prefer it if you read everything I say before you bash what I have to say. I said it costs $30 to customers, however you are required to already have Snow Leopard on that computer prior. That means that you've already invested something into their previous OS. To say that Apple's OS isn't worth $50 is just silly.
Again, no offense, but do you not understand the concept of market values? Of course Apple makes a profit. I already went over it. Every company can make products on the cheap. However we have to look at its fair market value. The fair market value of 4GB (2x 2GB) of DDR3 1600MHz RAM with 9-9-9-24 timings for a regular desktop is approximately $40-$45. The cost of that RAM to produce is probably less than $10. But why would I even touch on what it probably costs the factory? What matters is the fair market value. And that's what we're looking at: What would the fair market value of every part in the Macbook Air be, imagining that those parts could be sold separately? I made some intelligent estimates, and some numbers are factual (ex. the price of Intels i3, i5, and i7 Sandy Bridge processors).
Again, I already in my post said that it's arguable. So you are reiterating what I have already iterated on. Though I guess it's worth the argument as you do have a valid point
The case, touchpad, and keyboard to me are at least together worth $150. At most $200. Again, I said that it's arguable either way. But looking at the fine finish on these three particulars in the Macbook Air, one should be able to see the value in them. The market value of the Apple's USB touchpad is $70, so I based the cost of their touchpad on the Macbook Air at approximately that (slightly less). The market value of a nice quality keyboard is at least $30 (for something ergonomic and basic, yet of decent quality); Apple's keyboards are again, top-notch for something that isn't mechanical (though I don't think there is such a thing as a notebook with mechanical keyswitches such as Cherry Blues). The case is probably the main thing where one could debate... the keyboard and touchpad are a little easier to argue the values of one way or another. But again, I touched on that subject lightly, and argued why I put the case at what I put it at: Look at the cost of a quality carrying case or plastic/leather encasing that you put a laptop into. Usually you're looking at $50-ish. So $100 for something that is made of metal and is what it is makes sense to me: But yes, I can see why you'd say it's worth less I suppose. Though quality casing in the laptop market (the actual shells) is somewhat of a specialty product; and the demand is high. That's why (despite cheaper manufacturing costs), the "suggested retail value"/fair market value/price the consumer can get it at cheapest is actually quite high (I used three different ways of describing what I've been talking about above: "market value", just to try to stress the angle I'm coming from).If we look at the factory costs of parts, then every single product in existence is a ripoff (some very particular exemptions exist of course). We have to take into consideration as well: Research costs, advertising costs, shipping costs, legal costs, etc, etc, etc. Then we know what the base cost of the product is to the company. And even then, we can't base it off of the base cost, since the company must make a profit. So we have to compare the average market value of a given product. So if we look at a TN panel 22-inch LCD screen of decent quality (for a desktop), we're looking at a fair market value of between $130 and $220. That's just an estimation based on what you'll see the price of 22-inch TN panel desktop LCD screens for (depending on quality and age). It can be a tad bit higher or lower, and justifiably so in some cases (and not justifiable in other cases). We don't need to look at the base cost of the company because that's just silly.
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Do any of you guys have friends that work at an Apple store, and if so maybe they could share a little bit of what they have learned tonight....
Do any of you guys have friends that work at an Apple store, and if so maybe they could share a little bit of what they have learned tonight....
+1!!
Really, I wanna go work at an apple store just to push out the news and confirm the rumors
It's not like they're gonna get caught... Easy to make an email, easy to make a macrumors account, easy to post non-store specific info (I mean don't talk about the store you work in, of course!!)Do any of you guys have friends that work at an Apple store, and if so maybe they could share a little bit of what they have learned tonight....
My source, Mr. Y, is something much better than a store worker. I will definitely get back to you on what they will learn tonight first thing tomorrow morning around 8-9am Central
Do any of you guys have friends that work at an Apple store, and if so maybe they could share a little bit of what they have learned tonight....
Checked in transits and 4 boxes being delivered tomorrow but no label as to what they contain.
You guys (working at applestore) should sue apple for that secrecy! What if the planted bombs in every apple store with ultimate goal a huge terrorism activity that will change the world? I mean they just put in boxes that noone knows what they contain...I say as soon as you see the boxes coming start yelling "IT'S A BOMB! IT'S A BOMB!". 5-10 minutes later, police shows up and opens them
Do any of you guys have friends that work at an Apple store, and if so maybe they could share a little bit of what they have learned tonight....
Wish I did
I did have one friend that *almost* got a job at the Apple store. But he said he screwed up one question in his interview that likely costed him the position: When asked "What Apple computers do you own?" he replied "I like the Apple operating system, but I'm more of a PC guy when it comes to the computers I own." He mentioned he was kicking himself.
It's always best to portray yourself as someone who simply is incapable of making whatever you're selling look bad.
That's a wonderful idea in fact i think i'm going to go try that.You guys (working at applestore) should sue apple for that secrecy! What if the planted bombs in every apple store with ultimate goal a huge terrorism activity that will change the world? I mean they just put in boxes that noone knows what they contain...I say as soon as you see the boxes coming start yelling "IT'S A BOMB! IT'S A BOMB!". 5-10 minutes later, police shows up and opens them