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Economies of Scale or BTO ??

Perfectionist

Perfectionist

macrumors regular
Original poster
Oct 27, 2006
139
0
London - UK
OK, lets say Apple decides to make 4Gb RAM and/or 1TB HDD, standard across the range ..... would it really add too much on to the eventual selling price ?? :cool:

HDD/RAM prices are dropping all the time and the price difference between different capacities are becoming minimal ...... as Apple would be buying the 1TB HDD/4Gb RAM in even greater quantities, they could get an even better price on them from their suppliers ...... there would be no need to build separate BTO machines anymore and the whole production line could be streamlined and made more efficient ...... plus warranty/repair/replacement issues would be simplified ...... etc etc, cost benefits galore !! :)

So improving the spec across the range like this would (probably!) add little (if anything) to the overall selling price ...... so for about the same money, we all get more powerful machines, Apple increases productivity and the iMac's gain even more market share as the better specified machines would naturally beat out the PC competitors in magazine reviews and tests etc etc ...... :D

Any constructive criticisms to my theory ?? Am I crazy or a genius ?? :p
 
Perfectionist said:
OK, lets say Apple decides to make 4Gb RAM and/or 1TB HDD, standard across the range ..... would it really add too much on to the eventual selling price ?? :cool:

HDD/RAM prices are dropping all the time and the price difference between different capacities are becoming minimal ...... as Apple would be buying the 1TB HDD/4Gb RAM in even greater quantities, they could get an even better price on them from their suppliers ...... there would be no need to build separate BTO machines anymore and the whole production line could be streamlined and made more efficient ...... plus warranty/repair/replacement issues would be simplified ...... etc etc, cost benefits galore !! :)

So improving the spec across the range like this would (probably!) add little (if anything) to the overall selling price ...... so for about the same money, we all get more powerful machines, Apple increases productivity and the iMac's gain even more market share as the better specified machines would naturally beat out the PC competitors in magazine reviews and tests etc etc ...... :D

Any constructive criticisms to my theory ?? Am I crazy or a genius ?? :p
Click to expand...

You're crazy . . . right now even with the high prices of Macs, they still out rate the majority of all PCs in their selective genre (15" laptop, 15" performance laptop, desktop, etc). They have no need to make it a automatic feature, especially since the general user does not need 1 TB and 4 gigs of memory; only a select few would need it, so the demand is not that large enough to match the costs of creating those lines and loose x amount of dollars by keeping it the same price as their right now 2gb 500gb model. But alas . . . I wish you weren't crazy and that your ideas were the status quo. . . I would have a 1TB harddrive on my iMac instead of 500gb O_O that would be nice, but I don't need it.
 
ninjapenguinart said:
You're crazy . . .
Click to expand...
That's what they called Steve Jobs when they kicked him out of Apple ! ;)

they still out rate the majority of all PCs
Click to expand...
So why don't they out-sell the majority of PC's ? :p

the general user does not need 1 TB and 4 gigs of memory
Click to expand...
Who cares about need ! Want baby want ! :D

and loose x amount of dollars by keeping it the same price as their right now
Click to expand...
That's is precisely my point ..... Apple wouldn't actually lose any dollars due to the economies generated ! :cool:

But alas . . . I wish you weren't crazy and that your ideas were the status quo. . .
Click to expand...
Join the queue ! :)
 
What makes you think Apple doesn't already get great prices on the memory and HDs they install? Sure, you and I pay more at retail, but why would Apple get a bigger percentage off the larger sized memory or HD?

They don't max it out because it means they can keep the price down (or profits up). Sure, it may be only $50-100, but that's not chump change over the volume of sales they do, and it's not chump change for buyers either, many of whom do not need (or really want) the extra memory.

What would be better is if they dropped the amount of memory and let you go buy your own for less elsewhere.
 
Le Big Mac said:
What would be better is if they dropped the amount of memory and let you go buy your own for less elsewhere.
Click to expand...

Or even better would be if their upgrade prices for RAM were reasonable....

What is it, $180 to go from 2GB to 4GB? But elsewhere you can buy 4GB and keep the two you're given for $100. That's absurd. I don't care if they say it's "better", it's not.

If they halved that upgrade price they would get WAY more people upgrading their way, and would still be making a nice profit. I think this is a more reasonable change than the one the OP suggests. Maybe something similar with the hard drive upgrades too, but those prices are already more reasonable than the RAM, and of course there isn't an easy alternative.
 
1. Apple outsells PC's in the $1000+ categories.
2. Apple will still loose a substantial amount if they did do it your way, becuase you have to think they will loose 100+ dollars on each sell of the high end if they did a ram and harddrive upgrade for free, in hopes of getting 5 new costumers. That's 500 dollars cost already for newly generated consumers, but you have to remember there were already 100 people willing to buy it. So that 500 dollar cost and 10,000 new revenue also brings 10,000 dollars of cost. So sure you'll be gaining 10,000 dollars of new revenue but you will be loosing 10,500 dollars. So your actual net new revenue out of it is -500 dollars. This does not take into account new jobs needing to be hired to maintain the new supply system of this new model.
3. Want does not relate into some one actually getting it. So sure people want it but does it mean they will buy it if given the option? No.

Finally I upgraded my 2 gig memory to 4 gig for 60 bucks and hoping to sell the 2 that were already in. :p Don't know where I should/can though.
 
Wow, $60? Even cheaper than I thought.

OWC buys back your unwanted RAM, but that might only be if you bought from them, not sure.
 
Astral Cars said:
Wow, $60? Even cheaper than I thought.

OWC buys back your unwanted RAM, but that might only be if you bought from them, not sure.
Click to expand...

Can you give me a link to the "buy back your unwanted RAM" because I can't find it on OWC's website, and it was 60 bucks after rebate ^_^
 
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