With the expected Intel price cuts on May 28th, what do you expect Apple will do with prices? What do you think Apple should do? (shouldnt there be a way to post this as a poll?)
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Will Intel price cuts = Mac price cuts?
- Thread starter slackersonly
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i would imagine that a $100+ price cut would even affect bulk pricing to some degree.
i am curious what impact of switching to intel chips will have on mac pricing. we all know that intel chip price cuts are way more numerous that anything apple has used before. however, if intel does keep introducing new chips once every 12 months, i think apple can ignore the price cuts without causing any problems with buyers.
i am curious what impact of switching to intel chips will have on mac pricing. we all know that intel chip price cuts are way more numerous that anything apple has used before. however, if intel does keep introducing new chips once every 12 months, i think apple can ignore the price cuts without causing any problems with buyers.
What devilot said. There's not going to be a price drop in the machines because Apple has fixed price points and the processor wholesale price drop doesn't necessarily reflect a direct price drop to Apple (since Intel sells discounted processors to manufacturers and the terms are not publicized). The CPU is just one component of the overall system and we don't know how much Apple's price drop will be, other than that it will be less than the wholesale drop.
Also consider that the G4 was outrageously cheap, but the Intel machines are (with the exception of the mini) not more expensive, so there is obviously some price insulation forming a part of their margin.
Also consider that the G4 was outrageously cheap, but the Intel machines are (with the exception of the mini) not more expensive, so there is obviously some price insulation forming a part of their margin.
Apple has had very few price drops other than at an update or on LCDs. Just because Apple changed their processor supplier doesn't mean they will change their business practices.
That's not strictly true. For example the price of the 12" Powerbook price has dropped $500 from when it was first introduced. The 15" also saw price drops, although in its case it also got several "upgrades".grapes911 said:
I would imagine in the case of the MBP, that Intel price drops may see a bumping of the CPU speeds in the MBPs.
dr_lha said:
I must have not been clear enough. Price drops usually only ever happen when an update was made. Apple usually doesn't just drop the price in the middle of a revision.
grapes911 said:
They have done in the past:
https://www.macrumors.com/pages/2003/06/20030602091950.shtml
also:
http://www.pcworld.com/news/article/0,aid,111000,00.asp (the same drop drop as the above link)
Read my posts, I never said they don't. I said they usually don't.
u·su·al (y?'zh?-?l)
adj.
Commonly encountered, experienced, or observed: the usual summer heat.
Regularly or customarily used: ended the speech with the usual expressions of thanks.
In conformity with regular practice or procedure: Come at the usual time.
http://www.answers.com/usually&r=67
I said "usually doesn't" which means the opposite of the above definitions. When you have to go back three years to find an outlier to my statement, I believe "usually doesn't" holds up pretty well.
u·su·al (y?'zh?-?l)
adj.
Commonly encountered, experienced, or observed: the usual summer heat.
Regularly or customarily used: ended the speech with the usual expressions of thanks.
In conformity with regular practice or procedure: Come at the usual time.
http://www.answers.com/usually&r=67
I said "usually doesn't" which means the opposite of the above definitions. When you have to go back three years to find an outlier to my statement, I believe "usually doesn't" holds up pretty well.
One or two mid-revision drops every several years is pretty infrequent, I think most people would agree.dr_lha said:
You are going to split hairs about the use of "infrequent" and "unusual"? You've got to be kidding me, right? You are starting to sound a little too trolly for my taste.dr_lha said:
probably a small discount
unless i'm wrong, apple did discount the prices of the older imac G5s when the intel versions came out. this is why I continue to hope the same will happen with current G5s so i can buy another machine.
i know..i know...the great debate begins about why buy intel or why buy current g5s when they'll be out of date in a few years..blah blah blah
i need one to make money so i'll get one
unless i'm wrong, apple did discount the prices of the older imac G5s when the intel versions came out. this is why I continue to hope the same will happen with current G5s so i can buy another machine.
i know..i know...the great debate begins about why buy intel or why buy current g5s when they'll be out of date in a few years..blah blah blah
i need one to make money so i'll get one
Keebler said:
You are correct. Apple almost always drops their prices on previous revisions. Sometimes even Apple stores have old computers left over after a new revision is out. The old revision usually sells for a price around what the educational discount used to be for it (I'm not sure if this pricing was the case with the G5 iMacs, but they did drop the price nonetheless).
Are we more likly to see more offers, RAM discounts for a while, that sort of thing?
This way Apple can protect their precious high prices and still attempt to offer something price-wise.
This way Apple can protect their precious high prices and still attempt to offer something price-wise.
That is much more plausible, but I still don't see it happening (not anymore than usual anyway). But then again, I never thought I'd see an Apple 2-button mouse.combatcolin said:
I doubt they will ever reduce the prices of things like the iMac although I would expect to see more regular speed bumps. Apple will probably put a chip of roughly the same value into each machine as the time of release as the model before. So when the time comes and a rev B Intel iMac comes out it'll have a processor that has the same value as the current models do now.
I think that once the Power PC models are all gone and intel line is a little more filled out, prices could come down a little... or at least plateau. As Mac's start to get more market share they will be effected more by the pricing of Dell and the like, so I wouldn't rule cuts out.
The biggest problem I see right now with apple switching over to intel is they are going to need to change there pricing plan and update speed. When under PPC they where the only one who supplied those computer so it was not as big.
Now with intel people are going to see intel do a price cut and see Dell and other PC makers either do a price cut or upgrade the systems a little. Apple is not known to do this and their ablity to get away with is quickly disapearing.
Apple still has quite a few adjustments to make to play in the x86 chip market. What pricing and update work with PPC is not going to work under x86.
Now with intel people are going to see intel do a price cut and see Dell and other PC makers either do a price cut or upgrade the systems a little. Apple is not known to do this and their ablity to get away with is quickly disapearing.
Apple still has quite a few adjustments to make to play in the x86 chip market. What pricing and update work with PPC is not going to work under x86.
Sure it will. They're still the only manufacturers of Macintosh computers, and they've got no competition. This is also a big motivating factor for not allowing OS X outside of the Apple camp via licensing--it would cause other OEMs to become direct competitors and force Apple's update cycles. </off topic>. More to the point, Apple's pricing is likely to remain fixed and stable (it's been a cornerstone of their sales practices for almost 10 years now), changing only at product revisions as it currently does. Those revisions also don't seem like they're going to come along faster. The only effect we'll probably see is a CPU speed bump every now and again without any other revisions--the sort of thing that happened with the MacBook Pro between announcement and shipping.Timepass said: