Apple considering price cuts

Hey a new pun for Apple Nick, congrats!! bet that opening line took you most of the morning to figure out. The rest of the article sure as sh!t didnt.

Yours, a fruity toy mak

If prices do come down its win/win for consumers.

"Apples customers are usually affluent and highly educated. These are the people that may not be as affected by this economy as a punk ass kid or toothless southerner with a broken down truck."

This is a funny comment. I think ignorance and a bit of bias towards Apple is key to this quote. Let's go to Apple.com and see what type of people use Macs....

"How to pick up and carry your iMac G5 "
http://support.apple.com/kb/HT2466?viewlocale=en_US

"Power Button May Require Firm Push"
http://support.apple.com/kb/TA27071?viewlocale=en_US

Yes the highly educated need guidance on how to pick up their computer as well as how to push in the power button.

Sure, its not good for the shareholders, but great for computer users.

Those who live in blissful ignorance keep buying el-cheapo PCs and constantly screwing those things up, and the Mac users will be happy with a once ever 3rd year purchase.

Steve-o keep'em high, let good ol Michael and Bill stack'em deep and sell-em cheap!

If APPLE Goes Thru With Making Its Own Processors, Then ChipSets & Other Needed HardWare, It IS LikeLy APPLE As Todays Inventory & Commitment For Units In Large Quanities Means They'd Like To DUMP OLD Units Upon Public & Get To Clear Weather.

Product Will Be Better Then & So todays Units Are Actually Worth Less By Comparrison. Happy Shoppers Bring Back Smiles, NOT Guns. So Its GOOD Compromise For Family Wishing To Explore Computing. Signed:Drashek

"You also have to understand - Apples customers are usually affluent and highly educated". First of all affluent and highly educated people usually lack common sense. As for the weak economy, the people most affected are the ones able to buy a Mac.

"they usually end up giving the consumer more for the same amount of money during each upgrade."

How does that Kool-Aid taste? Glad you see it that way.

Here's the truth: Apple releases a product and lets it live for 9 months. Do you not think that chip prices come down every day? So if Apple releases a laptop in Jaunary 2009 for $2000, which contains $1500 worth of materials (the entire shebang), they have a $500 profit. Every day they produce that laptop they get even more profit because that bill of materials goes down but the set price doesn't. So every day you wait after Apple releases a product, you're getting more screwed.

Apple to cut prices...check sky for aerobatic formations of swine.

Efros

Thank you for making me laugh so loudly today!

The very idea that Apple's higher prices means higher quality products is so flawed, it makes me wish I had the power of Steve Job's "Reality Distortion Field" to make people believe whatever I said too! Apple just uses its brand power to make a HUGE markup on the parts it sells: there's no greater quality of build over a decently made computer.

If you honestly believe that Apple parts are better made, you need to wake up to reality, because you're currently being misled by the Apple-friendly press in the world, the skew of Apple zealots and the pervasive advertising they've been running for years now. I'm not saying Apple is the devil or anything, nor that other computer manufacturers are perfect, but to believe that Apple makes better computers just because it charges more is fallacious.

Sorry if that seems harsh. I really hope you won't see this as a flame, as I just want you to realise how uninformed you come across to those of us who actually understand the technology industry to some degree.

apple hardware is the same stuff dell, acer, and everybody else uses. same cpu's, chipsets, ram, dvd drives, etc you name it. They have a different kind of bios on their motherboard and attractive cases. But the reliability etc etc, it's all the same parts people.

But apple can't just sell mac os on it's own because $100 for windows or $400 for mac os, mac os doesn't sound so good, so they bundle the hardware and charge a premium.

I think they would sell more of both if they sold the hardware at a normal price and let you choose windows or mac os, and sold mac os at a reasonable price and let you install on a dell.

But that's me :-)

Andrew and S Ansell hit the nail on the head with a sledge hammer.

1. I work around a bunch of highly educated idiots who have enough trouble booting up and operating Windows PC's. Mac's are easier once they get the hang of doing something "different" than the way they are accustomed to it.

2. Rich idiots think that things that are priced higher are of better quality, but we know that to be BS with a wide range of products. Price doesn't equal quality. Anyone can rip you off if you're stupid enough to buy into marketing hype.

3. All computer parts originate from the same location- CHINA. If all the parts come from the same place and essentially, the same pool of manufacturer's how can anyone claim that the parts that go into a Mac are of any higher quality than the parts that go into Dell, HP, etc.? Same stuff. Higher markup. The reason Apple moved to Intel architecture to lower manufacturing costs and increase profits. MAKE MORE MONEY. It has nothing to do with consumer needs.

So any fanboy who thinks that Apple loves them should wake up to the fact that Apple loves your WALLET and if they think it's a good idea to dump Intel and start manufacturing their own motherboards with that System on a chip company they just bought, in order to hem you guys in even more while raping your wallets, believe me, they will, and they won't ask your permission before they drop your pants and give you the "shove".

then swill you PC users have been drinking for the last 20 years. Oh, Win 7 is coming Win 7 is coming - watch out Mac users!!!! Ha Microsoft will finally PAWN Apple. Sure it took them 20 years and the experience will be half as good as Mac OS....HRMPPPHHHH!

As far as quality goes - please!!!!! Read the studies. Apple has nearly 80% customer satisfaction. Next nearest PC company - 66%. DELL was last in customer sat at 56%.

http://www.itbusinessedge.com/topics/reader.aspx?oss=66289

iPhone ranks highest with customers!

http://www.jdpower.com/corporate/news/releases/pressrelease.aspx?ID=2009082

Facts gentlewomen - facts. Please stop whinning about eroding marketshare - increasing visuses/trojan horses. Move on and get a Mac.

By the way I've owned Macs since 1985. I have many friends that have owned since then. I have never had a single HW or SW problem with my Macs - nor do my friends. I currently run a iBook that is 5-6 years old - no issues. My stupid home built PC has had numerous viruses/trojans - BSOD - and now my HD just petered out!

Dudetes, PC sucks arse!!!! You now it, and I now it.

Hi JPO.

I generally use PCs, however about a year and a half ago I bought a macbook. Now, to tell you about my hardware problems.

There are strips of plastic that have came off on the part of the hardware which the top of the lid touches when you close it, there's a crack above the top right of the screen, the screen itself has all sorts of scratches from the keyboard when it's closed, and finally the standby light has stopped working, you know, the one that glows when it's closed and on standby.

I bought the thing with the hope that the OS would be more reliabe than the standard windows affair. I'll give it that. However I also bought into the impression that the build quality was better. (Not the components themselves, I know they're the same components everyone else uses of course) Sadly the build quality wasn't as I had hoped

Tom

Stop buying into the scandalous news of Nick Farrell. He only writes this stuff to get the inquirer hits and all you bickering like a bunch of narrowminded idiots.

There is room in this great big world for Dell, Apple, Alienware, HP and whoever else decides to make machines.

i am always confused by how everyone expects Apple to sell cheap computers, this isn't their marketplace, just like it isn't for companies like Alienware (their prices are extortionate, check them out!). There is a market for everything and although i tend to buy competitively priced PC's, I see the worth in an Apple Macintosh. Why?

Well for one, if you look at the 17 inch Pro, sure its 2 grand, but the spec is pretty good. you get a 2.93ghz Dual core high end Intel CPU with a nice 320GB 7,200 HD. you get 9600 GT Nvidia dedicated graphics and onboard 9400 mobile chipset. You get an aluminium body with a battery life of between 7-8 hours. Not only that but you get a lovely 1920x1200 LED screen and a lovely pink lit controllable keyboard with 16 levels of brightness. The build quality is awesome, it looks gorgeous and its as fast as any dual core laptop out there (and lets not go into quad core machines as they are far too big, ugly and hot).

My point?

I might not buy a macintosh, but I appreciate the hardware, the design and OSX in particular.

Relax, its a big world with a lot of viewpoints. If you don't want to pay more for a Macintosh then just enjoy what you can afford. I hate to say it, but most of these heated anti apple comments sound just like jealousy to me.

If I could afford a high end mac, id have one in a heartbeat. Im sick of Windows, I dont game on the move and i just like the whole ethos of the company. Probably why their name is worth 50 billion+

@ JPO

Since I choose to believe that no-one can be that moronic as to believe all the corporate mantra you're repeating, I'm going to instead categorise you as a mindless, flamebaiting troll and do the sensible thing now: ignore everything you say as you have no valid opinion. You've shown this via your uninformed and heavily skewed comments. You might want to step outside of the Steve Job's "Reality Distortion Field".

Also, I question what you've been smoking if you really do believe all that you've said. You read like a high teenager, with the corresponding writing skills to go along with that.

@ Steven

Good for you. For those of us who do game and who refuse to pay more for the SAME BLOODY HARDWARE we can buy elsewhere for cheaper without the massive price hikes, you come across a bit arrogant and paranoid.

If a writer attacks Apple, that doesn't make them evil: it just means they're not part of the Apple-friendly press. This isn't a bad thing. Apple "needs" a more open press to force it to address the overpricing that is making Apple customers suffer. You won't lose quality in Apple products if they cut prices, only Apple will make less profit. It won't affect their research or anything else because it's all just pure price skimming that Apple can get away with by being the only legitimate provider of OSX systems. If Apple opened up OSX, as many people have called for, they'd quickly have to reduce prices from other providers who are able to provide just as high quality as Apple.

A high-end Mac is just a normal PC or laptop with a different operating system and a massive mark-up. Seriously. You'd be far better off getting a good Toshiba unless you really love OSX that much and I'll happily admit that it's quite a simple OS to use. I wouldn't buy into the idea that expensive equals quality though, as it just shows you've bought into the marketing hype, as with JPO.

You've got to understand that we're not Apple-hating here so much as trying to make you realise that Apple isn't this perfect company which so many people seem to think. If we criticise Apple like we should and indeed do with every other company out there, we get flamed by Apple proponents for propaganda, but if you tell us that Apple is the bees' knees, apparently you're just enlightening us. This is not a correct representation of reality. We're not jealous either, we just hate the idea that you're overpaying for hardware/software and don't even realise it. We want to help you but you keep pushing us away.

The world is indeed full of viewpoints, but that doesn't mean all of them are right. There's a reason why Apple doesn't own more of the PC market and price is a huge factor in this. If they priced much fairer, they'd be a serious competitor and it would force them to address the few serious design issues they've had over the years (and tried to hide by all means possible) which would ultimately lead to higher quality products for all Apple users!

In short, it's win all round if you just accept that Apple is overpricing!

"By the way I've owned Macs since 1985. I have many friends that have owned since then. I have never had a single HW or SW problem with my Macs - nor do my friends. I currently run a iBook that is 5-6 years old - no issues. My stupid home built PC has had numerous viruses/trojans - BSOD - and now my HD just petered out!"

Wow, since 1985? No problems? You must not use your Macs much. I remember having to use them in labs to do layout work for newspapers and stuff. Those things locked up all the time. We had to back up files constantly (every few minutes) to avoid work being lost or corrupted.

This was partially due to Apple's terrible OS at the time (pre-OSX), which didn't even have protected memory, and an extremely backwards memory system. My Windows 98 system at the time, by comparison, had few problem; the only problems being related to the crap ATI drivers at the time. The fact that you suffered few (no) problems implies that you used your computer for little more than a desk ornament.

OSX was also a dog when it first came out. People think Vista's hardware requirements were bad, just look at OSX when it first came out. Even the fastest "supercomputer" G4s were chugging along under the load of the OS, that is, if you there was anything to run at all (poor software support at the time)! It was only with the introduction of Tiger that OSX was even marginally usable. I guess Apple users are just willing to tolerate a lot of shit to feel they're enjoying the experience.

Nowadays, it's more about preference than price (though Apples are at a premium), but to claim a flawless experience over the past two decades with Apple is ridiculous at best. They have been plagued by their problems as much as any Windows machine, even if their userbase isn't willing to admit it.

the keyboard on my macbook broke again. 3rd time this year. its only just may. sigh

... Honestly, there is some serious trolling going on here!

Are we talking about the same fruit themed machines here? I seem to remember dodgy Nvidia chips and spontaneous battery combustion...

1. You also have to understand - Apples customers are usually affluent and "highly educated".

2. Dudetes, PC sucks arse!!!! You "now" it, and I "now" it.

Kthx.

It's also likely that your home built PC sucks because you built it. And it probably has a virus/trojan problem because you're a noob surfer.

"A high-end Mac is just a normal PC or laptop with a different operating system and a massive mark-up."

I can't agree with this at all. I am not biased towards Mac's and I don't care for their marketing. I did have a whole write up on my post, but I figured that it would be way too much for a post in here. If you want to see my reasoning on this than email me at Surtur.Ymir@gmail.com.

The Mac products are not at the same level as the regular Pc desktop and laptops. There are many differences. Yes a lot of parts are made from the same country, but the quality of the parts are different. Every manufacturer has a high, mid, low end grade.

I am well aware of Nick's antics, and I have decided that the news on this site is mediocre most the time. But the comments making fun of Nick Farrel are Just priceless. Some of them are down right ruthless and hilarious. I haven't yet seen a site that gets such a brutal response from its readers and thats what keeps me coming back. I read this same story on the Reg before coming here to see people make fun of Nick. This kind of Journalism is like watching an uwe boll movie, Just priceless.
Just good stuff I tell you.

I admit, I am a bit jealous. I'd like to have a go at Final Cut Pro, need macOS. I'd like to install macOS on one of my pcs(I build my own). Indeed. Apple is a closed system. If they'd open it up I'd be willing to pay, say, $150 for a copy of OSX. I have no interest in Apples hardware -sure, there are some people that care more about the industrial design than the hardware inside and for them it's probably fine that half the price they pay went to build the box -I'm on a budget. Sad to say. Wish I wasn't. I think most of us are.

who overcharge?

Dell Adamo? 2,300 quid for a machine which is lower specified than the Macintosh Air? thats another grand out the window for what? a slower cpu and a plastic chassis?

Alienware 17x? if you guys go onto alienware.co.uk and do manual upgrades, check out the prices for memory and other extras?

You all need to get your head out of your asses and start looking around the so-called "good value" PC makers.

To the idiot earlier who said that these guys aren't "apple friendly" press and have every right to report news. Then I suggest they, like you, get their heads out of their arses and start looking around some of the PC makers to see just how much THEY are also overcharging. Exploiting journalism is fine, if in fact the writers and researches just don't take the easy route and jump on the "anti apple" bandwagon. Thats a cop out.

The only way to get great value for money is to build your own system and in the case of a laptop, thats pretty damn hard.

When I read what some of you have written in the first few comments of this blog, I was outraged, incinsed, depressed, and sad simultaneously. I AM a very highly educated southerner, who shops at Wal-Mart (because it is convenient in the rural areas), and also one who has a genius-level I.Q. that would, if it could take physical form, evolve into a flaming Griffin that would shoot fireballs out of it's eyes at someone ignorant enough to assume that being educated justifies cruelty toward those less fortunate! I would devour your stupidity in debate, and spit out your riduculous prejudice like a child spits out watermellon seeds.
I bought my first Apple way back in the day, struggling in college, after my PC crashed. I couldn't really afford it, but I really wanted the supposedly more reliable software,...and it was. OS9 was great until OSX, which was truly awesome. There have been some short-lived instances when I regretted the slower hardware and incompatibility issues, which is common in rural school systems, but nowadays that is mostly a non-issue. But, addmittedly there have been days when my Mac would just not work in the environment I was in at the time (incompatible IT networks). On those days I would have gladly traded it for any PC. The point I'm driving at is that there are a grand multitude of considerations that figure into ANYONE's decision to make a purchase of several hundred dollars! What you said about rural poor people insinuates that they are all inbred-vile creatures that shouldn't be allowed the priveledge of spending their hard-earned money on a Mac because they are too stupid to understand the value of spending more money on something like a computer. I say this to you, JPO, and anyone else who thought your comments were funny........
IF..Apple EVER even hints that only affluent, egg-sucking, brown-nosing rich people are the only ones who deserve the right to be included in the Macintosh crowd, I will take all the Apple hardware that I own and love, and BURN it in ethegy on You Tube, vowing never to want to belong to a "club" full of Jerks ever again. I may spend the rest of my days cursing Windows, but at least I will be a free man, and a free thinker, and NOT an inconsiderate BIGOT. You should really not visit the South. You really won't like it here. The people are free-thinking and soft spoken. They believe in America and community, and not in telling others what to do all the time, or what to think! You are pathetically unoriginal in your bigotry. At least show us some real creativity with your rude comments. I thought only "creative" minds used Macs?

p.s.: Personally, (refering to $) I'm not sure you could keep up here in Savannah, what with the Gulf Shore Crab Bakes and jet settin' to L'Ville to bet on our Derby horse tomorrow. We have a big time in the derty south. Coal inheritance........its a Bitch,....ain't it !

"The Mac products are not at the same level as the regular Pc desktop and laptops. There are many differences. Yes a lot of parts are made from the same country, but the quality of the parts are different. Every manufacturer has a high, mid, low end grade."

What I would answer to that is that Apple doesn't seem to use an uniform quality criteria when designing a product: usually one gets both high quality and dodgy components in the same box. My Mac Pro (2006), which seems to be the most solid product Apple has built in decades, has a DVD-RW unit that systematically will make coasters of DVD-Rs but will happily do DVD+R. Also, it is one of those noxious smell units many people complained about: I have to ventilate the room rather often because of it.

And I am lucky: all Intel iMacs and laptops have been a tragedy in a way or another since the transition (not that there weren't a plethora of horror tales in the PPC and 68xxx ages: remember, say, the Pmac G5's power source revs.?)

OS-wise: I do DTP/DTV. In the pre-OS X years our Macs would somedays crash about seven times, even after a clean reinstall. And some OS X revs. would deal with our pro video card so badly that we would get kernel panics at least four times a week (luckily, later OS versions got their act together).

Also, when Apple does custom components the thing becomes a "run, don't walk away" case. Even if it's not electronics-related but casing-related.

The thing is: Apple plays the novelty card all too often, which in this market seems to mean not enough testing before launch, leading to persistent problems which only get addressed when they face a Class Action Suit.

We are all Apple's betatesters, and we pay for the privilege (unless we can wait for the proverbial Rev. 2)

I just bought my first Mac in 13 years ... why?

A local dealer had a $200 rebate on the latest low-end ($999) MacBook - the white 13" unibody model.

For $40, I purchased 4Gb of RAM & for $109, I purchased a 500Gb 5400 RPM 2.5" replacement internal drive. $40 (net) for Parallels 4.0, and I've got a rockin' replacement for my Windows laptop.

This was on April 21st ... SO, I believe this rumor, and I think my store was part of test-marketing this strategy. They had to go back in Storage for more of the units, since they'd sold out floor storage that morning, and this was roughly at 11am in the morning.

They also had a slight deal on the Mac Mini, but $800 for a MacBook is hard to beat.

I've been looking to get back to Mac ever since the Intel versions came out, and I was gonna wait for Snow Leopard and better Memory choices (8Gb I felt was too small on the new iMac), as well as Core i7 ....

But $800 was too good a break.

Put it this way - 4 months ago, I built a Core i7 920, 6Gb ram, 4.5 TB RAID, ATI 4850/512, WinVista 64-bit Ultimate box, BluRay burner ... and that was around $2K (more good deals). I *can* upgrade it later to Faster CPU's, and 24Gb of RAM, and DirectX 11 videocard.

The cost of doing that on a Mac is at least $1K more - at this point in time (nothing available then).

I'd HAPPILY go Mac, if the premium was not more than $500 for an equivalent setup at the high end, and perhaps $250 at the low-end.

ANYWAY - I'm really loving dual-boot *or* Parallels 4.x concurrent Mac/Win performance. My old Dell Laptop is now gonna become a Windows 7 test machine, before I eventually give it away and run Win7 (64-bit) on the Mac, alongside Snow Leopard.

I believe Apple could easily DOUBLE or MORE sales, if they'd get within that 'visible' boundary of $250 (low-end) to $500 (high-end) of PC pricing

Now this sounds like the BOSS of apple out of the shitter quick while the lumps are still on him, had to defend his company quick before anyone reads this article and rally support for the case and how rubbish macs really are. Nice try Jobs. I'd really love to see him at the jobcentre waiting in the queue to sign on.

Same for the damn bankers... those toothless people you are going on about made you rich in the first place, and this is what's wrong with your capitalist states - rich prey on the weak! Go to hell the lot of you rich f#cks, Jesus hates you!

Bye. Jon.

Mac = higher priced gasoline. When oil prices went up everyone realized that this was just a cash grab on the part of the oil companies. In fact if Apple were just another gas vendor, their value proposition would be cleaner tanks, less harmful additives, and cleaner running, all portraying the other oil companies as somewhat evil and domineering. But in reality both companies offerings will make your car run and get you where you need to go, in the long run one might give you less headaches, providing that your knowledge of the inner workings of cars is relatively low.

And again the reality of the whole situation is that both companies inherently want the same thing, control of the market. If Apple was to take over the PC market their isolationist style of manufacturing systems would irk people in the same way that Microsoft’s style of disregard for its customer. They are both ends on to themselves.

Granted that e.g. my MacBook uses mostly commodity parts (processor, chipset, hard drive, screen, etc.) that are not any more reliable or any better than what you would find in a $400 Toshiba laptop.

There are some touches that cost more though. The Li-polymer battery (4 hours battery life vs. 2-2.5), the fancy case materials, the digital video out, the big multitouch trackpads. They all add a few dollars here and there. The MacBook has much better thermals and acoustics than a cheap PC laptop. Mine is nearly silent and the hard drive/CPU temp idles at 33/45, whereas my cheap PC laptop is much louder and the temps are 45/65. The fans and heatpipes probably cost more and there are probably more insulation bits.

I am not saying all this adds up to the difference in prices but I do believe Apple is justified in charging more for their products. My MacBook gets much better battery life than my cheap PC laptop, it's much quieter, it has a much nicer trackpad, and it has digital video out. All of these things make the computing experience tangibly nicer overall and I think are worth several hundred dollars extra.

As for reliability, I would never claim that Apple products are any more reliable. We all know about the plastic cracking issues, exploding batteries, etc. But just because you're paying more doesn't mean you necessarily get something more reliable. Lord knows Ferraris are not reliable at all but people still buy them.

Looks like with their new price levels Apple still rapes their customers financially.. They are now just friendly enough to add lubrication..

I admit Apple's prices are not at bargain basement Best Buy prices but they do make nice stuff. I used Apple (OS X) for years and have to say it is great. Those aluminium cases don't come cheap, even if they are made in China.
Dell has a new laptop (Adamo) that is on par with Apple's stuff and it does not come cheap either. It is probably the sexist Windows laptop on the market. My point is nice stuff cost more. Can Apple drop it's prices, sure, and I hope they do, at least for the one I am looking at. I think some people just like to bash Apple without ever using one save playing with it a couple minutes at Best Buy.

You want crap - buy a PC!

http://apple20.blogs.fortune.cnn.com/2009/05/05/consumer-reports-loves-those-macbooks/?source=yahoo_quote

http://www.businessweek.com/technology/content/may2009/tc2009054_744579.htm?campaign_id=yhoo

The war is over - Macs are taking over. MS produces crap! DEDD produces crap! WALMART PCs are crap!

Don't fret - when you guys purchase your first Macintosh in 2015 (when Apple finally takes 80% market share - and prices come down so you sorry saps can afford one) you'll learn to love the Mac. And you'll say, "I was a complete fool - I was drinking the Microshill swill this whole time. I likes Kool-Aides!!!!!"

While most users probably don't notice, and my information might be somewhat out of date [I'm not sure exactly what the current crop of AlBooks supports], Apple has been a bit crunched by Intel's weak maximum configurations with current chipsets.

On even the lowest-end AMD box, users stand a good chance of being able to slot in the densest DIMMs available. But until recently, everything below the Mac Pro topped out at 3GB -- and now they might've brought that up to 4.

This will be good for repeat business as existing customers hit the limit and are forced to upgrade (what eats more memory than the graphic-arts apps the Mac is known for?), but unconvinced customers like myself are probably holding off new purchases until a design with more than six months of headroom appears.