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Daring Fireball: Apple's Pricing Advantage

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Re: Daring Fireball: Apple's Pricing Advantage

#91

Post by mbreese »

cheald wrote: post #35
icegreentea wrote: post #32

Earlier quoted context omitted.

But if you move up to Dells and Lenovo's "premiere" laptops (Latitudes and Thinkpads), then the price difference narrows considerably. Bare bottom T410 (14") is ~1200 (granted, its currently on sale for like 700-800 dollars... Lenovo has a lot of sales actually). I think it's fair to say that MBPs compete with all of the other brands "one step up" or business lines. MBP build quality alone lets it fight in that categ…

At some point, you're paying a few hundred extra for the aluminum body and glowy Apple logo - it's not just about "premium" versus "consumer" tiers of hardware. A Latitude 5400 (again, same hardware loadout) prices on Dell's website right now at $849.00. A ThinkPad Edge 13", again, similar loadout, prices at $694.00. Apple makes fantastic hardware, no doubt, but it's very difficult to consider them to be competitivel…

I wouldn't compare the Dell 5400 and a Mac in terms of quality. We have a pile of dells latitudes that after less than 2 years are effectively paper weights. It's a combination of low quality components and poor Dell software. We are in the middle of replacing them all with Macs. And the users couldn't be happier. Even with a lower power CPU, the Macs are noticeably faster.

Re: Daring Fireball: Apple's Pricing Advantage

#92

Post by recoiledsnake »

b3b0p wrote: post #74

When I purchased my Apple machines I also took into account the cost of the tools I would be using the operating system. Macbook Pro + Xcode + Mac OS X vs Lenovo or Dell upper end model + Visual Studio + Windows 7 Visual Studio adds a considerable amount to the final cost, but I'm also willing to put down a fair amount more for having Mac OS X.

Visual Studio and SQL Server have free Express editions.

Re: Daring Fireball: Apple's Pricing Advantage

#93

Post by ropiku »

schultzor wrote: post #54
ojbyrne wrote: post #39

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The (admittedly more expensive) 3G ipad has both a cellular and a GPS chip. $629/$729 for 16/32 gigs.

I'd bet that some of the 3G iPad's $130 premium is also a concession to ATT for the contract-less data plan options.

Possible but in the UK there's a £100 premium and it's available on all carriers

Re: Daring Fireball: Apple's Pricing Advantage

#94

Post by pedrocr »

maxawaytoolong wrote: post #10
heiti wrote: post #8

It's a bit disappointing when "the world" and "USA" are used interchangeably. The US market is fairly small. Things are quite different in other places.

The USA is the world's largest consumer goods market, surpassing the next one, Japan, by a factor of 5. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_largest_consumer_market...

Only because that list segments by country. If you add up the EU countries you'd have a bigger market than the US and that is as much a single market as the US states are if what you're selling is electronics.

Re: Daring Fireball: Apple's Pricing Advantage

#95

Post by arron61 »

jwhitlark wrote: post #86
andreyf wrote: post #36

Earlier quoted context omitted.

A theory: Archos has obviously created prototypes to send to the press, but it doesn't look like they're pulling off mass manufacturing at the advertise prices just yet (except the Archos 5, which has a resistive screen). Could it be that the prices quoted are simply an over-ambitious projection?

The 70 has been shipping for a week. It also sold out on the first day. And it has a capacitive screen. Interestingly enough, when I ordered mine, I got a $25 discount, for no particular reason I can discern. Brought the total cost to $256, delivered. We'll see how it measures up. You can install the market easily; my understanding is there isn't the logic in the market (yet?) to handle a wider range of devices, (wit…

The logics are all there. For each app, you are supposed to put the line to indicate which resources the app requires. The market will automatically filter out any applications if that resource is not available on the device.

Re: Daring Fireball: Apple's Pricing Advantage

#96

Post by netcan »

kemiller wrote: post #12

Another factor here is that mobile devices are all a tier or two down from personal computers in terms of the raw number of dollars. Seems like a 15% premium is something people will consider paying if it only amounts to $30, but might not if it's $300. This was especially true in the early days of the PC revolution. The Mac 128K sold for $2495 at the time, which is more than $5000 in today's dollars[1]. I can't find…

The industry has changed and is continuing to change into a world that suits Apple better. Getting in early and big (eg iphones & ipads) is letting them influence the change even more in their favour.

What caught my eye in this article was: "Nobody knows what kind of CPU they have in their phones." That's a world that suits Apple. Interestingly, PCs are unique in that people take an interest in components. Do people know what kind of wood and textile is used in their couch (beyond the external, visible components.) The only products I can think of that compare are houses and cars at many times the cost.

Re: Daring Fireball: Apple's Pricing Advantage

#97

Post by mikeklaas »

mattmaroon wrote: post #85
napierzaza wrote: post #69

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Did you just compare the Nook to the iPad? How is that at all comparable to the feature set of the iPad? Go on. You're also somehow assuming that other phones are not subsidized??? This has been going on before the iPhone existed so don't be surprised if the Android is too. So no, what AT&T pays doesn't count. One of the main things I've never heard enough about in comparing Macs and PCs is the service. The ease of s…

From a hardware standpoint the Nook isn't that far off of the iPad. Any differences in feature set are largely due to them running some custom version of Android which probably cost a lot more than running stock. Just slapping Froyo on it would have made the feature set as comparable as you could get. So in terms of pricing (and probably only pricing) it's a fair comparison. It illustrates that vendors could compete…

What? The new nook has a 16-color e-ink screen. They don't even ship a frackin' web browser because they admit the experience is clunky.

Re: Daring Fireball: Apple's Pricing Advantage

#98

Post by schultzor »

mattmaroon wrote: post #85
napierzaza wrote: post #69

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Did you just compare the Nook to the iPad? How is that at all comparable to the feature set of the iPad? Go on. You're also somehow assuming that other phones are not subsidized??? This has been going on before the iPhone existed so don't be surprised if the Android is too. So no, what AT&T pays doesn't count. One of the main things I've never heard enough about in comparing Macs and PCs is the service. The ease of s…

From a hardware standpoint the Nook isn't that far off of the iPad. Any differences in feature set are largely due to them running some custom version of Android which probably cost a lot more than running stock. Just slapping Froyo on it would have made the feature set as comparable as you could get. So in terms of pricing (and probably only pricing) it's a fair comparison. It illustrates that vendors could compete…

Do any PC vendors have anything even remotely comparable to the in-person support available at an Apple Store? Being able to take a device to the store and physically hand it off to be fixed without having to wait on the phone or deal with shipping is a huge plus in Apple's favor.

Re: Daring Fireball: Apple's Pricing Advantage

#99

Post by allenp »

netcan wrote: post #96
kemiller wrote: post #12

Another factor here is that mobile devices are all a tier or two down from personal computers in terms of the raw number of dollars. Seems like a 15% premium is something people will consider paying if it only amounts to $30, but might not if it's $300. This was especially true in the early days of the PC revolution. The Mac 128K sold for $2495 at the time, which is more than $5000 in today's dollars[1]. I can't find…

The industry has changed and is continuing to change into a world that suits Apple better. Getting in early and big (eg iphones & ipads) is letting them influence the change even more in their favour. What caught my eye in this article was: "Nobody knows what kind of CPU they have in their phones." That's a world that suits Apple. Interestingly, PCs are unique in that people take an interest in components. Do people…

What you're describing is essentially the computer turning into an appliance, and I agree this is what Apple is gaining tremendously from (and of course encouraging).

I think you'd find that most enthusiasts or hobbyists have in-depth knowledge of the components of their hobby and that "computer people" are no different.

Most people have no idea what is inside their computer - I think the majority of PC owners don't even know the size of their harddrive, for example, and that is something they might actually need to know, let alone RAM or CPU specs.

Re: Daring Fireball: Apple's Pricing Advantage

#100

Post by schultzor »

guelo wrote: post #60

While it is true that Android phones haven't been able to undercut iPhones by much, the argument doesn't hold up for tablets and iPods because these markets haven't really been entered by the Android manufacturers yet. The Samsung Galaxy tablet is at the forefront but the real wave of Android tablets is months away waiting for the release of Gingerbread. Expect a lot of announcements around CES time. As for the iPod…

Weren't multiple Android tablets announced/demoed at last year's CES, or am I mistaken? Maybe all the OEMs just rushed demo samples out without figuring out how they were actually going to produce them...
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