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Apple is going to raise device prices, but when?

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Re: Apple is going to raise device prices, but when?

#31

Post by cj »

MBCook wrote: post #24
AnonC wrote: post #15

I think it would be uncharacteristic of Apple to raise prices anytime from now till new products are announced in September. It doesn’t match Apple’s brand image (like the author says). As pointed in another post by John Gruber, Apple kept selling the trash can Mac Pro for a very high price for years without any updates. So it can certainly afford to bear this pain for a couple of more months and bundle all the price…

I suspect you’re right, but if they don’t do it until the new stuff is announced I suspect the price hike would drown out the news of all the new stuff. And I really don’t think Apple wants that. If they announce it on, to pick a date, July 1 then by the time the iPhone is announced it will be somewhat old news. It will still get mentioned but it won’t be the main feature of every story at announcement time. Like so…

> I suspect the price hike would drown out the news of all the new stuff. And I really don’t think Apple wants that.

I think they could get away with it if they do something like drop the price of the lowest device tier (or minimally hold price steady) and only increase prices on their more premium line up, where the premium buyers are less price sensitive.

Re: Apple is going to raise device prices, but when?

#32

Post by mikejulietbravo »

AnonC wrote: post #15

I think it would be uncharacteristic of Apple to raise prices anytime from now till new products are announced in September. It doesn’t match Apple’s brand image (like the author says). As pointed in another post by John Gruber, Apple kept selling the trash can Mac Pro for a very high price for years without any updates. So it can certainly afford to bear this pain for a couple of more months and bundle all the price…

came to say this, there's almost zero history for this so unless their supply chain got meaningfully distorted I can't see why this would happen now

Re: Apple is going to raise device prices, but when?

#33

Post by a2tech »

StilesCrisis wrote: post #30
PaulHoule wrote: post #27

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Apple was on the ropes in 1999! Classic MacOS never had an entirely reliable network stack for browsing the web but hey, they had a GUI running in 128k of RAM in 1984. Not to say that macs didn't have their charms during the .com bubble but it wasn't until Mac OS X came out in 2001 that a mac was a purchase that made sense.

Were you actually a Mac user? The initial release of OS X was quite inferior to OS 9--it was an incredible proof of concept and perfect developer target, but for an end user, not so much. I've been in computer labs full of Mac OS 8/9 machines happily browsing the internet so I'm not sure what your claim about "unreliable network stack" is referencing. Unless you mean "a crash requires a reboot" which was true, but al…

OS 9 running Microsoft Internet Explorer! I can remember the puck mice and the noise of the hard drive grinding away while pulling up Ebay and the campus webmail (Horde/Roundcube debates going on and on...)

Re: Apple is going to raise device prices, but when?

#34

Post by hylaride »

AnonC wrote: post #15

I think it would be uncharacteristic of Apple to raise prices anytime from now till new products are announced in September. It doesn’t match Apple’s brand image (like the author says). As pointed in another post by John Gruber, Apple kept selling the trash can Mac Pro for a very high price for years without any updates. So it can certainly afford to bear this pain for a couple of more months and bundle all the price…

It'll really depend on apple's contracts with suppliers and the types of ram used in certain products. I could see them having medium term contracts, with first right of refusal to purchase on the longer term.

Memory has been a boom/bust industry since the 1970s, so I imagine people are careful with long-term agreements, but that's just me spitballing.

Re: Apple is going to raise device prices, but when?

#36

Post by fragmede »

mikejulietbravo wrote: post #32
AnonC wrote: post #15

I think it would be uncharacteristic of Apple to raise prices anytime from now till new products are announced in September. It doesn’t match Apple’s brand image (like the author says). As pointed in another post by John Gruber, Apple kept selling the trash can Mac Pro for a very high price for years without any updates. So it can certainly afford to bear this pain for a couple of more months and bundle all the price…

came to say this, there's almost zero history for this so unless their supply chain got meaningfully distorted I can't see why this would happen now

Yes, there's been a meaningful distortion in the global RAM supply chain.

Re: Apple is going to raise device prices, but when?

#38

Post by cockpump »

ndiddy wrote: post #29

They already did, to an extent. The base Mac Mini used to be $600 with a 256 GB SSD, but they got rid of that and now the cheapest option is the $800 512 GB model. The typical Apple strategy is to make the base model of a given computer the price competitive version, and price gouge on additional storage and RAM to build up their margins. I guess the RAM price increase made the margins on the $600 model too low for A…

I said “$600” in a comment about the Neo. You said “$600” twice here about other things.

One thing is for sure, people consider that Apple hardware starts at $600.

They are not raising prices. They are keeping them low (in marketing) to outcompete others like Microsoft (aka Valve).

Gabe Newell worked at Microsoft for 15 years - people need to start considering Valve an extension of Microsoft. Their unofficial App Store for games.

Re: Apple is going to raise device prices, but when?

#39

Post by kzrdude »

a2tech wrote: post #33
StilesCrisis wrote: post #30

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Were you actually a Mac user? The initial release of OS X was quite inferior to OS 9--it was an incredible proof of concept and perfect developer target, but for an end user, not so much. I've been in computer labs full of Mac OS 8/9 machines happily browsing the internet so I'm not sure what your claim about "unreliable network stack" is referencing. Unless you mean "a crash requires a reboot" which was true, but al…

OS 9 running Microsoft Internet Explorer! I can remember the puck mice and the noise of the hard drive grinding away while pulling up Ebay and the campus webmail (Horde/Roundcube debates going on and on...)

I remember browsing using 5 slightly offset IE windows stacked diagonally, since this was somehow before tabs in browsers.

Re: Apple is going to raise device prices, but when?

#40

Post by shevy-java »

I don't have apple-issued devices, so no money flows from me into apple, but it should be pointed out that with an increase in RAM prices, many of us already paid more in general, and apple may benefit here indirectly when they can add their own extra-cost onto devices on TOP of that increased RAM prices. So this should be considered rather than merely focus on (only) "Apple is increasing device prices". They are all milking us.

I also think now, with RAM prices increased, ALL hardware manufacturers should be considered an illegal mafia aka cartel. It can not be that they steal money that way. That is not how capitalism and free market work. This is a de-facto monopoly. States need to do something; the USA under Trump is just a corporate disguise right now. They are doing nothing about it. The EU is not much better, slow and like a behemoth focusing on "data privacy" (but then handing over all of our data to the USA anyway and on top of that mandating age sniffing soon). They don't protect consumers from exploding RAM prices.

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