Bitmap Frogs said:
You are thick, dude. It's not a firesale or special offer. Let's see, it's february 2008. Apple launches a macbook with X specs and it costs them 1000$ in components (cpu, gpu, ram, screen, etc). They sell it for 1200$. Out of your 1200$, 1000$ buy you the hardware, 200$ is apple's margin. At this point apple's pricing is competitive because that same specced computer also costs 1000$ to make for Dell, HP, etc. Now it's august 2008. The bill of materials on that macbook has gone down (intel has pushed a better processor bringing their whole range of prices down, the gpu is cheaper, etc) you know, the standard thing with computer parts - they lose value fast. Now, the hardware on that macbook costs 800$ but apple still sells it for 1200$. If you buy in august, out of your 1200$, 800$ buys you the hardware and 400$ is apple's margin. Meanwhile, to compete in the marketplace the Dell's and HP's are selling that computer for 1000$. A few months later, it's october. Because of the trickle down in prices of components, that macbook costs apple 700$ to make. Your 1200$ buys you 700$ of hardware and 500$ go towards apple's margin. At this point, the Dell's and HP's sell it for 900$. See how it works? Companies like Dell or HP trickle down to consumers the savings in order to compete (after all, they are all selling the same product - a branded windows box). That's why when apple releases a revision, its prices are competitive but as time passes you start to see the massive difference in price between similarly specced computers from other makers. So what do smart users do? They buy apple computers early in the revision cycle. edit: apple won't talk about this, but if you asked them they'd tell you to buy as late as possible. Which is obvious since apple is a corporation and like all corporations it loves your money. |
don't worry, I completely understand how it works. Telling the consumer to wait 6 months till the new cycle begins to buy a laptop is quite and argument.
In any case, in my reply which you acused me for not reading the thread for...I showed a PC computer that is 400 dollars (~40%) cheaper with better specs that the most basic macbook. And I wasn't even looking, I just picked the first one with similar specs...
I really doubt that 6 months ago this laptop was sold by Gateway for 400 dollars more and was even with apples macbook in price. Technology depriciates but does not lose value that fast. 100-200 dollars more tops...
