Ok, my mother-in-law has been ready to buy her first Mac for about a month now, but she's on the edge and is getting frustrated enough to turn to the dark side (She's actually a big Linux user...)
She's shopped around and found that MacMall has the best deal, because they will upgrade the laptop from 512 to 1GB of RAM for $40 after rebate, and they don't charge sales tax. The hitch is she has been asking MacMall whether the machines come with 10.3 and iLife '04, and has been told "no" for both of them (but that she can order then for $20 each from Apple). She feels the $40 tax is a rip off, but she's more concerned about getting a 15" powerbook that doesn't have 10.3 preinstalled --- these seem like older hardware that might be more liable to exhibit the white spot or flaky clasp problem.
So, she writes me things like this:
Do you think that MacMall is being sent laptops that were made last summer/fall, ie they were already packaged with 10.2 and Apple just isn't reloading 10.3? Or do you think they are taking new hardware, made after October 2003, and loading 10.2 on the laptops they send to MacMall and other competitors while loading 10.3 and ILife 4 on their own machines?
Now, I follow Apple closer than most, and I have no idea what is going on here. It makes no sense for MacMall to still be getting machines with 10.2 on them nor does it make sense for Apple to intentionally installing 10.2 on machines this late a date, in some feeble attempt to screw over people who are trying to sell $3000 machines.
I called MacMall and was told that the machines are still being manufactured with 10.2 preinstalled, and Apple (as a reseller) is putting 10.3 on the machines. The MacMall guy said that they would charge to preinstall 10.3. However, other resellers are doing this too, though. I have a friend who bought a 15" Powerbook at Microcenter about two weeks ago, and the machine came preinstalled with 10.3. Does anyone have experience with retail and know how these things work?
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