[Boochie]

Up until about three or four years ago, there were price differences to be had among different vendors of Apple desktop machines. On more than one occasion I was able to save a few hundred bucks by shopping around and playing retailers off against one another. This has all but disappeared. Rarely do I see prices on maczone or any other e-tailer/retailer deviate much from apple store prices. Why is this?

[greenG4]

To be an Apple retailer, you must sell hardware at a dollar amount set by Apple.

[stefls]

Talking about Apple hardware prices (a little off topic, i know, but didn't want to start a new thread for this)... I've been trying to convince people who want a new computer to take a look at a Macintosh computer. Everyone is enthusiastic until they see the prices... e.g. my brother, into some new desktop computer to do video rendering: Top notch Dell (2.8 P4 HT) versus 1.8 G5 (both: 17" FP, 1 Gb Ram, 128MB video, serial ata, dvd-burner): EUR 1965 vs. EUR 3900....(Dutch prices). That's just too much of a difference... Even a 17" iMac (superdrive) with only 256 MB ram costs over EUR 2250 over here... Even as a Mac supporter I don't know how to justify these price differences: too bad.

[geekwagon]

Mostly it is because the margins are so thin for the retailers that they can't afford to give deals. I had an unopened 867MHz 15" TiBook when the 17" Powerbooks became available (long story.) I didn't buy the 15" there, but I got a local dealer to give me the cost that they pay Apple for that model as a trade in-value for the new 17". I got all but $150 of MSRP as trade, so that means for that $2299 computer, they have to pay Apple $2149. It doesn't leave much room to haggle.

Even as a Mac supporter I don't know how to justify these price differences: too bad.

Thankfully, the price disparity is nowhere near that large in the US. Apple has a tendency to rape its international customers.

[Nebrie]

Originally posted by geekwagon:
Thankfully, the price disparity is nowhere near that large in the US. Apple has a tendency to rape its international customers.

You'll find that this is true for virtually every international company out there. No matter how large the international market is, the cost of doing business there is just higher.

[Boochie]

Interesting numbers, albeit depressing. It's a shame, because not being able to haggle takes the fun out of the shopping experience. Never much saw the attraction of the Saturn philosophy (no haggling on the price of their cars, period).

Originally posted by geekwagon:
Mostly it is because the margins are so thin for the retailers that they can't afford to give deals. I had an unopened 867MHz 15" TiBook when the 17" Powerbooks became available (long story.) I didn't buy the 15" there, but I got a local dealer to give me the cost that they pay Apple for that model as a trade in-value for the new 17". I got all but $150 of MSRP as trade, so that means for that $2299 computer, they have to pay Apple $2149. It doesn't leave much room to haggle.

Thankfully, the price disparity is nowhere near that large in the US. Apple has a tendency to rape its international customers.

[milhous]

Originally posted by stefls:
Talking about Apple hardware prices (a little off topic, i know, but didn't want to start a new thread for this)... I've been trying to convince people who want a new computer to take a look at a Macintosh computer. Everyone is enthusiastic until they see the prices... e.g. my brother, into some new desktop computer to do video rendering: Top notch Dell (2.8 P4 HT) versus 1.8 G5 (both: 17" FP, 1 Gb Ram, 128MB video, serial ata, dvd-burner): EUR 1965 vs. EUR 3900....(Dutch prices). That's just too much of a difference... Even a 17" iMac (superdrive) with only 256 MB ram costs over EUR 2250 over here... Even as a Mac supporter I don't know how to justify these price differences: too bad.

I know exactly what you mean. What I've come to learn, being only a handful of Mac users among my friends and family, is that if:

1. they've mostly used a Windows computer and are content with using Windows

and

2. they're not a computer enthusiast

and

3. they can get 90% of their work done at 50% the price of the Mac,

they simply won't switch. To them the Mac is simply a nice-looking computer with a nice-looking UI often overlooking technical features.

I think for the most part, people will become Mac converts if they had a bad Windows experience and have vowed never to go back to the platform. The Switch campaign has done a good job by accentuating this.

[Esquare]

Originally posted by milhous:

3. they can get 90% of their work done at 50% the price of the Mac,

From my experience, they can do 90% of their work at 10% of the price of a G5 (not any Mac: the eMac is quite cheap). Most of the people I know still work with a sub-Ghz PC that you can get second hand for a few hundred dollars.

BUT... Those really aren't the people Apple should focus on. You could only sell them one (cheap) model in four or five years...

EE

[DBvader]

you can build a blazingly fast PC for less than 600 dollars that for all intentes and purposes would most lieky be faster than the fastest macs (especially in games). The price difference is huge, and is the primary factor holding apple back imo. Ive been talking to and helping a friend that is deciding between a P4 3.2/1GB DDR/ATI 9800 and a G5 1.8/1 GB/ATI 9600. If it werent for ADC (which brings the macs prices down to a more reasonable 2000 dollars), he wouldnt even consider the mac. Most people cant take advantage of the developer discount (either becuase the non-student ones are too expensive or that they arent students and cant get the student version for 99 dollars), and really dont have the option of getting a cheap, fast mac.

I got my Dual 867 w/o upgrades for only 1350 (i added the 9000 and a larger HD, and later added ram to 1GB and a 52X burner), now that was a steal.