[coolmac]

What I mean is, the last several Powermac upodates have seen dramatic price reductions while increasing power and features.

Does Apple do the same with the Powerbooks? Do you think the next update of the 17" Powerbook could come in at under $3000?

[gator]

The Powermacs have had price reductions to just spur what small sales could be made from a reduction in price. Since the performance improvements have been decent but nothing spectacular, price cuts were needed just to keep them even remotely selling at all.

As for the Powerbooks, a price cut could come, though I wouldn't bet on it. A price cut on the 17" would push prices on all models downward accordingly, and I don't see how they would move prices on the others downward while keeping reasonable gaps between each PB model, and also between PB/iBooks.

[DaedalusDX]

I'd say its a possibility to hit perhaps $2999 on the 17" sometime in the future... Over the past couple of years since the introduction of the Titanium Powerbook, the price of the top end has actually dropped somewhat, and the low end Powerbooks have just gotten lower with the introduction of the 12" Powerbook.

.. so Apple has been known to drop prices on Powerbooks at the same time as modest updates... however, with Powerbook sales going strong this year, i think it would be unlikely to see the top of the line 17" drop below $3k this year. As stated by the previous poster, the dropped the prices of the Powermacs to spur sales, but the Powerbooks are doing well...

Look out for the 15" powerbook tho. If and when they update those, they'll be in that sub $3k sweet spot, with a boatload of new features.

[TAZ]

There is a possibility to see a price drop especially before the begining of the new school year or around Christmas. The 17" is brand spanking new and all that tooling for the case and boardds, battery... needs to be ammortized. If they bump the specs on the powerbook line you will see the price drop as I seriously doubt anyone will want to spend more that the $3300 currently being charged for it. I am expecting a drop in the 15" Ti, especially if they upgarde it to Al. Id love to snag one for around 2300

[tgrundke]

A price cut is inevitable for the 17" because it is typical of an Apple 'vanity product'. Seeing as the 17" PowerBook now has same-day shipping from Apple, it appears that the 'tremendous' backlog has evaporated.

So now that the fanboys have purchased their 17" (and I don't mean that in a derrogatory sense) PowerBooks, Apple is going to be looking for more buyers...and will have to push the price points lower to maintain interest.

Along this line, I would believe that sometime in the next 60 days we'll see a bit of a shakeup within the PowerBook line when the 'new' 15" models are introduced. I would bet we'll see something along these lines:

12" PowerBook $1799
15" PowerBook $2299-$2799
17" PowerBook $3099

This is assuming Apple doesn't make a major reshuffling of the ibook/pb lineup, which I bet will come by the end of the year. There has already been significant cross-shopping on the iBook and 12" PowerBook.

[BigDaddy]

My only gripe with the price is the joke of standard service. One year with 90 days phone help on 3300 is nuts.

[AssassyN]

Originally posted by BigDaddy:
My only gripe with the price is the joke of standard service. One year with 90 days phone help on 3300 is nuts.

Sadly, I agree. And the most ludacrious aspect of Apple, in my opinion, is their lack of 24/7 tech support...I mean Ginsu Knife resellers even have 24/7 tech support...of course that's an extreme analogy, but honestly, a computer company should offer 24/7 tech support.