[AssassyN]

*copy/pasted from dealmac.com*

Best Buy has begun selling Apple notebooks on its website. In addition, a current promotion has a $150 mail-in rebate on all notebooks, including PowerBooks and iBooks. For instance, the iBook G3/900 128/40.0/DVD-CDRW 12.1-inch costs $1,299.99 before rebate, $1,149.99 after. With free shipping, it's the best total price we've seen for a new, factory-sealed unit. Additionally, the PowerBook G4/867 256/40.0/SuperDrive 12.1-inch and the PowerBook G4/867 256/40.0/DVD-CDRW 15.2-inch cost $1,649.99 and $1,849.99, respectively, each after rebate. Rebate ends August 9, 2003.

Link to iBook

Link to TiBook

[Sakino]

Is this going to cause the quality of apple products to go down, if they start selling thru best buy? I mean look at all those half assed machines they have now?
I hope apple isnt taking a bad approach by going with best buy here, I would hate to see them turn into a compaq, sony, or other cheap ass computer company.

[icruise]

Am I the only one that finds it ironic that the best price for the iPod is general from Dell and the best price for many Apple portables is from Best Buy?

[chrisutley]

What in the world does Apple quality have to do with using Best Buy as a channel?

Originally posted by Sakino:
Is this going to cause the quality of apple products to go down, if they start selling thru best buy? I mean look at all those half assed machines they have now?
I hope apple isnt taking a bad approach by going with best buy here, I would hate to see them turn into a compaq, sony, or other cheap ass computer company.

[AssassyN]

Icruise, I must agree with you...very weird indeed.

[ae86_16v]

I wonder if you could still use an educational discount w/ that?

[AssassyN]

I'm almost positive BestBuy doesn't mess with EDU Discounts...

[macnnhelpme]

Looks like they caught on. If you do a search for 'powerbook' on their site, they have the links, but if you click on them you get an 'item not found' message. Sounds like someone jumped the gun.

[euchomai]

I don't think it is strange to have outside dealers selling the item for less than list price. Apple sells items for list price and others will undercut as Apple allows. Go to most makers of stuff, check their prices then shop around, I've found it to be cheaper to shop around. I've also read here that Best Buy will be doing the store in a store thing. I could be wrong on that though.

[icruise]

Originally posted by euchomai:
I don't think it is strange to have outside dealers selling the item for less than list price. Apple sells items for list price and others will undercut as Apple allows. Go to most makers of stuff, check their prices then shop around, I've found it to be cheaper to shop around. I've also read here that Best Buy will be doing the store in a store thing. I could be wrong on that though.

For the most part, Apple systems are sold at the same price no matter where you get them (they may vary a few dollars but essentially the same price). Retailers generally differentiate their prices by throwing in extra stuff like an extra battery, memory, printer, etc.

But the thing I was talking about in my earlier post was that Dell and Best Buy have generally had problems dealing with Apple (Michael Dell seems to badmouth Apple pretty often, and they are often compared to Apple when it comes to sales, etc) and Best Buy has tried several times to sell Apple stuff without much success (partially due to the PC-centric attitudes of the staff and also because Apple apparently doesn't give "spiffs" to salespeople for selling Macs).

[shabbasuraj]

whenever you read the fine print on many of these things you often get the 'rebate cannot be combined with any other offer' talk....

so perhaps the Apple store will be cheaper for overall when considering the EDU discount...

i think others have concern for quality as one possibility in business is that when production goes up, quality can/may be affected, as often a required rapid rise in production may also require a manufacturer to seek out other/alternate/different suppliers...

i am not saying that this will be the case for apple though but am talking from experience when studying other business sectors...

funny enough, I was discussing this phenomena with the breeder of my dog who used to feed her animals IAMS dog food, which at one time was only available thru pet stores...

then IAMS was made available thru WAL-MART thus I can only assume that production had to be drastically increased, and my breeder along with other breeders noticed that the quality of their kibble had been greatly reduced....

a little off topic...just my $0.02...

lates...

[RGB]

Originally posted by macnnhelpme:
Looks like they caught on. If you do a search for 'powerbook' on their site, they have the links, but if you click on them you get an 'item not found' message. Sounds like someone jumped the gun.

No one jumped the gun. I walked into the local Best Buy a few days ago and saw a TiBook, a 12" iBook, and a 12" PowerBook sitting next to all the other laptops. All three were listed as having $150 rebates on them. So this was in person at Best Buy retail, not online.

[Misanthrope]

The deals appear to of disappeared...

[MilkmanDan]

You can only use the education discount through the Apple online store. So I'm told.

The current education discount for a 12in is $200.

Buy it off apple.com, save yourself a trip to Best Buy.

(Oh, and I'm told by a Best Buy employee that they will not get a, employee discount on apple computers for a few months, they have been price freezed. So I guess asking our friends to buy us an apple laptop is out the window)

[kenikov]

I saw an old version of the 10GB iPod at my local Best Buy for $200. Pretty good deal, it was brand new.