[Big Mac]

Apple Closeout Blowout - Huge savings on Macs, iPads & more - MacMall

Has this ever happened with recent previous generations - resellers blowing them out at these price levels? I need a new laptop and assumed I'd be going PC again, but I'd prefer an MBP and this pricing is highly tempting to me. It seems to rival the best Apple refurb pricing.

Edit: I realized that the first 15" MBP listed is actually the previous generation, so I'm a little less shocked by the prices. Still, this sale along with information about channel clearing of the current models all points to an imminent refresh.

[P]

One of the things Steve changed when he came back was the inventory control, to avoid things like this. This was the reason that since then supplies have always been low before refreshes. If anything, this implies that Apple's inventory control is slipping. Perhaps the situation with Ivy Bridge has really been as chaotic as the rumors about it?

Note that the 13" models are also on sale. At least some of the rumors did not include them in the coming updates.

[Big Mac]

Yup, there have obviously been IB issues, as we've seen the introduction date for the line slip. As for Apple channel control slipping, I don't know about that. All through Steve's tenure we still got channel hints about refreshes fairly often. What Steve's tenure definitely brought was much more uniform pricing from Apple retailers. There was always pretty uniform MSRP Apple system pricing, but retailers used to have more flexibility to discount older stock long ago, IIRC. That only started coming back a bit when Amazon started selling Macs.

Out of curiosity, what's Apple hardware pricing like in Sweden?

[amazing]

Those prices plus the reports of inventory constraints support the rumors of a new model just round the bend.

Those are the kinds of prices you see when a new model has been introduced and the big stores need to liquidate inventory to make way for the new models. Amazon hasn't followed suit yet...

Given the rumors of new "air" treatment of the MBPs, I'd suggest waiting until you see how attractive the new models are.

[P]

Originally Posted by Big Mac 

Out of curiosity, what's Apple hardware pricing like in Sweden?

Compared to what?

It's basically the dollar price at the time of launch plus the sales tax. When the exchange rates vary widely, this means that the price of a single model can change a lot at a refresh. It's common practice to buy things like iPads in the US to avoid the sales tax, but it's harder for Macs. Laptops don't have the Swedish keyboard, and it's hard to fit an iMac in your carryon.

[Waragainstsleep]

Apple offers some retailers price protection on some models. If they have too much stock when an update is released Apple will refund some of the difference if they have to sell below original list price. It doesn't apply to everything though.

It has long been Apple policy to run down stock before an update is announced and so these supply chain clues will always exist unless Apple wants to have to sell bigger chunks of inventory at lower (refurb) prices.

Refurbs aren't always refurbs you know.

[jinnydor632]

wow. nice link. My wife needs to replace her Macbook, it is so worn out. This might be just the ticket.

[olePigeon]

If you buy it from their eBay store, you can avoid Sales Tax.

[racgordon]

I have seen this industry from both sides of the counter, and under Spindler, Amelio and Jobs........for what it is worth.

Apple tends to go through this every time their is a major platform change. Powerbook to Macbook Pro. Macbook Pro to Unibody Macbook Pro, and to a lesser extent Core 2 to i5/7 series CPU.

Over the years Apple has got much much better at controlling the distribution channel, or for the cynical at least knowing where product is in the channel.

It seams likely that we are about to have a major platform change again (the timing and technology factors are right).

Whilst Apple has got much much better at controlling inventory (they have said in their quarterly reports that they have six weeks product in channel) there are two wild cards at this point.

First they have been selling and thus producing more Macbook Pros and Airs that ever before by significant amounts (if you look at the quarterly reports again, you could guesstimate that six weeks channel inventory could mean tens of thousands of machines per model say 20-70K depending on the model).

Second Intel has been "late" in introducing theIvyBridge platform which it would appear is the "hold-up" ink the next generation of Macbook Pro. There has been much written about why, and there has been much written about excess PC Notebook inventory and US pricing over the last twelve weeks would tend to support this. Recently there have been analyst rumors that even apples sales have slowed because people are waiting for the move to IvyBridge.

With all of that I would expect that what we have seen from MacMall will be repeated until September top clear out excess inventory, that will be a little higher than usual. In the past Amazon appears to have been the best place to pickup these clear outs. My experience from being on the reseller side is that Apple (or a Tier One Distributor like Ingram will offer you a significant discount if you can take a significant amount of machines. This usually involves about 5 to 10 thousand machines. If you upgrade every 3 years this has been a great way to do it. This time things are a bit different as Apple and Amazon are not as friendly as they might have been. Having said that there are still enough resellers who can invest $250K and up in significant one time purchases.

I am not sure how Apple will work this on the Apple Store front...... There is another interesting option I guess for Apple, which never really existed before. If they have significant excess inventory in specific markets outside the US they could quite cheaply buy market share by dropping significant amounts off the price of these machines. In the past, this would have had a minimal effect, but now (since it is the sort of thing that everyone else does) they may not only gain market share but push up their share price.

Lets not forget that Intel does not always get the tick p[art of its tick/tock upgrade cycle right.

There are lots of other factors that can lead one to stare at ones navel all day.................

I guess the best rule of thumb for the individual is that if a purchase makes sense today and tomorrow, then go for it. In technology there will always be something better around the corner to make you regret your purchase if you are of that frame pf mind.