Wednesday, Mar 04, 2009
Inflation just round the corner?
Telegraph: Apple ups price of Mac computers, as exchange rate bites
The Mac Mini, the company's entry level computer, for instance has gone up in price to £499, compared with £399 before. The 20 inch iMac now costs £949; the old price was £789.
The company said currency fluctuations, with pound falling in value, has forced up its cost. The American computer company, which has won an army of fans with its sleek designs, makes most of its computers in Taiwan.
Posted by flintster1994 @ 09:20 AM (1096 views) Add Comment
20 Comments
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1. hpwatcher said...
C'mon Bellweather, where is the deflation??
2. Hewligan said...
I had been saving up to replace my MacBook Pro in a few months when it hits 2 years old. This has been a bit of an old habit for me (new Mac every 2 years), with the old one paying for about half the cost of the new one. Not now, and not because of Apple raising prices (its costs are in dollars, what is it meant to do, sell at a loss?), but because I feel a bit guilty buying a computer during a recession when my current machine does everything well enough, and also because for £110 I can double the RAM and double the Hard Disk space and quite comfortably live with it for another year or two. I expect that many people will make their current computers last a little longer than previously, and that is not a bad thing for your wallet or the environment. Not great for Apple, though.
3. Crunchy said...
Never did I ever buy the deflation story.
We are the slaves and as such we will be made to pay top dollar for everything whilst watching our money dwindle.
THE DWINDLE SWINDLE.
4. japanese uncle said...
Increasing prices is one, whether people can afford is quite another.
5. Nehal said...
I have a macbook I purchased last year with 10% off for £720. I would say its a good machine, has much less problems with viruses etc than windows but is certainly not worth the extra money at full price and would never buy it for £880. I'd say buy a windows machine then install linux on it as all the software is free and that too has less virus problems.
I hope apple suffers from the price increase!!
6. shipbuilder said...
I have seen first hand this reluctance to reduce margin, however I feel that there is a certain amount of denial in it, assuming that things will get better in a matter of months. What happens if they don't? You have to choose between volume and contribution, or profit targets. i think that many businesses are yet undecided.
7. paul said...
I've always thought of Apple as being a fairweather profiteer. They have done exceptionally well from the benign spending environment but will do exceptionally badly from the downturn.
8. jackas said...
More of this to come.
9. stillthinking said...
Prices up, demand down... money supply needs to shrink.
10. 51ck-6-51x said...
This is Apple, they do seem to prefer the low volume, high margin trading model - they think of themselves like a designer clothes brand or luxury goods company.
11. alan said...
The prices are recommended prices, discounts are given. Have a look at Amazon (for example).
Similarly, Ford put up the prices of its cars last month. Its hardly changed the showroom prices. Only the discounts change.
12. Agentimmo said...
Didn't Apple nearly go to the wall in the last recession ?
You'd like to think they have learned something from 15 years ago.................
13. little professor said...
Macs are ludicrously overpriced as it is. They are going to be badly hit in the depression, as people realize paying double the price for a computer just because it is shiny shiny doesn't really make sense.
14. Charliesays73 said...
If prices of one thing go up to the extent that it changes buying behaviour to alternative cheaper items, this then is used as the comparison price from the previous year, it will then appear as deflation in CPI. So swapping items in your shopping bag to cheaper alternatives will result in deflation.
So price of computer rises so that it is unaffordable and we switch to buying calculator then this new item will be used instead.
Additionally if calculator is solar panelled then this added feature will reduce the marked cost of the calculator and further reduce the inflation figure.
The final trick is that the original computer price is used in the inflation readjustment to measure and calculate GDP.
There is nothing to see here but deflation, and a stronger economy.
15. Pmoc_2001 said...
Linux will kill Apple over the next 5 -10 years. In terms of cost of R&D, Apple cannot compete line for line in terms of source code written. Also, hardware is hardware after all. We already have sub £200 net books sporting Linux.
16. bellwether said...
HPW you confuse me with someone who cares about the outcome, beyond wanting to know what way to place my bets.
17. techieman said...
Sales of Mac computers fell six per cent last month in the US compared with the same time last year, according to industry analysts at the NPD Group. Sales of Windows-based PCs, by contrast, were up 16 per cent on a year ago.
An spokesman for Apple said: "Apple suggests product prices internationally on the basis of several factors, including currency exchange rates, local import laws, business practices, taxes, and the cost of doing business. These factors vary from region to region and over time."
EFFECTIVE inflation is only applicable if the supply is satisfied by demand. I can afford one but..... Lets see the sales numbers of anything that has increased in price and see where they go.
Also i can afford sky tv but i dont buy that out of principle
18. Theemperorhasnoclothes said...
It's a shame for them that they have to compete with the regular PC which is constantly falling in price, is much better supported on the software side, has cheaper components etc.
I am thinking buying a regular PC Laptop soon, buying a Mac didn't cross my mind due to the poor value for money - and it sounds like it has just got worse.
But people with money to burn might be interested. Sir Fred Goodwin might be interested in buying one.
19. robh said...
I have a Mac Book. Its price was 3x my equivalent Vista Compaq.
You soon forget the sacrifice of paying more for a good quality item... just buy less items and nicer ones
Its worth having a Mac for no other reason than having 95% less warning messages popping up
20. shipbuilder said...
Robh - you can get the same effect with the likes of Ubuntu for free. Your Compaq would be much faster than with Vista. My old laptop barely ran with XP after a while, yet it was perfectly servicable with Ubuntu.