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Apple about to drop new hardware, raise prices?

by Michael Grothaus Mar 17th 2010 at 6:51AM


Update: MacRumors now points out that the higher prices are likely an inadvertent rollback to older graphics, as they match up with the original pricing for those machines when they were introduced. Engadget has also pointed out some similar inconsistencies on the Apple Australia and NZ sites, which may mean that Apple mistakenly pushed out old assets to the retailers with incorrect pricing.

A reader at Engadget has spotted new Apple ads on the Australian tech site PC Authority that show higher prices for the MacBook Air, MacBook Pro, and Mac Pro. Apple's Australian online store lists the most affordable versions of the MacBook Pro, MacBook Air and Mac Pro at A$1599, A$1999 and A$3599, respectively, but the ads show significantly higher "starting at" prices of A$1899, A$2399, and A$4499.

While Engadget points out that clicking on the ads leads to Apple's currently priced machines, it is possible that this is another case where online ads have predicted imminent announcements. Despite the rumors, no new Mac Pro's appeared yesterday but are still expected soon as they haven't seen a major upgrade in over a year. The rise in MacBook Pro pricing could be attributed to the cost of the i7 chipset, but it seems unlikely that in a recovering economy Apple would increase their prices significantly without having a cheaper baseline model available. Is this ad a sign of things to come? Only time and a "We'll be back soon" sticky note will tell.

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Update: MacRumors now points out that the higher prices are likely an inadvertent rollback to older graphics, as they match up with the...
 

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Andy

Engadget just posted an article collaborating with this news. It's basically "confirms" new MacBook pro next week. Go read it yourself guys!!! I'm really I mean really really EXCITED !!!! my credit card is READY !!

March 17 2010 at 1:08 PM Report abuse rate up rate down Reply
Martin

it's way better explained in macrumors.com

March 17 2010 at 12:17 PM Report abuse rate up rate down Reply
BenM

Any else notice that the MacBook Air's background image is the default Leopard one, whilst the MacBook Pro's are all displaying the default Snow Leopard background? Doesn't seem quite right to me...

March 17 2010 at 11:54 AM Report abuse rate up rate down Reply
Cling On

I want to give more money to Apple. It helps me sleep.

March 17 2010 at 11:26 AM Report abuse rate up rate down Reply
mare

Maybe Apple has found out that, just as in the iTunes App Store, raising prices increases your overall revenue. The sales figure goes down a bit, but your revenue goes up. I doubled the price of my apps and my revenue went up 40%.

March 17 2010 at 11:19 AM Report abuse rate up rate down Reply
1 reply to mare's comment
Cy Starkman

Since you write apps I'll share a wee story on pricing.

Comes from 16 years ago doing graphics/3d for tv/video. Had a horrid client who was making a video series on business, he had a training firm. Anyway there was one tidbit that was of value I always remembered. It was on price wars, he used a fruit and veg shop as the example.

So, regardless of your retail price the fixed costs of development are the same for any given app. If your dev cost is $500 and you sell for $2, you need 250 clients to break even on fixed costs. If you have competition in the market and you drop your price to compete to $1 now you need 500 clients to break even. If you up it to $5 obviously you only need 100 clients for break even.

BUT. That's not the whole story. For each client you incur variable costs to provide service and support, let alone attracting each client for sale. Without dragging on obviously the more clients the more this cost is pushed up or the harder it is to provide service/support resulting in a poor experience for the client.

Outcome? In a price war up your prices so you can provide better service, reach break even quicker and require less customers to do it. Less customers is fine, actually it's better within reason. The qualtiy of your service and support, enhanced ability to update and roll out new apps because you are cashed up will create high satisfaction, referals and repeat sales to existing clients.

March 17 2010 at 9:14 PM Report abuse rate up rate down Reply
Cy Starkman



I can't speak about other countries but in Australia It works like this.

Apple only adjusts pricing when new models are released, then at that point, almost seems that day currency exchange occurs, tax added and new price emerges.

2009 is a perfect example of how bizzare this can get. Mid year refresh saw a decent price drop in the USA that was well covered in the media, Australia? Prices actualy went up. October minor refresh saw static pricing in the USA, Australia? Prices dropped sharply, the white MacBook for example became the best price/feature combo on the market, a VIAO of equal spec was $400 more.

Now though dollar has changed again and so prices this refresh will go back up. This doesn't indicate anything for the internal hardware and quite likely looking at the prices there will be no change in USA pricing at all. It's simply back to mid 2009 pricing unfortunately, the dollar also is.

You got to peel off the embedded 10% tax before you do the currency conversion as well.

March 17 2010 at 11:18 AM Report abuse rate up rate down Reply
Andy

Engadget just posted an article collaborating with this news. It's basically "confirms" new MacBook pro next week. Go read it yourself guys!!! I'm really I mean really really EXCITED !!!! my credit card is READY !!

March 17 2010 at 10:10 AM Report abuse rate up rate down Reply
Jeff

It would be a big mistake to raise the prices, especially now in this economy. Unless they truly do want to become a mobile electronics manufacturer. People already complain about paying more for a Mac when it's roughly the same hardware, this will only drive more people away. I love my Macs, and am happy to have spent what I did on them ($1500 MBP 13", $2000 MBP 15") but much more than that and it becomes a difficult pill to swallow.

March 17 2010 at 9:17 AM Report abuse rate up rate down Reply
ecobore

I call crap! Mac is already perceived as expensive by PC users. I'm sure prices are not going up in a world economic slump!

March 17 2010 at 9:16 AM Report abuse rate up rate down Reply
Iain Anderson

Looks like it. If you look at http://www.apple.com/au/macpro/ and go down the page to the left, you'll see:

"Quad-core starting at $4499.
8-core starting at $5899.
A$ RRP inc GST"

Clicking on "Buy Now" in the top right still takes you to the store where the price is $3599.

It's a real shame as the Mac Pro price is *already* inflated compared to all the other Mac prices in Australia — the price was set when the AU$ was weak and it's never really been corrected. That is, the AU$ price for a Mac Pro is ~1.3x the US$ price, but the iMac is only ~1.2x. (GST is included in AU prices and there's always a buffer for currency fluctuations.)

March 17 2010 at 9:07 AM Report abuse rate up rate down Reply
1 reply to Iain Anderson's comment
jonathan

its same exact page on the US store, just different prices.

March 17 2010 at 9:14 AM Report abuse rate up rate down Reply
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