Path: utzoo!censor!geac!jtsv16!uunet!wuarchive!uwm.edu!ux1.cso.uiuc.edu!ux1.cso.uiuc.edu!m.cs.uiuc.edu!p.cs.uiuc.edu!gillies
From: gillies@p.cs.uiuc.edu
Newsgroups: comp.sys.mac
Subject: Re: Mac/Quantum 40/80 meg Drives
Message-ID: <126900097@p.cs.uiuc.edu>
Date: 12 Nov 89 17:40:16 GMT
References: <1@<Nov>
Lines: 20
Nf-ID: #R:<Nov:1:p.cs.uiuc.edu:126900097:000:975
Nf-From: p.cs.uiuc.edu!gillies    Nov 11 11:19:00 1989


Re: suggesting you should "buy the basic box ONLY from Apple".

This is all well and good, but Apple has jacked up the cost of a basic
box considerably.  For instance, Apple has jacked up the price (at
this university) of an unpopulated Mac II about $400 since it was
introduced.  The price difference between an SE/20 and an SE/2-floppy
is only about $250.

I believe they did this to steal the business of 3rd-party
manufacturers.  When you have one product that's a ripoff, the Apple
solution is to raise prices on the other products, turning the ripoff
into an instant steal.  Now there's some twisted logic for you.

It might be that Apple originally priced peripherals outrageously, to
encourage 3rd-party developers.  Now that 3rd-party development is
strong, Apple needn't shelter these guys.  But then why has Apple
*raised* the prices of the empty system units (i.e. raised wholesale
prices for system units)?  Why didn't they *lower* the prices of the
hard disks?