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Path: utzoo!dciem!nrcaer!cognos!roberts
From: roberts@cognos.uucp (Robert Stanley)
Newsgroups: comp.sys.mac
Subject: Re: More Mac prices
Message-ID: <1688@cognos.UUCP>
Date: Thu, 29-Oct-87 12:42:02 EST
Article-I.D.: cognos.1688
Posted: Thu Oct 29 12:42:02 1987
Date-Received: Sat, 31-Oct-87 10:44:32 EST
References: <201@pembina.UUCP> <460@aucs.UUCP> <249@dbase.UUCP> <476@aucs.UUCP>
Reply-To: roberts@cognos.UUCP (Robert Stanley)
Organization: Cognos Inc., Ottawa, Canada
Lines: 62
Summary: Apple Canada is not Apple, exactly

In article <476@aucs.UUCP> paul@aucs.UUCP (Paul Steele) writes:

> ... I still strongly feel that the price for Macintoshes in Canada is
>ridiculously high.  If Apple can offer educational institutions a 40%
>discount (or more), they surely can lower the basic price of a Mac and
>offer less of a educational discount.  I suspect that very few Macs are 
>sold at the list price, so why not bring it down to a level where the 
>ordinary end-user can afford one?  At $6150 Cdn, the MAC SE is WAY overpriced.

The problem is that Apple Canada is a Canadian registered company run with what
appears to be a significant degree of autonomy.  I have no knowledge of its
corporate registration or ownership, but I have been a serious recipient of
practices that differ from those practiced by Apple (the US master company).

Certainly, Apple Canada sets not only the prices of Apple products in Canada,
but also a number of policies.  For instance, when I wished to register as an
Apple developer, I was informed that I would have to go through Apple Canada,
who eventually turned out to have no interest in registering me.  I
circumvented this entire problem by using a US registered company of
convenience, but it certainly left a sour taste for me.  However, Apple Canada
has the *right* to make its own decisions, and I simply failed to convince them
of the merit of my plans.

[However, for me to buy the HyperCard reference manual I have to be a
registered member of APDA which includes signing APDA's equivalent of the
Official Secret's Act promising that I won't send anything I get from them to
any of a variety of (explicitly named) countries.  This is not as easy as it
sounds - Canada is a foreign country to Apple]

Another example was in the Lisa for Mac Plus swap program, where Apple Canada
set their own price and determined the date limits.  Similarly, Canadian Apple
dealers are registered with Apple Canada, and are expected to go through them
for everything, although they do have direct access to Applelink.  By the way,
Apple Canada is interesting to watch here in Ottawa, because they have recently
started a direct sales to Government program, which appears to be putting them
in direct competition with their own dealers.  Mind you, I am not an Apple
dealer myself, so this may not actually be the case at all, but it sure looks
like it.

Perhaps someone from Apple *Canada* would care to comment on the net, though
something tells me that nobody from there is reading this net....

In summary, Apple Canada has the exclusive right to market Apple products in
Canada, and has a significant amount of autonomy with respect to policies and
prices.  I am sure that they also have some responsibilities, such as ensuring
DOC compliance and such.  If we want better prices in Canada, we must lobby
Apple Canada, or tackle our local dealers.  I recently got a quantity-1 price
quote for a LaserWriter Plus of under $8,000 CDN, to myself as a private
individual.  This is only a couple of hundred more than the cheapest Boston
price I could find, currency converted, shipped, imported, and duty + tax paid.
The Boston-bought product would technically require DOC certification (a little
red and white with a maple-leaf sticker) and Apple Canada would not agree to
maintain it; they would refuse AppleCare (at least, so my dealer suggested).

Take your dealer to lunch, it's probably the best bet.  Better still, introduce
him/her to a really nifty piece of Mac software....

-- 
Robert Stanley           Cognos Incorporated     S-mail: P.O. Box 9707
Voice: (613) 738-1440 (Research: there are 2!)           3755 Riverside Drive 
  FAX: (613) 738-0002    Compuserve: 76174,3024          Ottawa, Ontario 
 uucp: decvax!utzoo!dciem!nrcaer!cognos!roberts          CANADA  K1G 3Z4