Path: utzoo!utgpu!water!watmath!clyde!att!osu-cis!tut.cis.ohio-state.edu!rutgers!cmcl2!yale!jellinghaus-robert
From: jellinghaus-robert@CS.YALE.EDU (Rob Jellinghaus)
Newsgroups: comp.sys.mac
Subject: Re: Apple price increases
Summary: Aaaacckkk!!!!
Message-ID: <37709@yale-celray.yale.UUCP>
Date: 13 Sep 88 17:58:53 GMT
References: <691@ncar.ucar.edu> <3642@Portia.Stanford.EDU>
Sender: root@yale.UUCP
Reply-To: jellinghaus-robert@yale.UUCP
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Organization: Yale University Computer Science Dept, New Haven CT  06520-2158
Lines: 57

In article <3642@Portia.Stanford.EDU> mouser@portia.stanford.edu (Michael Wang) writes:
>Here are the price increases just announced today (well, actually yesterday)
>by Apple Computer, Inc.  These prices went into effect yesterday, Sept. 12,
>1988.  I haven't seen the AUC price list yet, but I'm sure it includes
>comparable price increases.
>
>                                            Old                       New
>Product                            Retail Price              Retail Price
>---------------------------------------------------------------------------
>Macintosh SE                             $2,769                    $3,169
>Macintosh SE 20MB                        $3,569                    $3,769

Yow!  $400+ for a regular SE, but only $200 for an SE with HD???  Huh????

>Macintosh II                             $3,769                    $4,869
>Macintosh II 1 MB/40 MB                  $5,369                    $6,169
>Macintosh II 4 MB/40 MB                  $7,269                    $8,069

Now, wait a minute!!!  $1,100+ for a regular Mac II, but only (only?) $800+
for the other two models?  What goes on here?

Apple's historically been known for some of the most expensive equipment in
the computer industry, compared to other similar manufacturers (with the
exception of IBM).  And now they're exacerbating the problem!  I know someone
who was planning to buy an SE, but she'll probably go with a Plus now, because
of this heinous price increase.

People told me, back last year when I got my II, that I'd be sorry in a year
when the price dropped.  I expected them to be right, not $800 wrong!!

Why, why, why is Apple doing this???  It doesn't appear to be due to the cost
of memory.  It appears to be an attempt to persuade users to buy Apple-equipped
equipment, by making the basic Apple equipment more expensive compared to the
Apple equipment with options installed, thus effectively dropping the price of
Apple options (such as memory & hard drives).  But these are some *serious*
price increases!  $1,100 ain't chicken feed!

Apple, I love you, but you're making it damned hard for people (as opposed to
corporate empires with megabucks to spend) to get to know you as well as I do!
Arrrrgh!!!

And so the dream of "a Mac on every desk" moves a bit further away...

>+--------------+------------------------------------------------------------+
>| Michael Wang | Stanford University, Stanford, CA  94305                   |
>|--------------+------------------------------------------------------------|
>| ARPAnet, CSNET, BITNET, Internet:  mouser@portia.stanford.edu             |
>| UUCP:  ...decwrl!portia.stanford.edu!mouser          AppleLink:  ST0064   |
>+---------------------------------------------------------------------------+

If the current pricing trend continues, how much will the "Knowledge Navigator"
cost?  $50,000???

Rob Jellinghaus                | "Experiencing severe turbulence... and we're
jellinghaus-robert@CS.Yale.EDU |  still on the ground.  The forecast is for
ROBERTJ@{yalecs,yalevm}.BITNET |  bad craziness."
{y'all}!ihnp4!hsi!yale!robertj |  -- HST (really BM), _Where the Buffalo Roam_