Maybe Apple wanted to make a profit and cover all of the expenses that it took to develop the machine, nah, why would they want to make money. They should sell all their stuff at a lost so they can go out of business in two-years to meet the rumour mill requirements.
raising the price to lower demand was actually smart on apple's part at the time, because they weren't able to make them fast enough to keep up with demand anyway.
[quote] Two main monitor themes of April: TFT LCD prices increase and the new prospective technologies, presented at EDEX2002 in Tokyo. Though, the former threads through all latest months.
The consistent TFT LCD panel prices increase by Taiwanese manufacturers resulted in the Japanese companies doing the same. NEC-Mitsubishi Electric Visual Systems (NMV), for example, raised the prices for its 15" TFT LCD monitors by 4000 - 5000 yens or about $30-40, or by almost 10% of the previous level. LCD monitors really came into fashion now and the demand for 15" panels is now greater than production volumes. Besides, you shouldn't forget the stable demand for notebooks.
Due to this the price increase is planned to May. Samsung Electronics announced the additional price increase for 14.1" and 15" TFT LCD notebook panels, by average $10-15. Of course, Taiwanese manufacturers are to follow it. Samsung also increases prices for 15" TFT LCD monitor panels by average $5.
It's expected that the increase of prices for 15" TFT LCD notebook panels, that made the average 5.3% in April, will continue in May. This situation is the result of that many Japanese LCD panel manufacturers, such as NEC and Fujitsu, transited to larger-inch products. I suspect this will affect notebook retail prices soon enough, most likely the inexpensive models. <hr></blockquote>
A 10% increase in LCD prices doesn't account for a $200 increase in iMac prices. First of all, Apple doesn't pay what consumers pay, they buy in such enormous volumes and negotiate much lower prices. Furthermore, the LCD is only a part of the manufacturing cost of the iMac.
MAYBE the increase in LCD prices could account for an extra $50 on the iMac, but $200? No way.
With the notable exception of JYD, the last half dozen or so posts have been so completely (but typically) off.
Myth.
Continued sales of the iMac at the original price would not have resulted in ANY LOSS, perhaps a slightly reduced margin, but a margin still in good stead with what the rest of the industry charges, sells, makes a profit at, and continues to grow. Apple marketing BS, period.
Myth 2.
Dell, IBM and others DID NOT increase prices or announce any form of price increase for CURRENT models. They stated that NEW models would go up in price (possibly/likely)...
but guess what? They didn't. Look at your next DELL or IBM mailing/ad or web-site, new models with prices completely in line with prices of the last 6 months. No appreciable increase in sight except for models with the newest/fastest processors (which has always been the case)
The straight explanation.
So what happened?
Simply, Apple jumped the gun. They raised prices on the POSSIBILITY of dramatic cost increases BEFORE any real cost increases happened. (10% on a $180US component is less than 20 bucks, sorry, not the stuff of $100 price hikes) WHY? Because the model was new and the CPU picture is bleak. If prices had jumped substantially 6 months later, and Apple didn't have a substantially faster CPU(/GPU) combo to put in the machine at that time, then a $100 price increase would have looked even worse. But the PROJECTED COST INCREASE NEVER materialized in any significant fashion: asian production has recovered, caught-up, and ramped-up in impressive fashion. So much so, in fact, that 19" panels are set to enter into the 17" price points of only 12-16 months ago!
And the story is largely the same for RAM prices. Increases just never happened. I can still walk into any local computer shop and get RAM for the same price as 6 months ago. A very short lived spike is all that happened, any decent amount of supply would have weathered it. In fact, Apple probably did, for the most part, weather the price increases, untill component costs dropped again.
They over-reacted for fear of their position in 6 months time. Other companies announced price increases but managed to maintain current prices.
They fvcked-up, I wonder if they'll lower prices back to where they should be.
The Japanese vendors raised prices. Just from memory but didn't Sony raise their price 10% or more on some models? That was a bigger price increase than the iMac's.
Also just from memory, I recall reading articles at the time that Dell and company did raise list prices but cut back on the specs (included memory and such) so that the price increase was only apparent if you configured the machines the same way.
Depending on which reports you read, component costs either went up a lot or a little. Anywhere from 5-10% on LCD's to 40-50 dollars per 15" glass unit (about 20-25%).
Whatever happened, the best evidence is still the retail outlet/direct-order market. When you look around, you find that retail prices on systems, RAM, and LCD's are still down over the same components at the time of iMac's intro. I have the same selection of sub $550 (Canadian) 15" LCD panels, sub $1000Can 17" panels (actually down to 900 from 1050-1100 previously) and soon to come approx $1500can (1000USD) 19" panels.
This can no longer be written off as old stock in the channel. 6 Months have past, there is no such old stock to speak of. New models have since debuted at the same or lower price points (especially for larger glass)
Now factor in the falling cost of opticals which were among the more expensive components when iMac was first announced and you get a nice healthy DROP in component costs. Combo-units and 24X CDRW are dropping every day as they are eclipsed by faster drives. 32X cdrw had just been announced around the time of iMac's debut, and now they are widely available along with 40X units. Even DVD-rw (and DVD+rw) drives have dropped in recent weeks.
Uh-un Stevie. Price drops on opticals alone would have been enough to ofset the small and shortlived RAM/LCD spikes.
Comments
<strong>
So why did Sony, Dell and others also raise their prices within days of Apple's announcement?</strong><hr></blockquote>
It's all an evil Apple?led conspiracy Mwahahaha!
The consistent TFT LCD panel prices increase by Taiwanese manufacturers resulted in the Japanese companies doing the same. NEC-Mitsubishi Electric Visual Systems (NMV), for example, raised the prices for its 15" TFT LCD monitors by 4000 - 5000 yens or about $30-40, or by almost 10% of the previous level. LCD monitors really came into fashion now and the demand for 15" panels is now greater than production volumes. Besides, you shouldn't forget the stable demand for notebooks.
Due to this the price increase is planned to May. Samsung Electronics announced the additional price increase for 14.1" and 15" TFT LCD notebook panels, by average $10-15. Of course, Taiwanese manufacturers are to follow it. Samsung also increases prices for 15" TFT LCD monitor panels by average $5.
It's expected that the increase of prices for 15" TFT LCD notebook panels, that made the average 5.3% in April, will continue in May. This situation is the result of that many Japanese LCD panel manufacturers, such as NEC and Fujitsu, transited to larger-inch products. I suspect this will affect notebook retail prices soon enough, most likely the inexpensive models. <hr></blockquote>
<a href="http://www.digit-life.com/articles/digests/0204.html"; target="_blank">April 2002 article</a>
MAYBE the increase in LCD prices could account for an extra $50 on the iMac, but $200? No way.
Myth.
Continued sales of the iMac at the original price would not have resulted in ANY LOSS, perhaps a slightly reduced margin, but a margin still in good stead with what the rest of the industry charges, sells, makes a profit at, and continues to grow. Apple marketing BS, period.
Myth 2.
Dell, IBM and others DID NOT increase prices or announce any form of price increase for CURRENT models. They stated that NEW models would go up in price (possibly/likely)...
but guess what? They didn't. Look at your next DELL or IBM mailing/ad or web-site, new models with prices completely in line with prices of the last 6 months. No appreciable increase in sight except for models with the newest/fastest processors (which has always been the case)
The straight explanation.
So what happened?
Simply, Apple jumped the gun. They raised prices on the POSSIBILITY of dramatic cost increases BEFORE any real cost increases happened. (10% on a $180US component is less than 20 bucks, sorry, not the stuff of $100 price hikes) WHY? Because the model was new and the CPU picture is bleak. If prices had jumped substantially 6 months later, and Apple didn't have a substantially faster CPU(/GPU) combo to put in the machine at that time, then a $100 price increase would have looked even worse. But the PROJECTED COST INCREASE NEVER materialized in any significant fashion: asian production has recovered, caught-up, and ramped-up in impressive fashion. So much so, in fact, that 19" panels are set to enter into the 17" price points of only 12-16 months ago!
And the story is largely the same for RAM prices. Increases just never happened. I can still walk into any local computer shop and get RAM for the same price as 6 months ago. A very short lived spike is all that happened, any decent amount of supply would have weathered it. In fact, Apple probably did, for the most part, weather the price increases, untill component costs dropped again.
They over-reacted for fear of their position in 6 months time. Other companies announced price increases but managed to maintain current prices.
They fvcked-up, I wonder if they'll lower prices back to where they should be.
It was purely a supply and demand issue.
[ 06-10-2002: Message edited by: Eugene ]</p>
The seperation between the eMac and the iMac will happen at MWNY.
Also just from memory, I recall reading articles at the time that Dell and company did raise list prices but cut back on the specs (included memory and such) so that the price increase was only apparent if you configured the machines the same way.
Whatever happened, the best evidence is still the retail outlet/direct-order market. When you look around, you find that retail prices on systems, RAM, and LCD's are still down over the same components at the time of iMac's intro. I have the same selection of sub $550 (Canadian) 15" LCD panels, sub $1000Can 17" panels (actually down to 900 from 1050-1100 previously) and soon to come approx $1500can (1000USD) 19" panels.
This can no longer be written off as old stock in the channel. 6 Months have past, there is no such old stock to speak of. New models have since debuted at the same or lower price points (especially for larger glass)
Now factor in the falling cost of opticals which were among the more expensive components when iMac was first announced and you get a nice healthy DROP in component costs. Combo-units and 24X CDRW are dropping every day as they are eclipsed by faster drives. 32X cdrw had just been announced around the time of iMac's debut, and now they are widely available along with 40X units. Even DVD-rw (and DVD+rw) drives have dropped in recent weeks.
Uh-un Stevie. Price drops on opticals alone would have been enough to ofset the small and shortlived RAM/LCD spikes.