New Apple promo: $100 off iPod w/ new Mac
<a href="http://www.apple.com/promo/ipod"; target="_blank">http://www.apple.com/promo.ipod</a>;
Apple has started a new promotion. Buy any new Mac and an iPod and you get $100 back. This is fantastic. It shows that instead of making money from the iPod they are going to use it as an incentive to lure Wintel users.
If we assume that Apple's cost for the iPod is $300, then they are giving up $100 in pure profit to anyone who would have bought a Mac and an iPod anyway. They are sacrificing what is probably a decent money maker to try to get new customers.
It should be pretty easy to see how successful they are. Since they sold 75,000 iPods last quarter, we would have expected the same this quarter. Hopefully sales will at least double. The Apple stores can attempt to keep statistics to see how many Windows users switch over because of the promotion.
If this doesn't increase sales, then the logical thing Apple should do is release a Wintel version. They'll make a lot of money and at least get new people familiar with Apple.
[ 04-23-2002: Message edited by: spindler ]</p>
Apple has started a new promotion. Buy any new Mac and an iPod and you get $100 back. This is fantastic. It shows that instead of making money from the iPod they are going to use it as an incentive to lure Wintel users.
If we assume that Apple's cost for the iPod is $300, then they are giving up $100 in pure profit to anyone who would have bought a Mac and an iPod anyway. They are sacrificing what is probably a decent money maker to try to get new customers.
It should be pretty easy to see how successful they are. Since they sold 75,000 iPods last quarter, we would have expected the same this quarter. Hopefully sales will at least double. The Apple stores can attempt to keep statistics to see how many Windows users switch over because of the promotion.
If this doesn't increase sales, then the logical thing Apple should do is release a Wintel version. They'll make a lot of money and at least get new people familiar with Apple.
[ 04-23-2002: Message edited by: spindler ]</p>
Comments
the drive itself used to retail for 399 and now it retails in an enclosure for 199.
iPod prices should be 100 dollars lower by themselves
<strong>cost of an iPod may have been 300 back in October. But not now. Smartdisk sells a firewire hard drive with the 5GB 1.8inch toshiba drive for 199.
the drive itself used to retail for 399 and now it retails in an enclosure for 199.
iPod prices should be 100 dollars lower by themselves</strong><hr></blockquote>
You're right. It was easy to justify the price when they were first released (that is if you actually looked at component costs, and didn't just scream "Apple is ripping us off!").
As that drive plummets in price though, the iPod is definately becoming overpriced. It's not bad at $299 US - but you shouldn't have to wait 8-10 weeks for a rebate cheque to get that price. A $100 price drop would have been nice.
To bad i already bought a iPod and a iBook.
Considering the retail cost of 5Gb 1.8" firewire drives, there is no way that the drive itself now costs more than about $120. Probably under 100 if SmartDisk is selling them at 200 in a firewire enclosure.
They could probably sell a whole lot of them at 299 to windows customers, and 249 in mac bundles. But I don't think Apple wants to offer this product to windows. Maybe that's good, and maybe it isn't. But with NOMAD's getting better all the time, if Apple waits too long they just won't be able to sell the thing to windows customers at all.
It must be a very profitable little device at current prices. Analysts were saying iPod sales would more than quadruple if they marketed it to other platforms. Seems like a lot of cash to pass-up, especially now that iPod sales have begun to taper off.
hmmm...