Apple cuts prices on USB-C & Thunderbolt 3 gear in response to MacBook Pro backlash

AppleInsider

In a surprise move, Apple on Friday cut the prices on a number of USB-C and Thunderbolt 3 accessories and peripherals, looking to assuage complaints from new or prospective MacBook Pro buyers.

The discounts range between 20 and 40 percent, and cover a number of first- and third-party products sold at Apple's online and retail stores, TechCrunch reported, confirming the change with Apple. Normal prices will resume in January.

"We recognize that many users, especially pros, rely on legacy connectors to get work done today and they face a transition," the company said in a statement. "We want to help them move to the latest technology and peripherals, as well as accelerate the growth of this new ecosystem. Through the end of the year, we are reducing prices on all USB-C and Thunderbolt 3 peripherals we sell, as well as the prices on Apple's USB-C adapters and cables."

All of the new MacBook Pro models use combination USB-C/Thunderbolt 3 ports, meaning that many legacy add-ons are no longer compatible without an adapter. They even omit an SD card slot, potentially creating problems for people shooting photos and video.

The computers continue to have 3.5-millimeter headphone jacks, even though Apple talked about the "courage" needed to remove the technology from the iPhone 7 at a Sept. 7 press event.

slurpy

Awesome move by Apple. This SHOULD shut up most of the complaints, but of course it won't. 

iSalmanPak

slurpy said:

Awesome move by Apple. This SHOULD shut up most of the complaints, but of course it won't. 

Yup. The customer is always wrong.

brucemc

This just shows how Apple continues to suffer under Tim Cook!  Steve would never have done this
/s

rogifan_new

Good move but the fact Apple felt the need to do it suggests there's some pretty fierce backlash with these new Macs. Perhaps more backlash than Apple was expecting,

marrtyy

It's not going to make a difference. At this point, Cook,  you have exposed Apple to the worst type of criticism... high prices, noncompetitive value. High margins are only good for the stock holders. When Jobs was in charge he was price/value sensitive. 

blastdoor

rogifan_new said:

Good move but the fact Apple felt the need to do it suggests there's some pretty fierce backlash with these new Macs. Perhaps more backlash than Apple was expecting,

I think that's right -- in fact I don't see how there could be any other interpretation. 

I'd go even a bit further (though this isn't as obviously right, I think it's still probably right) and guess that while online orders might have "broken records", they may have fallen short of Apple's internal projections. Given the pent up demand for an update, breaking the record in and of itself isn't that big of a deal. What matter is the margin of the record breaking. Apple might have looked at that and thought "oops." 

mwhite

marrtyy said:

It's not going to make a difference. At this point, Cook,  you have exposed Apple to the worst type of criticism... high prices, noncompetitive value. High margins are only good for the stock holders. When Jobs was in charge he was price/value sensitive. 

Are you out of your mind who do you think started the high price of Apple products I remember when the first computer IIGS I bought was so damn expensive....

nht

marrtyy said:

It's not going to make a difference. At this point, Cook,  you have exposed Apple to the worst type of criticism... high prices, noncompetitive value. High margins are only good for the stock holders. When Jobs was in charge he was price/value sensitive. 

Yes, because Jobs didn't apologize in 2007 and provide $100 credit after cutting the iPhone price by $200.

Get real.  Apple is even more responsive to customer opinion under Cook but still unwavering in how it chooses to design hardware.

nht

blastdoor said:

rogifan_new said:

Good move but the fact Apple felt the need to do it suggests there's some pretty fierce backlash with these new Macs. Perhaps more backlash than Apple was expecting,

I think that's right -- in fact I don't see how there could be any other interpretation. 

I'd go even a bit further (though this isn't as obviously right, I think it's still probably right) and guess that while online orders might have "broken records", they may have fallen short of Apple's internal projections. Given the pent up demand for an update, breaking the record in and of itself isn't that big of a deal. What matter is the margin of the record breaking. Apple might have looked at that and thought "oops." 

Right, there can be no other interpretation because the iPhone wasn't selling in 2007 when Jobs did essentially the same thing by offering $100 credit to previous buyers after reducing the iPhone by $200.

slurpy

marrtyy said:

It's not going to make a difference. At this point, Cook,  you have exposed Apple to the worst type of criticism... high prices, noncompetitive value. High margins are only good for the stock holders. When Jobs was in charge he was price/value sensitive. 

Eh, you're so full of shit. Not a word of that is true. 

Also, this move SHOULD please people, who have been asking for this, but of course the trolls are responding 100% negatively to it as expected (ie. macrumors). 

mac_128

I wonder when we will see a Lightning headphone adapter to USB-C, or anything else?

blastdoor

nht said:

blastdoor said:

rogifan_new said:

Good move but the fact Apple felt the need to do it suggests there's some pretty fierce backlash with these new Macs. Perhaps more backlash than Apple was expecting,

I think that's right -- in fact I don't see how there could be any other interpretation. 

I'd go even a bit further (though this isn't as obviously right, I think it's still probably right) and guess that while online orders might have "broken records", they may have fallen short of Apple's internal projections. Given the pent up demand for an update, breaking the record in and of itself isn't that big of a deal. What matter is the margin of the record breaking. Apple might have looked at that and thought "oops." 

Right, there can be no other interpretation because the iPhone wasn't selling in 2007 when Jobs did essentially the same thing by offering $100 credit to previous buyers after reducing the iPhone by $200.

I'm not sure what your point is. 

jmgregory1

I'm surprised they didn't offer up discounted prices at the time of the new rMBP release, as it's an easy way to help people forget about the old tech and move forward with the new. They might even be able to write off some of the markdowns as marketing expense.

nht

blastdoor said:

nht said:

blastdoor said:

rogifan_new said:

Good move but the fact Apple felt the need to do it suggests there's some pretty fierce backlash with these new Macs. Perhaps more backlash than Apple was expecting,

I think that's right -- in fact I don't see how there could be any other interpretation. 

I'd go even a bit further (though this isn't as obviously right, I think it's still probably right) and guess that while online orders might have "broken records", they may have fallen short of Apple's internal projections. Given the pent up demand for an update, breaking the record in and of itself isn't that big of a deal. What matter is the margin of the record breaking. Apple might have looked at that and thought "oops." 

Right, there can be no other interpretation because the iPhone wasn't selling in 2007 when Jobs did essentially the same thing by offering $100 credit to previous buyers after reducing the iPhone by $200.

I'm not sure what your point is. 

The point is that Apple does this because it responds to customer concerns.  Not because sales "have fallen short of Apple's internal projections".

TEAMSWITCHER

So they raise the pricing on the MacBook tiers $200 - $300 dollars across the board. Then look like Angels From Heaven because they gave you a $10 break on a USB Type-C cable. Even Steve Jobs at his most brilliant wasn't capable of this powerful new kind of Reality Distortion Field.

jvmb

The issue with the dongles is not so much the price (you can buy dongles from competitors), but that you never have the right dongle with you when you need one. You can off course glue a dongle to your laptop, but then it is not a thin laptop anymore. You can always buy the previous model though. You can probably get a good deal on that one. 

williamh

marrtyy said:

It's not going to make a difference. At this point, Cook,  you have exposed Apple to the worst type of criticism... high prices, noncompetitive value. High margins are only good for the stock holders. When Jobs was in charge he was price/value sensitive. 

High margins are not always good for stockholders. High profits are good. High margins only work if the additional profit makes up for the lost sales. Apple has always pushed the envelope on price.  Jobs too. I still think the price of the MBP is too high.  I think this move is nice. Won't affect my purchasing decision but it's not all about me. 

mazda 3s

They also slashed prices on the brand new LG 5K and 4K monitors by 25% according to MR

rogifan_new

mac_128 said:

I wonder when we will see a Lightning headphone adapter to USB-C, or anything else?

And if an iPhone user needs to connect their phone to iTunes how do they do it without an adapter? Not throwing a USB C to A adapter in the box was stupid. But then again Apple ships iPad Pro with 12w adapter so I guess I shouldn't be surprised at their decisions. These are the kind of nickel and dime things that chip away at Cook's vaunted customer sat figure. And the things that give the impression Apple cares more about margin and profits than shipping the best products snd providing the best customer experience.

zoetmb

slurpy said:

Awesome move by Apple. This SHOULD shut up most of the complaints, but of course it won't. 

It's not like Apple is selling $500 laptops.   There's two ways to look at this:  

The first is that if someone is buying a laptop that starts at $2400, they should't be complaining about having to buy some adapters, even if they're overpriced and that if you're a pro, technology advances and the investment is the price of doing business.  

The other way to look at it is that if someone is spending between $2400 and $4300 (for the MBP with all options except for application software and AppleCare), Apple shouldn't have cheaped out and they should have provided 2 to 4 adapters in the box of the customer's choosing.   The price of four adapters/cables is as much as a cheap PC.   

And then my cost of ownership goes up because I can't replace the battery, expand memory or replace the SSD myself.   Or, if I Iive with a 256GB SSD, I've got to get a ton of external storage for pro-level photos and video and live with the hassle of not having every file with me when I'm out of the home/office.  

This is another example of Apple labeling something "pro" and then not understanding the workflow of their pro customers.   They did that with FinalCutPro and they did it when they moved away from the tower configuration of the MacPro.  

Every time Apple switches ports, they tell the market how their new choices are the greatest and how they want both manufacturers and consumers to commit to that port.  Then after a few years, they change their minds and they move on to something else.   Did they really need to drop Mag-safe?  What about all the people who bought extra power supplies to keep at home/office, etc.?   HDMI is ubiquitous on TVs and receivers and the cables have become inexpensive, but now I've got to buy an adapter that costs ten times what the cable cost?

What was Apple's rationale for going solely to USB-C?   Was it because they truly think this port is the future and that the accessory market will fully move to that port and that it provides technological advantages?   Or was it really because of Ive's anal-obsessiveness over thinness and not wanting to look at different sized/shaped ports on the side of the machine?   What drives me crazy is that Apple wants the machine to have this superior industrial design so that it looks great in photos and in ads, but they have no problem with users having to stick a bunch of dongles and adapters on the thing.   It's the same with the iPhone and the obsession with thinness, but then we have to put it in a case because it can't survive a fall.   So few are really seeing and feeling the thinness anyway.  Sometimes I think people at Apple don't actually use the products they produce in the real world. 

So, IMO, criticism is warranted.   If Apple wants my money, they're going to have to do a bit better.   I hate using PCs at work, but I'm not spending $4K to $5K on my next computer and I don't want to feel like I have less than what I have today.  So as much as I hate Windows, my next laptop might actually be a Windows machine.  And I've been an Apple customer for 35 years.