Less than 24h to go, and one major concern...
Nothing has been EOL'd. Nothing.
iMacs have always reached EOL before new models were shipping and announced. Remember when the iBook were temporarily unavailable? Now what? Nothing.
What if a look into the future turns out to be just that, a look into the future? Minor bumps for everything, and some significant discounts but no new stuff shipping just yet. Steve shows us the new stuff and says it's shipping in 3-6 weeks (depending). You can pre-order it, but for now, the only stuff you can have right away is the old stuff (albeit at a new low price?)
I think this scenario is a little extreme, but that we may actually see something like this for at least a couple of models come Stevenote.
Thoughts?
iMacs have always reached EOL before new models were shipping and announced. Remember when the iBook were temporarily unavailable? Now what? Nothing.
What if a look into the future turns out to be just that, a look into the future? Minor bumps for everything, and some significant discounts but no new stuff shipping just yet. Steve shows us the new stuff and says it's shipping in 3-6 weeks (depending). You can pre-order it, but for now, the only stuff you can have right away is the old stuff (albeit at a new low price?)
I think this scenario is a little extreme, but that we may actually see something like this for at least a couple of models come Stevenote.
Thoughts?
Comments
I think.
SdC
<strong>If you have an order that hasn't shipped before MWSF do you get the new stuff instead?</strong><hr></blockquote>
yes, of course.
BTW, iMacs have been EOLed since last week I believe
<strong>What's Apple's policy on that? I can cancel an order until it ships? If shipping time is ten days, that means it takes ten days for them to put my computer in a box and send it out, right? Not that it arrives in ten days? If there's a lot of discrepancy between the current and upcoming models a lot of people will want to change their orders. Wouldn't it be simpler to just not take any orders untill the 7th? I dunno. Maybe it's all part of Steve's keep 'em guessing till the last minute routine.</strong><hr></blockquote>
Well you really don't need to cancel an order since you'll get the newer stuff.
Yup, happened to me too when the ibook600 was introduced. Shortly after the new announcements you'll receive an e-mail in which this will be confirmed.
Stef
Apple has the best inventory control of any computer manufacturer, they ended last fiscal year with an inventorty average of less than one day's worth of inventory on hand, which basically means, your order gets built when you order it. But, when an entirely new product is coming out, a factory has to "retool," that is change their equipment out to suite the new 'whatever' is being made there, and any personell have to be taught how to build it. This can take up to a week to do, and since Apple will obviously want to have a good amount of new product on hand for the macworld introduction, for the show floor and for resellers, I'd say this retooling was probably going on this past week.
This means that there may not be any factories still making the old iMac or PowerMac, or whatever else is coming out tomorrow, which explains the 7-10 day lead time on some of the products. Obviously, apple will still have some of the old stuff on hand, so if you placed your order from the Apple store last monday, you'll probably get what you ordered.
As soon as they run out of whatever they have on hand, then you'll probably get an email on monday from the Apple Store, outlining your options. If there's a price increase on the equivelant of what you ordered, then they'll generally honor the original price. If the price drops, then they'll credit the difference and ship out your shiny new whatever as soon as it gets built.
The bottom line, though, is that the week or so before any macworld or scheduled "event" is probably the slowest out of the year for the Apple Store, so there will probably only be a handful of people who actually have to worry about this. people who use the apple store are generally pretty informed, so they know when to sit on their credit card for a little while longer.
While apple could just close down the Apple store for a week, that wouldn't look good, and that may leave them with alot of unsold old stock. I know people who use the apple store to spec out a machine the way they like it, and check prices, and then order it from somplace else, or go to compusa or an apple store to get it. If the apple store site stopped taking orders, it would tell everybody "hey, new stuff is coming, fvck the old the stuff and wait a week," likely leaving resellers and apple with alot of stale bread.
Now, with all the hype on the Apple mainpage, they have kind of been flirting with just that sort of problem, but they've kept the teasers general enough to keep people from determining precisely what new stuff is coming monday. The apple store will probably shut down around midnight (pacific) tonight, if not just for the sake of hyping it up even more.
anywho, did any of that even make sense?
ciao,
michael
[ 01-06-2002: Message edited by: scadboy ]</p>
<strong>The bottom line, though, is that the week or so before any macworld or scheduled "event" is probably the slowest out of the year for the Apple Store, so there will probably only be a handful of people who actually have to worry about this.</strong><hr></blockquote>
And anyone who buys a Mac withing shooting distance of a MW deserves to be sad anyway.
There are a few rules to mazimizing your Apple Buying Pleasure [TM].
<strong>Whatcha mean NOTHING has been EOL'd... the Cinema Display has.</strong><hr></blockquote>
It has?? <img src="confused.gif" border="0">
Either way, when I bought a 350G4 with a 10GB HD I had to wait an extra MONTH (a whole month - I bought it mid-jan, they sent it mid-feb) after the MW Tokyo, and they bumped me up to 400G4 20GB HD. No email or anything.
Andrew
<strong>
And anyone who buys a Mac withing shooting distance of a MW deserves to be sad anyway.
There are a few rules to mazimizing your Apple Buying Pleasure [TM].
- Never buy a Mac within 3 weeks of a Macworld show--6 weeks if you have it in you.
- Never buy a rev A machine. If you can stand it, wait the few months for the inevitable speed bump.
- Never buy Ram from Apple. It's cheaper everywere else on earth.
</strong><hr></blockquote>- If you're buying a Pro machine, buy the smallest HD and upgrade it yourself.
Edit: Corrected spelling[ 01-06-2002: Message edited by: glurx ]</p>