Apple's Mac Pro wheels cost $699, and the feet run $299

AppleInsiderAppleInsider
Posted:
in General Discussion
New kits from Apple let users swap Mac Pro feet for wheels, or vice versa, but at much greater cost than if bought when originally ordering the Mac.

New Mac Pro wheels kit (top) and feet kit (bottom)
New Mac Pro wheels kit (top) and feet kit (bottom)


Users who bought a Mac Pro with feet, can now separately order a set of wheels, or vice versa. Months after the Mac Pro shipped, Apple has launched two kits to allow buyers to change their mind -- but it is not a cheap choice.

An Apple Mac Pro Feet Kit, consisting of four stainless steel feet, sells for $299. Whereas the new Apple Mac Pro Wheels Kit, also with four fittings, is $699. That's the cost of an iPhone 11, and it is also much more than Apple charges when buying a Mac Pro with build to order options.

In that case, a Mac Pro of any configuration comes with feet included in the price. Wheels are an option which retail for $400 at time of purchase.

The increased price for buying wheels or feet after the fact may not be all users have to spend, either. For Apple also notes that while it provides a 1/4-inch to 4mm hex bit, "additional tools are necessary." It does not specify what those are and they are not available from Apple.

Both kits do include an installation guide, however, and at time of writing, delivery is expected to take between one and two days. By comparison, a new Mac Pro is currently taking around 10 days to ship.
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Comments

  • Reply 1 of 36
    charlesatlascharlesatlas Posts: 407member
    Wow. This recalls the bad, old days of the 1990s when PowerMacs used proprietary, expensive parts and peripherals instead of commodity PC components.
    dysamoriachemengin1elijahgviclauyycprismatics
  • Reply 2 of 36
    jeffythequickjeffythequick Posts: 269member
    Still cheaper than 4 wheels for my BMW, but how many miles do we get on these ones?
    chemengin1yojimbo007
  • Reply 3 of 36
    larryalarrya Posts: 608member
    This seems so crazy, and I know the intended audience isn't home users, but even if my employer paid this for a bunch of machines I think I would start looking for another job where Management made better decisions.
    dysamoriaholyoneelijahgdoozydozenyojimbo007viclauyycchemengin1caladanianprismatics
  • Reply 4 of 36
    webweaselwebweasel Posts: 138member
    Gap in the market for OWC and similar to make compatible feet and casters for $50
    chemengin1CloudTalkindysamoriaelijahgdoozydozenrazorpit
  • Reply 5 of 36
    Rayz2016Rayz2016 Posts: 6,957member
    webweasel said:
    Gap in the market for OWC and similar to make compatible feet and casters for $50
    Exactly. 


    doozydozenrazorpit
  • Reply 6 of 36
    maltzmaltz Posts: 487member
    charlesatlas said:
    Wow. This recalls the bad, old days of the 1990s when PowerMacs used proprietary, expensive parts and peripherals instead of commodity PC components.

    Apple PowerMacs of the 90's never used proprietary RAM or hard drives, though some did use the more expensive (and better performing) SCSI drives instead of IDE.  Later, they even stopped doing that.  Actually, the PowerMacs were really a step in the direction of standardization compared to earlier Macs and the Apple ][ line.

    That said... Apple is FAR worse now than they ever were in the '90s.  For most devices, upgrades are simply impossible.  They solder RAM to the boards and even SSD chips.  In devices where the NVMe drive is removable, they've changed the connector to be pin-incompatible with standard M.2 drives.  What purpose other that being proprietary could that possibly serve?

    Meanwhile, the cost of upgrades for RAM and SSDs at the time of purchase are 2-4x retail, while that premium used to be about 1.5x.  (Even at 1.5x, I'd typically buy the minimum config, sell or even trash the RAM/HD it came with, buy what I really wanted at retail and still come out ahead.)  It's especially inexcusable now.

    $700 for four wheels for a computer???  FFS, I can buy a set of tires for my car for less than that!
    ElCapitandysamoriaelijahgdoozydozenviclauyycgatorguyprismaticsmike54zoetmb
  • Reply 7 of 36
    DoodpantsDoodpants Posts: 53member
    I know that Apple likes to think that they can make superior versions of every product, but this time they've literally reinvented the wheel.
    edited April 2020 elijahgviclauyyc
  • Reply 8 of 36
    crowleycrowley Posts: 10,453member
    It might be more palatable to just slide it around on four stacks of $175.
    DAalsethdysamoriarazorpitfastasleepwebweaselmaltzapplguy
  • Reply 9 of 36
    DAalsethDAalseth Posts: 2,956member
    Or for ~$30 you could go down to Lowes and get four casters and a piece of plywood to make a cart.
    dysamoriaelijahgchemengin1razorpitmaltzdewme
  • Reply 10 of 36
    dysamoriadysamoria Posts: 3,430member
    I’ve nothing clever to add, but I continue to me more and more appalled at Apple’s insanity with this specific product, this generation.
    elijahgchemengin1prismatics
  • Reply 11 of 36
    gmgravytraingmgravytrain Posts: 882member
    Unbelievable rip-off. It's as though Apple doesn't want anyone to buy those wheels. Even as an Apple shareholder, I think that's just asking too much for a relatively useless upgrade. I mean, it makes your Mac Pro go faster, but it doesn't make it faster where it matters. Sure, Apple donated millions of N95 masks but they're trying to make up for that donation by tightly squeezing their customers. No matter, I wouldn't buy those wheels as I'd use that money for some useful upgrade. Well, no one is being forced to buy those wheels, so Apple can charge whatever it wants. Those wheels will end up just like the HomePod. An over-priced product that almost no one will buy. For that amount of money, I could buy the latest bare-bones Intel NUC and enjoy using it.
    chemengin1caladanianmike54
  • Reply 12 of 36
    AI_liasAI_lias Posts: 436member
    This would be worth it, even the Mac Pro itself, if it were designed in such a way that you can reuse the chassis and legs/wheels for a lifetime, and just upgrade the motherboard and everything else. That would be the only thing to make it worth it the price.
    edited April 2020
  • Reply 13 of 36
    darkpawdarkpaw Posts: 212member
    Hang on...

    Option 1: Buy Mac Pro with feet = Included in cost, so $0 extra
    Option 2: Buy Mac Pro with feet ($0), buy wheels later = $699 extra ==> $0 + $699 = $699

    Option 3: Buy Mac Pro with wheels = $400 extra
    Option 4: Buy Mac Pro with wheels ($400), buy feet later = $299 extra, so $400 + $299 = $699

    How is it more expensive to buy either kit afterwards?
    edited April 2020 fastasleepchabigapplguywatto_cobra
  • Reply 14 of 36
    samrodsamrod Posts: 60unconfirmed, member
    Movealls Reuse Furniture Movers (8 per Pack): $10 from Home Depot. Put them on the Mac Pro's feed and it'll glide around your floors and carpets just fine. Unlike the Mac Pro wheels, it won't roll away as many have been complaining.
  • Reply 15 of 36
    malachimanmalachiman Posts: 8member

    $700 wouldn’t be so bad compared to the price in New Zealand.  $1,219.   The new iPhone SE is $800 in comparison!


    gatorguymike54
  • Reply 16 of 36
    sjworldsjworld Posts: 94member
    Holy mother of Greed... Well, gotta get back all the money they have donated thus far.
    chemengin1
  • Reply 17 of 36
    jeffythequickjeffythequick Posts: 269member
    At these prices,  bet they sell 3 wheels.
  • Reply 18 of 36
    ElCapitanElCapitan Posts: 372member
    Cringe  !!
  • Reply 19 of 36
    fastasleepfastasleep Posts: 6,450member
    darkpaw said:
    Hang on...

    Option 1: Buy Mac Pro with feet = Included in cost, so $0 extra
    Option 2: Buy Mac Pro with feet ($0), buy wheels later = $699 extra ==> $0 + $699 = $699

    Option 3: Buy Mac Pro with wheels = $400 extra
    Option 4: Buy Mac Pro with wheels ($400), buy feet later = $299 extra, so $400 + $299 = $699

    How is it more expensive to buy either kit afterwards?
    Well you assume the feet are $299 but baked into the price, with the wheels being a $400 surcharge on top of that so those are $699 separately, I guess. 

    Obviously you could sell whichever you’re removing to offset cost.  But still...

    I still can’t wrap my head around the pricing on these things. Throw the customer a bone here, they’re fucking *wheels* and *feet* that do absolutely nothing special. 
    mike54maltz
  • Reply 20 of 36
    thrangthrang Posts: 1,029member
    Are these run-flats?
    maltzwelshdogmike54watto_cobra
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