Briefly: massive Apple U.K. and Canada price cuts, iPod mini drives
Apple U.K., Canada slash Mac prices
MacNN notes that Apple has reduced prices in the UK on nearly all of its Mac and flat panel displays offerings by as much as £450. Products met with price cuts include the iMac G5, PowerBook, Power Mac, iBook, and Cinema Display line.
Most products were cut by £50, including Apple's aging PowerBook line. The entry-level 12-inch Combo model now costs £1,099, down £50 from £1,149. A £50 reduction has also been applied to the SuperDrive version of the 12-inch PowerBook, which is now priced at £1,249.
Meanwhile, Apple's 15-inch PowerBooks also reflect £50 price cuts. The 1.33GHz Combo model costs £1,349, with the 1.5GHz SuperDrive version priced at £1,699.
The 17-inch 1.5GHz PowerBook previously retailing for £1,949 now costs £1,899."
On a side note, AppleInsider sources expect Apple to have introduced new PowerBook models by late-February. Specifics are not yet available.
An AppleInsider reader also notes that Apple has significantly reduced the price of several product offerings through its Canadian online store. Power Mac models have reportedly been cut by up to $400.
Earlier today, Apple also slashed prices across its Cinema Display product line in the US.
iPod mini component availability
JPMorgan on Tuesday raised its estimates for Apple, citing robust sales of its iPod digital music players and iMac personal computers through December.
In a research note distributed to clients, analyst Bill Shope said the "key catalyst" for the upward revision was "improved availability of 1.0-inch drives for the iPod Mini," which use tiny 1-inch microdrives.
AppleInsider previously reported on a rumor that suggests Apple is now shipping iPod minis equipped with 5GB microdrives from Seagate, due to limited supplies of the 4GB drives from original component supplier, Hitachi. A firmware block reportedly caps the usable disk space of these models to 4GB, rendering them functionally equivalent to the original 4GB model.
JPMorgan now expects earnings per share of 49 cents for the December quarter, up 2 cents from its previous estimate. The firm also raised fiscal 2005 forecasts for the Apple, predicting EPS of $1.71, up from $1.69 previously.
MacNN notes that Apple has reduced prices in the UK on nearly all of its Mac and flat panel displays offerings by as much as £450. Products met with price cuts include the iMac G5, PowerBook, Power Mac, iBook, and Cinema Display line.
Most products were cut by £50, including Apple's aging PowerBook line. The entry-level 12-inch Combo model now costs £1,099, down £50 from £1,149. A £50 reduction has also been applied to the SuperDrive version of the 12-inch PowerBook, which is now priced at £1,249.
Meanwhile, Apple's 15-inch PowerBooks also reflect £50 price cuts. The 1.33GHz Combo model costs £1,349, with the 1.5GHz SuperDrive version priced at £1,699.
The 17-inch 1.5GHz PowerBook previously retailing for £1,949 now costs £1,899."
On a side note, AppleInsider sources expect Apple to have introduced new PowerBook models by late-February. Specifics are not yet available.
An AppleInsider reader also notes that Apple has significantly reduced the price of several product offerings through its Canadian online store. Power Mac models have reportedly been cut by up to $400.
Earlier today, Apple also slashed prices across its Cinema Display product line in the US.
iPod mini component availability
JPMorgan on Tuesday raised its estimates for Apple, citing robust sales of its iPod digital music players and iMac personal computers through December.
In a research note distributed to clients, analyst Bill Shope said the "key catalyst" for the upward revision was "improved availability of 1.0-inch drives for the iPod Mini," which use tiny 1-inch microdrives.
AppleInsider previously reported on a rumor that suggests Apple is now shipping iPod minis equipped with 5GB microdrives from Seagate, due to limited supplies of the 4GB drives from original component supplier, Hitachi. A firmware block reportedly caps the usable disk space of these models to 4GB, rendering them functionally equivalent to the original 4GB model.
JPMorgan now expects earnings per share of 49 cents for the December quarter, up 2 cents from its previous estimate. The firm also raised fiscal 2005 forecasts for the Apple, predicting EPS of $1.71, up from $1.69 previously.
Comments
Originally posted by Matsu
...I haven't been paying attention for the last little while, but when did powerbooks get 4X mobile DVD-R?
Hmm. I'd like to know that, too. The only options I'm given, when I burn a DVD, are 1x and 2x. I'll be checking this out when I get home.
Originally posted by audiopollution
Hmm. I'd like to know that, too. The only options I'm given, when I burn a DVD, are 1x and 2x. I'll be checking this out when I get home.
http://www.macosxrumors.com/ (list of prices)
The PowerBook G4 got a 4x DVD Burner in April - when they were last updated.
http://www.apple.com/pr/library/2004/apr/19pb.html
not only the UK store has price slashes.
All European Apple Stores have lowered prices.
If you're looking for an example (dutch Apple store) look at www.macosx.nl
More detailed price differences (for the UK)
I bet Apple are really missing those extra profits...
Does "now powerbook models" mean what I think it does, or is this just a speed-bump? I know specifics are not yet available, but we need more info than this! You had enough specifics to use the word "new" so what was told that indicated this?
I'm dying here!
Originally posted by Spytap
On a side note, AppleInsider sources expect Apple to have introduced new PowerBook models by late-February. Specifics are not yet available.
Does "now powerbook models" mean what I think it does, or is this just a speed-bump? I know specifics are not yet available, but we need more info than this! You had enough specifics to use the word "new" so what was told that indicated this?
I'm dying here!
no new powerbooks make Angelica go crazy. no new powerbooks make Angelica go crazy. no new powerbooks make Angelica go crazy. no new powerbooks make Angelica go crazy. no new powerbooks make Angelica go crazy. no new powerbooks make Angelica go crazy.
and so on and so forth. This rumor just makes my day better, but I'm dying to know more.
It should be noted that Matsushita now has 8x slotloading DVD burners available with some impressive specs. Some have already upgraded their aluminum PowerBooks with them. I think it's pretty much a lock for these new upcoming PowerBooks but what else will we see? Might we finally see the move to the G5 processor? There has been little or no news as to the progress on the various low-power G5 chips. Is that good or bad?
It's about time that market prices from apple in these countries reflected that differential
but it never goes down till u buy one right! :P
Originally posted by gcarswell
So far no one has mentioned the ACTUAL reason for these price drops: the record-low US dollar. The Pound and Canadian Dollar (and all currency for that matter) are performing very well against the greenback.
It's about time that market prices from apple in these countries reflected that differential
You betchya. The pound is almost 2 dollars now and the Euro was at about 1.35 last I looked. The small drops on the consumer line weren't really in line with that exchange rate.
An iMac g5 at $1299 is about £675 direct without taxes. It costs us £765 in the UK. A PowerMac at $2999 is £1562 but actually costs £1701. Add on 17.5% VAT and they are quite a bit more expensive than in parts of the USA. Still, it's probably closer than it's been in a long time.
As a counter example, a high street PC chain store was advertising PCs for £199 on TV last week in the January sales. Ok, it was probably a heap of junk being cleared out to get people in to the store to buy £399-499 PCs but Macs are perceived as even more of a luxury item here than in the US. Personally, I perceive them as a basic necessity but I know better.
I'd also guess the display price drops, which were much bigger, had more to do with better availability of panels.
Don't use £ unless you type it as £.
Otherwise all we get is a bunch of question ??? marks ??? and no actual numbers for prices. "Today the price of the iMac was reduced to ?." That's all we'll see. Or to make things more confusing, we'll see the last one or two digits, but not the important significant digits that come before them.
Originally posted by shetline
A note to anyone posting about prices in British pounds:
Don't use £ unless you type it as £.
Otherwise all we get is a bunch of question ??? marks ??? and no actual numbers for prices. "Today the price of the iMac was reduced to ?." That's all we'll see. Or to make things more confusing, we'll see the last one or two digits, but not the important significant digits that come before them.
You could always just use a browser that works. It works fine in Safari in both US and UK locales and in any text encoding I tried.
Or you could ask the site admins to specify a character set in the header - eg. utf-8
Or you could ask the site admins to convert it to the html entity in the php code behind the board.
But bitching at the natives to tell them to type a hex string instead of their actual character is terribly bad form, what? There's a good chap.