6 comments

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  David

  1 year ago

  Hey there...good article, I agree with you for the most part. But I am curious about the "incompatibility" issues you think Apple users have. I only use Apples and always have, both in business and at home. There are ways to do everything! :-)
  
  That being said, the cult of Mac can be a scary place, but I wouldn't leave for anything. If I can get my mom to use a Mac and never have problems, (rather than phone calls every week with a blue screen of death), it's worth the price of admission.
  
  Oh, and never buy an Apple product when it comes out, they always go down pretty soon!
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  Lazy Man

  1 year ago

  I think Apple would have definitely lost sales on the next iToaster if they didn't give this rebate. Even for their (and other company's) usual price drops, 33% off in 68 days is crazy. If you look at gaming systems, they get price drops too, but it usually amounts to something like a 10-20% drop after a year or more. Apple realized that they can't expect the market to pay 50% more ($400 to $600) in a 68 day "gratification premium." The market reaction told them they had gone too far. They didn't want to get in a situation where people expect that discount after 3 months and wait. It becomes self-fulfilling. By setting expectations that their will be a big discount in three months, people don't buy the product, which causes Apple to drop the price due to lack of sales. Apple doesn't want to live in that world.
  
  Plus, didn't they just give $100 rebates, and in the form of store credit? Given their high margins, it's really not going to affect their bottom line.
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  the Wealthy Canadian

  1 year ago

  Well said! Our instant gratification illness is digging us deeper in debt. We want all (and more) of the things our parents had... but we need it NOW. Hey, why work two months for something that I want when I can have it now, for 'free.'
  
  Personally, I'm not an early adopter of anything. While I enviously watch the world around me play with their new gadgets, I have made a commitment to hold off on any of my 'wants' for a few months. I see something I want and I say, "okay, in x months you can have it if you still want it" (x depends on how much money it costs). Usually, the desire subsides by the time my deadline arrives.
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  bripblap

  1 year ago

  @David - I guess I wonder about what apps do and don't work on the Apple. Maybe it's easier to find software than it appears to me, but if I work in an environment with PCs - and probably 95% of American workers do - it seems moving documents around, etc. would be a pain.
  @Lazy - Every tech product - or even clothes, food, etc. - has price drops. But when they occur there's seldom a retroactive refund for the initial purchasers. You can't use that store credit on iTunes, which seemed like the natural thing to spend an Apple store credit on. And I base this on nothing but my reading of news articles but I doubt Apple could do much at this point to turn off the ravenous early adopters of their gadgets. People whine, but what are Apple devotees going to do? Go out and buy Toaster XP? I think they'll line up for the iToaster when it's out. There is no competition that would allow people to shun them for egregious pricing practices. But again, I'm just basing that on my own idle speculation.
  
  @WC: That is 100% correct. You can't approach buying gadgets any better than that.
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  David

  1 year ago

  Anything you use on a PC, you can use on a Mac. Not only do they run Windows software, but there are versions of everything that match up as well. It's no problem, really!
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  Sid

  1 year ago

  Why pay for Windows/Mac when you can get Ubuntu for free? ;) I've been using Ubuntu for over a year and never look back. My mom and dad are using Ubuntu that I installed and they never had problems.
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