kinch@tesla.UUCP@cvl.UUCP (kinch@tesla.UUCP) (02/17/84)
Regarding the Apple University Consortium: According to Computer Systems News (national trade newspaper), the Macintosh and Lisa systems will not be available at the academic discounts until late this summer. Comment: That's a long time relative to the competition to be announcing a price/product point. The strategy with such prom- ises usually is to stall potential purchasers of competitive equipment. But the last few years shows that not even IBM is to be believed in their solemn promises of what, when and how much. The optimal economic arrangement would be to price the same com- puter proportionally to the worth to the consumer, rather than a fixed price for all customers. That's what the airlines approxi- mate with their artificial travel restrictions on budget fares. Unfortunately, the US law says you have to sell identical manufactured goods at the same price to everybody, no matter how the utility of your product varies among your customers. One of the few legal schemes to get around this is to sell computers at "academic" prices. The restriction is artificial, but it allows more computers to be sold to those who wouldn't buy at "regular" price, while requiring "regular" price from most of those who would be willing to pay more than the "academic" price.
bees@druxy.UUCP (DavisRB) (02/20/84)
> Unfortunately, the US law says you have to sell identical > manufactured goods at the same price to everybody, no matter how > the utility of your product varies among your customers. One of > the few legal schemes to get around this is to sell computers at > "academic" prices. The restriction is artificial, but it allows > more computers to be sold to those who wouldn't buy at "regular" > price, while requiring "regular" price from most of those who > would be willing to pay more than the "academic" price. Then how does Apple get away with giving discounts to Certified Apple Developers? Lots of companies do this! Ray Davis AT&T Information Systems Laboratories Denver {ihnp4|hogpc}!druxy!bees (303)538-3991
russ@mit-vax.UUCP (Russell Finn) (02/21/84)
Now, this is completely speculation on my part, but . . . could it be that the reason that the educational discount won't be available until fall is that by then Apple may be able to lower the list price on the Mac -- say to $2000? After all, their robot factory should be up to full speed by then. Perhaps at that point the "discount" won't be so great (and perhaps the dealers won't be so upset). Me personally, I'd consider buying one for $2500, if I had the money. But by the time I do have the money, the discount program will have started -- at which point I'll seriously consider making friends with a Harvard or Boston College student . . . (My alma mater MIT is currently not a member of the consortium -- no doubt because of their involvement with IBM and DEC on Project Athena; they're going to be up to their hips in IBM PC's and Pro 350's before long.) Russell Finn ..!mit-vax!russ
hofbauer@utcsrgv.UUCP (John Hofbauer) (03/15/84)
Can someone provide me with a list of the Universities which make up the Apple University Consortium.