paul@aucs.UUCP (Paul Steele) (02/26/88)
I haven't bothered to check what the price of AU/X is in Canada since
Apple Canada pricing is so out of line. Apple's HD20SC, which AU/X
comes on, lists at $5295 Cdn. Is this expensive? Well, I just ordered
the Jasmine Direct Drive 80. Its going to cost me $2000 Cdn by the
time all the shipping and duty and exchange is figured in. I doubt that
Apple's 80 Meg disk is that much superior in quality to the Jasmine; I
wouldn't be surprised if its the exact same drive. I don't know what
a reasonable mark up on hardware is, but Apple Canada's 400 to 500 percent
seems ludicrous. They obviously do not want to sell to anybody but business
organizations (who don't care about price) and educators (who get a nice 40%
discount). Us people who have to buy at close to list price are out of luck.
Just consider these prices, for example (all Canadian $):
PC Clone IBM PS/2 Model 30 Mac SE
dual floppy $1300 $3163 $4576
20 Meg disk $1800 $4063 $6150
On the Model 30, the price difference between dual floppy and a single
floppy, 20 Meg hard disk configuration is $900. On the SE, the difference
is $1574! I know, I know, Apple has spent YEARS of R&D developing the
perfect microcomputer for the user. And they have to get back all those
man years of research. Unfortunately, no one can afford their perfect
computer. Obviously, Apple doesn't care one bit about end-users.
I love the Mac, but I will continue to flame Apple until they acknowledge
their ridiculous pricing schemes and make the Mac affordable for the rest
of us. I guess I'll be flaming for long time...
Paul H. Steele USENET: {uunet|watmath|utai|garfield}!dalcs!aucs!Paul
Acadia University BITNET: Paul@Acadia
Wolfville, NS Internet: Paul%Acadia.BITNET@CUNYVM.CUNY.EDU
CANADA B0P 1X0 (902) 542-2201x587daveb@geac.UUCP (David Collier-Brown) (03/01/88)
In article <874@aucs.UUCP> paul@aucs.UUCP (Paul Steele) writes: | I haven't bothered to check what the price of AU/X is in Canada since | Apple Canada pricing is so out of line. I'll start with a cautionary note: Apple Canada is not the same organization as Apple proper. Now to the flamage: | Apple's HD20SC, which AU/X | comes on, lists at $5295 Cdn. Is this expensive? Well, I just | ordered the Jasmine Direct Drive 80. Its going to cost me $2000 Cdn | by the time all the shipping and duty and exchange is figured in.... | I don't know what a reasonable mark up on hardware is, but Apple | Canada's 400 to 500 percent seems ludicrous. | | Just consider these prices, for example (all Canadian $): | | PC Clone IBM PS/2 Model 30 Mac SE | dual floppy $1300 $3163 $4576 | 20 Meg disk $1800 $4063 $6150 =========== ==== ==== ==== Difference 500 900 1574 % of total 33% 25% 33% As Paul suggests, the price differentials are surprising, especially for the same physical component. They are also more than a little suspicious: the percentage of the system cost should **fall** as the total price rises. | Obviously, Apple doesn't care one bit about end-users. | I love the Mac, but I will continue to flame Apple until they acknowledge | their ridiculous pricing schemes and make the Mac affordable for the rest | of us. I guess I'll be flaming for long time... Well, I'm going to add to the flamage slightly here. Apple, by allowing Apple Canada to use their name and sell their product, can justifiably be criticized for the actions of Apple Canada. They have at least moral suasion and probably binding contractual agreements to use to prevent Apple Canada from taking actions which can and will cause loss of business in both Canada and the U.S. Apple Canada has also been characterized as having incestuous, if probably lawful, relationships with the major dealer here in Toronto. This, if true, reflects on all of Apple. Apple proper should look rather carefully at Apple Canada. They may be paying a very high price in lost sales for the luxury of having the kind of relationship they currently have. --dave (why do _I_ always end up criticizing my favorite companies) c-b -- David Collier-Brown. {mnetor yunexus utgpu}!geac!daveb Geac Computers International Inc., | Computer Science loses its 350 Steelcase Road,Markham, Ontario, | memory (if not its mind) CANADA, L3R 1B3 (416) 475-0525 x3279 | every 6 months.