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The dollar is insanely strong right now and global Mac prices raised in accordance with that. In places that don’t use USD, prices shot up by tens of percent ov
by pigsty 4y ago
The dollar is insanely strong right now and global Mac prices raised in accordance with that. In places that don’t use USD, prices shot up by tens of percent overnight while the US prices are the same as ever. Japan, for example, got a price increase of about 40% on all items.
Unsurprisingly, sales declined.
- capableweb 4y agoAlso, inflation is increasing quickly almost everywhere, buying the latest and greatest MacBook has always been a luxury purchase for most of the people, so obviously less people do it when the economy doesn't do very well.
- Hamuko 4y agoEspecially if they bought one during the PC buying frenzy in 2020.
- switch007 4y agoApple doing their part in increasing inflation too. It’s impossible to reduce their profit margin, obviously. /s
- golergka 4y agoWhy would they put their consumers (who are buying premium goods) over their investors (who are mostly regular folk with 401ks and private pension funds)?
- orra 4y agoThis article we're discussing says they halted M2 chip production. Running factories empty is a huge opportunity cost. So who's to say this approach of maintaining high profit margins is the correct medium-term outcome for their shareholders?
- mattrighetti 4y agoProbably also because a lot of people didn’t see the point in upgrading to this new M2. I noticed that a lot of users also seem to go for a used M1 because it got cheaper and it’s still insanely good.
- re-thc 4y agoExactly. Difference was minor. Too many jumped in during the M1 change (from Intel) to be upgrading to M2 now.
- afavour 4y agoNot even used: when I was shopping for a laptop for my wife Apple was still happily selling M1 MacBook Airs and I was happy to buy one. The premium for the M2 just didn’t feel worth it.
- Clubber 4y agoI bought an M1 MacBook Pro when they came out and I like it a lot. What concerns me about future revisions of the CPU is it will get hotter and the fan will get noisier. One of the best features of the M1 is the fan hardly comes on, and when it does, it's very quiet / low RPM.
- mattrighetti 4y agoI bought an M2 a couple of months ago, coming from an i9 16". Oh boy, I know what it is like to have a hot machine :sigh:. The Intel version was stuck at 70C in idle, which is nuts. I think that that was probably the main reason of the switch.
- nonninz 4y agoSo the new M2 runs much cooler?
- mattrighetti 4y agoDefinitely! I mostly use it connected to my 4K display and on a typical day it does not heat over 50C and that happens when you're compiling stuff for minutes. My Intel Mac's fans activated simply because it was connected to a 4K external display.
- masklinn 4y agoYep, and that’s always been an issue with Apple products: they set their prices in USD, then set the foreign price using conversions from around release date (plus taxes obviously). That means if the dollar was very strong at release, the machines get very expensive in foreign currency.
- ralfn 4y agoWhich is weird, because barely any part of it is produced in the US. So it's not that their costs are going up. They are just not realizing they are self sabotaging in terms of opportunity costs. If they adjust prices to purchasing power, with at least 30% profit marge, windows laptops and chromebooks would be having crisis talks right about now. People would prefer the Apple stuff, but not at that price. Even if you can easily afford it, if you are from a protestant nation, you couldn't live with yourself spending your money so irresponsibly. The value deal isn't there, unless you are using it professionally. But for leisure? No way.
- simonh 4y agoThis isn't the first time Apple sales have taken a hit in a downturn. The issue is if they significantly cut margins now, when the economy swings back up again the risk is they'll face an uphill battle growing margins again. People delaying purchases, or buying lower spec models or alternatives now may well want to upgrade sooner when their financial situation improves. If Apple sacrifices margins they risk losing out on those high margin sales return in a few years time. In the long term it may be better to take the temporary hit to revenue now in order to preserve their margin structure long term. What they might do is introduce down market models, or more likely keep older models around in the lineup longer than they otherwise would at a slightly reduced price. That would still mean taking a hit on sales at the top end, as here with M2.
- mywittyname 4y agoApple is using the Porsche model of, "An entry level <Porsche|Apple> is a used one".
- alchemist1e9 4y ago> The dollar is insanely strong right now This is a bigger story that isn’t being told properly often. The recent BRICS currency move is about them panicking over increasing dollar global dominance. Checking recently I can’t find any major currency that is up against the dollar over last 10 years. US productivity is running away from the rest of the planet is another variable and with rapid on shoring of numerous industries, especially semiconductors, there is a possibility that US economic dominance is about to go into hyperdrive. That version is something the media never mentions.
- justinzollars 4y ago> US economic dominance is about to go into hyperdrive Our biggest export is dollars. We accept ship loads of consumer goods and in exchange send the ships back empty. What a deal.
- alchemist1e9 4y agoI have a hunch that’s exactly what it looked like for all past economic empires, no?
- edgyquant 4y agoWhich empires are those?
- alchemist1e9 4y agoRoman, Ottoman, British to name a few.
- justinzollars 4y agoIts actually a sweet deal. But yes. Spot on.
- fauxpause_ 4y agoSometimes full of trash
- florakel 4y agoThe euro has actually recovered about 10% from its low last year. The problem is Apple’s pricing strategy. Very static and never sacrificing not even a little bit of margin.
- lotsofpulp 4y agoApparently has not been a problem for shareholders.
- wongarsu 4y agoThen I guess with this headline it finally is. Though I'd argue that has hurt shareholders for far longer, they just didn't notice it as drastically.
- bonestamp2 4y agoEven in the US, the prices are just too high. A well apointed M2 pro is over $5,000. I used to buy ThinkPad workstations and high end intel macbook pros for about the same price -- the thinkpads have come down considerably in the past 10 years. Macs have gotten more expensive over the same time. Not to mention, in the past year the price of almost everything else has gone up too. So, it's easy to see why people have less money to spend on macs.
- lern_too_spel 4y agoMacBooks aren't made in the US, so the strength of the US dollar has nothing to do with it (except to make the dollar cost of producing them go down).
- aembleton 4y agoThe design, software and marketing are done in the US though
- lern_too_spel 4y agoDesign and software is not a variable cost. Marketing costs are per-region and so are not be affected by currency exchange rates.