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Apple, however, extends only a tiny wholesale discount on its Macs and iPads to your retailer of choice. IIRC there was a discussion on Reddit involving a guy
by Peroni 14y ago
Apple, however, extends only a tiny wholesale discount on its Macs and iPads to your retailer of choice.
IIRC there was a discussion on Reddit involving a guy who has made an incredible profit acting as Apple's sole distributor in certain SE Asian countries. I'll see if I can dig up the link. His story tends to contradict the authors statement above.
- jonknee 14y agoThat was a different situation because the products were being sold far above retail (sort of like all the iPhones bought in the US and shipped back to China). He essentially cut back room deals with some sketchy government types to have a monopoly and require any Apple products are sold through him. Basically a mobster. (Assuming the story checks out, I doubt it does.)
- dagw 14y agoAs long as there isn't a way to buy directly from Apple in that market the retailer is free to raise prices to find his profit maximizing level. If you are in a market where Apple sells directly to customers then Apple's selling price acts as a hard upper limit to what you can charge and limits your profit maximizing opportunities.
- terhechte 14y agoI know a company registered as an Apple Reseller, and I can confirm the numbers; the margins are tiny. Apple also has a university program with some universities, where they offer their products with a special discount; to wit, these prices were (for the end user) were better than what the reseller got. Although they may give higher margins if the reseller buys huge amounts of products, the one I know is fairly small.
- josephlord 14y agoI don't see any contradiction at all between those two stories. There is a massive difference between a national distributor and even a large retailer in a country the manufacturer directly handles distribution for and I would expect the terms to be very different. Edit: Reordered sentences.
- billwashere 14y agoThe Reddit AMA is here - http://www.reddit.com/r/IAmA/comments/10tyhf/i_am_a_multimillionaire_amaa/ http://www.reddit.com/r/IAmA/comments/10tyhf/i_am_a_multimil... Even though he did supply proof to the mods there was some doubt on his authenticity - http://www.reddit.com/r/IAmA/comments/10uy0x/the_answers_in_the_multimillionaire_iama_are_the/ http://www.reddit.com/r/IAmA/comments/10uy0x/the_answers_in_...
- Peroni 14y agoThanks. I was really struggling to find the link! The comment that verifies his profession can be found here: http://www.reddit.com/r/IAmA/comments/10tyhf/i_am_a_multimillionaire_amaa/c6gmion http://www.reddit.com/r/IAmA/comments/10tyhf/i_am_a_multimil...
- nicholassmith 14y agoNot necessarily contradicts, that article is just how it works in one specific part of the world (America) and the AMA is how things work in another specific part of the world. The chances are Apple is offering the same wholesale discount and the importer in SE Asia is just putting the markup as high as he fancies.