Apple's Secret Weapon To Influence Industry Pricing

Hugh Pickens writes "Nick Wingfield writes in the NY Times that Apple's present pricing strategy is a big change from the 1990s, when consumers regarded Apple as a producer of overpriced tech baubles, unable to compete effectively with its Macintosh family of computers against the far cheaper Windows PCs. Now within the premium product categories where Apple is most at home, comparable devices often do no better than match or slightly undercut Apple's prices. 'They're not cheap, but I don't think they're viewed as high-priced anymore,' says Stewart Alsop. Winfield writes that Apple uses its growing manufacturing scale and logistics prowess to deliver Apple products at far more aggressive prices, which in turn gives it more power to influence pricing industrywide, and one of Apple's pricing secrets has been it's willingness to tap into its huge war chest — $82 billion in cash and marketable securities last quarter — to take big gambles by locking up supplies of parts for years."

Comments

What a load

[PopeRatzo]

'They're not cheap, but I don't think they're viewed as high-priced anymore,'

What a crock.

I guess the New York Times is looking to boost its ad revenue going into the "important holiday shopping season". I understand how it works, you give Apple a free ad via this article and then Apple buys lots of ads in the next month, including the back page of the prestigious Sunday Magazine. It doesn't make it less nauseating though.

I understand why the New York Times would do it, what with the newspaper business being in hard times, but I don't understand why Slashdot would do it.

Here's a fun game: read the article and count the huge assumptions that are made, starting with this phrase, "within the premium product categories where Apple is most at home".

"Premium". I love that word. Is there any more over-used tag in 2011 consumer culture?

Re:can these posts be proofread, please?

[Arlet]

Or just go with the flow, and get used to it.