“Just four days after Target.com began listing Apple’s recently announced Mac mini computer as a purchasable item, the online retailer has abruptly yanked the product from its web site,” Katie Marsal reports for AppleInsider. “Target.com had priced the Mac mini at Apple’s manufacturer’s suggested retail price of $499, though web-savvy customers quickly discovered they could save 10% off that cost by entering coupon codes with their order, bringing the cost of the mini down to $450.”
“Sources close to AppleInsider claim this discounted price falls below the wholesale price of the computer, and likely attracted a plethora of buyers, ranging from the average customer to small resellers,” Marsal reports. “In an e-mail to inquiring customers, Target cited availability concerns as the sole factor that prompted it to remove the product from its store.”
Full article here.
Hopefully it will be back sometime soon…?
Not to mention that Target offers three year on-site maintenance and repair for electronincs up to $499 for $50!!! So with the discount and 3 year service contract, you can get a mac mini for $499!! where’s the problem?
know the truth about Apple:
http://www.misterbg.org/AppleProductCycle/
ah.. .hrm.. this reminds me a hell of a lot like the iPod mini.. and we know how that turned out.. eating half the flash market..
seriously, this is exactly the same thing, where skeptics called a product too expensive and then it turned out people were clamouring for it and it sold out. Sold out so fast and so easily that the opposite would, amazingly, be more accurate: the price was too low.
This kind of thing just screams, “raise the price” but for God’s sake, that 499 price tag is just amazing. A Mac at 499. Wow.
Apple’s not touching that price, of course, i was just being hypothetical.
Way to go, man.. we have to wait 3 months to see the unit sales, but, of course, market share is going up.
Target probably took a huge personal hit on this, looseing money on every unit. Thats why they sold soo many.
Very funny Monkey Boy. Pretty much hit the nail on the head. Isn’t all of the drama great though?
ROTFLMAO
LOL
Monkey boy, hella funny!!!
I’m with Ray – Target probably couldn’t legally withhold the Mac mini from that 10% coupon and with all the coverage in the Mac boards they likely took a big hit even selling the mini. I bet 80% of all their sales of the mini to date included that coupon code.
I ordered one from Target. $482 after taxes and shipping. But, it says it won’t ship until the first week of March.
“…this discounted price falls below the wholesale price of the computer”
Yeah sure. Target marks up its prices by less than 10%?
Dream on.
The wholesale price is closer to $300.
Monkey Boy:
Very funny indeed.
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Apple has yet again totally under estimated demand for the mac mini!
They could have sold 100,000s of minis on the target website!!
The MUST ramp up production of these and get them into the market as fast as possible!!
This is the only bad thing that Apple needs to sort out – getting product to market in the quantities that are needed!!
Monkeyboy
THE TRUTH ABOUT MICROSHIT:
http://www.microsuck.com/content/whatsbad.shtml
The truth hurts – read and enjoy!!!
Wahey! whos this Maria Bartiromo? (Pulls down trousers and starts fondling himself)
FYI: At the online Apple store, the educational institution price for the Mac mini is $479. No coupon needed.
Last Friday I asked the guy at the Mac Store in Beaverton, Oregon how many Macminis they got for Saturday intro and he said 40.
But then he said don´t waste my time trying to get one on Saturday since they were all spoken for.
40 computers – 20 of each.
He said they thought the next ones would arrive several weeks later.
Apple seems to have no clue on projecting product demand and then meeting it.
B.S…
there is alot less mark up on Apple products then you think. It’s usually only $50 or so, give or take.
$50 markup???? No wonder target.com took it off its web site…. I think you meant 50% markup, not $50. That does place the wholesale price of Mac mini at slightly above $300 as B.S. suggested. Looking at it from manufacturing side. Mac mini probably cost Apple about $100~$150 to produce. Add R&D and overhead cost (~100%), it will be about $200 ~ $300. Then add Apple’s high profit margin(~28%), the wholesale price should be about $250 ~ $375 (I don’t have a calculator handy, so I used 25% profit margin). I believe most store’s markup ranges from 50% for electronics to 300% for baby appeal, which brings the list price to $375 ~ $562.
Mark-ups are around 50% for software and accessories, probably only 10% to 15% for computers.
The mark-up is only in the 10% to 15% range as b indicated. Anyone who thinks the wholesale price is around $300 is seriously out of touch.
Why didn’t Target just pull the coupons?
I was speaking to a reseller about the markup (or lack thereof) and he indicated that they made between $50-$100 dollars for emacs and low end imacs. But, one can’t really blame apple. Why buy from a reseller and pay tax when you can buy online and pay any shipping. Apple would rather sell directly at full price than sell to a reseller at a discount.
It’s probably Apple behind this. This type of discount is competing too strongly with the Apple retail stores. Apple probably doesn’t allow this large of a discount. When Target says they don’t know when it will be available again, they might mean they don’t know if Apple will allow them to sell it unless they change their discounting methods.
“Apple seems to have no clue on projecting product demand and then meeting it.”
Yeah.. they thought 2499 would be a decent price for the awesome power of the Macintosh back in 1984…
Dude.. the only way to guage a products demand is by understocking it… Apple knows what it’s doing this time… The iPod mini tells me so..