“Apple intends to stay ‘nimble’ on pricing of the iPad, possibly lowering prices if the newly unveiled tablet device fails to gain traction among consumers,” Matt Phillips reports for The Wall Street Journal. “That was just one of the items in a note out Sunday night from Credit Suisse recounting meetings with Apple executives.”
Credit Suisse analyst Bill Shope wrote:
Apple wants the iPad to be the best device for a few key use cases. For instance, the company believes it could eventually be seen as superior to both handheld and notebook devices for browsing the Internet, using the App Store, and consuming mobile media (video, photos, and e-books). Nevertheless, in other areas, notebooks, the iPhone, or an iPod may be more appropriate. This clear segmentation of capabilities suggests that cannibalization may be less of a concern than most currently believe… While it remains to be seen how much traction the iPad gets initially, management noted that it will remain nimble (pricing could change if the company is not attracting as many customers as anticipated)
Full article here.
[Thanks to MacDailyNews Reader “Gilles H.” for the heads up.]
This “leaked” simply to put more fear into the hearts of would be competitors. Many are waiting for Apple to create the market and then come into it with a cheaper tablet running Windows 7, Android, or a Linux version that one can poke at with a finger. Knowing Apple can lower prices increases the barrier to entry and will give them greater pause.
How locked down is an iPad? I am referring to after the fact upgrades? The Mini takes a damn spackling tool to open it. So…you buy one then realize you really need 64 gigs or want to upgrade to 3G…That’s a very pointed question.
Get ready for bitching from the early adopters when the price drops, like what happened with the iPhone…
This story might slow early adoption, while some buyers wait for a price drop. That’s technology.
@PR — People need to evaluate what
they need before they buy…either that or buy a new one while sticking the old one on eBay and hope to recoup most of the investment. The iPad’s not a Windows box that you can slap together in your basement.
I am amazed at how many different breeds of iPad rumors there are. If they can sell one iPad for each rumor it will be very successful indeed.
Has this been verified with Apple sources? I fear this can be taken out of context and make people hold off on buying an iPad just to force Apple into lowering prices…
m159 has the same concern as I do.
@currentinterest,
I figured that’s how this would go, but Apple priced the iPad so low I don’t see how competitors have much room to maneuver, especially when you take into account the component markets that Apple sucked dry (like flash memory and 9-10″ LCD screens).
I think Apple has a one or two year head start, and that’s if they stayed still without advancing their lead further (which we know won’t happen).
I have it on good authority that the iPad as we know it will be obsolete in 6 years.
Yet more baseless speculation. Given that iPad has NO real competition at the $499 starting price, why would it need to drop pricing? I expect the factory will have a tough enough time keeping up with demand.
Apple didn’t design the iPad to be upgradable for memory, wireless access, etc. What it did instead was to offer 3G iPads with no contract, so you can buy a 3G iPad just in case you think you may want 3G access some day, and not enter into an agreement with ATT until you want the access. Or you can cancel it later if you decide you’re only using it at coffee shops, home, or other places which have Wifi.
We have entered into the age where computers will not be very upgradable. They are coming with sufficient memory that rarely does a consumer need to add more. Because we all want everything in as small, portable package as possible, there are fewer and fewer consumer-accessible and modifiable parts.
Other consumer products have already gone this route: most appliances like hair dryers, blenders, ceiling fans, cordless phones, etc. are not designed to be repaired or accessed by the consumer. They’re also inexpensive enough that you simply toss it if it breaks.
That’s the direction of computing. We’re not there yet in terms of price, but the iPad has shown us that we’ll be there sooner rather than later.
Does anyone even look at a tower computer anymore?
@ currentinterest
great point buddy!
better than some obtuse guy saying ‘competition is good!’
I asked one of those guys – what defines ‘competition’? they’re clueless. They believe a company inventing a half ass iphone or ipad is competition to keep Apple on its toes instead of understanding there is no competition, Apple competes against itself because that’s in it’s genetics. A copycat company is copying, not competing, it can never finish the race – because it has to follow the leader.
Yea, there’s a rumor for that.
@currentinterest
As a consumer, the only thing this “leak” has done is to put fear in my heart and fear of being poked in the eye by buying early only to see the price decrease, (a la iPhone!) don’t forget no one of the early adopters who paid $100 more was happy.
I’d say this almost guarantees that prices will decrease and consumers should definetly wait it out.
I know I will, I’d rather have the cash, than a coupon for future purchases of Apple goods, as it was handled for the iPhone!!
Apple is going to give away the iPad for free because so say all the morons.
I bet this was planted by M$ in order to skunk intial sales–get everyone to wait for a price drop that probably won’t happen.
My $0.02…
I always wait before I buy, but now I’ll take the plunge : I bought a Macintosh Plus yesterday.
“Apple has no idea of how to make a computer that sells for $500 which “is not a piece of junk.” – Steve Jobs
Well Steve what do you call your phones ($199) and now this brand new toy of yours going to sell at $500 or less. I assume both are under computer catagory since they are running on your inferior OS. Don’t bash others with your pathethic comments just because you are doing it.
http://www.bing.com When it comes to decisions that matter, Bing & Decide
@Bizlaw,
100% agreed. In 3 years time, iPad will be sold like household staple.
@ I’m a PC,
Perhaps your PC mindset is bluring you on that one. PC will be useless.
What is a PC laptop good for when you have an iPad + 500,000 apps?
I was a day one early adopter of the original iPhone. I wasn’t really bothered by my apple credit i just bought iTunes cards and AppleCare.
But with the iPad I’m still on the fence.
So if this is true I might wait even longer and what if enough people do too? I see this as a bad move by apple and wouldn’t be surprised if they made an announcement saying this is in fact untrue. They could lose alot of early sales if this gets out of hand. However if it is true I would expect the 3g models to come down with the base 499 staying the same.
I am buying it the day one. If they drop the price, they will probably do the same thing as with the iPhone, give early adopters a credit.
I can live with that, I need new Airport Extreme.
just more FUD from the short sellers. read the article, the author states that aapl exec’s seemed to indicate they would respond to slow sales with price cuts. I believe that’s Steve’s decision and I doubt they spoke with him. That’s quite an inference with nothing to back it up. What a joke. First the FUD was, the price will be to high when they were expecting 1000 price for the IPAD, now it’s slow sales and a price drop from 499 before it even goes on sale. I predict the Ipad will be a huge success, already placed my reservation and so have many others.
What I would like to see is drop the 16gb model and sell the 32 gb at 499 and so on. I do expect them to trim down the lineup in time once they get a grip on the market. 6 models tells me they don’t yet understand fully what they are getting into so they are testing the waters to find the sweet spot for future models and pricing.