“This is exactly why I beat the drum so hard in articles such as Why Does Apple Let That Dump Walmart Discount iPhones?” Rocco Pendola writes for TheStreet.
“I am going to rip Tim Cook because, for as great of a job as he has done lately, he deserves to get ripped again — endlessly, relentlessly — on this particular issue,” Pendola writes. “Best Buy, somehow, gets clearance from Apple to knock $50 off of the price of an iPhone 5c. How Best Buy organizes that promotion — with a gift card or whatever — isn’t material to the story. Best Buy should not have the ability to run these types of promotions in the first place.”
“It’s bad enough that Apple lets Best Buy and other retailers sell its products. It’s even worse that Apple permits these guys to effectively slum their products and dilute the brand. it means nothing to Apple’s bottom line because, most likely, Best Buy or Wal-Mart or whoever eats the cost of the sale or assumes the risk in the promotion; however, it means something to Apple’s image,” Pendola writes. “While you can’t collude to fix prices, you can use suggested and minimum retail prices for the folks you allow to distribute your goods.”
Read more in the full article here.
MacDailyNews Take: “I’m going to rip Tim Cook because…” it’s all I know how to do. Hopefully, it will take the hit-whores at TheStreet a long time to figure out that I keep submitting the same article every week.
Walmart et al. used Apple’s iPhone 5 as a loss leader last year, Tim Cook-hating one-trick pony.
The catastrophic effect of that was Apple assuming the throne of world’s most valuable brand (quel dommage!) and selling the most smartphones ever sold in three days (iPhone 5c and 5s), breaking their own record (iPhone 5) which broke their own record (iPhone 4s) which broke their own record (iPhone 3GS) which broke their own record (iPhone 3G) which broke their own original record (iPhone).
[Thanks to MacDailyNews Reader “chris” for the heads up.]
Related articles:
Loss leader: Best Buy drops the price of iPhone 5c to $50 – October 4, 2013
Best Buy complains to U.S. attorneys general, claims Walmart’s Christmas iPhone 5 loss leader cost it profits – January 4, 2013
Walmart offering Apple iPhone 5 for $127, iPhone 4S for $47, iPad (4th gen.) for $399 – December 14, 2012
