Kool-Aid, Part 3: Leopards and Spots

Mac OS X 10.5 is known by it's code name, Leopard. Whether Apple can change its spots is a completely separate question.

I'd had my new Mac Book for a grand total of 10 days when the new Mac Books came out last week. I knew that Apple had a 14 day (which is pretty lame, actually) price guarantee so I watched the announcement with bated breath. Would they drop the price on the old white Mac Book? Would I get a rebate? Yes, and then no.

As if that weren't bad enough, they had the Apple Stores box up and send the old stock back to Apple.

The news that they were going to drop the price on the base model of the old Mac Book by $100 leaked pretty early. I was psyched, figuring that they'd do the same on the model that I bought. Would I get $100? $150? How about $0. Null, nil, zilch, zero, no, never, none, no shrubs. They didn't drop the price on that model. They discontinued it. As if that weren't bad enough, they had the Apple Stores box up and send the old stock back to Apple. WTF?

I dig my Mac Book, don't get me wrong. But the way I see it Steve Jobs owes me $100. I'll take cash, Paypal, or APPL stock. No credits for the App Store, thanks.

This is what (well, one thing anyway) that I hate about Apple. I get why they'd discontinue it. But why get rid of all the stock? Are they THAT afraid of having to pay a couple $100 rebates? Come on. Lame.

And while we're at it, I actually don't understand why they'd discontinue the 13" 2.4GHz model. Given all the complaints about the new aluminum Mac Books (glossy screens, no Firewire port, price increase) I'd bet that quite a few users would still be interested in picking up one of the older models at a discount or otherwise. (Let's not even mention the fact that the new Mac Book w/ the 2.4 GHz core duo is $300 more expensive than the already pricey one I just bought.)

Bottom line, it would seem that Apple hasn't changed a bit. Their products are still overpriced (though admittedly less than they used to be) and they still have no qualms about jerking the hardware out from underneath you.

Posted by John at October 24, 2008 1:04 AM | TrackBack