Apple might consider dropping price on iPad

Apple to Remain 'Nimble' on iPad Pricing - PCWorld

I think if this happens they're more likely to get more people to buy it. They did the same thing with the iPhone two months after it was released, so hopefully by August the iPad will cost $300-400.

At $300, I would buy it without thinking twice. $500 is a bit much, IMO. I needs to be more competitive with netbooks from a price perspective, as that's what it would be replacing for me.

Seeing how the basic iPad wifi model cost Apple $230 to make, I can't see them making the price $300 within a short period of time. Their gross revenue would be too small, but I can definitely see a $100 taken off each model before summer's end.

Closerframe said:

Seeing how the basic iPad wifi model cost Apple $230 to make, I can't see them making the price $300 within a short period of time. Their gross revenue would be too small, but I can definitely see a $100 taken off each model before summer end.

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You're right, I don't see them going that low either. But if they did, that would be about the only reason I would seriously consider one.

Come on guys, $500 is not that expensive considering the technology that's in it! $300 it's nothing....BUT the price for the iPad of 64GO and 3go is way too much I think.

I'm sure Apple is going to sell lots of the iPads and make big profit. These people saying they are not interesting to buy one it's just BS imao. It looks like it became fashion to be bashing the iPad.

Voony said:

Come on guys, $500 is not that expensive considering the technology that's in it! $300 it's nothing for pete sake, stop being so cheap!

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Consider, for a moment, that most netbooks at the $300 pricepoint rival the iPad in terms of functionality, processing power and storage. Now, the iPad has great software and a touch screen, but when you consider the iPad's closest rival in terms of functionality, it's a bit pricey.

Voony said:

Come on guys, $500 is not that expensive considering the technology that's in it! $300 it's nothing....BUT the price for the iPad of 64GO and 3go is way too much I think.

I'm sure Apple is going to sell lots of the iPads and make big profit. These people saying they are not interesting to buy one it's just BS imao. It looks like it became fashion to be bashing the iPad.

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Along with what cwa107 said, netbooks offer more features than an iPad does, but is still a fraction of the price. A HP netbook with 160 GB of hard drive space, webcam, Microsoft Office, and a full internet browser for only $400. Its not about being "cheap", its about getting the most for the money you're putting in.

I see the sales of the iPad following the sales of the PS3. People, even Apple fans, will wait, but there will be the very few who go in line the very first day. Apple will eventually drop the price when they notice they really need to compete with the netbook and e-reader crowds, so they'll lower the price.

cwa107 said:

At $300, I would buy it without thinking twice. $500 is a bit much, IMO. I needs to be more competitive with netbooks from a price perspective, as that's what it would be replacing for me.

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At $300 I'd buy two

I will buy it if they really drops the price to $300...

Closerframe said:

Seeing how the basic iPad wifi model cost Apple $230 to make, I can't see them making the price $300 within a short period of time. Their gross revenue would be too small, but I can definitely see a $100 taken off each model before summer's end.

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Do you have a source to back up your statememnt here? I'd like to see where you got this information from. Personally I haven't read anywhere, official words from Apple or anyone about the cost to produce of their products. That's why I'm so interested, where did you get your information from?

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A quote from the Origiinal poster's article:

Online consumer marketplace Retrevo reports that the number of people who have heard about the tablet but are uninterested in buying one, has doubled from 26 percent (before the tablet's unveiling) to 52 percent.

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And that quote is based on another article.
http://www.pcworld.com/article/188809/ipad_interest_evaporates_but_math_is_fuzzy.html
And from that article this part is of interest.

On two occasions, Retrevo asked 1,000 of its electronics marketplace users whether they will buy or are interested in the iPad. Before Apple introduced the iPad, 26 percent of respondents said they'd heard of it, but weren't interested. That number doubled to 52 percent after the iPad event. This implies that observers weren't swayed by what they saw. "Whether this device becomes a big hit is anyone’s guess but based on this study it sure looks doubtful"

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That is 2 lots of 1000 people serveyed. And some of the people could have been in both serveys. So that's not even 2000 people serveyed. And that so is not a large enough range of people to get an accurate prediction if interest has declined in the ipad post it's unveiling in the keynote by Jobs. So yes within that tiny amount of people sampled ipad intrest might have declined. But a little under 2000 people is not the millions who know about the ipad. Very misleading figures given by Retrevo.

So to me we simply do not know how many people are interested or not in the ipad with any certainty. I think sales of the ipad itself will be the best indicator when it's released for sale.

At even .2% during the first 12 months in the U.S. alone, 600,000 units are sold to the tune of somewhere around 300-360 million dollars in gross sales.

Sales of .5% to the over 50 crowd here in the U.S. will achieve gross sales of $220-260 million dollars.

I'd like to know at what point the pundits consider it a failure?

Let's take a look at those polls. Just based on the number of people asking me about it, I'd wager that between 10-20% of the U.S. population knows about it by now. That's 30-60 million people. Let's take 30 million, 48% are still interested. Then let's say that only 25% of those actually go plunk their money down in the first year. That's 3.6 million units and gross sales of between 1.8 and 2.2 billion dollars just in the U.S.

And we haven't even started talking about the additional revenues from music, movies, TV shows, apps and books.

So, I ask again... at what point do the talking heads, prior to it's release, consider it a failure.

Closerframe said:

Along with what cwa107 said, netbooks offer more features than an iPad does, but is still a fraction of the price. A HP netbook with 160 GB of hard drive space, webcam, Microsoft Office, and a full internet browser for only $400. Its not about being "cheap", its about getting the most for the money you're putting in.

I see the sales of the iPad following the sales of the PS3. People, even Apple fans, will wait, but there will be the very few who go in line the very first day. Apple will eventually drop the price when they notice they really need to compete with the netbook and e-reader crowds, so they'll lower the price.

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Ok you opened my eyes on this. I didn't know that Netbooks were so cheap (I just checked the HP website). Considering these new information I think Apple should lower the price. The 16go no 3G is $499. That's a lot for such a small hard drive space. But once again, the iPad is not a mini laptop so whatever application you will install on it will not require that much space. And these good fellas from Apple developed new technology for the iPad, and well the big touchscreen looks to be very nice to use imao. But they should really lower the price if they want to sell more (like they did for the iPods).

"Online consumer marketplace Retrevo reports that the number of people who have heard about the tablet but are uninterested in buying one, has doubled from 26 percent (before the tablet's unveiling) to 52 percent. "

That could also says that the number of people who heard about the iPad doubled once it has been unveiled. The wording is confusing.

the8thark said:

Do you have a source to back up your statememnt here? I'd like to see where you got this information from. Personally I haven't read anywhere, official words from Apple or anyone about the cost to produce of their products. That's why I'm so interested, where did you get your information from?

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Cost to build iPad: iSuppli says as little as $229.35 | Crave - CNET

I'm not about to defend Apple's pricing, but I think the comparisons to Netbooks miss the point. A netbook may have far greater capability for the price, but it can't match the form factor and ease of everyday use in the iPad.

A machete is far more capable than a paring knife but I know which I'd choose to peel potatos with. To me, the better comparison is to existing eReaders not netbooks. I tend to buy Steve Jobs pitch that this is a third category of device. If you want a small laptop buy a netbook, but if you want something different, then the iPad is the obvious choice and it has no real competition at it's current price.
If a netbook would have really done what I want I would have snapped one up the first time I saw one; I'm by no means rich but at my stage in life (kids all through college and out of the house) price at this level is literally not an issue.
I don't say everyone wants the same thing from their toys/tools that I do, but there are enough of us that Apple will sell a ton of these.

Bottomline: I think the iPad to Netbook comparison is Apples (pun intended) to oranges and the relative cost is irrelevant.

Voony said:

Ok you opened my eyes on this. I didn't know that Netbooks were so cheap (I just checked the HP website). Considering these new information I think Apple should lower the price.

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Yes, that's why we're all members of a Mac forum, because price trumps experience for us in all cases.

Riiiight.

That's a lot for such a small hard drive space.

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All I can say to this is that you FUNDAMENTALLY do not understand this device. The iPad is not about storing great masses of stuff. It is most definitely NOT a netbook. People who think either of these things simply DO NOT GET IT and probably won't until they can actually see one/hold one.

Razormac said:

I'm not about to defend Apple's pricing, but I think the comparisons to Netbooks miss the point. A netbook may have far greater capability for the price, but it can't match the form factor and ease of everyday use in the iPad.

A machete is far more capable than a paring knife but I know which I'd choose to peel potatos with. To me, the better comparison is to existing eReaders not netbooks. I tend to buy Steve Jobs pitch that this is a third category of device. If you want a small laptop buy a netbook, but if you want something different, then the iPad is the obvious choice and it has no real competition at it's current price.
If a netbook would have really done what I want I would have snapped one up the first time I saw one; I'm by no means rich but at my stage in life (kids all through college and out of the house) price at this level is literally not an issue.
I don't say everyone wants the same thing from their toys/tools that I do, but there are enough of us that Apple will sell a ton of these.

Bottomline: I think the iPad to Netbook comparison is Apples (pun intended) to oranges and the relative cost is irrelevant.

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I didn't make the comparison to a Netbook in the first place but I agree. I have several friends that have a Netbook in addition to a laptop or desktop. I never felt I need one. But I feel I need an iPad..ooulala

chas_m said:

Yes, that's why we're all members of a Mac forum, because price trumps experience for us in all cases.

Riiiight.

WHAT?

All I can say to this is that you FUNDAMENTALLY do not understand this device. The iPad is not about storing great masses of stuff. It is most definitely NOT a netbook. People who think either of these things simply DO NOT GET IT and probably won't until they can actually see one/hold one.

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Well, buddy, I have an iPhone with only 8go (not 16, not 32 of course) but how many times I wished I had more disk space to put more music, more videos, more apps.

chas_m said:

Yes, that's why we're all members of a Mac forum, because price trumps experience for us in all cases.

Riiiight.

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So people on the Mac forum overlook prices for products because in all cases Apple knows how to price their products? I still think the Macbook Air is completely overpriced, and Apple knew the original iPhone was overpriced that's why it dropped $200 in its first two months on store shelves.

All I can say to this is that you FUNDAMENTALLY do not understand this device. The iPad is not about storing great masses of stuff. It is most definitely NOT a netbook. People who think either of these things simply DO NOT GET IT and probably won't until they can actually see one/hold one.

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The iPad is a media tablet that has an e-reader, iPod, internet browser, and the potential for thousands of applications. If someone wants to store all their music, say, 5,000 songs, has a few books, some videos, and 5 pages of applications then their storage would be almost at its full capacity on a 16 GB model. Now, you're probably saying then they should buy one with a higher capacity. I say that it should be Apple's duty to have products with higher storage capacities, especially with the price tag the iPad holds. The base model should start at 30 GB, and the highest should be 120 GB. Its honestly not asking for much.

And I'm surprised than you can tell other people what the overall purpose of the iPad is, do you work for Apple?

The overall purpose of the ipad is to be sold is large amounts and make Apple a lot of money. Just like every other thing Apple make and sell. It's so not hard to work that out.

And on another point. I disagree about the MBA's price. It's a fair price. I just think Apple should have never made or released the MBA. Bad idea in my opinion. They should have waited a few years and just used the ipad to fill this gap.