Last week Apple announced prices rises for all of its products including the Apple TV.
On Friday, the Apple Store was updated to reflect the new pricing structure of its products.
On Thursday, Officeworks had the Apple TV 4k ethernet+wifi 128gb model for $239. On Saturday its price increased to $398. Below are two screen grabs from the OW website.
Is this fair what the retailers are doing? in the ATV’s case, that’s a massive price rise.
I don’t know what the commercial arrangement between Apple and the retailers is, but I have to wonder - is OW and others taking advantage of consumers by jacking up prices of existing stock? The local OW had a couple of ATVs in stock pre-price rise (I checked).
Apple has increased their product prices. These are shown on their Apple Store website:
where the 4K/128GB Apple TV now has a recommended retail price of $399
It is Apple, not the retailers driving the price increases. Apple will be increasing their wholesale prices to retailers from the date the new pricing takes effect. Some retailers may have stock inventory in their possession which they purchased from Apple before the price rise, and may chose to sell the older stock at pre-price rise prices. If Apple are supplying their Apple TV on consignment, that being they get paid when the product is sold by the retailer, price rises can be immediate.
$399 for a 4K streaming box is quite expensive and at the very top end of those available to be purchased. Choice has looked at streaming boxes in the past (member content):
which might provide some useful alternatives - some Choice found better overall than the Apple TV box. There are also reasonable streaming boxes around $100 price point which offer 4K display output and processing, which may also be worth considering.
It is also worth noting that to get Apple TV services, one does not need to buy an Apple TV box. The Apple TV app is available through most of the popular app stores such as Google Play.
That’s a fair question but there are lots of complexities in it.
First question: What would be your expectation if Apple dropped the wholesale price?
Putting wholesale v. retail aside, …
There will be sellers in the market who don’t have existing stock and hence who will be unconditionally and unavoidably selling at the new higher retail price. The seller is simply reflecting market price.
A certain percentage of units sold will result ultimately in warranty claims, potentially a year or more down the track. The replacement units will very likely have to be acquired at the new higher wholesale price, so it makes sense for the seller to have collected the higher retail price.
Sell price may simply be set as a mark-up on (current) buy price.
Regardless of business considerations, there is a technical consideration. Does the seller’s IT system have the ability to keep track of the actual average cost of acquired goods? (or alternatively to distinguish between stock acquired at the old price and stock acquired at the new price)
Thanks phb. Yes, I realise that Apple has increased its pricing (I mentioned it in the OP). My question was about the retailers’ responses to this.
In any case there’s really not much that consumers can do about it. They can either accept it and buy the products at the new prices or they can shop elsewhere, I guess.
It is also possible that Apple also increase wholesale prices for inventory acquired after the price rise announcement and before the recommended retail price increase. This would mean that some retailers with larger turnovers (e.g. Officeworks) may not have inventory, or much in their possession, at the old wholesale prices. Hence, the price rise takes effect on the day the RRP increases, or potentially before of they start selling higher wholesale priced inventory.
The price for Apple TV box will therefore be higher after the price increase is implemented by Apple. The retailers aren’t gouging consumers as it is Apple which is responsible for the price rise (and from what I have read, to increase/maintain their profits at the expense of their loyal customers).
