The Pricing Stability of the iMac
Dan Moren, writing at Six Colors: In his piece, Gruber particularly calls out the trashcan Mac Pro sticking at $2999 throughout its existence, but I think an even more striking example is the iMac. Introduced in 1998 at a base price of $1299, today’s infinitely more powerful iMac M4 starts at … $1299. Granted, with inflation, those prices would be a little different. In researching the details, I came across this great piece from PerfectRec charting the iMac’s price history over the years, including adjusting for inflation. Impressively, while the iMac’s base price has dipped as low as $1099 in all that time, it’s never gone over $1299. What a great example. And bringing inflation into the mix is a key factor I neglected to make yesterday. Moore’s Law makes computers very strange manufactured goods. A Honda Civic LX cost about $15,000 in 1998, but now costs about $25,000. BMW 3-series sedans went from around $30,000 to $45,000. But the iMac still starts at $1,299. Pricing stability is a way that Apple keeps these two forces — Moore’s Law and inflation — in balance. ★
Dan Moren, writing at Six Colors:
In his piece, Gruber particularly calls out the trashcan Mac Pro sticking at $2999 throughout its existence, but I think an even more striking example is the iMac. Introduced in 1998 at a base price of $1299, today’s infinitely more powerful iMac M4 starts at … $1299.
Granted, with inflation, those prices would be a little different. In researching the details, I came across this great piece from PerfectRec charting the iMac’s price history over the years, including adjusting for inflation. Impressively, while the iMac’s base price has dipped as low as $1099 in all that time, it’s never gone over $1299.
What a great example. And bringing inflation into the mix is a key factor I neglected to make yesterday. Moore’s Law makes computers very strange manufactured goods. A Honda Civic LX cost about $15,000 in 1998, but now costs about $25,000. BMW 3-series sedans went from around $30,000 to $45,000. But the iMac still starts at $1,299.
Pricing stability is a way that Apple keeps these two forces — Moore’s Law and inflation — in balance.
