Apple debuts new iMacs and Cubes - Is Apple giving customers what they want at the right price?
February 22, 2001
by Eric Svetcov
I want to like Apple and the Macintosh line. However, I can’t get over some of the bonehead configuration ideas that come out of Apple. And frankly, some of Apple’s decisions are anti-consumer. Steve Jobs, if you read this, please make the necessary changes to make Apple more consumer friendly.
Let’s first talk about memory:
Apple still wants to charge $100 for each 64 MB upgrade from the Apple store. The new $899 400 MHz Indigo iMac comes with 64 MB of RAM. You can upgrade to 2 x 64 MB for an additional $100 (and fill up both of your memory slots). If you would like 192 MB of RAM (1 x 64 MB and 1 x 128 MB) the additional 128 MB SDRAM DIMM will set you back $200. And, in the unlikely event that you will pay Apple to upgrade you to 256 MB of memory (2 x 128 MB), you will be charged an extra $300.
If you choose to purchase your memory at long time and highly respected vendors, The Chip Merchant and Crucial (a Micron company), the cost to buy a 256 MB PC100 CAS-2 SDRAM DIMM is $91 (with a lifetime warranty). That is less than the cost of your 64 MB upgrade from Apple and at 320 MB (total with the original 64 MB still installed), results in more memory than the $300 upgrade to 256 MB that you can get from the Apple store. Incidentally, I would be very happy to give back that 64 MB DIMM that the system comes with if Apple is willing to refund me $100 (what’s fair for the goose should be fair for the gander).
Apple needs to fix this immediately. This nearly 400% price discrepancy (unreasonable markup) is no longer an issue of buyer beware, it actually clearly demonstrates that Apple is either not interested or not willing to protect uninformed consumers. I would like to go on record and clearly state in no uncertain terms that Apple is systematically targeting the least informed computer users and ripping them off when it comes to memory upgrades.