Apple makes way for new products

Apple is cutting prices on its high-end product range by as much as $1000 to make way for expected product releases at its MacWorld conference in San Francisco this week.

Apple is cutting prices on its high-end product range by as much as $1000 to make way for expected product releases at its MacWorld conference in San Francisco this week.

The company, which also issued lower than expected profit warnings for its first quarter ended 30 December, blamed the price cuts and profit warnings on low PC sales in October and November last year.

Garett Doyle, managing director of Apple reseller Macline, said: "The price cuts are brilliant. Since it's happened we have seen an increase in volume of unit sales of 30 per cent, and price cuts tend not to hit our margins."

He added that he expected Apple to announce its new 'latest and greatest' products at MacWorld, and cited this as one of the reasons for the price cuts.

"We are expecting significant product announcements next week. What with the extra inventory that most vendors seem to have at this time of year, as a reseller it's the best time in our sales cycle," he said.

Andy Brown, a senior analyst at IDC, said that at this time of year many vendors lower prices. "At the end of the year vendors sometimes stuff the channel to get rid of their inventory stocks," he explained.

"This year there have been fears that the US market is not as buoyant as everyone had thought. There have also been expectations of a US economic slowdown. But this should not affect Europe's markets too much," he added.

Brown thinks that the vendor could be attempting to push the Office 2001 products and refocus its strengths.