
Memory modules from Apple.com are 10x market price...why? - mjfern
http://store.apple.com/us/product/MC016G/A
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diego
The answer would be that _some_ people will pay for it. They obviously don't
care about selling a ton of memory chips, so their price is optimized for
something else.

A similar situation may happen as a contractor: there may be gigs that you'd
rather not take, so you will ask for an ridiculous hourly rate (say
$700/hour). If they pay for it, oh well.

~~~
astrodust
Installing memory is probably a lot of fuss, especially for such a streamlined
manufacturing process, and they can't post a fluctuating market price, so they
just post one they can live with no matter the circumstances.

macsales.com has you covered otherwise.

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petrilli
This is why you buy from Other World Computing <http://www.macsales.com/>
Awesome support. No, I don't work there, I just have been buying upgrades for
many many many years there, including a new SSD yesterday.

~~~
astrodust
They even buy back your old memory if you don't want it.

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derekerdmann
Because people pay for it. Welcome to the free market.

~~~
DiabloD3
I've upvoted this because this is the truth. Apple does it because people _do_
pay for it, and they are taking advantage of consumers in a bad way.

Thank God they use the same standards compliant ram everyone else does.

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mjfern
For comparison sake, I just purchased the following 8GB of memory from Amazon
(Crucial) for $34.99: <http://amzn.com/B001MX5YWI>. The equivalent memory is
available via Apple.com for $400.00:
<http://store.apple.com/us/product/MC016G/A>.

Note, I just installed my new memory and it turns out that the new and old
modules are branded with Micron/Crucial and produced in China.

~~~
zacharytamas
I also bought the same memory today. I have 4 GB of Crucial currently in my
MacBook that I bought last year for $77: the same memory is $20-30 now. I've
had no problems at all so I don't expect any issues with the 8 GB sticks.

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scythe
$300 convenience fee.

I'm only half-joking. If you look at the comments, you'll find people who were
referred to buy this product from Apple's customer service representatives.
These people probably know diddly about RAM, and they're ultimately paying for
the recommendation moreso than the product. Apple isn't everyone's favorite
company, but their customer service is top-notch, and this is no exception.

That's not to say it is a totally fair price, but that's why they can price it
like they do.

~~~
nicksergeant
I share your general sentiment, but would add that their phone support is
particularly as terrible as Dell's, though their Genius bar and probably their
business-level services are top-notch.

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Me1000
Generally their prices for memory is never reduced until a model is updated.
So early on in a product's life the price is more competitive. I once heard it
was because Apple buys a ton of it up front (and gets a better price on it as
a result), then just keeps that price. I have no idea how true that is.

------
kingston
Having just bought a $2200 Macbook Pro, the mark-up is definitely hard to
ignore (a Dell XPS laptop with equal or better specs comes out to $1400 -
admittedly without the Mac OS). However, because they can command such a high
mark-up, it's easier for them to charge more for upgrades, e.g. $200 to
upgrade from 4GB to 8GB which would still be a 5x markup.

It's likely that Apple knows that people who care about the price, e.g. tech
people, are probably not going to pay much above the market rate for it.
However, the people who aren't as tech-knowledgeable, e.g. aren't familiar
with the going price, are far less sensitive to the price and therefore, they
can charge substantially more.

------
flyt
I was talking with a former Apple server division employee (from Cupertino)
and was laughing at the insane RAM upgrade pricing costs compared to Crucial
and other vendors.

He acknowledged that they were pretty high, but said that this is because
Apple is overly careful about vendor selection and testing of the RAM itself.
This ensures that it'll work best when installed in Apple hardware and won't
cause unexpected and subtle errors down the road (as cheap RAM can sometimes
do).

I still think Apple RAM is massively overpriced, but this makes sense to me.
Also, if you upgrade from 4GB to 8GB when ordering a new build-to-order system
the cost drops to $200 (from the $400 quoted here).

------
mechanical_fish
So, I just spent a few minutes trying to answer the following question: If I
were uncomfortable about buying and installing my own RAM, and I went to
Google to find a local store that would install RAM for me, what could I find?

I see Geek Squad trucks driving around all the time, and I happen to know (via
other more extensive Google searches) that Geek Squad will install RAM for
$50, if I miraculously manage to buy the RAM and bring it in to them with the
computer. Awesome! Presumably they can also help me find the RAM in their Best
Buy store and buy it.

But when I search "geek squad install mac memory" do I get a nice landing
page? Nope, I get a generic ad leading to a _generic_ landing page that
doesn't mention memory but offers to sell me a $99/year support subscription
that includes such helpful stuff as "antivirus". Given that I've just bought
an Apple device and - however naive I am - probably understand that this comes
with free Genius Bar support, I'm going to click away from that page and never
return.

Now, I happen to live in a town with a Micro Center, so I Google up "micro
center mac memory", and do I get my landing page? Nope. Top result is an ad
directly from Apple for their $400 RAM. Below that is an ad from Crucial that
leads to a page which requires me to read words like "DDR" and know that my
machine is a "2.2 GHz early-2011" model. Then there's a similar ad from
"MacMemory.com" that leads to a page that makes Crucial's look like a model of
UX design. And finally there's a bunch of links to Micro Center, several of
which lead to _computers_ but not RAM, a few of which lead to catalog entries
for RAM complete with the DDRs and the GHz and the scary photos of green
circuit boards, but none of which suggest the known fact that _Micro Center
has a tech shop in house_ and _that shop will install RAM for you_.

Even typing "Boston mac memory upgrade" only gives me one local store link on
the SERP:

<http://www.macintoshdr.com/Mac_Doctor/Upgrades.html>

... and that's not a great landing page. Nothing specific to my problem. Most
particularly: No price. But they do offer to ask me lots and lots of questions
as they get to know me and my very personal problems with my personal
computer. Techies: as a non-techie I probably don't yearn to open a _dialogue_
with you, partly because I know I'll be _mortally embarrassed_ by the
conversation, and partly out of fear that you will _try to convince me to
spend hundreds of dollars using words which I cannot understand or rebut._
Whereas I know that if I pay the nice Apple guy four hundred bucks my computer
will vanish for fifteen minutes, magically reappear with more memory, and
that's it.

So my answer is: Apparently Apple gets to charge their prices because nobody
else in the league knows how to play this game.

~~~
Someone
On top of that, you prevent that, if something is wrong, you end up in a blame
game (the computer must be defective/you asked for the wrong memory
modules/etc).

There also is the possibility that Apple's stuff is better, even though it
comes from the same factory. For example, Apple could have every RAM module
run for months at above-spec frequency, temperature and humidity to weed out
bad modules. I do not think they do such severe things, but I do think
(without having any evidence, except for the 'evidence' of their pricing) that
they buy slightly/somewhat better batches. That does not guarantee that their
products are better, but it will weed out the almost-dead-on-arrival ones.

------
wallywax
It seems to fluctuate. I don't track it closely, but I know that there have
been times I've bought machines and the memory from Apple was close enough in
price to OWC or Crucial that I just went ahead and bought it from them for the
convenience. And there have been times that it was so out of whack I didn't
even consider it. It's always more expensive, but not always this bad.

------
chrislaco
Same is true for their SSD drives for MBP (not MBA). More expensive and no
where near the fast things you can get for the price.

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chrislaco
And sometimes, it used to be, for their price hike you didn't necessarily even
get the highest speed your mobo supported.

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michaelty
16GB RAM Corsair from Newegg for $174.99 (until New Year's Day). Just sayin'.

[http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16820233...](http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16820233217)

~~~
icegreentea
Not sure what you're trying to say here. The posted link was for 2x4GB, youres
is for 2x8GB.

~~~
rgovostes
I think it's pretty obvious: Twice as much RAM from a different seller costs
less than half as much money.

------
mrinterweb
Apple has been doing this for many years now. I think we all know the reason
why they do it. Answer: because they can. Don't shop at Apple expecting to
find a deal.

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Ubersoldat
Because their RAM comes with a nice Apple logo and a sticker!

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funkah
Never understood that. It's easy enough to order from crucial.com, though.

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vonsydov
its good quality bro

------
westondeboer
BRO BRO BRO, I KNOW THE CEO OF APPLE

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Getahobby
I am too lazy to look it up but is there an equivalent mark-up on Dell branded
memory?

