is there no possible way to get these things cheaper?

besides the obvious ebay, student/military discount

im in canada btw perhaps theres some loophole

i really want a MBP but i just can not shell out $2000 for a laptop

maybe at the next apple event they'll cut prices slightly

i ordered a studio xps 1645 but apparently they're having issues - and im FED UP!

 

Look at Apple's refurbished units at their website.

Same 1 year warranty with option extend to 3 with AppleCare, usually several hundred less than list but depends on how recent the particular unit is.

 

Best loophole would be to make some U.S. friends fast and have them buy it from the U.S. outlet store.

 

buy from the US 100%, and preferably get a friend that's a student in the US.

 

wanna be my friend

i can be very thankful

my girlfriend has always wanted to go to the states

 

i can proxy buy you a student discount model from the states.

they cost 1099 / 1399 / 1599 / 1849 / 2099 / 2299 USD + tax & tip for the macbook pro's (in order).

the refurbs are quite a bit cheaper but the student discount doesn't help you.

 

if i were to get someone (like you) to buy me one, what does ground shipping to toronto plus duty usually cost?

assuming one of you have done this

its that friggin duty that gets ya

apple canada only charges 100 bucks more - getting someone to ship it to me + duty + tip would end up costing me more

 

get a canadian student maybe? or go refurb canada. i have no idea what it costs to cross the border.

FYI- just looked at the prices. given currency conversion, apple isn't really charging you any more for their machines. It is basically the same price because 1700 USD = 1788 CAD...

so, you aren't really getting a discount at all by shopping in the USA.

 

bugger

i just cant pay that much

I CANT!!

guess im gonna have jack a delivery truck

 

go refurb.

google: apple refurb

 

Or get a PC. So much cheaper.

 

yeah they dont have the newer models refurb in canada

im gonna wait till january anyway hoping for a price drop

 

Heh, Duty, Cost me $20 on a $21 mouse pad, now that pissed me off. Duty is Canadian taxes, plus a crap load of other charges the shipping company ad's on. So I'd say taxes + $30 ish. But anyways, as said before, it's not cheaper to buy from the US. CES is in January, and They aren't going to Macworld anymore so people thought they may go to CES, so maybe we will see a update in January, or maybe they will do their own event.

 

Ebay has cheap deals for all macbooks. ElectronicKing is one of the sellers that has good deals often. You can negotiate with him.

http://stores.ebay.com/electronic-k...768QQ_sidZ83987962QQ_trksidZp4634Q2ec0Q2em322

 

True that Macs cost a bundle, but you get what you pay for. The quality and design is miles above any PC I've owned. I haven't found any loop holes either, although a friend mentioned the site swoopo.ca, and with a bundle of free time it's possible to get a new Macbook crazy cheap. Haven't tried it myself and I'll admit I'm a bit quite skeptical, but may be worth a try.

Other than that, education discount is the best you're going to get.

 

A current top end 15" MBP just went for $1450 in NBR Marketplace. I'd stop by there every now and then.

How exactly are you contributing to this thread?

 

^^ i know it is i just cant pay that much for whats going to do essentially the same tasks for me as a $900 Dell - these things just dont last as long

throw in the $300 applecare and gad damn

its alright i'm just going to get a gun and break a macbook

 

Settle for a refurb 13" mbp. SAve monies.

 

^ Someone is selling a new recent 13" MBP for $1150 in the NBR forum. It's a nice price.

 

Haha, the obligatory comment in every Apple thread. You PC boys just can't stay on your own side of the forum, can you.

 

A Macbook pro 13" is 1199 brand new after student discount. The low end 1645 is about the same price, I don't see how you can't afford it...

 

i dont want the 13 inch

 

If you want a mac, you'll need to pay premiums for it. That's how it works. I'm you're cheap or can't afford one like most people, get a windows based PC instead.

 

Can always try your luck on Ebay.

The truth is, Apple has been around for decades. They have demanded a premium on their hardware for decades. Even with a "price drop" they still demand a premium.

If there was a magical way to "click here, get a Mac 50% off!", most likely everyone here would know about it. You would have been told as a reply immediately. It would be a sticky. It would be a sticky on every Apple-specific forum on the internet. NOBODY would buy a Mac from anywhere else.

Do you see a sticky? I don't.

 

would i be cheap if they were charging $4000 and didnt want one

you can rationalize all you want, $2000 for early 2008 hardware is nonsense

$1500 is as high as i'll go

 

wouldnt they make a ton of more money if they shaved $500 off these things - or if they started selling OS X across all platforms instead of just apple computers?

they could knock M$ right off the block

 

Apple is a hardware company. They make the bulk of their profit on hardware. They make a quantity and it tends to sell fine as it is. Apple is highly successful, and remains successful even with the economy in a total mess.

One of the reasons Snow Leopard is $29, and iWork is $79 is because they already made their profit on the hardware they sold you to run these things. Windows is $199 or $299 or whatever because Microsoft does not have that luxury.

Look at the PC world. Now I'm not about to say Windows is perfect, but the vast, and I mean VAST majority of "Windows problems" are nothing more than "hardware problems." People get these $299 emachines with 512MB RAM or whatever and throw Vista on it (or it gets preinstalled) and the thing is all built out of bargain basement parts that someone bought out of the back of a truck in China. Why would Apple want any part of this?

Apple's hardware may not be to your ultra high standards as far as supporting the absolute latest stuff, but what they do have tends to be top tier in terms of functionality and stability. Why doesn't Apple have a quad core notebook yet? Cuz a 17" Macbook Pro is barely an inch thick, weighs under seven pounds, makes very little noise, and lasts seven hours on a battery, that's why.

 

apple makes the case

they USED to make the stuff on the inside

 

god damn subzero

GET OVER HEEEERE

 

They use to be a hardware company. They are a consumer electronics company. Their customers are end users like yourself. Microsoft's customers are you and I. This is why their decisions are hard to understand from our point of view.



More importantly though, Apple sell an experience. Something you'll learn in design is immersion. It is a state where time stops, like a runner's high. The experience is, "Computers are ez! Look how EZ everything is!"

True, a lot of this comes from their tightly controlled hardware specs.

PC OEMs sell a commodity. The market is highly sensitive to price, unlike Apple's market.

 

@OP: Good luck. Like a previous poster said, eBay is decent. Might also want to check out the Low-End Mac's Deal Index.

Also, I'm not really sure what your issue with the Dell 1645 is, but, whether its hardware or software, there are some good folks throughout these forums who can probably help you out a bit. Cheers!

 

Seems like this has turned into the usual flame thread. Seems funny that the OP went from trying to find an affordable MBP to bashing them as being built with 2008 hardware. Why do you want one then?

 

Looks like the OP is showing bias elsewhere as well.

 

I wouldn't call that flame thrower language.

More like everyday criticism.

So sensitive.

 

It wouldn't be criticism though if it were an Apple fan putting down PCs. Then it'd be flamewar fuel.

 

people dont like to second guess themselves

i love macs and i want one dearly

im just being real

thats what i do

im using the power of positive thinking to will a price cut this january

 

Having seen Apple's price history for the past decade, my advice to you is: Don't hold your breath.

Your best solution is to buy an Apple Certified Refurbished machine, or, if prices are lower in the States, have someone Stateside buy you an Apple Certified Refurbished machine. At the very least, it will save you the cost of AppleCare, something you should purchase with any Apple notebook.

 

i saw some girl on some video who got an "end of product line" discount for when they introduce the new line

im just not sure how she would get access to that if not through the refurbished store

anyone know anything about this? i'd be fine getting an 09' MBP when the 10' comes out

 

That happens through the online store, either through the Clearance section, or if they have refurbished product listed as "Previous Generation". You'll need fairly exact timing, as Apple will need to come up with a new model in order for you to get a deal on a previous one.

In my case, I could have gotten a Previous Generation 15" Macbook Pro two years back for around $1499. That was too much compared to my ThinkPad T61 for $980 (with two-year warranty), or, a year later, my T400 for $900. Currently, you can get the least expensive refurb 15" Macbook Pro for $1299USD, about the most I'd have paid.

 

There hasn't been a better time to get an Apple computer...or at least the ones that Apple dropped the price on.

Ever since Microsoft called Apple out on high prices with no justification via Laptop Hunters, you can now get the Macbook at a closer to real price as well as the Imac. The PRO computers such as the Macbook Pro and the Mac Pro are still a bit subjective.

Case in point, 6 months ago, the Imac 2.8ghz was $2,990 US. Today the 3.08GHZ with better specs is a mere $1500, this includes the operating system and Ilife. I'm buying a system now because NOW it makes sense. Before it didn't.

I don't think you'll get the prices any better, especially on the already reduced ones. You do get a lot for what they ask for....just this time...the price justifies the content.

 

Prices started to drop with the Unibody line launch in Oct. 2008. Laptop hunter ads didn't come out till like March 2009.