Continuing a trend of delivering the most cost effective Macs in its history, Apple last week introduced its more aggressively-priced 2014 family of MacBook Pros and then sweetened the pot less than a week later by authorizing additional price cuts on the new models through its resellers, which are now translating to $100 - $350 net savings for users of the AI Price Guides.
Best Buy, in partnership with Apple, began knocking between $75-$125 off Apple's five standard 2014 MacBook Pro with Retina display configurations on Sunday -- just 6 days after their announcement.
Those discounts were then quickly picked up by other Apple Authorized Resellers listed in our Price Guides, such as Amazon, B&H Photo (which offers the added financial benefit of not collecting sales tax on orders shipped outside NY) and MacMall (which only collects on orders shipped to CA, CO, GA, IL, MN, NC, NY, TN, and WI). Since MacMall also offers AI Price Guide users an additional 3% off its MacBook prices when applying promo/coupon code APPLEINSIDER01, these early price cuts amount to $100-$140 off 13-inch 2014 MacBook Pros and $150 - $200 off 15-inch models, before any tax-savings are factored in. These are by far the lowest prices -- and most aggressive cuts -- for new MacBook Pros that we've ever seen immediately following an introduction:
Price-cut 2014 MacBook Pros
13-inch 2.6GHz, 8GB, 128GB for $1,197.94* $101 savings
13-inch 2.6GHz, 8GB, 256GB for $1,382.24* $116 savings
13-inch 2.8GHz, 8GB, 512GB for $1,658.69* $140 savings
13-inch 2.8GHz, 8GB, 1TB for $2,182.49* $116 savings
13-inch 2.8GHz, 16GB, 512GB for $1,891.49* $107 savings
13-inch 3.0GHz, 16GB, 512GB for $2,085.49* $113 savings
13-inch 3.0GHz, 16GB, 1TB for $2,570.49* $128 savings
15-inch 2.2GHz, 16GB, 256GB for $1,842.99 $156 savings
15-inch 2.2GHz, 16GB, 512GB for $2,163.09* $136 savings
15-inch 2.5GHz, 16GB, 256GB for $1,969.09* $130 savings
15-inch 2.5GHz, 16GB, 512GB for $2,230.99* $168 savings
15-inch 2.5GHz, 16GB, 512GB, 750M for $2,303.74* $195 savings
15-inch 2.5GHz, 16GB, 1TB, 750M for $2,842.09* $157 savings
15-inch 2.8GHz, 16GB, 256GB for $2,182.49* $116 savings
15-inch 2.8GHz, 16GB, 512GB for $2,182.49* $145 savings
15-inch 2.8GHz, 16GB, 512GB, 750M for $2,551.09* $148 savings
15-inch 2.8GHz, 16GB, 1TB, 750M for $3,036.09* $163 savings
* Price after applying Promo/Coupon Code APPLEINSIDER01
2014 MacBook Pros with no tax outside NY
For those readers who live in one of the states where MacMall collects sales tax, Apple Authorized Reseller B&H Photo offers comparable savings on these stock models and only collects sales tax on orders shipped to its home state of New York:
13-inch 2.6GHz, 8GB, 128GB for 1,197.00+ $102 savings
13-inch 2.6GHz, 8GB, 256GB for $1,379.00+ $120 savings
13-inch 2.8GHz, 8GB, 512GB for 1,658.00* $141 savings
15-inch 2.2GHz, 16GB, 256GB for $1,842.00 $157 savings
15-inch 2.5GHz, 16GB, 512GB, 750M for $2,374.99* $124 savings
+ No sales tax on orders shipped outside NY.
The downward flexibility on new MacBook pricing is not surprising: Value has been the primary focus for Apple thus far throughout 2014. In April, the company boosted the processors on its MacBook Air lineup by just 100 megahertz, but cut $100 off the models to reach a new starting price of $899 for the 11.6-inch model. Since then, the company through its partners have allowed Air prices to slip another $100 on some configurations, with pricing now starting at just $799 for 11-inch models and $899 for 13-inch versions.
With their current pricing, the new MacBook Air models are the most affordable mass-market notebooks that Apple has ever sold.
And then in June, Apple debuted a new $1,099 iMac with low-end hardware that serves as the new entry-level model for the company's all-in-one desktop brand. That undercuts the previous base model by $200. Since then, this model too has grown increasingly more affordable, falling another $119 in the company's reseller channels to just $979.99.
Consumers have reacted favorably to Apple's new pricing strategy by thrusting open their wallets and helping boost Mac sales by 17.6 percent to an all-time record 4.4 million units in the June quarter.
With price cuts helping to drive sales last quarter, Apple is clearly hoping that lower prices and greater value on its 2014 MacBook Pro lineup will do more of the same.
MacBook Price Guide Segment: