Roger Fingas
In a surprise move, Apple on Friday cut the prices on a number of USB-C and Thunderbolt 3 accessories and peripherals, looking to assuage complaints from new or prospective MacBook Pro buyers.
The discounts range between 20 and 40 percent, and cover a number of first- and third-party products sold at Apple's online and retail stores, TechCrunch reported, confirming the change with Apple. Normal prices will resume in January.
"We recognize that many users, especially pros, rely on legacy connectors to get work done today and they face a transition," the company said in a statement. "We want to help them move to the latest technology and peripherals, as well as accelerate the growth of this new ecosystem. Through the end of the year, we are reducing prices on all USB-C and Thunderbolt 3 peripherals we sell, as well as the prices on Apple's USB-C adapters and cables."
All of the new MacBook Pro models use combination USB-C/Thunderbolt 3 ports, meaning that many legacy add-ons are no longer compatible without an adapter. They even omit an SD card slot, potentially creating problems for people shooting photos and video.
The computers continue to have 3.5-millimeter headphone jacks, even though Apple talked about the "courage" needed to remove the technology from the iPhone 7 at a Sept. 7 press event.
Malcolm Owen
Amber Neely
Christine McKee
Chip Loder
Marko Zivkovic
224 Comments
Awesome move by Apple. This SHOULD shut up most of the complaints, but of course it won't.
This just shows how Apple continues to suffer under Tim Cook! Steve would never have done this
/s
Good move but the fact Apple felt the need to do it suggests there's some pretty fierce backlash with these new Macs. Perhaps more backlash than Apple was expecting,
It's not going to make a difference. At this point, Cook, you have exposed Apple to the worst type of criticism... high prices, noncompetitive value. High margins are only good for the stock holders. When Jobs was in charge he was price/value sensitive.