What's going on with iPad prices?

Latticus on 26/09/2017 - 17:39

Big discounts on Apple products are rare, yet over the last two weeks there have been a spate of deals for certain iPad models (basically everything but the 10.5" and 12.9" iPad Pro) at 20% off. I'm in the market for an iPad at the moment, and I'm also impatient, so I've been following these deals up waiting to find one where I wouldn't have to wait around for shipping. That's how I came to notice another common factor: long dispatch times, up to two weeks. When dispatch times aren't visible, the estimated delivery dates tell a similar story.

All of this could be explained by a combination of grey imports, ebay sales and reactionary price matching, but it seems like a pretty big coincidence. Could it be that Apple has given notice of an upcoming price drop, and these retailers are trying to lock in sales at the new price before the change happens?

It might seem like a pointless thing to speculate about, but if it's true then you might as well just buy your iPad at the Apple Store today, and claim back the difference when they drop the price - so long as it happens within the 14 day return period, which the recent specials seem to predict.

What do you think? Does this sound plausible?

Computing

Comments

  • Word on 26/09/2017 - 18:56
    +4

    Hopefully, it's a going out business sale.

  • vinni9284 on 26/09/2017 - 19:54

    Well, just guessing here but if you see a trend of a price drop then the reasoning can be:
    1 - A newer model will be co-released when iPhone X gets released.
    2 - iPad sales are not performing to their expectations

  • Gronk on 26/09/2017 - 20:48
    +1

    They're overpriced to start with, even at 20% off I wouldn't buy one.

    • RockyRaccoon on 27/09/2017 - 08:03

      Wow,, how about you start up a web page and give us more great insights into ways to save the world.

      • Gronk on 27/09/2017 - 09:06

        I might do that, perhaps I'll call it "Worldly advice for butthurt apple sheep"

        :D

  • lupiter on 27/09/2017 - 08:44

    The price just went UP in the US, Apple's explanation was SSD shortages. I don't think the retailers know anything we don't.

  • dm01 on 27/09/2017 - 09:23

    My guess is that a lot of these grey market sellers aren't holding much stock, but are placing bulk orders from their supplier once they've received a certain threshold of orders from their own customers. Might explain the long dispatch times.

    I wanted a new iPad Pro 10.5 about six weeks ago, and used one of the eBay promos to order a grey market one from HK. The seller advertised a 14-day dispatch time, and sure enough, it was sent on day 14. In the mean time I'd found a local eBay seller with some excess brand new copies of the same iPad (but with cellular instead of wi-fi only like I'd ordered from HK) and grabbed one of those. When the HK copy finally arrived, I offloaded it via Gumtree for an extra $100, and I've since been very happy with the 10.5

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