Buyer’s Guide: MacBook OK to buy; iPhone only if you need it
MacRumors has issued an update of its immensely useful Buyer’s Guide — a consumer-oriented cheat sheet that tracks the update cycle of Apple’s product line and offers informed opinions about whether you should go ahead buy that MacBook Pro you’ve been lusting after or wait for the next model. As MacRumors put it:
Apple updates their products in a very consistent manner. A Mac comes out at a certain price with certain features. The price and features of that particular Mac stay exactly the same throughout the lifespan of the product. So, if a customer buys on Day #1, they are getting the fastest/newest technology for the dollar. The problem, however, is that 8 months later, on the day prior to its refresh, that Mac costs the exact same money, but contains 8 month old technology. (link)
Although based on rumors and second-hand reports, the Guide is pretty dependable, especially since Apple (AAPL) switched to Intel chips. Intel (INTC) is quite open about its product plans, and Apple tends to switch to their newest processors in a fairly predictable timeframe. (Although as MacRumors notes, Intel’s switch to the Nehalem microarchitecture, due late this year, could stretch out some Apple product cycles.)
To see the full 2008-2009 Buyer’s Guide, click here. This is a summary of their recommendations:
- iPod classic: Buy only if you need it - Approaching the end of a cycle
- iPod touch: Neutral - Mid product cycle
- iPod nano: Buy only if you need it - Approaching the end of a cycle
- iPod shuffle: Buy - Product recently updated
- Mac mini: Don’t Buy - Updates soon
- Mac Pro: Neutral - Mid product cycle
- MacBook: Buy - Product recently updated
- MacBook Pro: Buy - Product recently updated
- iPhone: Buy only if you need it - Approaching the end of a cycle
- LCDs: Don’t Buy - Updates soon
- Xserve: Buy - Product recently updated
There’s lots more information in the full Buyer’s Guide, including historical release dates, days since update and links to recent news.
One caveat: you take a risk when you buy a computer on Day #1, as MacRumors suggests. You might want to monitor Apple’s discussion boards for few weeks to see what problems emerge. Let the company and the users who like to live on the bleeding edge work out the kinks before you buy.
Apple allows two weeks to return a computer, or to receive a refund when a new product is launched. You simply pay a restocking fee, since the product can not be sold as new.
Where does APPLE TV stand? I know it is one of their poorest launches, but I have three throughout the house and it serves my kids their kid shows on a barely acceptable basis.
This is kinda important, because what happens when Apple releases production Version N+1, they also drop the price on Version N. Apple provides no real price protection either to consumers or to resellers.
I once mail-ordered a computer and a week later Apple upgraded it. Since it was my shiny new toy, I had taken it out of the box and set it up, so I couldn’t return it unopened for a refund. I whined to the mail order vendor and they said “We can’t help you, Apple gives -us- no back-rebates.” But after some more polite whining, they did give me a store credit for some of the difference, saying “We want to keep you as a customer.” And that worked, I’ve ordered many times from them since…
The headline ignores the asterisk in MacRumors’ iPhone recommendation and makes it seem like casually buying an iPhone is just NOT OK. I think a much better summary of the summary would be something like this:
MacRumors advice: OK to buy a MacBook now; wait to get an iPhone
“There’s been evidence that the iPhone could see a major revision with 3G technology as early as June of 2008. So unless you know you don’t need 3G or need an iPhone right now, we recommend waiting.”
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Silicon Valley veterans like to joke that Steve Jobs must be surrounded by a reality distortion field; if you get too close to him, you start to believe what he's saying. Thanks to the success of the iPod, the launch of the iPhone and the renewed interest in the Mac, Apple has made believers out of millions of customers - and made a lot of investors rich. But Philip Elmer-DeWitt believes that an ounce of skepticism never hurts when writing about the company. He should know. He's been covering Apple - and watching Steve Jobs operate - since 1982, first for Time Magazine, then for Business 2.0, and now for Fortune.
I never had a problem returning a Apple product for a refund from several online retailers
macmall for example , Apple policy is pretty good 2 weeks,
the retailers some times have their own extra set of rules
but most are reasonable, I mean after all we all pretty much have an idea when a new Apple product is coming up ..iPhone in June?? would be nuts to order one now( or before June) and bitch about it later… But still people do