Philip Wen's //

let us play a round of 'The Price Is Right'

There is a lot of speculation on wall street that in order to draw in the yet-to-be-converts this holiday season, the Jobster may finally cave in on his sticky pricing and offer a seldom-heard-of “Apple Sale”.  Not only that, it is possible that some new, lower priced products are in the works to accommodate consumers’ suddenly-smaller wallets.  You can read more about it here and here.  To give you an idea of how popular the idea is, see this screen grab on the number of search results on Google.

number of apple black friday search results

One of the biggest reasons why I have not owned an Apple products in recent history (my last Apple product was the original iPod) is the pricing.  I believe this is also the main reason that the Apple brand has maintained its cachet, much like Daimler’s Maybach and Louis Vuitton bags.  Luxury experience on a commodity product?  Of course there is a market for it.  A BIG market, judging by Apple’s track record.

Now with rest of the high end brands slashing prices, can Apple afford to NOT accommodate?  We will find out soon enough.  But if the Wall Street Analysts are right– and there is no reason they won’t be in this case — I expect to see all luxury brands – including Apple – to suffer from some brand value dilution this time around.

And that’s good news for those of you still carrying wallets flushed with cash.

Update 11/25/08: Just found this teaser page.  Stay tuned.

Update 11/26/08: Check out the post here.

Update 11/28/08: Boo.  Nothing special.  Should have figured.