Shortly after the release of the new MacBook Pros, I posted a story on the fact that because Apple made the move to USB-C, they just made the new MacBook Pro a lot more expensive just to make it usable. I wasn’t the only one to say that and apparently Apple has heard the complaints loud and clear. Thus on Friday, two things happened. The first thing is that they slashed the price of USB-C dongles in a big way. If you check Apple’s website, they’re a lot cheaper now.
Here’s what Apple told The Verge:
We recognize that many users, especially pros, rely on legacy connectors to get work done today and they face a transition. 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.
I think that translates to: “Our users were pissed and that generated a lot of bad press that we can’t afford to have now.” But I am a cynic by nature.
Here’s what’s the pricing looks like with all prices shown in CAD:
Thunderbolt 3 (USB-C) to Thunderbolt 2 Adapter: $35 down from $59
USB-C to USB Adapter: down from $10 down $25
USB-C Digital AV Multiport Adapter: $49 down from $89
USB-C VGA Multiport Adapter: $49 down from $89
USB-C to Gigabit Ethernet Adapter: $29 down from $40
USB-C to Lightning Cable: $25 down from $35
These discounted prices are available at Apple retail stores and the online store, until the end of 2016. If you purchased these at full price, you should contact Apple for a refund of the difference.
The second thing that they did is slash the price of the 21.5-inch LG UltraFine 4K and 27-inch 5K displays that were announced at the same time as these MacBook Pros. Here’s the new pricing in Canadian dollars:
LG UltraFine 4K Display at 25% off: $659.00 down from $879.95
LG UltraFine 5K Display at 25% off: $1274 down from $1699.95
Clearly, Apple was told that the pricing sucked on these too.
Clearly, this is a huge admission that Apple really dropped the ball here. But I don’t plan on letting them off the hook just because they dropped the prices of these accessories. If you look at the statement on The Verge in terms of the reasoning behind the price drop, you have to believe that the statement is nothing but spin. If the statement were true, Apple would have priced these right from the get go instead of getting blasted for it and then having to drop the price. And what about people who are going to get a MB Pro in January? Those people are going to have to pay full price for these accessories at that point. I guess Apple doesn’t care about helping those people through this “transition” at that point because they hope the problem will not be in the news by then. Thus this is nothing but a knee jerk reaction to getting ripped in the media. And a pretty bad one. So, you can still call this a #fail.
This story is far from over. Count on it.
