Formal Announcement: Best Buy Drops Price On Apple's iMac
Reuters - 09:52 a.m. Dec 21, 1998 Eastern
SAN FRANCISCO (Reuters) - Best Buy Computer Inc. said it
dropped the price of Apple Computer Inc.'s iMac computer to
$1,099, from its original price of $1,299.
A spokesman for the Eden Prairie, Minn.-based computer retail
chain declined to comment on why Best Buy dropped the prices of
the iMac, which was initially flying off the shelves when it was
launched by Apple in August.
Best Buy, which has 300 locations in the United States became an
Apple retailer in October. Prior to that, Apple's major national
computer retail distributor was CompUSA Inc. .
A spokeswoman for the Cupertino, Calif.-based Apple said that
Apple's estimated retail price for the iMac remains $1,299, but that
the reseller prices are not determined by Apple. ''It's up to the
individual reseller,'' said Tami Begasse, an Apple spokeswoman.
Other retailers are looking at lowering their price as well. CNET's
news.com, an Internet-based technology news site, reported that
one executive with another nationwide Apple reseller said his
company was getting tons of calls from customers wanting a $999
iMac, but that he had not heard anything official from Apple.
The iMac is a unique and easy-to-use Macintosh in turquoise and
ice-colored translucent plastic, targeted to consumers.
A salesman at CompuTown in downtown San Francisco said that
CompuTown was still selling its iMacs at $1,299 and a salesman at
a CompUSA Inc. store in San Francisco also said its iMacs were
priced at $1,299. One salesman said that Best Buy was selling
below cost at $1,099.
The computers are now easier to find than at the time of launch.
Three retailers checked had plenty of iMacs in stock.
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