TMC, I feel the same way, yes. I see that Fry’s is holding the 4Tb Hitachi 7200’s at $229 still, and they dropped $10 a unit at our wholesaler, though.
It’s been almost two years since I bought my sister an MSI-labeled i5 notebook for $479 after rebate. That’s still an incredibly decent price for i5 notebooks - which is really sad because I was used to seeing them drop $100 a year or else give me i7s at the $500 range.
Price managers can say these all ‘new’ chips, etc etc, but when PC prices have stabilized, rather than dropped, consumers can still use the “Why bother buying now? I can wait another few months and get the same thing for the same money” argument. The big-box retailers are seeing this “Let’s wait for the next big sale” attitude, and that’s why WinXP still exists on such a huge base.
The quick price hikes from so-called floods, then incredibly slow price-relief - “it doesn’t seem fair!” only brings out the doubts of consumers.
I’m waiting to see WHEN the iPhone5-6-7-8 generation responds the same. Or will Apple Slavery cause some retrenchment? (Frankly, Apple can use slave labor ‘revelations’ as a reason to cut their prices in half or something, and really spur a spending surge, and further distancing of the consumer from the PC purchasings.)
But still… Pioneer BDRs at $75 are coming close to that magical $50 price level. “But they’re like printers - a $50 printer costs you $60 in ink to fill it up!” We really need to be BD Media have prices sliced in half.
