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In article <eouuj9t6ibhj76mc07ajffv8p06ho0qm4m@4ax.com>, Eric Stevens <eric.stevens@sum.co.nz>wrote:

Scott Schuckert
no one but Apple (or it's very small number of authorized resellers, who are tightly price-controlled) sells Apple products.

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so what?

Eric Stevens
So there is no real competition between Apple sales outlets, at least not to the extent that there is between independent camera stores.

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nonsense. of course there is.

Eric Stevens
You don't get much competition when no one but Apple (or it's very small number of authorized resellers, who are tightly price-controlled) sells Apple products.

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plenty of places sell apple products, including best buy and walmart, two huge retail outlets in the usa. there are other stores in other countries that sell apple products. heck there are even vending machines that sell apple products.

as for the price controls, what the stores often do is include other stuff, like gift cards, printers, carrying case, etc., to spice up the deal.

and of course, there are all the non-apple products being sold.

there is *plenty* of competition.

Eric Stevens
There is a lot more competition when you are subjected to an onslaught of choices from a plethora of competing products. Acer vs Apple vs Asus vs Compac vs Dell vs HP vs Lenovo vs MSI vs Samsung vs Toshiba vs Vaio plus a whole lot more. All of these can be obtained in conjunction with other stuff such as gift cards, printers, carrying case, etc., to spice up the deal. Now THAT's competition.

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apple is subject to a shitload of competition.

Eric Stevens
Read above:

"So there is no real competition between Apple sales outlets, at least not to the extent that there is between independent camera stores."

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there is.