Apple Inc. (NASDAQ:AAPL) isn’t bowing to the pressure of a price war among laptop sellers, at least not yet, according to analysts at Deutsche Bank. They examined the 80 best-selling laptops and found that approximately 60% of them sell for under $400, while 30% of them are priced under $300. However, Apple’s iPad Air is still selling well at premium prices, without the tablet having to sell for less because of pricing pressure from laptops. Even Apple’s laptops are selling well at higher prices compared to other brands.
Analyst Chris Whitmore ran checks online at various retail sites, including Amazon, Target, Wal-Mart and Best Buy. Their checks covered the Cyber Monday shopping day. They believe that the falling prices of laptops means that vendors are attempting to reduce the price gap between laptops and tablets.
Apple Inc. (NASDAQ:AAPL) continues to demand premiums for its iPad Air. Whitmore said the company sets itself apart from “everyone else” in the tablet market in this way and continues to be “a best seller.”
“Everyone else is playing for scraps at significantly lower price points,” the analyst wrote in his research note this week. He sees little margins in Google Inc (NASDAQ:GOOG)’s Android ecosystem, although volumes are robust there because of the ultra-low price points.
Apple’s laptop does well too
Apple Inc. (NASDAQ:AAPL) also demands a premium on its MacBook Pro laptop, which Whitemore said was among the top 15 best-selling laptops on Cyber Monday at Best Buy. It sells for $1,050 and landed at number five on the list. The company’s MacBook Pro with Retina display was tenth on the list and priced at $1,400.
Tablets outsold laptops by about 10 million units in the fourth quarter of 2012, according to Whitmore. He is projecting that number to increase to approximately 20 million units in the fourth quarter of this year, even though laptop makers are offering deep discounts on them.
