MoneyWatch Tech

Back to Normal: Prices Race Downwards

By Erik Sherman

Updated on: September 9, 2009 / 1:26 PM EDT / MoneyWatch

If there's one constant in the precarious consumer electronics industry, it's that prices get pushed downward continuously, and generally faster than vendors like. Some news shows that the trend is alive and well. First up, Apple, because the long term trend of average net sales per unit dropping isn't halting. The company is cutting prices on various iPods before its big iPod event today. As TUAW reported:

iPod Nano is $129 for 8GB and $149 for 16GB
iPod Classic is $229
iPod Touch is $189 for 8GB, $249 for 16GB, $279 for 32GB

This seems a pretty obvious reaction to the reported Zune pricing by Microsoft, which seems clearly intent on using this as a springboard into a more fully-featured mobile unit. However, an interesting point is that Apple has, for the first time I can remember, taken the aggressive pricing positioning, selling the iPod Touch for about $10 less than what may be the equivalent Zune HD, though the HD had additional features, although the 16GB price on the Zune will be less. Wonder if that means there will be a higher end iPod Touch to compete in terms of features but at a higher price? If Apple really starts to claim value pricing, you'll know that the business has just been stood on its head.

In the meantime, Sprint is dropping the price on the Palm Pre to about $150 as the new Palm Pixi comes out. But showing how bizarre the world of Palm as distributed by Sprint can be, the Pixi is supposed to be the cheap version. Sounds like the degree of success the Pre had was low enough that the companies are worried about pushing units, and so are taking the marketing tactic of last resort: lowering the price.

Image via stock.xchng user sulaco229, site standard license.