Apple lowers Cube price

In what appears to be a further attempt at moving out excess fourth quarter inventory, Apple has lowered the price on its mid-range, 500MHz G4 Cube by US$300 and has added a high-end model with more memory, a bigger hard drive and the Radeon graphics card.

The 500-MHz G4 Cube at $1999, formerly $2299, include 128MB RAM, a 30GB hard drive, and ATI RAGE 128 Pro Graphics card. This configuration is available directly from Apple through the online Apple Store and from Apple authorized dealers as a build-to-order configuration.

The high-end 500MHz configuration that includes 256MB of RAM, a 40GB hard drive, and an ATI Radeon Graphics card now sells for $2399, down from $2799. It is available from both Apple and Apple dealers. Buyers can also add the ATI Radeon Graphics card to the mid-range model for an additional $100.

Apple Value Added Resellers (VARs) who buy through national distributors only are not able to purchase the mid-range or high-end configurations, but only the 450MHz G4 Cube, which could be one sign of why Apple is lowering the price on the mid-range 500Mhz model to clear its warehouses of models that are already pre-configured. Certain high-volume dealers are able to buy directly from Apple and have the luxury of purchasing the high-end configuration already pre-configured and ready for shipment, as long as no other build-to-order options are needed.