Stickybuffalo.com

About a month ago, I posted on some impending Apple product refreshes. Since then, we’ve seen some nifty new iPods, but the other rumored updates, to the MacBook, MacBook Pro, and Mac Mini, haven’t transpired yet. However, today I came across a very good indicator that Apple’s new laptops will be here very soon, perhaps within days.

I’ve been a grad student at UCLA for four years now, and I’ve noticed a strong trend: when new Apple products are about to be announced, the UCLA Computer Store makes significant cuts in their prices for whatever hardware is about to be refreshed. I’m not the only one who’s noticed this; it’s almost common knowledge around here that when prices drop, something dramatic is about to happen. I’ve fallen victim to this twice: I bought a suddenly-discounted fourth-gen iPod right before video iPods were announced, and a few months later I picked up an oddly cheap G4 iBook mere days before Apple announced the MacBook.

Today, I noticed that the UCLA Computer Store’s Apple laptop prices have fallen precipitously. (Apologies for not providing a link; the actual prices are only revealed to those with UCLA logins.) The new prices are good “while supplies last,” another indication that this is an inventory-clearing move. Note that the prices below take into account the standard academic discount:

2.4 ghz white MacBook: originally $1199, now $999
2.4 ghz black MacBook: originally $1399, now $1249
2.4 ghz MacBook Pro: originally $1799, now $1599
2.5 ghz MacBook Pro: originally $2299, now $1799

These are pretty substantial price cuts, especially the 2.5 ghz MacBook Pro, which dropped $500. If memory serves, the UCLA Computer Store usually drops prices by $50-$150, so these are significantly larger than usual. This is nothing more than a hunch, but based on these discounts, I’m guessing the laptop revamp will be pretty dramatic, especially at the high end, and that the prices of the new ones will be similar to the current pricing scheme.

I really don’t know what to expect, or when exactly to expect it, but my guess is the new laptops will be impressive, and we’ll see them announced sometime in the next couple of weeks.

So, this year, Obama’s been selling a lot of buttons, t-shirts, signs, and various other things imprinted with his logo. It’s a pretty nifty idea: run a store on your campaign website and file purchases as campaign donations. Your logo sees broader exposure, you get to report super-high donation totals each month, it’s easier for supporters who live in places without a campaign office or frequent campaign events to get campaign gear, people who would already have made donations get a little token for their trouble. Everybody wins.

But I wonder why it seems to take at least several weeks (and sometimes a few months) for orders to be shipped. I’m not complaining in a “where’s my stuff?!?” way, since Obama was gonna be getting my money even without a store on his website. I’m wondering why distributing campaign advertisements isn’t seen as more of a priority. It took my window sign almost 10 weeks to arrive, and I’ve lately been showered with apologetic emails telling me that my buttons, stickers, and t-shirts (ordered weeks ago) just might be shipping soon (though I’m not to expect them to arrive for a few weeks after they’ve shipped). That’s a lot of weeks that I could have been displaying Obama’s logo everywhere I went.

I suppose the cynical answer is that Obama doesn’t really care about people putting signs in their windows, handing out buttons to their friends, putting stickers on their cars, etc., and is really just after the money. That might be the case, though that would be a little surprising, given the amount of importance Obama’s campaign places on the ground game. The online store is supposed to generate revenue and increase campaign visibility, and I seriously doubt the Obama campaign would sacrifice one almost entirely in order to maximize the other.

Rather, it seems like they’re just being really cheap, which I can appreciate. I’m sure they want to maximize the “profit margin” of the Obama gear, and hiring cheaper, slower manufacturers and using cheaper, slower shipping options would certainly be part of that. But really, I’ll be surprised if my “first edition!!!!1!!1!!!” Obama/Biden stickers and buttons get here before election day, at which point their advertising potential will be moot, and the items themselves will either carry a neutral emotional impact or will be depressing reminders of a very bad day.

I don’t have thousands tied up in mutual funds comprised of stocks, backed, through some convoluted process, by AIG. I don’t have a house that’s rapidly losing value, or for that matter a car loan to deal with. It’s times like these where the screams of sheer terror coming from the financial sector have that finite degree of separation from my daily life that it almost feels good to be a lowly student employed by a large healthcare organization. All that aside, it’s really hard not to feel like this is All George’s Fault. For now, I’m reading a lot of articles on The Motley Fool, which is providing some real temperance to the sky-is-falling feeling. I also appreciate the range of opinions realclearmarkets.com is offering (admittedly, it’s easy to click over from RCP).

As I said above, I’ve got little invested (sorry) in this directly, more so indirectly, and yet it’s quickly becoming the issue of Election 2008. In fact, it’s certainly bigger than the election. 700 billion dollars of wealth invested in the market evaporated and more to go considering the slide of nearly 500 points today means it’s not long before this starts taking out the retirement savings of everyone. Thank goodness it’s rapidly becoming the election platform plank that might just beat McSame into a quiet life at one of his dozen homes. Take a little breather from the hot AZ summer John, maybe some time at the beach? Certainly Cindy’s beer distributorship is depression-proof. Retire and let someone with patience and a willingness to learn step in to deal with this issue which you claimed to have little expertise in before last week. It’s hard to look at a January 2009 with McCain/Palin at the helm and envision anything better than the horrible situation the economy is in today.

Which leads me to another Kos post, also in the digg feed, which quotes the former National Review Online publisher, Wick Allison, as saying:

It gives me comfort just to think that after eight years of George W. Bush we will have a president who has actually read the Federalist Papers.

Most important, Obama will be a realist. I doubt he will taunt Russia, as McCain has, at the very moment when our national interest requires it as an ally. The crucial distinction in my mind is that, unlike John McCain, I am convinced he will not impulsively take us into another war unless American national interests are directly threatened.

“Every great cause,” Eric Hoffer wrote, “begins as a movement, becomes a business, and eventually degenerates into a racket.” As a cause, conservatism may be dead. But as a stance, as a way of making judgments in a complex and difficult world, I believe it is very much alive in the instincts and predispositions of a liberal named Barack Obama.

May all fiscal conservatives reach such enlightened positions after this week’s mess.