Re: Another Reason the Apple I was Priced at $666.66

[sirthomas@aol.com (SirThomas)]

>> From the book "Apple Confidential" by Linzmayer, Page 4:
>> "Jobs set the list price of the original 4K Apple I at $666.66 by doubling
>> the cost of manufacturing, allowing dealers a 33.3 percent markup on the
>> wholesale
>> price of $500.  Fundamentalist Christians were quick to complain that 666
>> was
>> the 'mark of the beast.'  Jobs blew these people off with a concocted story
>> about how he had taken 7 (the mystical number seven), subtracted one
>> (another
>> mystical number), and arrived at a perfectly innocent price.  Actually,
>> Jobs wanted to charge $777, but Woz insisted that was too much."
>
> The concocted story is the bit about 2 x cost =500 + 33.3% to get the
> price.

Actually, doubling the price of the cost of materials it takes to make a
product to get a wholesale price for a computer isn't that radical of an idea. 
It's a good estimator of actual costs.

And 33% markup for a retail good is perfectly reasonable.  Based on it's adds,
one would think Walmart was knocking those prices down and not making a profit!
 There's a lot of room to play in retail pricing and still make some cash.  ;)

Way back in 1990, I was still able to sell desktop computers at 33% up.  When I
gave it up in 1995, the markup was down to 25% and darn difficult to sell at
that price!

> In this culture, nobody ends up with a goofy price like $666.66
> without planning to.

Maybe he just wanted a nice, unusual number for advertising purposes? Think
about it.  Unusual sales numbers ARE marketing tools.  For example, McDonalds
has an 88 cent value menus while most others have 99 cent value menus.

>(And, $500 x 1.333 is not $666.66; it's $666.50 .)

So Jobs couldn't multiply it all out correctly...  Should we hold that against
him as well?  ;) 

No offense to the rebuttal poster because people are entitled to their opinions
(including me;) but considering 102 actual Apple sources were consultated for
this book, I still  tend to believe the story as printed in the book rather
than the usual hearsay I read on the net that is devoid of solid references. 
;)

My passing interest in providing a solution to this mystery for me is over.  I
just wanted to share what I found.  (Which is one of the points of posting to
the newsgroups.)

Again, the name of the book, "Apple Confidential," and it's a quick interesting
read even if it is mostly Mac stuff.  Check it out at a public library near
you.