Why do laptops go on sale?

*NOTE* I am not talking about decreasing price because of obselete or replacing with a new line or in responce to a compeditor decreasing price.


I recently have had my fingers itch a LOT on getting a Dell 1520 with free 2GB ram and hard drive upgrades as well as free shipping, but in the short time (only about 4-6 months) I have been looking at computers, the pricing drops seem sparatic and I can't seem to understand when a sale happens.

The Dell just came out a month ago... why would they be offering several upgrades so soon? A refresh of the motherboard is needed? Updating the graphics card? Trying to get rid of older parts so under the hood tweaks can be made?

My Father, although smart (worked for Intel for five years under the Xscale project until they sold it off to marvel last year) and would take his advice nine times out of ten, said that there was nothing to worry about catching Dells "temporary Offers" now and that prices if anything are going to go down.

I start college this September and need a laptop by then. (more or less september first). And although it isn't my money at this point I am spending, I enjoy shopping and finding awsome deals. I was astounded by the Compal 2090 before the Dell 1520 came out and my dad insisted on IBM, HP, or Dell so I could have in home support.

If anybody knows either a good blog or even a good book about this, I'd be interested.

Also, another quick question, My girlfriend likes how vista looks under Aero but I don't know if the 3100x is a powerful enough graphics to run Vista Smoothly. No gaming, just nice smooth vista. What part for a laptop would people recomend. Price max = $1,100 aesthetics matter a LOT to her 15.4", Intel C2D, otherwise its all good.

Thankyou very much in advance!

 

The title of your post is quite irrelevant to the content. Laptops appear to be on "sale" simply because manufacturers stop charging premiums on new technology.
As far as Vista is concerned, try to focus more on RAM rather than the graphics card. Get atleast 1GB (recommend 1.5 or 2GB). X3100 is fine if you're not gaming.
For $1,100 budget and seeing how you're leaning towards a Dell, I'd strongly recommend the new Dell Vostro 1400. You'll get a nice T5xxx processor, 2GB RAM and atleast 120GB hard-drive, all within your budget

 

yeah, the Vostros are looking good these days.

personally, though, I think the title is plenty relevant to the post. you're curious about the philosophy of the sales.

and i think sales can happen for many a reason- getting rid of old inventory, as a sales gimmick (ie. start with a high price and then offer a sale), trying to keep market share from the competition, etc.

currently, i'd say the 1520 "sale" is mainly marketing gimmick, but also intentional to drum up enthusiasm for their new line. Nothing wrong with the 1520's, as you'll see in people's reviews, they're quite popular. Dell's like a car dealer- every week shouting about a very special short-term sale.

 

Just as a note: toshiba also has onsite service

 

cool I'll check out some toshibas too.

 

Lenovo has been notorious for the sales gimmick. They've had a sale since day one, when the most recent Thinkpads were released in May. I've NEVER seen the regualr price offered.

 

Not to mention the laptops are marked way up, ESPECIALLY Dells. Have you actually seen the upgrade prices and compared them to manual upgrades off of like Newegg?

 

yeah the prices are a little ridiculous.

So is another deal coming right after this one too? I first notaced this whole mess when my friend wanted to get a Macbook that came with a free Ipod, but I pointed out to her that a new Macbook would literally be available the day after the deal ended. She was wise to wait.

Do you think that there might also be things like refreshes? Using better parts like how gaming the playstation gets a new version every couple years? (not ps2 vs ps3 but the thin ps2 vs the original)