Apple Computer Inc., the dominant manufacturer of microcomputers for the precollegiate market, announced last week that it was raising the prices of many of its computers, printers, and other products.
The largest increase is in Apple’s Macintosh II line of personal computers, said Sandra Bateman, a company spokesman.
But educators, she said, are most likely to feel the effects of higher prices for the Apple IIGS, which is sold primarily to the school market.
The Apple IIGS, which sold for $999 before the Sept. 12 announcement, now will retail for $1,149--a jump of $150. For a fully equipped Apple IIGS, with a color monitor and expanded memory, the price hike will total approximately $340, according to Ms. Bateman.
The recommended price of an Apple IIE--the widely used predecessor of the Apple IIGS--will remain at $829, she said.
Component Costs Up
Ms. Bateman attributed the increases to the higher cost of computer components and increased demand for Apple products.
She said the announcement should not be interpreted as a lessening of the company’s interest in the educational market.
Apple products accounted for some 60 percent of the 1.68 million instructional computers in use in public schools as of June 1987, according to The K-12 Market for Technology and Electronic Media, published in May by Link Resources Corporation of New York City.
The publishing firm also found that Apple accounted for 60 percent of the 458,000 computers sold during the 1986-87 school year.
Apple’s closest competitor is the Tandy Corporation, with 16 percent of the public-school market, according to Link Resources.--pw
