Apple hikes iMac price by $100, blames price of parts

SAN FRANCISCO: Apple Computer Inc. on Wednesday jacked up the price on its

low-end iMac desktop computer by $100, complaining that prices of components

were going through the roof.

The price increase takes the consumer line, introduced with great fanfare

early this year, up to a range of about $1,400 to $1,900, Apple said in a

statement.

"Since the new iMac's launch in January, memory costs have tripled and

flat-panel (display) costs have increased with little relief in sight,"

Phil Schiller, senior vice president of worldwide marketing said in the release.

Apple has shipped 125,000 iMacs and is now shipping more than 5,000 per day,

Greg Joswiak, Apple senior director of hardware marketing, said in an interview.

He added that component pricing was affecting all personal computer makers.

Apple at its Macworld Tokyo exposition also debuted free software that lets

its iPod portable music player hold contact lists, an improvement that heads the

music player, which can also act as a portable hard drive, toward the personal

digital organiser (PDA) arena where Apple has no product.

"It is not trying to be a PDA. It is a music player with some extended

functionality," Joswiak said. The contact list does not synchronise with

any contacts program, he added. In addition, Apple introduced an iPod with 10

gigabytes of storage, twice the previous level, for about $500, $100 more than

the 5-gigabyte version, and a 23-inch high-resolution display.