New Apple offer negates dumping penalty

Press, 7 August 1982, Page 19

New Apple offer negates dumping penalty

By

WARREN MARETT

Apple Computer has turned the dumping duty levied on its special offer to schools into an attractive sales advantage that will consolidate its newly gained hold on the school market.

Apple was offering schools a computer for $l2OO — onequarter of the normal price. After a complaint from the New Zealand manufacturer, Pplycorp, the Customs Department imposed an $B2O dumping duty on the offer.

. Now the Customs Department has agreed that the Apple distributor in New Zealand, CED Distributors, Ltd, of Auckland, can avoid the duty by selling the computer for $2020, and CED Distributors will include in the price additional products, that keeps the offer attrac-

tive. In return for the extra $B2O the schools will receive two additional programming languages plus an extra memory card for the computer. the normal price for these three products is well in excess of $B2O. The languages are Pascal and LOGO, both popular in schools.

No duty will then be payable by the schools or CED Distributors.

“Polycorp did the schools a favour,” said the sales director of CED Distributors (Mr Brian Eardley-Wilmot). “The high schools will now have more advanced computers than most schools in the world.”

When the special offer closed last month 370 schools (of 393 high schools in the

country) had placed orders, according to Mr EardleyWilmot. A week ago schools were asked to confirm their orders or be prepared to pay $B2O duty. Since then only three schools have cancelled their order.

Now that additional products will be provided for the extra cost, high schools would be unwise to cancel their order. The offer is exceptional value for money. The general manager of Polycorp was not available for comment yesterday. “I don't see how Polycorp will survive,” said Mr Eard-ley-Wilmot, “unless the Government keeps pouring funds in.”

Polycorp manufactures a school computer called Poly. The major finance for Polycorp has come from the

Development Finance Corporation. With the success of its special offer, Apple Computer has established the Apple as the de facto standard for school computers in New Zealand. No other supplier is likely to- make significant sales until the Apple computers are replaced or the Government subsidises school computers. As if to prove its dominance beyond any doubt. CED Distributors will soon make another offer that gives high schools two Apple computers for the price of one. This will continue to make the Apple substantially cheaper then the Poly or any other competing computer. The offer will then be extended to intermediate and primary schools.