400 bucks for a drive that sells for about 40-50 bucks elsewhere. AND no discount for the 80G drive that's included with the price of the unit.

Excellent, they have sunk to new lows of totally ripping folks off, congratulations on the new low!

You mean the BTO addition of $100 for putting a 160GB drive in place of the _40_ GB drive in the standard configuration?

Adding $100 to the price for an extra 120gb (not 80gb, as you indicate) is not charging $400 for a $40-50 drive.

40GB is too little, I am already deleting stuff from it!

paulc's comments appear to be off base.

The base price of the appleTV is $300. The new price is $400. The price difference is approx. $100.

By looking at macsales.com, I can see that a 160GB 2.5" drive costs $167.99. A 80Gb 2.5" drive costs $69.97 (there is no price for a 40GB drive at macsales.com). So the increased cost to apple is approximately $98.02 (in reality lower because there is no middle man profit).

So to summarize, Apple is charging an extra $100 in sticker price but their cost has also gone up by almost $100.

paulc -- is my math wrong?

comprehension skills = E Did you even read the article or know anything about Apple TV? You work for Microsoft don't you?

Apple is actually, for one of the first time I can remember, charging less than I would expect for an upgrade.

This now makes Apple TV quite appealing to me. 160GB for $100 more. I'm in!

Hey you guys don't pick on paulc,

Apple should be so ashamed for putting a 40GB drive in it in the first place, that they should sell the bigger drive version cheaper than the other one. That is the only thing that would stop me whining.

add in a TV tuner and I'm in. If Apple TV is suppose to be an iPod for your TV. I want to be able to record my TV shows right to my Apple TV, and then sync them to my iPod or Laptop.

I know, keep dreaming, this would cut into the iTMS profit margin.

To: rjpotts, why would you need a tuner in the TV since it's already being hooked up to a "TV"? You're right, it's suppose to be an iPod for your TV, not a TV for your TV.

it looks like merely a model with an optional HD difference_

Where's the BTO ?

That's like calling the 8GB iPod Nano a BTO option_ ---------------------- in other news ---------------------- I agree the 160Gb built in was a good idea [should be $300 though]

they ned to axe the 40Gb option [which they most likely will]

APPLE seems to be taking a cue from SONY with the release of the PS3 when they had the low capcity option and the high capacity option [they stopped selling the low end option in the US]

80GB option ? Did I miss something ?

SRAY - I agree but actually your math is slightly off_

Those are retail prices you are quoting from MacSales_ Apple is buying in bulk and is probably getting the 160GB drives way much cheaper than $168 and in the long run - they've adjusted the new price for the bigger HD accordingly to compensate their profit margin_

...we can pick on anyone we want. particularly anyone who exposes himself as an idiot.