Apple Computer Inc, in an attempt to keep sales of the popular iMac moving at a frenetic pace, has now said it will offer the machine through an aggressive new financing program. The sleek all-in-one computer will now be available for qualified buyers for payments of $30 per month. Apple is sweetening the deal with in-store credit approval and no payments for 120 days, in the hopes that it can attract a large number of buyers during the holiday shopping season. For the price of three pizzas a month, you can own an iMac, said Apple interim CEO Steve Jobs in a statement. What Jobs doesn’t mention is that you have to buy 201 pizzas over the next five-and-a-half years. With a 14.89% interest rate – including during the first 120 days – and a loan origination fee, the buyer ends up making 67 payments of $29.74 for a grand total of $1,990, or nearly $700 more than the $1,300 retail price. The new deal will be available at Apple resellers nationwide, including the Apple store-within-a-store outlets at CompUSA, and will use a web-based loan application to approve the transaction instantly. Buyers will also have the option to finance add-ons, such as printers, scanners, storage devices and software – which can be done up to 90 days after the initial purchase. Apple also beefed up the value proposition by announcing that all iMacs will now come loaded with the new operating systems upgrade, Mac OS 8.5, as well as Adobe Systems Inc’s PageMill 3.0, which allows customers to create and manage web pages. In addition, the machines will include ATI Technologies Inc’s Rage Pro Turbo graphics controller and 6MB of video RAM.
