"My background is in music, where folks routinely pay 10x for an instrument that is 20% better (arbitrary numbers, but I think the point holds). If you're a dev

"My background is in music, where folks routinely pay 10x for an instrument that is 20% better (arbitrary numbers, but I think the point holds). If you're a developer, your laptop is your "axe" that you make money with day in and day out. Does it really matter if it costs $1k or $3k? If it makes an employee half a percent more productive, what is that worth to a business?" You didn't say six month upgrades, but you're definitely referring to upgrading for minimal gains. This is not how things work in the enterprise, at all. There are typically long life cycles, especially in end user machines, as hardware is depreciated. I said nothing about what people can afford. I responded to you justifying a .5% productivity increase, for spending $3000 on a new laptop. That DOES NOT happen. Just the cost of getting some one setup on a new machine, washes out any .5% productivity, as it's wasted getting things configured.