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I'm in the same boat (with everyone, it seems). One remaining big differentiator, for me, is the resell value and service support of Macs. I can use a Mac for t

I'm in the same boat (with everyone, it seems). One remaining big differentiator, for me, is the resell value and service support of Macs. I can use a Mac for three full years, under warranty, and then turn around and sell it used the day AppleCare expires. And, I can regularly get 50-60% of original sale price (realizing that I've also sunk $300 for AppleCare and taxes). After three years, you'd be hard pressed to give away a Windows machine. This means, all things considered, the Mac premium isn't really a premium, but actually great value.

owenwil 10y ago
Very true - when I sold my Mac I was blown away that it had retained 60% of the resell value, and that Apple would still help me with support. I agree that the misnomer that Apple's "premiums" are ridiculous is far too out there - the amount of benefit I received from being able to take a Mac to the store and get it fixed on the spot can't be calculated.
smt88 10y ago
> After three years, you'd be hard pressed to give away a Windows machine Because they actually update the hardware...
- curun1r 10y ago
  No, it's because there are new, low-end PCs that can be bought. There's no low-end Mac, so it means that people who don't want a Mac but don't want to spend as much buy used Macs. If Apple sold a $400 Mac, you wouldn't be able to give away a 3-year-old Mac either.
sz4kerto 10y ago
I spent apprx. $2500 on a returned Lenovo workstation (box hasn't been opened) maybe 1.5 years ago. It has 64G ECC RAM and 20 physical cores, but it also has a lot of room for expansion (it can, theoretically, have 768G RAM). I don't need to sell this in 1.5 years, probably not in 3-4 years. After 5 years, it'll certainly worth >$1000.
bobsam 10y ago
I know multiple people who regularly buy 3-5 year old Lenovos. Not at 50% of the original price, but still...
makecheck 10y ago
While that has been true in general for Macs, is that going to be true for Touch Bar Macs? They are more expensive to buy, not really “great” over their predecessors, and there is no doubt that some future-generation Touch Bar 2 with a feedback engine, etc. will be far superior to use (kind of like buying an iPad 1 with not enough memory, being too heavy, etc. and iPad 2 blowing it out of the water, not to mention Apple unceremoniously ending OS support for iPad 1). These first-generation Touch Bar laptops will really age poorly I think, I doubt they will resell as well as Macs typically have.
mod 10y ago
If you spent a comparable amount on a PC as you do on your mac, I guarantee you would not have a hard time selling it in three years. I don't care about this whole windows/mac debate, as I run linux, but my 4 year old Asus gaming machine is still quite a powerful machine and hasn't been updated outside of SSDs. It would fetch a few hundred bucks, probably 40% of its original price, and it doesn't have a cult following willing to pay a premium for...whatever it is. Used Macs remind me of used Jeeps.
wvenable 10y ago
This makes sense when the difference between a 3 year old Mac and a new one isn't that great.

owenwil 10y ago

Very true - when I sold my Mac I was blown away that it had retained 60% of the resell value, and that Apple would still help me with support. I agree that the misnomer that Apple's "premiums" are ridiculous is far too out there - the amount of benefit I received from being able to take a Mac to the store and get it fixed on the spot can't be calculated.

smt88 10y ago

> After three years, you'd be hard pressed to give away a Windows machine Because they actually update the hardware...

curun1r 10y ago
No, it's because there are new, low-end PCs that can be bought. There's no low-end Mac, so it means that people who don't want a Mac but don't want to spend as much buy used Macs. If Apple sold a $400 Mac, you wouldn't be able to give away a 3-year-old Mac either.

sz4kerto 10y ago

I spent apprx. $2500 on a returned Lenovo workstation (box hasn't been opened) maybe 1.5 years ago. It has 64G ECC RAM and 20 physical cores, but it also has a lot of room for expansion (it can, theoretically, have 768G RAM). I don't need to sell this in 1.5 years, probably not in 3-4 years. After 5 years, it'll certainly worth >$1000.

bobsam 10y ago

I know multiple people who regularly buy 3-5 year old Lenovos. Not at 50% of the original price, but still...

makecheck 10y ago

While that has been true in general for Macs, is that going to be true for Touch Bar Macs? They are more expensive to buy, not really “great” over their predecessors, and there is no doubt that some future-generation Touch Bar 2 with a feedback engine, etc. will be far superior to use (kind of like buying an iPad 1 with not enough memory, being too heavy, etc. and iPad 2 blowing it out of the water, not to mention Apple unceremoniously ending OS support for iPad 1). These first-generation Touch Bar laptops will really age poorly I think, I doubt they will resell as well as Macs typically have.

mod 10y ago

If you spent a comparable amount on a PC as you do on your mac, I guarantee you would not have a hard time selling it in three years. I don't care about this whole windows/mac debate, as I run linux, but my 4 year old Asus gaming machine is still quite a powerful machine and hasn't been updated outside of SSDs. It would fetch a few hundred bucks, probably 40% of its original price, and it doesn't have a cult following willing to pay a premium for...whatever it is. Used Macs remind me of used Jeeps.

wvenable 10y ago

This makes sense when the difference between a 3 year old Mac and a new one isn't that great.