8 ms·

If people continue to pay Apple's (sometimes) outrageous prices, why should they lower them? (I'm just as guilty, having spent over two grand on MBPs multiple

If people continue to pay Apple's (sometimes) outrageous prices, why should they lower them? (I'm just as guilty, having spent over two grand on MBPs multiple times!)

bcrosby95 7y ago
Despite their price, there was a time when macbooks were only 5-10% more than the PC equivalent laptop. People that were complaining about its price were inevitably comparing it to bottom of the barrel PC laptops, not higher end business laptops that had comparable specs. I haven't priced out any recent macbooks to know if that's still true though. Glancing at the new 16" macbook pro, it seems like it might be reasonably priced for what you're getting.
- Polylactic_acid 7y ago
  There is so much that goes in to a laptop that doesn't make it to the spec sheet either. People only look at a couple of specs to decide how much it should cost but some laptop makers put everything in to those specs and cheap out on everything else and you end up with a laptop with a fast CPU but brittle plastic, A TN display, a DAC that hisses and a whole bunch of other nastyness
- x3sphere 7y ago
  Yeah, the MBP 16” is pretty comparable to the Dell XPS in price - at least when comparing base models. However, the costs go up a lot if you spec out a custom config (+$400 just for 32GB RAM). Then the MBP starts looking quite a bit more expensive. Overall I don’t think they’re a bad buy though if you want macOS.
  - tracker1 7y ago
    That said, the Mac pro, even starting at the base price is pretty outrageous... I mean, I get $500 for the case and $1500 for the MB, but the rest just seems to be too much in aggregate, and even more ridiculous for mfg upgrades out of the box.
  - ksec 7y ago
    >Yeah, the MBP 16” is pretty comparable to the Dell XPS in price - at least when comparing base models. The Dell XPS [1] with a comparable spec cost $1650 compare to MBP 16" $2399. In the old days Apple would have priced it closer to $2199 or slightly lower. Somewhere along the line they started making Mac same margins as iPhone. [1] https://www.dell.com/en-us/shop/deals/new-xps-15-laptop/spd/xps-15-7590-laptop/xnber5cr656ps?view=configurations https://www.dell.com/en-us/shop/deals/new-xps-15-laptop/spd/...
- ksec 7y ago
  >Despite their price, there was a time when macbooks were only 5-10% more than the PC equivalent laptop. I seriously doubt 5-10%. You are talking about minimum $50 - $100+ dollar difference, that has never happened. Mac has always been roughly 20-30% more expensive than a laptop with comparable specs. So $1000 comparable spec laptop, Apple will sell you one for $1300, ( But with more expensive upgrades ) The 30% has been fine for years, the quality and finishing as well as macOS was well worth the price tag. But in recent years it hasn't been 30% at all.
  - olavgg 7y ago
    I remember when I bought my first Macbook Pro in 2014, the specs compared to Dell/Lenovo was in the same price range. There was no Apple Premium. So I decided to give Apple a chance, and I am still using that laptop today, it has really been great value for my money.
JohnJamesRambo 7y ago
As you lower the price, more people can and will buy your product giving you (hypothetically) more profits than before. I’d like to think Apple has done all their homework about what price point to sell at to maximize profit but honestly at this point I think they just make up whatever huge number they want for the Mac Pro price to make it seem cool and go with it. https://blog.asmartbear.com/price-vs-quantity.html https://blog.asmartbear.com/price-vs-quantity.html
kevin_thibedeau 7y ago
Don't feel too bad. 386 PCs used to sell for $15k in 2020 dollars.
- james_s_tayler 7y ago
  When I was in high school in the early 2000s I had a friend who told me his parents purchased a 386 when they first came on the market where I live and they paid around $15k. My jaw just dropped. Then my friend just started chuckling at his parents folly when looking back even at that time it was such an expensive paperweight. Heck, thinking about it now it probably came up in conversation because at the time I had a hobby of picking up old computers that people had thrown out and cobbling together the working parts and built a 386 and a 486 that way. Good times.
jdkee 7y ago
Apple has been successfully using the Good, Better, Best three-tiered pricing model for quite some time. I remember buying a Powerbook 140 at the time when I really wanted the 170 but could not justify the increased price. From wikipedia: "Intended as a replacement for the Portable, the 140 series was identical to the 170, though it compromised a number of the high-end model's features to make it a more affordable mid-range option. The most apparent difference was that the 140 used a cheaper, 10 in (25 cm) diagonal passive matrix display instead of the sharper active matrix version used on the 170. Internally, in addition to a slower 16 MHz processor, the 140 also lacked a Floating Point Unit (FPU) and could not be upgraded. It also came standard with a 20 MB hard drive compared with the 170's 40 MB drive."
- wmf 7y ago
  So where's the "good" Mac with a PCIe slot?
AmericanChopper 7y ago
The MBP isn’t even a very good example of Apple price gouging. Any other laptop that your can get for less money is likely to have rather significant trade-offs.

If people continue to pay Apple's (sometimes) outrageous prices, why should they lower them? (I'm just as guilty, having spent over two grand on MBPs multiple times!)

bcrosby95 7y ago

Despite their price, there was a time when macbooks were only 5-10% more than the PC equivalent laptop. People that were complaining about its price were inevitably comparing it to bottom of the barrel PC laptops, not higher end business laptops that had comparable specs. I haven't priced out any recent macbooks to know if that's still true though. Glancing at the new 16" macbook pro, it seems like it might be reasonably priced for what you're getting.

Polylactic_acid 7y ago
There is so much that goes in to a laptop that doesn't make it to the spec sheet either. People only look at a couple of specs to decide how much it should cost but some laptop makers put everything in to those specs and cheap out on everything else and you end up with a laptop with a fast CPU but brittle plastic, A TN display, a DAC that hisses and a whole bunch of other nastyness
x3sphere 7y ago
Yeah, the MBP 16” is pretty comparable to the Dell XPS in price - at least when comparing base models. However, the costs go up a lot if you spec out a custom config (+$400 just for 32GB RAM). Then the MBP starts looking quite a bit more expensive. Overall I don’t think they’re a bad buy though if you want macOS.
- tracker1 7y ago
  That said, the Mac pro, even starting at the base price is pretty outrageous... I mean, I get $500 for the case and $1500 for the MB, but the rest just seems to be too much in aggregate, and even more ridiculous for mfg upgrades out of the box.
- ksec 7y ago
  >Yeah, the MBP 16” is pretty comparable to the Dell XPS in price - at least when comparing base models. The Dell XPS [1] with a comparable spec cost $1650 compare to MBP 16" $2399. In the old days Apple would have priced it closer to $2199 or slightly lower. Somewhere along the line they started making Mac same margins as iPhone. [1] https://www.dell.com/en-us/shop/deals/new-xps-15-laptop/spd/xps-15-7590-laptop/xnber5cr656ps?view=configurations https://www.dell.com/en-us/shop/deals/new-xps-15-laptop/spd/...
ksec 7y ago
>Despite their price, there was a time when macbooks were only 5-10% more than the PC equivalent laptop. I seriously doubt 5-10%. You are talking about minimum $50 - $100+ dollar difference, that has never happened. Mac has always been roughly 20-30% more expensive than a laptop with comparable specs. So $1000 comparable spec laptop, Apple will sell you one for $1300, ( But with more expensive upgrades ) The 30% has been fine for years, the quality and finishing as well as macOS was well worth the price tag. But in recent years it hasn't been 30% at all.
- olavgg 7y ago
  I remember when I bought my first Macbook Pro in 2014, the specs compared to Dell/Lenovo was in the same price range. There was no Apple Premium. So I decided to give Apple a chance, and I am still using that laptop today, it has really been great value for my money.

JohnJamesRambo 7y ago

As you lower the price, more people can and will buy your product giving you (hypothetically) more profits than before. I’d like to think Apple has done all their homework about what price point to sell at to maximize profit but honestly at this point I think they just make up whatever huge number they want for the Mac Pro price to make it seem cool and go with it. https://blog.asmartbear.com/price-vs-quantity.html https://blog.asmartbear.com/price-vs-quantity.html

kevin_thibedeau 7y ago

Don't feel too bad. 386 PCs used to sell for $15k in 2020 dollars.

james_s_tayler 7y ago
When I was in high school in the early 2000s I had a friend who told me his parents purchased a 386 when they first came on the market where I live and they paid around $15k. My jaw just dropped. Then my friend just started chuckling at his parents folly when looking back even at that time it was such an expensive paperweight. Heck, thinking about it now it probably came up in conversation because at the time I had a hobby of picking up old computers that people had thrown out and cobbling together the working parts and built a 386 and a 486 that way. Good times.

jdkee 7y ago

Apple has been successfully using the Good, Better, Best three-tiered pricing model for quite some time. I remember buying a Powerbook 140 at the time when I really wanted the 170 but could not justify the increased price. From wikipedia: "Intended as a replacement for the Portable, the 140 series was identical to the 170, though it compromised a number of the high-end model's features to make it a more affordable mid-range option. The most apparent difference was that the 140 used a cheaper, 10 in (25 cm) diagonal passive matrix display instead of the sharper active matrix version used on the 170. Internally, in addition to a slower 16 MHz processor, the 140 also lacked a Floating Point Unit (FPU) and could not be upgraded. It also came standard with a 20 MB hard drive compared with the 170's 40 MB drive."

wmf 7y ago
So where's the "good" Mac with a PCIe slot?

AmericanChopper 7y ago

The MBP isn’t even a very good example of Apple price gouging. Any other laptop that your can get for less money is likely to have rather significant trade-offs.