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I had a black macbook in 2007 which I sprung the extra $200 for because I didn't want to be one of "those people" with a gloss white macbook and the extra $500
by shiftpgdn 5y ago
I had a black macbook in 2007 which I sprung the extra $200 for because I didn't want to be one of "those people" with a gloss white macbook and the extra $500 for a macbook pro was just too much. It was my daily driver and I got a lot of mileage out of it until 2015 (with some upgrades along the way) or so when I replaced it with a chromebook. I was really hoping this article would have something insightful but it literally just says:
"Was this modest storage upgrade worth the $200 premium? Absolutely not; Apple was charging more for the black enclosure because it could."
- crossroadsguy 5y agoSo saying the same thing in an insightful way would have been acceptable? Because that’s literally what it is. One can say “Apple prices are exorbitant”, or “Apple offers its customers a premium and select pricing line”.
- simonlc 5y agoI thought the cpu was faster too?
- Forgeties79 5y agoSame specs except 250gb HDD instead of 160gb which, in my opinion, isn’t something to scoff at in 2007/2008. Overpriced? Sure. But $200 wasn’t exorbitant for the upgrade. The blog dismisses that a little too readily IMO.
- stingraycharles 5y agoYeah my initial thought was “because people are willing to pay more for it”; I’m happy to hear that that was somewhat the conclusion of the article. People are irrational, they value things that don’t necessarily cost more to make, and sometimes even the fact that they need to pay extra for it, is in fact why they want it. I’m reminded of that silly $1000 app in the beginning of the AppStore: https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/I_Am_Rich https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/I_Am_Rich
- caycep 5y agoAesthetic benefits, perceived at least, are worth $200 to some people...and that black thing looked cool. Especially SWEs who work in products w/ zero marginal costs shouldn't complain about market value of a product vs. BOM costs
- KarlKemp 5y agoIt’s quite a phenomenon that tech seems culturally committed to a disdain for anything it deems “not real”, such as emotions, aesthetics, law, or philosophy. …especially if you consider that even product that don’t end as ‘vaporware’ are often immaterial. They’ll joke about the uselessness of philosophy, then argue the differences between == and ===. It’s really no surprise from there that they’ve happily embraced “fiat isn’t real” conspiracies and seek to improve that terrible state of affairs with a zoo of inscrutable algorithm-money.
- rurp 5y agoI agree with some of this but totally disagree with the point about aesthetics. Form over function is a major strain of modern design, especially within Apple specifically. Just as one example, I've been using a work issued macbook for over a year and I still regularly send the screen brightness or volume off the rails because I lightly rested a finger on the stupid touchbar. But hey, it looks cool to use the volume slider!
- KarlKemp 5y agoYes, „form follows function“ is the version of aesthetics best suited for the enjoyment of people who are unwilling to admit that they can enjoy something without the need to legitimize their emotions with a sciéncy backstory. More broadly, look at any discussion of web fonts here and you’ll find three suggestions to give everyone „three fonts and be done with it, screw those designers and the strange feelings I get when I see them on their skateboards.“
- deleted 5y ago[deleted]
- thegreenandgrey 5y agoAnother happy Chromebook user here. Apple has become too expensive when one can easily spec a PC laptop to be far better for less and have money left over for accessories. I can write code on my Chromebook (Linux), I have an SSH terminal for remote servers, and a great, always-on and updated machine. Total cost: $650 (Pixelbook Go). I've never understood why so many programmers and sysadmins feel the need to go straight to the Mac without considering any other option. I have an issued laptop from work running Fedora 35 and I in no way feel like I'm missing out. I'm not impugning Mac users, but it sometimes feels as if some of them have a holier-than-thou attitude towards anything not Apple.
- bnt 5y agoWhere can I learn more about web development on Chromebooks? I thought it was just Chrome made to boot as an OS, not that you have full Linux access.
- dijit 5y agoI guess running gitpods or code-server counts? I'll admit to salivating over this way of working, all the grunt happening somewhere else but my keystrokes being low latency (since they're locally rendered and lazily synced by the web browser). But anyone who says a chromebook is comparable to a macbook is smoking something. I'm not even saying that as an Apple Lover, I use linux, but I'm aware of the limitations of the platforms. IME most people use macs not because they think they're better than everyone else; but because the development experience is very "happy path" -- and the hardware build quality is high.
- LordDragonfang 5y agoChromeOS has natively supported running full linux containers for a several years, with basically full GUI support. You can essentially treat it as a normal linux dev machine whose browser lives outside your chroot.
- bitwize 5y agoWhat are you talking about? Apple offers the most powerful laptop on the market, with the lowest power draw and longest battery life, for the price of a midrange PC laptop.
- pdpi 5y agoThe stereotype for "those people" is that they're willing to pay a premium for purely cosmetic differences, but the emblematic white shells are just the cheapest option available. By paying extra for the black macbook, you ironically became one of "those people" by trying to not look like one. :)
- danuker 5y agoIndeed. If, on the other hand, you had bought a cheap white one and used some masking tape and spray paint, you would have Thought Different™.
- DonHopkins 5y agoFJ!!! was way ahead of the curve in 1998 with his fuzzy PHKL: Pink Hello Kitty Laptop. https://web.archive.org/web/20011212120420/http://www.exonome.com/fj/phkl/ https://web.archive.org/web/20011212120420/http://www.exonom...
- deleted 5y ago[deleted]
- icehawk 5y agoHaving own both the black and white Macbooks around that time, the extra $50 (over the white version with the same drive space) was worth it for a wrist rest that didn't look like it stained as fast as the top case on the white MacBook.
- mikepurvis 5y agoOTOH, I had the original white MacBook and ended up getting the topcase changed for free like 3 or 4 times though the first few years I had that machine (while the AppleCare was in effect). It was annoying that it was necessary, but pretty spiffy to periodically get a brand new keyboard and trackpad.
- mcronce 5y agoTo be fair, "because the market will pay it" is entirely the correct answer. It's certainly not interesting, but it is correct
- tetsusaiga 5y agoYeah, I'm not sure why this is notable at all really
- brimble 5y agoThis does seem to be contrary to, at least, many people's intuition about how pricing does or should work. I've seen an awful lot of small business owners start out pricing at what seems fair to them, as a professional in their space. Turns out market price was 50% or more higher than what they were charging, every single time, and getting over "I feel like I'm ripping people off" is sometimes a significant hurdle for them. In fact, it's my understanding that notions of fairness hold greater sway over pricing in some cultures than they do in the US and similar places. That seems to be closer to how people naturally want to operate, from what I've observed.
- BeFlatXIII 5y agoIMO, just price economics remains the default intuition for most humans. “The price is what you can sell it for” is too nihilistic for most people to accept.
- 7speter 5y agoThe real hack was to get the black macbook off the refurb store for the same price of the new white macbook. Same warranty and apple gave all their refurbs a look over. Sure you didnt get the white box but the regular brown box isn’t bleached but no one cared in 2007 anyways so maybe i’m wrong
- amatecha 5y agoyeah I bought a certified refurb a couple times. saves some money, item is indistinguishable from used
- focusedone 5y agoOn the note of exclusivity, remember when the trash can MP shipped with black Apple stickers? Think I still have a stash of those somewhere.