3 ms·

> Why would Apple do that? Your entire product feels bad, when you run out of RAM. It seems so off. One reason is anchoring - an old thing that you see everywh

by izacus 3y ago

> Why would Apple do that? Your entire product feels bad, when you run out of RAM. It seems so off. One reason is anchoring - an old thing that you see everywhere, e.g. car industry. You see a poster saying "new Tesla, 24.999$" but that model is a joke lacking everything you want. But the number is baked into your brain, so you don't feel like you paid a lot when you take out a Tesla for 49.999$. Apple constantly does that stuff with their cheapest models - iPad Air is 599$ with puny, barely usable 64GB of flash storage. When you decide you want one, you'll probably have to get the only other model - 256GB for a massive price jump of 750$. Same thing is going on with MacBooks - the 8GB models are there to establish lowest price for ads and marketing debates. They might even work for some people if they're careful, but you know you kinda need more RAM for it to not chug while running. And that will be an extra 200$ or 20% of the price. Thank you.

mratsim 3y ago
Wouldn't anchoring be damaging in this case, you anchor some number and by having to pay more by a lot, you feel the loss more acutely? It sounds to me more like the real estate agent trick of presenting a poor house, a luxury house and something in-between but with the best markup for the agent. Also they get to say "starting from $XXXX" in marketing material to get foot in the door.
- izacus 3y ago
  You're actually right that it works both ways - marketers sometimes anchor something with higher price (to make it seem more luxurious) and sometimes at lower price (to make it feel for people that they paid less than what they did). But the whole point of the effect is that it misleads your feelings around the value of the product and I guess it still works well since it's been used for century in marketing.
jstummbillig 3y ago
My thinking here is, that RAM is not a concept normies understand as a value proposition. It's like putting bad wires into something, and charging for better wires. If the devices fail because of poorly isolated wires, nobody would think "ah, that's my bad, I'll buy the wires upgrade next time". Contrast this with a a better camera in a phone that makes prettier pictures, or a bigger battery in a car, that helps you drive further. There is a tangible value add. In a world, where users are increasingly uninterested in tech RAM, for normal use seems to be in the wire category. It's just a thing for everything to not fail and feel like shit. Are there really enough users who would think "of course, more RAM is required" instead of just being annoyed at Gmail crashing for no apparent reason and it being damaging to the Apple brand?

by izacus 3y ago

mratsim 3y ago

Wouldn't anchoring be damaging in this case, you anchor some number and by having to pay more by a lot, you feel the loss more acutely? It sounds to me more like the real estate agent trick of presenting a poor house, a luxury house and something in-between but with the best markup for the agent. Also they get to say "starting from $XXXX" in marketing material to get foot in the door.

izacus 3y ago
You're actually right that it works both ways - marketers sometimes anchor something with higher price (to make it seem more luxurious) and sometimes at lower price (to make it feel for people that they paid less than what they did). But the whole point of the effect is that it misleads your feelings around the value of the product and I guess it still works well since it's been used for century in marketing.

jstummbillig 3y ago

My thinking here is, that RAM is not a concept normies understand as a value proposition. It's like putting bad wires into something, and charging for better wires. If the devices fail because of poorly isolated wires, nobody would think "ah, that's my bad, I'll buy the wires upgrade next time". Contrast this with a a better camera in a phone that makes prettier pictures, or a bigger battery in a car, that helps you drive further. There is a tangible value add. In a world, where users are increasingly uninterested in tech RAM, for normal use seems to be in the wire category. It's just a thing for everything to not fail and feel like shit. Are there really enough users who would think "of course, more RAM is required" instead of just being annoyed at Gmail crashing for no apparent reason and it being damaging to the Apple brand?