RAM upgrades are fairly common. Most of my friends, even the non-technical ones, have upgraded the RAM in their macbook pros. When I worked at Geeksquad we us

RAM upgrades are fairly common. Most of my friends, even the non-technical ones, have upgraded the RAM in their macbook pros. When I worked at Geeksquad we used to get people in all the time for RAM upgrades ($29 labor charge). I'm still using an early 2008 macbook pro thanks to a cheap RAM upgrade. Additionally there is a huge secondary market for macbook pros. Plenty of people help pay for their new $2k+ computer by selling their old one. That won't work if it's completely obsolete in 3 years.