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"Repairability" really means two things: 1) You can fiddle with the insides 2) You can fix it when it goes wrong Despite what you may read on places like HN a

"Repairability" really means two things: 1) You can fiddle with the insides 2) You can fix it when it goes wrong Despite what you may read on places like HN and Reddit, no-one in the real world gives two hoots about #1, and if you make a product that has good reliability then #2 becomes moot.

smoyer 11y ago
I got my (mid-2012) rMBP about the same time as a friend got the equivalent MBP. I had to order mine with 16GB of RAM but he ordered his laptop with 8GB of RAM and installed a much cheaper 8GB to reach 16GB. There are a few things that it's nice to "fiddle with". Being able to swap out the SSD is another convenience.
abroncs 11y ago
> no-one in the real world gives two hoots about #1 That's not true at all. I have plenty of non-technical people who chose to upgrade their laptops as time goes on, even if they don't do it manually themselves. Same goes for desktops.
maxerickson 11y ago
It's clear enough that users do not place a high priority on serviceability. It's harder to draw conclusions about how much absolute value is placed on it when it barely exists in a product category.
- dublinben 11y ago
  They certainly don't at the time of purchase, but many regret that decision when they need expensive repairs. There's a reason why large enterprises still issue Lenovo/Dell/HP business class notebooks. A field technician with minimal training can fully rebuild one in an hour. That's not possible with anything from Apple.
martinp 11y ago
Even if Apple uses high quality components that fail less frequently, it's still computer hardware at the end of the day. Hardware fails, no matter how much QA you do, so #2 is never moot. Experienced bad memory on a MBP Retina (late 2013) recently, it was purchased in December 2013. You can't swap out the memory because it's soldered to the motherboard, so the entire motherboard has to be ordered from Apple and replaced. This wouldn't be so bad if you could easily move the SSD to a new Mac, but that's not an option either.
- hyperbovine 11y ago
  So you shell out $1500 for one of these guys plus AppleCare. Three years of free, no questions asked repairs, then the thing lives an indeterminate amount of time, dies, and you do it all over again. When you look at how much people are comfortable spending these days on wireless, cell phones, digital services in general, I think most of us are fine with that scenario. The days of buying a PS/2 in hopes of passing it down to your grandkids are long gone.
masklinn 11y ago
> no-one in the real world gives two hoots about #1 I was reasonably glad I could swap more RAM and an SSD (twice) into my current machine.

smoyer 11y ago

I got my (mid-2012) rMBP about the same time as a friend got the equivalent MBP. I had to order mine with 16GB of RAM but he ordered his laptop with 8GB of RAM and installed a much cheaper 8GB to reach 16GB. There are a few things that it's nice to "fiddle with". Being able to swap out the SSD is another convenience.

abroncs 11y ago

> no-one in the real world gives two hoots about #1 That's not true at all. I have plenty of non-technical people who chose to upgrade their laptops as time goes on, even if they don't do it manually themselves. Same goes for desktops.

maxerickson 11y ago

It's clear enough that users do not place a high priority on serviceability. It's harder to draw conclusions about how much absolute value is placed on it when it barely exists in a product category.

dublinben 11y ago
They certainly don't at the time of purchase, but many regret that decision when they need expensive repairs. There's a reason why large enterprises still issue Lenovo/Dell/HP business class notebooks. A field technician with minimal training can fully rebuild one in an hour. That's not possible with anything from Apple.

martinp 11y ago

Even if Apple uses high quality components that fail less frequently, it's still computer hardware at the end of the day. Hardware fails, no matter how much QA you do, so #2 is never moot. Experienced bad memory on a MBP Retina (late 2013) recently, it was purchased in December 2013. You can't swap out the memory because it's soldered to the motherboard, so the entire motherboard has to be ordered from Apple and replaced. This wouldn't be so bad if you could easily move the SSD to a new Mac, but that's not an option either.

hyperbovine 11y ago
So you shell out $1500 for one of these guys plus AppleCare. Three years of free, no questions asked repairs, then the thing lives an indeterminate amount of time, dies, and you do it all over again. When you look at how much people are comfortable spending these days on wireless, cell phones, digital services in general, I think most of us are fine with that scenario. The days of buying a PS/2 in hopes of passing it down to your grandkids are long gone.

masklinn 11y ago

> no-one in the real world gives two hoots about #1 I was reasonably glad I could swap more RAM and an SSD (twice) into my current machine.