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▲ nrmitchi 2 hours ago

Those are completely disjointed things though, and one of them (price of RAM) is currently very-much outside Apple's control.

IF memory prices drop, apple product prices will likely drop. And it will stay lighter.

▲indemnity an hour ago | parent [-]

Apple never drops prices, never. It will go straight into their margin.

I have an M1 Max but I am not paying 50% more than a few months ago to upgrade.

I have bought Apple laptops since 2004 but I can’t justify the current extortionate pricing, so I’ll sit it out (permanently if need be).

▲stouset an hour ago | parent | next [-]

The pricing isn’t extortionate. It’s literally just them having to pass on the insane price of RAM (itself priced due to the massive demand and supply shortage).

And you’re right that Apple is hesitant to change prices on models. But that cuts both ways. Apple notably held off of bumping prices across their product line for a considerable amount of time, very plausibly eating the cost of RAM price increases.

It would definitely be atypical but given the unique and extreme nature of the current situation, I wouldn’t be shocked if they cut prices somewhat once the RAM situation relaxes.

▲FireBeyond 12 minutes ago | parent [-]

Right up to the launch of the Apple Silicon Mac Pro in mid 2023, Apple would still happily charge you early 2019 prices for the 2019 Xeon processors in the previous edition, 2019 prices for memory and flash (I ordered mine with 32 and used OWC to go to 192GB, because for the exact same chips, spec, timings, OWC wanted $1,050 for 192GB, and Apple wanted $3,000 for 160GB, i.e. minus the 32GB already rolled into the price. Similar $1K to $3K margin for 8TB of SSD - I bought a PCIe card with 4x2TB Samsung Pro drives).

▲nrmitchi an hour ago | parent | prev | next [-]

> Apple never drops prices, never.

The first gen apple TVs were $300.

The second gen was $99.

The first and second 4k gen were $179.

The third gen was $129.

They might not drop prices on existing models, but they have definitely dropped prices on new versions of product lines.

▲FireBeyond 7 minutes ago | parent [-]

Ironic that you chose the Apple TV. There's a bit of nuance, and the 3rd gen was $149, not $129 (the latter is Wifi only, when the first two were Wifi+Ethernet).

They then bumped UP the 3rd gen: $249 and $199.

And the 4th gen is $299.

So we've not only "not dropped" prices on the 4K Apple TV, but they've gone up forty per cent.

▲whizzter 15 minutes ago | parent | prev | next [-]

Apple knows how much of a premium they can charge vs other manufacturers, if everyone else starts dropping they will as well.

▲2muchcoffeeman 34 minutes ago | parent | prev | next [-]

Spoken like someone who’s not tried to buy any computer anywhere in the last year.

All the pricing is bad everywhere.

▲dzhiurgis an hour ago | parent | prev [-]

Everyone who still holds on their M1's are now permanent underclass. You will never be able to afford new MacBook.

▲rconti 39 minutes ago | parent | next [-]

This makes no sense. What makes the owner of a 6 year old laptop less able to afford a new MacBook than the owner of a 2 or 3 or 4 year old laptop?

If anything, the longer you hold your laptop, the more you amortize the cost, and can more easily afford the next one.

▲dzhiurgis 2 minutes ago | parent [-]

Everyone who profited from AI boom has upgraded their macbooks already. The rest can go back to putting fries in the bag.

▲mjcohen 43 minutes ago | parent | prev | next [-]

I have an M1 Max MBP (16", 64GB, 4TB) and I see no need to upgrade. I got it when the M3 came out so I saved about $2,000.

▲whycome an hour ago | parent | prev [-]

I'm in that class. My iPhone has more power than my MacBook it seems. But I do love the m1 still for what it can do.

▲aenis 42 minutes ago | parent [-]

I just bought a portable keyboard for my iPhone - coupled with a SSH client, its quite a useful combo these days.

I had to prove the OP wrong though; my M1 Max's keyboard died this year, and I had to upgrade to the M5 max this season, after the hikes. I kissed 9k EUR goodbye for something not much better functionally than the M1 Max it replaced, bought for 3.4k Canadian dollars in the wonderful 2021 (that was barely over 3200 EUR back then).