There is a line in the sand where you just accept bad things happen. People would encrypt their data/drive in the past. Seemed like it was a good solution. If you get your laptop stolen, perhaps that is just a societal risk you need to accept. So you have a locked laptop, someone now steals it and sells it for parts. Do the parts need to be activated now too? Then this bleeds into the right to repair your own equipment with parts you can scavenge from old machines you find in the future. Now you have to go to apple to repair your machine which inevitably results in a new machine purchase because of inflated costs of entire assembly replacements. This is a monopolistic practise from apple for the entire life span of their products. Apple is not dumb. They are absolute geniuses on selling themselves and maximizing profit margins. There is no part in which apple doesn't reap all the profit now. Sale, upgrade sale for storage and memory, accessory sales only compatible with apple devices, dongles for proprietary ports. I would make the argument of external display sales now because they are basically the only company that sells 5-6K displays that work with their HI-DPI scaling resolutions (they reduce GPU performance scaling an out of range DPI resolution 4K monitors as punishment for going third party). They make money from App Store sale revenues, iCloud services which they initiate on sign-in... repair, battery, trade-in, recycling. If you try to move away from apple for any of this, you can't... I really think all the marketing hype of them being the good guys and saving the world because they recycle your old machine is just PR nonsense. It is a culture driven by premium profit margins. Tim Cook has literally turned every machine into a highly maximized efficient production cost. It started with the iMac the instant jobs died, removing ram slots, getting rid of magnets holding the glass and replacing with sealed gaskets. all to save part costs and make it less user upgradeable going aftermarket for ram upgrades. It then moved to the Mac Pro, and all the portable devices. I am sure the butterfly keyboard was a severely cost reduced keyboard that bit them in the ass in the end. I don't know how to state the case any further. Apple is not the same company. They don't sell computers, they sell disposable devices now. These are boxes built on cost effective production at maximized profit margins for the total ownership.. all in the benefit of apple. If you give up on that device you stay in the cycle again by buying another apple device to replace your old one because you are stuck with final cut/logic or your data is held hostage in iCloud.
Tim has spent his entire time at apple perfecting this to make stock holders happy. Apple is forgetting who apple is again. This is NOT what 1999-2010 apple was like. I'll say it again. $20,000+ for a mid ranged MacPro.. $400 for the castors for the case. $1000 for a monitor stand. If you think this is normal.. well... I am just in a different universe I guess. The M1 is a really cool idea in processor idea. But apple is not interested in implementing it in a way to make it better for the professional user. We will see with the Mac Pro if it is ever released. I really hope they create a new subset version of the M processor for pros that allows user expandable and serviceable upgrades. It most likely won't though.
PC's are still outperforming. Technology is making huge leaps right now in regards to board bandwidth. DDR6, PCIe7, wifi7, thunderbolt 5 ... all coming soon... These things are going to make it a challenge for apple to keep up with a SOC design. I don't know how apple will be able to keep up making every faction of a computer. They are still struggling with GPU designs inside an SOC. I am not talking about media acceleration with video in final cut... I am talking gpu compute for real 3D artists and heck .. even gamers... These machines are still niche. If they have something up their sleeve, that will be great... I still think they are ridiculously priced disposable devices now though. The power/performance argument means nothing to a an actual power user.
Most average people don't sell their Macs independently... They will trade-in to apple if anything. Most just close the machine up and put it in a corner to drop off at donation centre or e-waste centre. At which point it will never be "RESET" and end up in landfill or hopefully recycled now because it can't be repurposed. I think you grossly over estimate people's intelligence and understanding of how to properly dispose of their apple computers. This again benefits apple as the resale market will be ultra narrow, spawning new sales. If you think any of this is not planned out by apple, you are very naive.
This is the apple I used to know for pricing on "Professional" machines: https://www.apple.com/newsroom/2003/11/18Apple-Introduces-New-Dual-Processor-1-8-GHz-Power-Mac-G5/
Here is the apple you think is going to give you good money for your trade-in:
Apple Called Out for 'Brutal' Mac Trade-In Values Following Launch of New Models
Apple is facing criticism online for offering poor Mac trade-in values following this week's launch of new MacBook Pro and Mac mini models. ...www.macrumors.com
So much wild speculation and conspiracy theories with no proof or substance. And you keep moving the goal posts.
I’m at a loss on how to respond to this or take any of it seriously.
If you hate Apple’s attitude, policies, philosophies, practices, etc. so much, why are you even discussing Apple? Sounds like PC’s and Android phones would serve your needs/desires just fine. Why are you here?
