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Apple Doubles the Price of RAM Upgrade on Entry-Level 13-Inch MacBook Pro
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Stuff like this makes me even happier with my decision to NOT replace my 2013 15" MBP with another MBP last November. At the time I made the decision mainly due to the butterfly keyboard (my wife has a MBP with it and I hate that keyboard). I bought a Lenovo X1 Extreme with a far better keyboard and I was actually able to upgrade my own RAM and add a second SSD myself. My current machine runs Windows 10, PopOS, Ubuntu, and Elementary OS and I am very happy. Linux is so good today that if a few more software companies would start making software for the OS both Mac OS and Windows would have some serious competition. If I didn't use Ableton Live I would completely remove Windows and be quite happy. Anyway, Apple's prices for memory upgrades were ridiculous before this price increase. I did play with the 16" MacBook Pro today at Costco, and honestly I was surprised because MacOS takes forever to launch applications. It seriously seemed slow.
1. Price is of secondary concern when it comes to buying Apple. Apple is not a "tech" company or a "computer" company or a "watch" company: it's a fashion company, so all this talk about pricing is quite irrelevant if one is arguing price based on anything other than what people are willing to pay for fashion accessories.
2. A MacBook Air is more than adequate for 90% of folks who require a laptop computer and who choose to go with Apple.
3. Those that require the MacBook Pro are "high end users." They know what they need and they are able to afford the price increase, which at $100 is trivial in the big scheme of things.
4. It's an interesting discussion, but I agree with the individual who suggested the headline was clickbait: "doubling the price" seems a lot more troublesome than simply saying the increase was $100 and brings the price in line with all other models. In fact from the point of view, there is no story here except to say the price of memory upgrade for the 13-inch MacBook Pro is now in line with the rest of the models.
2. A MacBook Air is more than adequate for 90% of folks who require a laptop computer and who choose to go with Apple.
3. Those that require the MacBook Pro are "high end users." They know what they need and they are able to afford the price increase, which at $100 is trivial in the big scheme of things.
4. It's an interesting discussion, but I agree with the individual who suggested the headline was clickbait: "doubling the price" seems a lot more troublesome than simply saying the increase was $100 and brings the price in line with all other models. In fact from the point of view, there is no story here except to say the price of memory upgrade for the 13-inch MacBook Pro is now in line with the rest of the models.
For one of the biggest company in tech with by far the highest profit margin and the self-imposed claim to be a company with a special social conscience (I know, I know...), in this particular situation maybe not to milk its customers even more? In the end it's all about the money, so indeed nothing we should be really surprised by, but still...
Yeah, in my opinion iPhone still blows away Android. I have no hesitation about that. Also, the iPad Pro is a great device as well. Macs, however, seem to have been on pause for the last five or six years, probably because Apple has neglected the platform mostly since the era of Steve Jobs ended (unless you really think the touch bar was innovative, I guess).
I got my 2010 13" mac book pro running once the pandemic started, put a new SSD, upgraded the ram to 16gb, and man it's fast and I can fix it if it breaks again. I can't even replace the battery on my 2018 mac book pro, its just better to buy a new mac. The "adhesive" BS is stupid
Just to clarify, the quoted price is for an 8 Gigabit chip. You would need 8 of them to make a 8Gigabyte module. They may also use higher-density chips in the Macbook, which may be more pricey.
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I am in the same boat. But I think Apple as a corporation does not like this. They feel that people rocking their computer for 10+ years are hurting new sales. What they don't get is, I would have already bought a new iMac, if I could upgrade the SSD or graphics card easily. So I hold on to my old machine and start looking for alternatives...
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Oh sure. I know it's not just Apple - it's just an industry-wide trend that I take issue with. I'm grumbling here because it's an Apple forum discussing Apple hardware.
100% false. Shipping from China to US has sky rocketed. Not only that, shipments can be held up in customs for weeks now. Shipping via sea is still reasonable, but there are minimum weights (which shouldn’t be a problem for Apple).
I talked to multiple factories for my product over the last couple weeks and was given similar shipping rates from all of them, so it wasn’t 1 place just trying to take advantage of the current situation. And for air they were all 2-3x what they were a few months ago.
If Apple‘s products are so robust, well designed and built to a higher standard, why don’t they offer them as standard with a warranty beyond a year. Many PC’s come with 2 & 3 year warranties. If they're so reliable, why does it cost you 20% of the original purchase price to extend the warranty? Seems Apple has less confidence in their products than their consumers.
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all that is true...but clearly shipping costs are not the issue as that would have increased the price of everything, not the cost of a single component on a single product. I’m pretty sure that the new 16GB module doesn’t double the size and weight of the laptop?
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I seem to be going in the opposite direction with Apple laptops where I am buying older PowerPC models (on a nostalgia binge).
You’re leaving Apple because of $100? I mean yeah, the “doubled” clickbait article sounds scary but it’s really not that bad in the long run. If you’re getting a computer to last years, you won’t be getting a baseline computer anyways. Get the $1799 model.
I just remind myself that there's no such thing as free lunch, and that despite that fact, Apple does not charge us these days (as it used to, if some people are too young to remember), for either our MacOS upgrades or for bundled software. So maybe the RAM upgrade price hike is about, uh... lunch money.
That said, I hope some of the increase goes towards Apple developers taking more rough edges off Catalina and reading those feedback notes about enhancements...
That said, I hope some of the increase goes towards Apple developers taking more rough edges off Catalina and reading those feedback notes about enhancements...
But you'll still be here 12 years from now complaining about Apple.
I believe a lot of Samsung (the brand I find most frequently in Macs, or at least used to) DRAM is manufactured in Korea and the US as well as China: https://www.samsung.com/semiconductor/about-us/location/manufacturing-centers/
Macs are definitely going down the crapper and with talks of them being full ARM soon I don't want anything to do with them. Hard to get rid of the iPhone right now until dual-SIM for Android isn't garbage.
Perhaps they were seeing slower sales of the Ice Lake model, and this will make the upsell easier. $1699 for an 8th-gen with 16/512 is a lot harder sale now compared to $1799 for a 10-gen 16/512 model that has a faster processor, better graphics, 2 additional TB3 ports, and somewhat better speakers.
I’m still good with iPhones but sometimes I have a look at Android every now and then.
Because Apple regards AppleCare as a profit center. It's pretty much the only thing Apple Store associates have ever had to try to push. Why 20%? Depends on the model, of course. Laptop warranties are always more expensive because (1) people drop them, fling them off tables, and get a lot more than ht keyboard wet when they spill coffee on them; and (2) the parts that are most often replaced (the display and the main logic board) are expensive, and time-consuming to replace.
I dunno, I'm having a whole lot of fun tonight (well this morning in the wee hours) with my new MacBook Air. It's a sweet machine. Of course I'm coming from a pretty beat-up mid-2012 MBP running Mojave off a rotational drive, so that could have something (!) to do with my being a far happier camper now. All I know is it's a pleasure not to have time to do my nails while waiting for the thing to boot or find a place to stash a new file. Anyway I'm still a fan even if I have a laundry list of to-dos for Apple. But they're not about the money for the hardware. And yeah, the iPhones are not only great but the new SE is a steal for the price. Heh, maybe we're paying more for RAM to even things out...
I wonder if they are increasing the cost of RAM so they can have a RAM upgrade sale next month? "
RAM Upgrade, 50% off this month only!"
RAM Upgrade, 50% off this month only!"
I’ve never really complained about Apple as I’ve never actually had a problem with Apple products.
This makes sense. It's actually a common business strategy to design your pricing to nudge your customers into making certain choices.
Nothing wrong with it. And it's not that the price is hidden, it's written there. The fast food industry is the master of this technique.