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8 doesn’t equate to 16, and I think people very quickly realised?

As someone who recently acquired the M3 Pro, I would not be upset if Apple suddenly decided to stop being greedy and made all Mac models come with 16/18GB memory and 512GB storage as standard.

Maybe that would take too much courage.
Yeah totally. My M1 Pro 14” idles at around 16 GB (out of 32 GB) just having about 20 browser tabs and the music app open
 
Yeah totally. My M1 Pro 14” idles at around 16 GB (out of 32 GB) just having about 20 browser tabs and the music app open
I have 18GB, and my computer is idling at 11GB with Music and a FireFox browser with no website loaded.

I think most people don’t realise that they do run out of RAM and the computer is just copying to virtual memory on their SSD.

Just because it’s working, doesn’t mean it’s efficient.
 
My mom got the 8GB/1TB M3 MacBook Pro 14" because that's what you get in 3rd party retailers in Canada like London Drugs. No opportunity to upgrade to 16 GB RAM in store, only on Apple.ca. She wanted more storage as she prefers to keep everything in one place. Her old 2015 MBP developed "spicy pillow" so she had to upgrade ASAP.
She says she has no complaints regarding performance of her 8 GB Mac.

Do a favor for your mother and subscribe her to google drive/ iCloud service and back up her photos/videos ect.... keeping everything on a laptop, with no backup in 2023 is just silly.
 
Apple does QC checks on a small minority of new Macs. But they run a complete top to bottom analysis and if necessary, repair on every.single.refurb.
...yes and? One is brand new and the other's used. Why would they take apart a unit that was just put together hours ago? Every component going into a Mac is checked regardless, that's why you'll find every brand new Mac's got at least one battery charge cycle and a couple hundred GB written to the SSD already. You make it sound as if Apple just ships these new units to customers and hopes they'll turn on.

Every refurbished Mac was once a new Mac, and I'd rather have the unused new hardware. With iPhones and iPads at least you get a new battery and a new housing, with Macs it's really just a used device that was inspected and cleaned by Apple. I buy both brand new from Apple and used from craigslist and never had a single issue with either one and we have more than a dozen Macs in the family.

If a brand new device really has an issue out of the box that wasn't caught it still makes more sense to make the customer exchange it rather than doing labor intense manual QC on every single unit leaving the factory in order to keep cost down. It's the customer who would have to pay for it.
 
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Why are people so angry at Apple being greedy? Apple has ALWAYS been greedy. It's always been sketchy. They make good products, but their financial strategy is extremely anti-consumer and it's always been that way. It's in Apple DNA.
 
Refurbished M3 Pro/Max Macbook Pros should be available soon. Can be priced significantly lower than a brand new Mac
 
and single external monitor...

Some of these feel like buyer's remorse or joke configurations. Who buys 8GB/1TB or 8GB/2TB?
You ask: "Who buys 8GB/1TB or 8GB/2TB?"
Answer: All those [IMO wrong-headed thinkers] here who constantly revel about how well their MBPs work with low RAM and/or those who consider swap speeds to SSD fast enough for substantive workflows. Folks who refuse to study up on M-series UMA RAM and do not mind intentionally making their pricey new MBP sub-optimal, as long as it "works." And we know Mac OS will make it work.

There are a few folks like granny with her email or a well managed K-12 scenario where cheaper low RAM boxes are indeed appropriate.
 
The scenario in which component manufacturers and OEMs collude to keep prices high, something like this https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/DRAM_price_fixing_scandal but more pointed to OEMs. Is there a specific law? I have no idea. But I love to see someone explain the markup.
You say "...component manufacturers and OEMs collude to keep prices high." The key word in your diatribe is collude. Not coincidence, but collusion. That is unlikely to be happening with Apple because managers dumb enough to collude do not get hired, let alone moved into high decision-making levels; Business 101.

Specifically avoiding pricing collusion is a basic function of management. Corruption occurs of course, but it usually does not happen with relatively openly managed firms like Apple. More common is when one corrupt monster controls a firm. I have well-known examples in mind but do not want to offend the mods ;~).
 
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You say "...component manufacturers and OEMs collude to keep prices high." The key word in your diatribe is collude. Not coincidence, but collusion. That is unlikely to be happening with Apple because managers dumb enough to collude do not get hired; Business 101.
I'm not a lawyer so I can't say how this would be carried out but I think it's reasonable to question how a $5 chip turns into $300.
 
The scenario in which component manufacturers and OEMs collude to keep prices high, something like this https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/DRAM_price_fixing_scandal but more pointed to OEMs. Is there a specific law? I have no idea. But I love to see someone explain the markup.

While there are a variety of pricing laws that exist, what leads you to conclude that Apple is violating any of them in this situation? You had specifically stated, "This should be illegal in 2024." What is the "this" you feel Apple is doing illegally? Just because a company charges more of a premium for something doesn’t automatically make it illegal.

If restaurant "A" traditionally charges $1.50 for 12 ounces of Coke and restaurant "B" traditionally charges $7 for 12 ounces of Coke, should restaurant B's actions be considered "illegal"?
 
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I'm not a lawyer so I can't say how this would be carried out but I think it's reasonable to question how a $5 chip turns into $300.
1) Read up on Apple's Unified Memory Architecture and how RAM is fixed on-chip, not plugged into a relatively remote module.
2) Sellers can charge whatever they want to for a product; buyers do not have to buy if they do not want to. Law only comes into play if there is collusion. Or possibly if Apple could be adjudged a monopoly, but that is unlikely with Apple being just the fourth largest seller of personal computers.
 
While there are a variety of pricing laws that exist, what leads you to conclude that Apple is violating any of them in this situation? You had specifically stated, "This should be illegal in 2024." What is the "this" you feel Apple is doing illegally? Just because a company charges more of a premium for something doesn’t automatically make it illegal.

If restaurant "A" traditionally charges $1.50 for 12 ounces of Coke and restaurant "B" traditionally charges $7 for 12 ounces of Coke, should restaurant B's actions be considered "illegal"?
I think most reasonable people would agree that when a $5 item sells for 300, something is amiss. This is tantamount to price gouging. This is a commoditized product, not a specialty item, so there's no proprietary process that is increasing the value of this product. Unless you can point to something?
 
1) Read up on Apple's Unified Memory Architecture and how RAM is fixed on-chip, not plugged into a relatively remote module.
2) Sellers can charge whatever they want to for a product; buyers do not have to buy if they do not want to. Law only comes into play if there is collusion. Or possibly if Apple could be adjudged a monopoly, but that is unlikely with Apple being just the fourth largest seller of personal computers.

https://www.macworld.com/article/2130071/entry-level-m3-macbook-pro-8gb-memory-ram-performance.html

"There’s nothing special about Apple’s RAM. It’s high quality, and it’s integrated on a very wide memory bus very close to the M3 chip, but those manufacturing complexities don’t make the RAM cost more. Apple’s charging you $200 for RAM it buys for $30."

I never said what IS the case. I said what SHOULD be the case. 8GB in 2024 is an absurdity.
 
I think most reasonable people would agree that when a $5 item sells for 300, something is amiss. This is tantamount to price gouging. This is a commoditized product, not a specialty item, so there's no proprietary process that is increasing the value of this product. Unless you can point to something?
I think most reasonable people would agree that when a $5 item sells for 300, something is amiss. This is tantamount to price gouging. This is a commoditized product, not a specialty item, so there's no proprietary process that is increasing the value of this product. Unless you can point to something?
Like I already said to you: Read up on Apple's Unified Memory Architecture and how RAM is fixed on-chip, not plugged into a relatively remote module.

Apparently you have not studied up on UMA, in which case my words become a waste of time. Hint: Apple is adding a "proprietary process that is increasing the value of this product." If you think "This is a commoditized product" then just go buy said commodity.

You of course are welcome to think things cost too much. I think Ferraris cost too much and therefore I do not buy them.
 
I think most reasonable people would agree that when a $5 item sells for 300, something is amiss. This is tantamount to price gouging. This is a commoditized product, not a specialty item, so there's no proprietary process that is increasing the value of this product. Unless you can point to something?

I used Coke in my example which is a fairly "commoditized" product by itself. Assuming both food businesses in my hypothetical example paid around the same wholesale price (let’s say 50 cents), one had a markup 6.5 times greater than the other. Not really that unusual nor would it necessarily suggest something illegal was going on.

I'm not sure where you are getting your $5 and $300 figures from but if similar markups to my example above were applied to the Apple situation, I don't think that alone would necessarily suggest something illegal was going on either.
 
Like I already said to you: Read up on Apple's Unified Memory Architecture and how RAM is fixed on-chip, not plugged into a relatively remote module.

Apparently you have not studied up on UMA, in which case my words become a waste of time. Hint: Apple is adding a "proprietary process that is increasing the value of this product." If you think "This is a commoditized product" then just go buy said commodity.

You of course are welcome to think things cost too much. I think Ferraris cost too much and therefore I do not buy them.
From the article that I linked, there's no mention of the actual process adding value. It's more the chip design. Why don't you provide a source explaining the value add making the RAM so expensive?
 
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Do a favor for your mother and subscribe her to google drive/ iCloud service and back up her photos/videos ect.... keeping everything on a laptop, with no backup in 2023 is just silly.
Easily solved with an external drive and Time Machine
 
...yes and? One is brand new and the other's used. Why would they take apart a unit that was just put together hours ago? Every component going into a Mac is checked regardless, that's why you'll find every brand new Mac's got at least one battery charge cycle and a couple hundred GB written to the SSD already. You make it sound as if Apple just ships these new units to customers and hopes they'll turn on.

Every refurbished Mac was once a new Mac, and I'd rather have the unused new hardware. With iPhones and iPads at least you get a new battery and a new housing, with Macs it's really just a used device that was inspected and cleaned by Apple. I buy both brand new from Apple and used from craigslist and never had a single issue with either one and we have more than a dozen Macs in the family.

If a brand new device really has an issue out of the box that wasn't caught it still makes more sense to make the customer exchange it rather than doing labor intense manual QC on every single unit leaving the factory in order to keep cost down. It's the customer who would have to pay for it.
agree to disagree.
 
I was one of those that turned in an early 2023 M2 MacBook Pro as I underestimated my needs before purchasing the device. I took a hit, but did get $1,325 from Apple toward my late 2023 M3 MacBook Pro Max with 36gb ram and 2tb drive. Much happier now and can do everything I need. I will say that even after about 9 months of use at my desk, the unit I turned in was in pristine shape. J
 
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