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MareLuce

macrumors 65816
Original poster
Sep 26, 2010
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Cost of ownership math on upgrading maxed out 16" MBPs every 2 years.

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46% resale value is too low for M1 macs. I'd guess it'll be well over 55% at the end of the 2nd year mark, unless Apple releases something vastly amazing that'll tank the resale value.
 
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46% resale value is too low for M1 macs. I'd guess it'll be well over 55% at the end of the 2nd year mark, unless Apple releases something vastly amazing that'll tank the resale value.
Well that is what they give right now.
My retail MSRP $1250+tax M1 Air 512gb is worth $670+tax when trade-in to Apple right now in Oct 2021. Remember it seeing as $720 couple months ago. Which is basically 54% of residual value left. Our M1 Airs will be 1 year on Nov 17.
 
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Good thing many of us buying these to do actual work on them can make that "actual cost per month" with an hour or less of using the machine.
 
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a business lease is paying 90% of retail most times. And when the lease matures you don't own the machine. It only works for big corporations that need fixed exact costs for the yearly budgeting. For small shops it's better to buy the machines imo.
Plus, I can’t think of a feature that would make me upgrade and not keep the machine for 4 years-ish.

Cellular? No
Notch removal? No
Even thinner bezels? No
Face ID? No
All great features and ones I’d like, but ..

hmmm.
Better screen? Maybe. How could it get better?
Same features but thinner and lighter? Yea, maybe.
 
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What are you doing as work with it to justify the cost of upgrading every two years? If its more of a want than a need, I suggest just play with it at the store every weekend and settle for a $329 iPad and put that money towards investments for retirement.
 
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I'm upgrading after 2 years for the first time ever.
I bought the base model 16" MacBook Pro in November 2019. While I still like it, I want something that doesn't get so toasty when doing small to moderate jobs. I fully understand heavy lifting would get it toasty & drain battery more quickly — but still. So I'm kind of disappointed in it. I don't fully blame Apple for this however.

The way Apple silicon is going, the base model 14" will be about 100% faster than the base level 16" I bought almost 2 years ago. And will cost less $ than the 16" did. That said I'm not sure about the 16" to 14" transition so I'll be watching the videos tomorrow!
 
The question is, I guess, when should we return the machine to get maximum resale value before it loses too much?

If we resale too early though, the monthly cost will be too high…
 
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The question is, I guess, when should we return the machine to get maximum resale value before it loses too much?

If we resale too early though, the monthly cost will be too high…
That is what i got from being in US. When you live in 3rd world country then the deal is pretty easy... you scrape $1000 and make your best bet whether it is a dell xps or macbook. Then you stick with your choice for 5-8 years until you scrape another $1000 for an upgrade. Pretty much dead second hand market also not helping the issue.
Well in US so many deals/cashbacks going on that you have to always seek for the best exit opportunity may it be in less than 1 year or more than 1 year.
What i got is that Apple is bumping iPhone sales through much higher trade-in values: wife's 12PM only lost $300 or $100 if going by the carrier deal when upgrading 12PM to 13PM. While my toy (Mac Air M1) lost value from $1250 to $670 - pretty steep if you ask me given that i own it only 10 month. Given that i paid $935 for BestBuy open box deal, then i am losing $265 which is a bearable depreciation for the given 10 months. But not everybody buys open box sweet deals to save $300 and i have no option to upgrade into: Macbook Pros 14, 16 are overkill in terms of price and no new Air coming to switch.
Anyway, will wait for Mac Air M2. New Pros are good but it is obvious that they will be outpaced and dropped in the price by M2 Pro, Max.
 
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I think the resale value of the last generation of Intel Macbook Pros is difficult to predict and may be at a low point currently.
It’s outdated tech, so people in the market for a computer now probably want the M1 family. Plus concerns of longer term support. There is also still some new Intel stock around so people who need x86 have options.

On the other hand, value of high-end spec models of that generation (2019) could be propped up for a few years as new Intel Macs become unavailable and some people have legacy software that requires an Intel processor. I do think that low end models (e.g. base MBP and MBA etc) may not fare well.

A better comparison for this iteration might be 2 year resale values of the first generation devices in the last 10 years e.g. rMBP in 2012-2013, USBC models from 2016 etc.
 
Thanks for the perspective. We may also need to reframe our upgrade cycles with the new M chips. We’re leaving a +10% IPC (at most) every gen on Intel, and entering a whole new world with AS. If the A chips are anything to go by, we may be looking at +20% on multi core, esp. when TSMC N3 comes in.
 
Why so salty?
Salt? Are you trying to eat your MacBook?

Thanks for the perspective. We may also need to reframe our upgrade cycles with the new M chips. We’re leaving a +10% IPC (at most) every gen on Intel, and entering a whole new world with AS. If the A chips are anything to go by, we may be looking at +20% on multi core, esp. when TSMC N3 comes in.
This is a good point. I wonder how quickly Pro Macs get to the point of the iPad Pro — where the software can’t catch up to the hardware.
 
More than just the OS, I think the whole Mac software ecosystem will need to seriously catch-up with the hardware, at least in the first few years. In that way it's good that M1 has been out for a year already. It gave developers some time to lay the groundwork for the Pro chips.
 
I bought a 2007 and upgraded in 2014. I am upgrading now in 2021. So I upgrade every seven years. I make the old one the backup when I upgrade and I expect the 2014 to last until 2026. I replaced the battery this year so the battery should be good for the duration.
 
More than just the OS, I think the whole Mac software ecosystem will need to seriously catch-up with the hardware, at least in the first few years. In that way it's good that M1 has been out for a year already. It gave developers some time to lay the groundwork for the Pro chips.

I suspect that macOS has a bunch of APIs to do a bunch of efficient operations, particularly with image, video and audio processing. The so-called "secret sauce". Software may become considerably faster if and when developers take advantage of these APIs.
 
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