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Other Do you Buy Apple Stuff for other People?

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scottcampbell

macrumors 6502
Original poster
Aug 7, 2017
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I'm constantly surprised by what I read in the forums here...

"Tempted to upgrade my mother in law to the XR..."
"Just ordered this Apple Watch for my cousin!"
Etc.

I'm genuinely curious... do you buy Apple stuff for other people?

I manage the devices for my wife and I, but beyond that... I might get someone an iTunes gift card, but that's it!

Those of you who make these purchases: Why? Do they pay you back or are you spending $500-1,000 as a gift? How can you have the mental capacity to keep up on what devices your family members have?

:p
 
OMG yes!

Is there a therapist in the group that can help those of us with this "problem"...? Is it even a problem...? I can't be the only one in here who didn't click on this thread because it sounded like such a familiar scenario...

For me, I personally don't understand the enjoyment of luxury brand clothes, makeup, or even jewelry- but I TOTALLY get the experience of having a newer phone, iPad, a nicer display, a bigger screen. And both my parents would never spend even $10 on a device, much less an upgrade, though I enjoy seeing them smile when I swap their old device out with a newer one with a larger screen, a better resolution, etc..

If I would guess, I think these are huge reasons that contribute to this:

1) The benefits of such a gift translate to my/our (Apple fans) experience easier than other things, we know the "ah-ha" that they will experience altogether once they start using the device.

2) These devices or upgrades are often items that the recipient would never buy for themselves, and would otherwise miss out on the experience if it wasn't for the gift.

3) Apple devices are especially easy to use, are very reliable, and are a much smoother internet experience for those who aren't too computer savvy. Since my Mom started using Facebook on an iPad instead of a Windows computer, you can only imagine how much easier my life became as her on-call tech support number. It used to be the stuff she'd click on would cripple the computer every few days, but with the iPad it's seldom an issue at all. They actually are ideal gifts for parents in a lot of ways.

I would suggest though, that newer devices for teens or younger aren't a great gift idea- nobody cares for a phone like someone who paid for it. I've had 20+ phones in the last 10 years and never broke a screen, but my nephews seldom have a screen go unbroken for a full year, having me or their parents eager to fix or upgrade them. But that's just another generalization.

I would be very interested in what other people think about this as well, and/or their motivations, I'm sure this is more common than we realize. Interesting topic! I'm going to watch where this goes.......
 
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Sometimes, not always. I take a view on what the recipient needs, sometimes like my in-laws, the wanted a tablet each for Christmas. I went for iPads, because they need something that just works and keeps them reasonably safe from random clicks on things they should not go near.

Largely, I would not recommend any apple product to someone unless there is a good reason, there are so many more worthwhile products out there for most.
 
yes.
both iPhones and macs.
but only buy it for them on a special occasion such as starting college, or something like that.
otherwise, i always gift people my old macs if they havent bought any mac yet and i know they can handle a "think different" than windoz environment. but the apple ecosphere is not lost on these people new to mac. they learn its benefits within a year.
 
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I don’t, not new ones anyway. I don’t even think it’s socially accepted to give such expensive gifts to family and relatives, unless it’s your spouse. I do however sometimes pass on my used devices to my less tech-interested parents and siblings.
 
Secubia said:
I don’t, not new ones anyway. I don’t even think it’s socially accepted to give such expensive gifts to family and relatives, unless it’s your spouse. I do however sometimes pass on my used devices to my less tech-interested parents and siblings.
Click to expand...

thanks.

i am wondering about the "I don’t even think it’s socially accepted to give such expensive gifts to family and relatives..."

is this because the sheer act of giving away a used device to someone could be interpreted as charity from a person with "more" giving to a person with "less" ?

i dont quite understand why its not "socially acceptable".
 
Yes, but only for my son and husband.

Bought a MBP for my son while he was in college. Thinking of getting him the AirPods 2 for his birthday, maybe an iPad.

I was fully prepared to buy my husband the Nike AWS4 for his birthday, but he was pretty clear that he would get it himself. He gave me other options instead.

He bought me the S3 for my birthday in 2017. He also bought me a couple of versions of the iPod Touch years ago.

We all buy our own phones because we typically keep them longer than a year. Passing along a 3+ year old phone doesn’t make sense for us.

Any other family members would get an iTunes card at best IF I was giving an Apple product as a gift. Since my husband, son, and myself are the only ones in the immediate family circle with iPhones or even invested in Apple products, it’s really a moot issue. And I won’t be the one to introduce (or reintroduce) them either.
 
All I know is that if Apple devices are too expensive to buy for myself its highly (and I'm totally understating things with that word) unlikely that I'm buying Apple devices for someone else, spouse or otherwise. Will I recommended them, yes. Buy, hell no!
 
Banglazed said:
Yes, so I can earn points for gift cards ;)
Click to expand...

Smart. I’ve done exactly the same. I bought an iPad and iPod touch recently, but will use the points for a later Apple purchase. (I.e Series 5, AirPods, etc.) those points really do come into play when you find something later that you want, but maybe not right now at the moment.
 
Relentless Power said:
Smart. I’ve done exactly the same. I bought an iPad and iPod touch recently, but will use the points for a later Apple purchase. (I.e Series 5, AirPods, etc.) those points really do come into play when you find something later that you want, but maybe not right now at the moment.
Click to expand...

Yup, I def make sure of these points and trade in offer from purchasing the XR/XS so I put it towards a device I will get in the future. I have enough to get either a MacBook or iPhone. :cool:
 
Well, I got my brother AirPods for Christmas, even before I ended up getting a set for myself. My mom gets my hand-me-down iPhones when I upgrade, and people have bought Apple products that I recommended. That's the extent of my giving people Apple products.

Not that I'm against buying them as gifts, but the people whom I'm close enough to to buy premium electronics for either don't want them or buy what they want themselves.
 
niji said:
thanks.

i am wondering about the "I don’t even think it’s socially accepted to give such expensive gifts to family and relatives..."

is this because the sheer act of giving away a used device to someone could be interpreted as charity from a person with "more" giving to a person with "less" ?

i dont quite understand why its not "socially acceptable".
Click to expand...

The not acceptable part I meant about giving new devices as gifts. What I mean by that is that either you don’t have that kind of money to buy gifts that expensive, or if you do it’s not really okay to brag about it. Used gifts are definitely okay I think.
 
Secubia said:
The not acceptable part I meant about giving new devices as gifts. What I mean by that is that either you don’t have that kind of money to buy gifts that expensive, or if you do it’s not really okay to brag about it. Used gifts are definitely okay I think.
Click to expand...

thanks. as i thought and wrote:
this (is) because the sheer act of giving away a used device to someone could be interpreted as charity from a person with "more" giving to a person with "less"...

thanks for the info about what is considered socially acceptable now in the USofA.
it helps me to understand about how a gift might be interpreted wrongly in America.
it never occurred to me think that gift giving can be equated with bragging.
:)
 
niji said:
thanks. as i thought and wrote:
this (is) because the sheer act of giving away a used device to someone could be interpreted as charity from a person with "more" giving to a person with "less"...

thanks for the info about what is considered socially acceptable now in the USofA.
it helps me to understand about how a gift might be interpreted wrongly in America.
it never occurred to me think that gift giving can be equated with bragging.
:)
Click to expand...

I live in Sweden so what I said might not be valid in the US though :)
 
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Indeed I do. They're great products. It's not about the money, because you are purchasing a few years of satisfaction :)
 
niji said:
thanks. as i thought and wrote:
this (is) because the sheer act of giving away a used device to someone could be interpreted as charity from a person with "more" giving to a person with "less"...

thanks for the info about what is considered socially acceptable now in the USofA.
it helps me to understand about how a gift might be interpreted wrongly in America.
it never occurred to me think that gift giving can be equated with bragging.
:)
Click to expand...

I don't live in USA. I live in Bulgaria - small country in Europe. Anyway here I would say that it is also not socially acceptable. Not because of the bragging. It's because it kind of puts pressure on the receiving end. Like if you offer such expensive gift to someone then they might think that they are expected to give you such expensive gift back.

Also honestly the minimal salary here in Bulgaria is like 1/5th of the 1000 $ so it would be highly weird and even wrong to expect that someone can give you back such gift.
 
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I have bought my wife various Apple products over the years (Shuffle, iPad Mini 4, Apple Watch). But I usually only buy her Apple products for her (usually her birthday or Christmas) if she indicates she needs to upgrade. She's not like me where she upgrades her Apple products every year or two.
 
I guide my friends into what to buy. I've recently upgraded one friend from the 6s Plus to the X and another from the 6s to the XR. Put my grandma from her S6 Edge+ to my old iPhone X. People generally ask me what to upgrade to.
 
I buy tech and provide tech support for my parents so easy enough to know what they have. It's more need-based, though. I don't upgrade their hardware unless there's something wrong/missing with their current device (bad battery, too slow, need LTE) but I don't wait for special occasions either to get them a new device.

Outside of immediate family, the only Apple devices I've gifted are an AppleTV+Netflix sub for my godparents (I provide tech support for them, too) and an iPad mini for my godchild (combined Bday and Xmas gift). The only other big ticket item I've gifted were HDTVs for both grandmothers one Christmas. They love their soap operas so it was nice to be able to spoil them.

I regularly give away my old iPad devices to relatives when I upgrade, though.
 
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