It's interesting to watch everyone doing their absolute nut. Why drink the poison?... as the Buddhists say.
The price rises is a major feature but it may be a sign of the times nor is it without historical precedent. "Apple tax" is not a new term but it now takes on a double meaning.
A Few thoughts
1) Apple have a big Tax settlement with Irish Gov, min 13 Billion (already set aside in escrow acc), potentially 19 Billion. Yea they have a ton of cash in the Bank but how will this effect business going forward in terms of cash and no longer being able to play by their own rules in a Tax haven such as Ireland. There is a long game going on here and they are carefully positioning operations.
2) XE rates have caused problems from small to giant global traders. I'm sure they might be trying to recoup losses from the swings which happened far in advance of this price reset. There is only so long you can hold those positions before prices reflect the XE reality.
Other observations.
Many posters admit they are considering holding on to their 5+ year old macs because they see no viable option with the recent line reset for various reasons.
I can not think of any other brand of computer that you would have that option because the hardware quality and contemporary OS makes it entirely possible consideration regardless if it pans out that way.
Looking at things from Apple's point of view. I think they reimagined their line relatively well and I think it stays well within their own clearly defined philosophical parameters and established operational norms.
Apple also want to create a machine that is reliable not simply for the user but as a company who has to support it's performance and durability in so many environments, less problems for them means more profit too and less iterations other than internal swaps is more profit... Ok so remember that 5+ year old mac you think you'll hold onto for another 5 years. Yea, that didn't happen by accident did it!
Are we getting it?
People buy $100 android phones and they're useless after a year of usage. You really do still get what you pay for with tech. It's still a very physical medium.
So to me it looks like as if they've established the base format for the next hal decade at least that is provisioned for the innovation ahead. I think they are set to mature quicker, so we can assume there will now be a lesser delay in the next updates.
The beauty is Apple have made a uni unibody revision so it will take time to reduce initial costs as ROI requires time. So I imagine initially it's always going to be expensive and early adopters always pay a higher price. Perhaps within two years you will see one or two internal changes with newer intel chipsets and price changes as they gauge the markets and XE changes if any. They had to start somewhere. This is it.
So with Less ports of varying standard, less to go wrong. Less physical ports. Less support. One cable/connector to rule them all. I can see it being the norm in 5 years time, when it will be 10 years ago machines had a umber of differing ports some of which will be virtually phased out by many other manufacturers.
GPU's that will not melt and perform under demanding all day use or destroy your battery. Not for gamers but for all round users. Apple are designing a machine to work for the maximum amount of users at the peak of performance as reliably and continently as can be, it's a broad niche. The battery is locked in like an iPhone so appear to be even more sensitive to this with their design. Maybe they'll have a swap or upgrade program in the future to satisfy demand or even a MBP trade in program like iPhone.... (which is not available to all markets!)
You don't buy a sports car with a huge gas guzzling engine to daily round commute to work right? You buy a car that will last .. maybe 5+ years and is optimum for reliability and durability?
So why isn't the new mac of today going to last you 5+ years the same way your mac of today has already? Yea the one you bought 5 years ago. Isn't that the deal, you get something that's going to last you and the price reflects it.
In 5 years times what's going to be the innovation that makes you consider trading up from your 2016 MBP? The point is the sooner Apple did this the sooner it's a USB C future.
Final thought. I've seen those who need high powered laptops for 3D rendering. They are cheaper yea by a mile. They come with higher grade GPU's, but they are ugly, heavy and noisey and so many other things, all the things I so loathed about my old window desktops with a billion spinning fans but more portable. Such machine will not sit well in corporate boardroom, office space and portable to meetings etc. etc.
