Oh how the prices have soared

[baryon]

I just saw some of my old receipts for the two MacBook Pros I bought over the past 11 years and compared them with the current price.

I was shocked to see that over the course of 5 years, the price of the top end MBP nearly doubled, from £1869 to £3374. Granted, I had a student discount, but that was only 15%. The price of the 2008 MBP was much closer to the 2013 MBP, despite it having double the screen resolution and SSD storage. The current design is almost twice as expensive than the previous one, yet it doesn't even offer anything as revolutionary as the retina display did. It's a bit thinner, has no function keys, and has a defective keyboard, that's about all the new features you get.

It just hits you harder when you see actual proof of this, and not just a vague memory.

 

[maflynn]

It just hits you harder when you see actual proof of this, and not just a vague memory.

Sadly, its the apple tax.

I opted for a Thinkpad, and while it doesn't have the same sexiness of the MBP, to be sure, the price was a lot more realistic. I paid $2,286 for a 4k touchscreen/1 TB SSD/32GB ram/i7 8850H processor with a 3 year warranty. Prior to the 2019 refresh, I looked at how much that would have run me for a similarly configured MBP and that would have run me 4,500 dollar range.

 

[turbineseaplane]

While I agree with the general thought here about Apple price increases going crazy, to be fair, I will say that it should be mentioned that the "top end" has moved up a bit over time.

Your 2nd screen is an 8 core 32GB laptop that can boost to nearly 5ghz.

Yes, that's the current "top", but the ceiling has moved higher than was possible in the past with MacBooks.

Don't get me wrong - Apple still is overcharging as always, and it does keep getting worse...

 

[MacFather]

Deleted.

 

[baryon]

While I agree with the general thought here about Apple price increases going crazy, to be fair, I will say that it should be mentioned that the "top end" has moved up a bit over time.

Your 2nd screen is an 8 core 32GB laptop that can boost to nearly 5ghz.

Yes, that's the current "top", but the ceiling has moved higher than was possible in the past with MacBooks.

Don't get me wrong - Apple still is overcharging as always, and it does keep getting worse...

Well, actually the difference between the 32GB 8 core and the 16GB quad core is 5 years, and the difference between the 8GB dual core and 16GB quad core is also 5 years. From 2008 to 2013, the specs doubled, but the price stayed roughly the same. From 2013 to 2019, the specs doubled again, but the price doubled as well. With Moore's law, a doubling in specs shouldn't cause a doubling in price, that would be insane. If anything, it's true that there are now more GPU options with much more expensive higher end GPUs.

 

[Loge]

A 17" MBP at the start of 2009, with 8GB of RAM, only a few months after the example above, cost just over £3000. So yes, prices have risen but not to the extent suggested. And that was with VAT at 15%, not 20% as now.

 

[leman]

I was shocked to see that over the course of 5 years, the price of the top end MBP nearly doubled, from £1869 to £3374

I have few issues with your comparison. First, your 2013 laptop is the pre-configured model with no upgrades. Its 2019 version is the 2.3ghz/16GB/512GB/560X — which you have configured with premium upgrades. The original price for your 2013 laptop was $2599. The current price for the comparable model is $2799. That is a price increase of roughly 7%. The inflation rate from 2013 to 2019 is around 9.7%. So when adjusted for inflation, the USD price didn't change. The USD price is essential, since its the base which Apple has been traditionally using when pricing its products in foreign markets.

Let us look at the GBP prices now. In 2013, you paid GBP 1869 (thats around GBP 1500 before VAT) . Today, the corresponding model is GBP 2699 after VAT or GBP 2250 before VAT. GBP 2250 in today's exchange rate is $2860, so that is $60 above the base price.

Conclusion: you pay basically the same price as the US customer, its just that your currency has lost a lot of its purchasing power and you have 20% VAT added to your price. Its weak pound + inflation.

P.S. I understand that your argument is that you are choosing best available GPU and RAM for your model. However, this is flawed comparison. In 2013, these options didn't exist. They do exist today, but they are not part of the base model. I'd like to see Vega Pro baseline, and I agree that Apple upgrade price for 32GB RAM is quite ridiculous, but the fact remains that they are not baseline. Vega Pro specifically, is an expensive GPU with low yields, expensive RAM (its the only laptop on the market that ships with HBM2) and expensive interconnect tech.

 

[dogslobber]

I just saw some of my old receipts for the two MacBook Pros I bought over the past 11 years and compared them with the current price.

Brexit in action.

 

[Donnation]

The prices of the new models are ridiculous, especially with flex gate, T2 crashes, and keyboard issues, a useless Touch Bar, and a comically unnecessarily large trackpad. This is why I've continued to use my 2015 maxed out MacBook Pro and got rid of my 2018. The 2015 does everything the 2018 can, just a fraction slower. But it has all of the wonderful ports and a keyboard that is a joy to type on.

After going back to the 2015, I can't put into words how much of a superior device it is then the slop Apple is cranking out right now. They are pretty to look at though.

 

[buran-energia]

Brexit in action.

The freedom buck strengthened in comparison to all currencies ever since 2014 (I'm sure whatever actions caused it back then was related to geopolitics between the West and Russia). Back in 2008, 1 euro was about 1.50$, and until recently it was 1.10$. It's not just the pound.

 

[Martius]

I have few issues with your comparison. First, your 2013 laptop is the pre-configured model with no upgrades. Its 2019 version is the 2.3ghz/16GB/512GB/560X — which you have configured with premium upgrades. The original price for your 2013 laptop was $2599. The current price for the comparable model is $2799. That is a price increase of roughly 7%. The inflation rate from 2013 to 2019 is around 9.7%. So when adjusted for inflation, the USD price didn't change. The USD price is essential, since its the base which Apple has been traditionally using when pricing its products in foreign markets.

Let us look at the GBP prices now. In 2013, you paid GBP 1869 (thats around GBP 1500 before VAT) . Today, the corresponding model is GBP 2699 after VAT or GBP 2250 before VAT. GBP 2250 in today's exchange rate is $2860, so that is $60 above the base price.

Conclusion: you pay basically the same price as the US customer, its just that your currency has lost a lot of its purchasing power and you have 20% VAT added to your price. Its weak pound + inflation.

P.S. I understand that your argument is that you are choosing best available GPU and RAM for your model. However, this is flawed comparison. In 2013, these options didn't exist. They do exist today, but they are not part of the base model. I'd like to see Vega Pro baseline, and I agree that Apple upgrade price for 32GB RAM is quite ridiculous, but the fact remains that they are not baseline. Vega Pro specifically, is an expensive GPU with low yields, expensive RAM (its the only laptop on the market that ships with HBM2) and expensive interconnect tech.

Sorry, but you are wrong. His comparison is completely ok, because he is comparing what should be the base configuration if Apple was not trying to get every single penny out of specs that are ridiculous for such an expensive laptop. I agree that the Vega Pro is expensive, but if I remove it and add 1TB SSD (which should be a standart for that higher end config) I get similar price around 3400 GBP.

Apple started to sell 16GB RAM/256GB SSD as a base MBP 15" in 2014. At that time, 16GB RAM and 256GB (not sata) SSD were quite high-end specs and they were not cheap. In 2019 32GB RAM + 512 GB SSD (or maybe 1TB SSD) are the comparable high-end specs, yet Apple still sells 16/256 as the base and the price went up for like 15-20%.

The only reason for this price increase is the dedicated GPU. The other components are just an evolution. Yes, the processor is faster, the screen is better, but it's still an evolution, so there is no reason to pay more, because in a past it didn't work like that. Of course, the MBA was very expensive in the beginning, but after 4 years the price was more than exceptable.

So IMHO is ok to compare specs that should be the base in 2019. And yes, it means the MBP price is almost double it was in 2013. I bought my laptop for a 55000 CZK: 2015 15" / 16GB RAM / 256SSD, 2.2 i7, now the model I would choose to get better specs in every way is the base 2019 + 32GB RAM + 512SSD that would cost me 93000 CZK. That is 70% more.

 

[leman]

Apple started to sell 16GB RAM/256GB SSD as a base MBP 15" in 2014. At that time, 16GB RAM and 256GB (not sata) SSD were quite high-end specs and they were not cheap. In 2019 32GB RAM + 512 GB SSD (or maybe 1TB SSD) are the comparable high-end specs.

Well, 32GB RAM is a situational upgrade at best and only became available last year. The MBP got 16GB of RAM as a standard in 2014 since retina assets were larger in size and that amount of RAM was the sweet spot. Five years later, this has not changed. Not to mention that 16GB RAM in 2014 was cheaper than what it is now.

SSD — I agree. The SSD prices did fell around 50% and a fast 512GB SSD these days costs under $200. It is true that Apple uses more expensive SSD chips than most vendors, and their configuration is unique as well, but I also think that this is where they could be giving the customer more for the price.

 

[Martius]

Ok

Well, 32GB RAM is a situational upgrade at best and only became available last year. The MBP got 16GB of RAM as a standard in 2014 since retina assets were larger in size and that amount of RAM was the sweet spot. Five years later, this has not changed. Not to mention that 16GB RAM in 2014 was cheaper than what it is now.

SSD — I agree. The SSD prices did fell around 50% and a fast 512GB SSD these days costs under $200. It is true that Apple uses more expensive SSD chips than most vendors, and their configuration is unique as well, but I also think that this is where they could be giving the customer more for the price.

Well the price of RAM went up in recent years, but are you sure that in 2014 the 16GB laptop ram was cheaper than $80-120 (current price)? I can't believe it.

And of course, the difference between 16gb and 32gb is around $100-150, yet the MBP upgrade costs $400.

 

[leman]

Well the price of RAM went up in recent years, but are you sure that in 2014 the 16GB laptop ram was cheaper than $80-120 (current price)? I can't believe it.

It was about the same from what I've seen. Last year prices were much higher though.

And of course, the difference between 16gb and 32gb is around $100-150, yet the MBP upgrade costs $400.

True, Apple massively overcharges here.