I spent many years living/working happily within Apple's famed "walled garden," but I'm starting to realize that I simply can't afford new Apple stuff going forward. I've made some moves out of Apple-Land via a cheap Chromebook and Android phone, both of which serve my purposes well (but perhaps not as enjoyably as the Mac OS experience). My 2014 Macbook Air needs a new battery (and may have already sustained a bit of battery-related internal damage -- let's hope not), while my 2013 Mini keeps chugging along for now. But these products won't last forever, so I'm clearly coming to a crossroads. Do I:
1. Go ahead and make a full transition into an open-ended, non-Apple environment?
2. Keep patching up the Mini and the Air as long as I can afford to do so, and continue to rely primarily on an Apple environment?
3. Buy used Apple products at affordable prices as needed and maintain relations between the Mac hardware/software and a larger non-Apple landscape?
Any opinions or anecdotes welcome.
Apple is both a hardware and software company and in the past, this symbiotic relationship served them very well. You can not get the tight integration of hardware and software from any other makers in the past, than you can today. If you want that and you want an easy platform to work with, you have to pay the price to be in the Apple ecosystem. And many had, but over the years, Apple competitors had largely caught up. Also, there is a move "away" from a computer to a mobile device and Google Chrome and still get some kind of tight integration. For example, I'm using Google Chrome now on the Mac Mini and if I sync my activities with the cloud, I can continue doing my stuff on the Macbook Air, my Windows 8.1, my Windows 10 laptops, my iPad and my iPhone as long as I stay within the Google echo system. And not surprisingly enough, a lot of other people are using the Google suite as well at work and in class, especially for the younger generation (millennials and the younger generation after them). This trend of Apple's pricing going up is not exclusive to Apple as I used to work in the digital media field and there are less and less people nowadays who buy physical asset to do their work. Instead, Many people are adopting a rentier asset model, whereby you either lease or rent what you need to do your stuff. Like using the Google Suite, Creative Cloud, Streaming etc. With this mindset in place, less people are buying newer computers and the premium companies who used to be able to offer affordable computers had no choice but to raise their prices in order to maintain their high profit margin. Apple is one, but I can think of many other companies who are not selling computers, but other services, up their prices equally as high as well. That's basically the current landscape of reality we are facing. As less people depend on physical asset and more on the cloud, their needs for a physical powerful computer lessened and unfortunately, as less people keep updating their computers, the economy of scale meant that computer prices has to go up and computers had to be made more difficult to upgrade and more disposable. And that is what you are seeing with the newer models. The T2 chip (which is basically the future of locking out user upgrades) and the soldered components -- they fail and you need to buy a new computer.
However, as I had indicated in my other post, my financial situation took a turn a few years back after my loss of employment with a company that paid me well above middle class income and I was part of the top 1% and now, I'm just like many North Americans who are just barely making ends meet and yet, at least for me, still want to maintain that part of the higher class lifestyle but am not able to now. It took me a few years faking it to friends and family until I come to realize my own financial reality. So I did the unthinkable and that was, I started researching and going to used computer stores mainly to see what they have to offer. Some of them are just dingy and a mess; not as clean and professional like the Apple Store. And I was surprised that they offer a lot of services! And there, I met a number of folks who went through similar experiences and financial upset as I did, but wanted to also stay in the Apple echo system. In a way, it had created a 2 tier system -- those who are fortunate enough to keep a well paying job buy from the Apple store and those who are unfortunately enough and have to make do with what they have go and buy from a used Apple store I called it. But even Apple themselves is so vicious and greedy and nasty with these shops, behaving almost like a power elite. Anything that threatens the financial vitality of Apple themselves; they'll sent out lawyers to change the way how these shops operate. So many of them now don't really want to advertise they can actually FIX your Apple products on a board level with SMC repair; actually replacing the components on a board level. A blown GPU on your Macbook Pro? No problem, they have a source for dead motherboards or from sources in China and can get you up and running at 1/4 of the cost of a new Mac. Apple's famous line from Genius bar-- well we can't fix this so you have to buy a new iPhone or Mac. Common actually.
Anyhow, after I found these shops and know they can do competent and actually a much better job than Apple did because they were all mostly former Apple techs being pushed out because they were too expensive for Apple and cheaper to just re-hire newer and younger techs who are cheaper!
From what I see from the used market and stores selling used Apple products is that, I can still continue using Apple products and keep a current line as some of these stores repair and refurbished new broken Macs on the board level and make them running again and some even offer up to 1 year repair guarantee. I also found out that they have spare Apple parts and that will allow both my Mac Mini and Macbook Air (include NEW batteries) to run almost forever. Some of my apps will only work on El-Capitan and below and I have the Mac Mini for that. The newer apps need High Sierra and I have the Macbook Air for that. I don't have any apps that require Mojave just yet, but if I do I know where to buy affordable higher end Macs to run those apps.
Now the downside is the T2 chip. That is obviously an intensional inclusion to stop these underground used Mac stores from refurbishing products with the T2 chip and to stop hacks and patches on systems that are not meant to run on these systems by having newer apps rely on the T2.
So right now. As long as I have modest expectations, both my Mac Mini and Macbook Air and my 2 Window laptops will serve me just fine. I am happy to know that there are stores in my neighbourhood that can do board level SMC repair on both of my Macs and can offer to sell me a more modern Mac at very reasonable prices to keep me going.
That's my take. Maybe where you are living, you may not find a store that can also do board level repairs on Macs, but I myself had to look hard. These places are not easy to find, but they are there.
Hope this helps.
