Upgrading every year?

[Cynicalone]

I understand upgrading your iPhone and maybe the iPad.

The last time I upgraded a computer that quickly was the MacBook Air 1,1 to the 2,1. The 1,1 was just to underpowered. My MacBook Air 2,1 would have turned 3 in October so just a couple of months before 3 years. I really didn't feel there was anything wrong with it other than the lack of RAM.

Desktops I can be slow about updating. I kept my Power Mac G5 until the 09 Mac Pro was released. And I have two iMacs from 08 that are still used daily at the house.

 

[trondah]

I upgrade every year, so far I've sold 5 MB/MBP's since my first plastic "blackbook".

Like others have pointed out, Apple computers do have a high resale value. I'm pretty OCD about scratches so I cover them with invisibleshield/wrapsol day one and always handle the laptops carefully.

I sold my near perfect 13" 2010 MBP with upgraded hd (momentus xt) with about $100 loss. The way I see it is that if I don't sell, the laptops will eventually lose all value and be purely a loss of money eventually sitting on a shelf somewhere.

For a small price I get the latest and greatest every year, currently enjoying my 11.6" MBA which I will probably sell next year to get the Ivy Bridge upgrade

A small tip, always remember to sell a couple of weeks before the next refresh!

 

[KPOM]

is there anyone who sells there old one and gets the new one every year???

I was thinking about doing this but most likely on a 2 year schedule, just wondering how many people do it and how they like it, or why they do it.

We all have our hobbies and things we spend money on, and for me it's technology. I purchased the Rev A, the Rev B, and the Rev D and Rev E models. I skipped the Rev C since it wasn't much of an update to the Rev B (which I had for 2 years). Let's face it. Upgrading every year gets costly, and Mac resale values aren't what they are made out to be, particularly for something like the MacBook Air, which changes radically almost every generation. On most of my resales, I netted roughly half the original purchase price (after eBay and Paypal fees).

I've always liked ultraportables, and I like having something new. My stated motivation for switching to the Rev B less than a year after buying the Rev A was getting a reasonably affordable (for the time) SSD and the faster graphics. It also addressed the Rev A's overheating issues (that thing stuttered a lot on video). That was a great little machine and I could easily have held onto it until now if I wanted to.

The Rev D took it up another notch and addressed virtually all my past concerns, apart from the CPU, and it introduced the 11". The 11" Rev E looks like a keeper to me (at least the same 2 years that I had the Rev B, and possibly longer). Sure, the Rev F will bring USB 3.0 and faster graphics through the Ivy Bridge (and possibly better battery life), but I think I'll hold out for Haswell or beyond. The new PC Ultrabooks will keep Apple innovating to stay ahead.

I used to do the same with cell phones, though that's been in fits and starts. I had a Sony Ericsson P800 back in the days (a really innovative phone that SE never really did much with), but then reverted to a basic cameraphone until 2007 when I purchased the Nokia N95 (deliberately trying to resist the iPhone). I later purchased the N85 and N97 but jumped back off the early adopter bandwagon after I purchased by Google Nexus One in January 2010. The Nexus One has been great and I've gotten every update to Android. I'll re-assess when the iPhone 5/4s comes out. If it's just a 4s, I'll probably hold onto my Nexus One for a while longer, but if it's a major step forward, I may take the plunge. The Nexus One has been good for me.

 

[jp700p]

Yes I upgrade every year (try to at least)

Heres why:

- I get a brand new laptop with a fresh battery
- I want the newest thing (who doesn't?)
- The cost of getting the new laptop isn't as much if I do it every year. My 1 yr old MacBook (air, pro.. etc..) holds good value, even after 1 year.

My recent purchase cost:

Bought 2011 MBP 13" earlier this year - $1186
Bought MBA 13" - $1350 (after tax and $50 student discount)
Received $100 Apple Store gift card


Sold MBP 13" for $980
Sold Apple gift card for $90
Total fund gained: $1070

Paid $280 for a brand new MBA 13"

Thats $9.33 per day for a month. I'll skip getting coffee and expensive lunches for a month. Don't mind eating Ramen noodles for 30 days if that means I get a MacBook Air.

 

[s.hasan546]

I upgrade every year, so far I've sold 5 MB/MBP's since my first plastic "blackbook".

Like others have pointed out, Apple computers do have a high resale value. I'm pretty OCD about scratches so I cover them with invisibleshield/wrapsol day one and always handle the laptops carefully.

I sold my near perfect 13" 2010 MBP with upgraded hd (momentus xt) with about $100 loss. The way I see it is that if I don't sell, the laptops will eventually lose all value and be purely a loss of money eventually sitting on a shelf somewhere.

For a small price I get the latest and greatest every year, currently enjoying my 11.6" MBA which I will probably sell next year to get the Ivy Bridge upgrade

A small tip, always remember to sell a couple of weeks before the next refresh!

Agreed i do the same exact thing word for word lol. I upgrade my laptop, iPad, iPhone, and blackberry (i have 2 phones, work/personal) every year. It really doesn't cost too much. I also build a new custom rig every 2 years depending on cpu releases. I also have bought and sold a crap ton of other phones. Many androids, palm, and windows phones. These however, i can test for free.

 

[s.hasan546]

My recent purchase cost:

Bought 2011 MBP 13" earlier this year - $1186
Bought MBA 13" - $1350 (after tax and $50 student discount)
Received $100 Apple Store gift card


Sold MBP 13" for $980
Sold Apple gift card for $90
Total fund gained: $1070

Paid $280 for a brand new MBA 13"

Thats $9.33 per day for a month. I'll skip getting coffee and expensive lunches for a month. Don't mind eating Ramen noodles for 30 days if that means I get a MacBook Air.

I did something similar.

My recent purchase cost:

Bought 2011 MBP 13" earlier this year - $1000 (BB price matched micro center) + i pay no tax.
Bought MBA 11" - $1140-$100 gift card= $1040(BB put it right to the same purchase)

Sold MBP 13" for $1000
Best Buy also gave me 4x reward zone points on the MBA purchase- $80

Net: +$40

 

[Beanoir]

Because it's fun? It's something to throw money on.

Depends what you call fun I suppose, each to their own.

I keep my computers for various amounts of time, I tend to replace when I feel the need to. Some i've had for 5 years, others are pretty new when I just fancied something newer or bigger, I never get much fun out of them mind.

 

[Mad Mac Maniac]

My recent purchase cost:

Bought 2011 MBP 13" earlier this year - $1186
Bought MBA 13" - $1350 (after tax and $50 student discount)
Received $100 Apple Store gift card


Sold MBP 13" for $980
Sold Apple gift card for $90
Total fund gained: $1070

Paid $280 for a brand new MBA 13"

Thats $9.33 per day for a month. I'll skip getting coffee and expensive lunches for a month. Don't mind eating Ramen noodles for 30 days if that means I get a MacBook Air.

problem with that logic... you paid for your mbp in real money. and then you LOST that asset along with $206 when you sold it.

So you didn't pay $280 for a MBA you paid $1,556* to rent a mbp for a few months and then purchase a mba. Or the easiest way to think of it is you bought a mba at full price, and paid $206 to rent a mbp for a few months.


*I'm not counting the money you earned from the gift card, because you would have gotten that regardless of buying/selling the mbp. And this wouldn't apply for most people

 

[Jaro65]

Yes I upgrade every year (try to at least)

Heres why:

- I get a brand new laptop with a fresh battery
- I want the newest thing (who doesn't?)
- The cost of getting the new laptop isn't as much if I do it every year. My 1 yr old MacBook (air, pro.. etc..) holds good value, even after 1 year.

My recent purchase cost:

Bought 2011 MBP 13" earlier this year - $1186
Bought MBA 13" - $1350 (after tax and $50 student discount)
Received $100 Apple Store gift card


Sold MBP 13" for $980
Sold Apple gift card for $90
Total fund gained: $1070

Paid $280 for a brand new MBA 13"

Thats $9.33 per day for a month. I'll skip getting coffee and expensive lunches for a month. Don't mind eating Ramen noodles for 30 days if that means I get a MacBook Air.

Total cash outflow: $2,536
Total cash inflow: $1,070
Net cash outflow: $1,466 = cost of your 13" MBA

 

[KPOM]

Total cash outflow: $2,536
Total cash inflow: $1,070
Net cash outflow: $1,466 = cost of your 13" MBA

I think what he's saying is that the incremental cost of the MacBook Air over keeping the Pro was $280. In the meantime, he had use of the Pro for the first several months of the year.

 

[alau0115]

If I follow the logic correctly, the Apple laptop such as the MBA holds the value. How much can you sell a 2010 MBA? I guess to hold the value is to sell it before the new model comes out. Unfortunately, it didn't seem to be my case. You are losing the taxes paid in a short period of time if you sell the computer every year.

 

[Jaro65]

If I follow the logic correctly, the Apple laptop such as the MBA holds the value. How much can you sell a 2010 MBA? I guess to hold the value is to sell it before the new model comes out. Unfortunately, it didn't seem to be my case. You are losing the taxes paid in a short period of time if you sell the computer every year.

"The Apple laptops hold the value." I bought a 13" MBA Max in November for $1750 ($1915 with tax). Now I can probably get $1100 for it. Part of it is due to the fact that Apple lowered the prices on the latest MBA's, but nevertheless, the reality bites. This is a pretty steep depreciation.

 

[Bakari45]

Not necessarily. If you're doing lightweight stuff-nothing particularly CPU or GPU intensive-the difference between the two models may not seem impressive.

The difference isn't as big as coming from a regular hard drive supplied notebook to the 2010 with it's SSD performance.

I have to agree with this point. The performance boost for the MacBook Air may be significant, but is not the best reason to purchase the latest upgrade if you're not regularly using CPU intensive programs. I'd rather wait to see them add new features–whatever they might be–before I put out another thousand dollars for a laptop. The same goes for the iPad 2; there are not enough new features to warrant a new purchase.

 

[Mak47]

For our business machines, two Mac Pros, we will likely use them 'til they're dead. They're simply too expensive and there is too little demand for them on the secondhand market to justify constantly upgrading. Plus, the time it takes to migrate everything equates to at least a day of down time, so it isn't realistic unless it's necessary.

For my personal machines, that's different. I have very few vices, but I suppose Apple gadgets would be one of them. I like having the latest and greatest, some people don't care about that, but I like it. Do I need to upgrade every year? No, but I want to and it isn't a burden so I do.

After I buy a new machine, I'll typically sell the old one to a friend at a decent price. I could likely get more from eBay but I really don't want the hassle.

I also use my iPad so much that I'm certain I'll upgrade that every time a new one comes out. I've kind of decided that instead of selling my previous model, I'll pass it on to someone in my family who will really appreciate it and get some use out of it. I did that with my original iPad, and I already know I'll do it with the 2 when the 3 comes out. It's kind of nice, I don't worry about babying them so much knowing that I won't have to worry about resale value.

 

[trondah]

"The Apple laptops hold the value." I bought a 13" MBA Max in November for $1750 ($1915 with tax). Now I can probably get $1100 for it. Part of it is due to the fact that Apple lowered the prices on the latest MBA's, but nevertheless, the reality bites. This is a pretty steep depreciation.

Also the transition to sandy bridge have drastically decreased the resale value of the 2010 MBA. If you wanted to sell it you should have done it months ago. The 2010 MBA's are indeed a hard sale now. I would definitely try though, there's always some schmuck that don't care about the latest and greatest and will pay more than the market value.

 

[Hellhammer]

Also the transition to sandy bridge have drastically decreased the resale value of the 2010 MBA. If you wanted to sell it you should have done it months ago. The 2010 MBA's are indeed a hard sale now. I would definitely try though, there's always some schmuck that don't care about the latest and greatest and will pay more than the market value.

But then again, if you don't have a secondary machine, is it really worth it to be computer-less for possibly months? We never know when Apple releases new stuff. Even if you had a secondary machine, I think it's not worth it.

 

[Scepticalscribe]

Also the transition to sandy bridge have drastically decreased the resale value of the 2010 MBA. If you wanted to sell it you should have done it months ago. The 2010 MBA's are indeed a hard sale now. I would definitely try though, there's always some schmuck that don't care about the latest and greatest and will pay more than the market value.

Not a particularly nice sentence, and one, which, moreover, shows a distinct lack of respect from whosoever would care to purchase your MBA.

While I agree that there are people for whom the "latest and greatest" are not necessary purchases, I respectfully disagree that people are prepared to pay more than the market value, unless such things don't matter at all. In economically straitened times, people tend to be price aware, and, to an even greater extent, value aware.

To the OP, no, I don't upgrade every year. Normally, every two to three years is sufficient, as by that time the older computer is showing its age, and technology has advanced to make a newer purchase significantly better; I have even waited four years once.

Cheers

 

[maestrokev]

+1 Scepticalscribe, some people have no respect for others.

I've sold my old equipment every cycle and there are tons of people out there who don't care about the latest and greatest. What they do care is that they are getting a used product at a discount to a new product. They're not schmucks, they're just not fanboys.

Not a particularly nice sentence, and one, which, moreover, shows a distinct lack of respect from whosoever would care to purchase your MBA.

 

[trondah]

Not a particularly nice sentence, and one, which, moreover, shows a distinct lack of respect from whosoever would care to purchase your MBA.

I have a clear conscience as the laptops I sell are in near perfect condition. Could have probably worded it a bit different, but hey it's the internets. I don't think "schmuck" offended you that bad.

While I agree that there are people for whom the "latest and greatest" are not necessary purchases, I respectfully disagree that people are prepared to pay more than the market value, unless such things don't matter at all. In economically straitened times, people tend to be price aware, and, to an even greater extent, value aware.

Actually, they are. The last two buyers I had seemed quite able to pay for a new one if they so pleased. But some people can't resist saving even a few bucks. As long as the goods are in pristine condition, there is no difference to the new product.