Why are MBPs so over-priced?

[Mefisto]

For the current 2016, I hear the heat is mucking up the keyboard? Keys getting stuck or loosing their responsiveness. There is a whole other thread about the keyboard failures. There is a thread on graphic glitches as well.

I hear Illuminati is ruling the world. Must be them fellas mucking up the machines you heard about.

In the meantime, I'm actually using my (illuminati proof) 2016 MBP. Works splendidly, and the people I know using them have nothing to complain about, as well. And for the record, I had the 2010 MBP for close to seven years, and the guy I sold it to is still using it. Make of that what you will.

Not that any of this matters, as it is in keeping with the rest, or at best most of the posts in this thread, purely anecdotal.

 

[macjunk(ie)]

I hear Illuminati is ruling the world. Must be them fellas mucking up the machines you heard about.

In the meantime, I'm actually using my (illuminati proof) 2016 MBP. Works splendidly, and the people I know using them have nothing to complain about, as well. And for the record, I had the 2010 MBP for close to seven years, and the guy I sold it to is still using it. Make of that what you will.

Not that any of this matters, as it is in keeping with the rest, or at best most of the posts in this thread, purely anecdotal.

The Illuminati have better things to do I think...
Both the 2007 and the 2011 MBP has class action lawsuits...Make of that what you will.

 

[AgentAnonymous]

The Macbooks have the complete package in my book, and that's what you're paying for. Companies like Dell may be coming close with product like the XPS 13, but the build quality and thermal management is not up to Apple's standard, not to mention the SSD speeds. If you want to see an overpriced product, look at the Lenovo Carbon x1 series.

EDIT: Forgot to mention the amazing Macbook trackpads.

These Macbook Pros went up in price compared to the last generation while being worse for the dollar even if they were equally priced to the last generation.

 

[William Payne]

Apple is expensive because people are willing to pay the asking price, if nobody was buying then the price would drop. It has nothing to do with hardware or value for money and all to do with the fact that people are willing to pay the premium.

Here in New Zealand Apple has never been value for money, they have always been expensive. You brought apple because thats what you wanted not because of any kind of affordability.

 

[spac3duck]

These Macbook Pros went up in price compared to the last generation while being worse for the dollar even if they were equally priced to the last generation.

Yeh there was talk that it was potentially post Brexit related but I was wondering if it might have been to get inline with CPI? Or Apple is being greedy

 

[cynics]

Damn, spent 40 minutes reading this thread!

You guys are just going in circles. Obviously we have Mac supporters and PC supporters. The thread asked WHY they are expensive, not which OS is better, not which laptop is better, nor what you should by. Just wanted to note this since this is a heated argument turning into a "is MBP/any Apple laptop worth buying". Dont get me wrong, I learned a lot from you guys but were getting to the point where people are going on the offensive and others are defensive.

People are bound to go on the offensive, the question borders troll bait. There are just WAY to many variables here for that question to be objectively answered.

The most objective answer I can think of to the question is, "because they can be".

For me any Windows machine that cost more then 1000 dollars is very expensive. That is because of its inability to run certain programs I need and its lack of very tight integration with smart phones. Because of that 2000-4000 dollars for a Mac isn't expensive to me.

My non Apple laptops of choice are the T series of Lenvos Thinkpad line. Mostly because I can run multiple OS's on separate drives including MacOS. I'm typing this on one right now btw.

I'm more surprised of certain peoples inability to understand that different people value different things for different reasons.

 

[thalazy]

You pay for the name, the OS and the ecosystem. It's also because people will pay whatever Apple wants to price their stuff. Once we stop buying it then maybe the prices on certain products will decrease.

 

[theBostonian]

[doublepost=1496248168][/doublepost]

You can't blame Apple too much here. If you install Windows 10 and just barely meet even the recommend requirements, it won't be a perfect experience either.

I do wish there would be an option to decline updates so it doesn't bother you.

I'm sorry but what does Windows 10 have to do with my comment? Your response to me is mostly irrelevant.

 

[Ethosik]

I'm sorry but what does Windows 10 have to do with my comment? Your response to me is mostly irrelevant.

Because they say the old iPhone WORKS with iOS 10. Doesn't mean it will perform the same as a new iPhone with iOS 10. Just like Microsoft says Windows 10 will work on 2GB of RAM. It will be a piss poor performance though just like running iOS 10 on an old phone or iPad. It is the same. They just say it can run, they do not claim an iPhone 4 can get an iPhone 6 performance out of it.

 

[zone23]

They last long.time.

 

[macintoshmac]

My friend bought an HP in summer 2011 for $600 and two months later, I bought an MBP 15 Late 2011 with Radeon 6770m. In 2013, or maybe 2014, but no later than that, the friend buys a Dell Precision Mobile Workstation laptop for roughly $2100. The HP used to overheat a lot, and struggled to open CAD files where my computer sang, with same 4GB memory.

I bought my MBP for $2000 in Late 2011 and in 2013 spent $400 to upgrade to an SSD and max it out with 16GB RAM.

For $800 less, I had a better and far more reliable computer between 2011 and 2013, and after the upgrade, now for $400 less (having spent $400 on upgrades) my computer still sings just fine and will serve me for a long time still. And, is still far better than the Dell, seeing as the Dell uses an HD and has just 4GB memory still.

This is Apple quality. Having spent $800 less, I got a computer in 2011 that cost less by $300 in stock configuration against that Dell in 2013-14. After spending $400 and still maintaining a saving of $400, I got a computer that is infinitely better than the HP and Dell put together in cost and performance.

TLDR: Are MacBooks overpriced? Depends on how you look at them, and life.

 

[raqball]

Looks like Apple themselves have answered this question with today's price drop... The answer is obviously because they can, or they thought they could.. @ $1299 for the base nonTB I'd now say it's reasonably priced.. The TB? Ahh nope!

But kudos to Apple for recognizing the base was waaaaaaaaaaaaaay overpriced for what you got.. Slap in the KL processors and the base nTB Pro is a winner, price wise at least..

 

[SteveJUAE]

My friend bought an HP in summer 2011 for $600 and two months later, I bought an MBP 15 Late 2011 with Radeon 6770m. In 2013, or maybe 2014, but no later than that, the friend buys a Dell Precision Mobile Workstation laptop for roughly $2100. The HP used to overheat a lot, and struggled to open CAD files where my computer sang, with same 4GB memory.

I bought my MBP for $2000 in Late 2011 and in 2013 spent $400 to upgrade to an SSD and max it out with 16GB RAM.

For $800 less, I had a better and far more reliable computer between 2011 and 2013, and after the upgrade, now for $400 less (having spent $400 on upgrades) my computer still sings just fine and will serve me for a long time still. And, is still far better than the Dell, seeing as the Dell uses an HD and has just 4GB memory still.

This is Apple quality. Having spent $800 less, I got a computer in 2011 that cost less by $300 in stock configuration against that Dell in 2013-14. After spending $400 and still maintaining a saving of $400, I got a computer that is infinitely better than the HP and Dell put together in cost and performance.

TLDR: Are MacBooks overpriced? Depends on how you look at them, and life.

Here on earth when a friend buys a low spec laptop for $600 and realises after 2 years he bought the wrong spec we usually buy him a beer for being daft and not come up with some alien logic on value/cost savings etc where he just made a bad call and underestimated his requirements

Congrats to you for buying the correct spec for your needs and commiserations for your friend else other than a sorry tale I see little relevance other than with todays Mac's you wont be able to upgrade as you did previously hence our concerns on value
[doublepost=1496691459][/doublepost]

Looks like Apple themselves have answered this question with today's price drop... The answer is obviously because they can, or they thought they could.. @ 1299 for the base nonTB I'd now say it's reasonably priced.. The TB? Ahh nope!

But kudos to Apple for recognizing the base was waaaaaaaaaaaaaay overpriced for what you got.. Slap in the KL processors and the base nTB Pro is a winner, price wise at least..

Good news as the cost since conception the bottom tier 13" MBP was the worst/most expensive, until now

The top tier MBP 15" was actually cheaper since conception (all figure adjusted for inflation) but this is probably due to costs in high end components dropping since 2006

 

[raqball]

The only bummer on the price drop is the $1299 version downgrades to a 128GB SSD...

 

[macintoshmac]

Here on earth when a friend buys a low spec laptop for $600 and realises after 2 years he bought the wrong spec we usually buy him a beer for being daft and not come up with some alien logic on value/cost savings etc where he just made a bad call and underestimated his requirements

Congrats to you for buying the correct spec for your needs and commiserations for your friend else other than a sorry tale I see little relevance other than with todays Mac's you wont be able to upgrade as you did previously hence our concerns on value

1. The thread is about perception about Macs being overpriced, and I just wanted to convey that for the price, there is serious quality to be had, proving that you get what you pay for, so no overpricing here, is all. There was no logic in my purchasing a MacBook Pro then, except for the fact that I wanted the experience of Macintosh software in a portable format as I was already using a hackintosh for 3 years when I did not need portability. So, a MacBook Pro was a necessary albeit reluctant purchase. I did not know the quality of hardware till I saw similarly specced HP (as my MBP) fail horribly thermally and my MBP behaving controlled. It was then then that I realised that an Apple product is better on a component level.

For no reason, that HP laptop kept crashing, and when I removed the WiFi card from it upon my diagnosis, the laptop worked. People make comparisons about Core i7 being Core i7 for everyone, so why Apple is charging more for the same spec machine, but they fail to realise that while Core i7 is Core i7, everything around that chipset is better on an Apple machine. The PCB, the soldering.

This is what it was about. That there is more to specs than chipsets and hence Apple machines cost more while having the same "spec" on paper.

2. About friend buying low spec laptop and realising later, dead wrong. Did not buy wrong specs. The HP was just a poorly designed and built machine that was not able to handle CAD. Similar and even slightly lower specced consumer Inspiron Dells were working.

3. True about the new MacBooks being totally non-upgradeable. But, apart from maybe wanting more disk space, I do not see wanting anything more than what I have in it, for the next 5 years. I have to, necessarily use external disks anyway, considering my storage needs for DSLR RAW photographs and movie library. So, while I balk at 256GB, it is still enough for me on my Mac, as I just have apps, some downloads, and a 30-40 gig iTunes library and everything that I really need storage for is externally stored. So, upgradeability is also not really an issue. Sure, it would have been super nice to have, but this is the way His Johniness works...

And, with the 2016 upgrade to IO, the transfers to and fro are very fast, and blazing fast with the new APFS. So, no complaints at all about the low disk space.

 

[Kuzbad]

The pricing does seem to have gotten out of whack. I've had 3 MBPs since 2004. A power PC and two Intels. I have _always_ gotten a 15" with the CPU upgrade and the fastest graphics option. I have usually paid between $2300-$2500, right around there.

I really don't want a touchbar model (I basically never look at the keyboard and make heavy use of Esc and Function keys), so I priced out a max upgraded 13". It comes out to $2600. That does include 1TB SSD and 8GB ram (vs my current 2008 MBP 4,1 that has 6GB ram and 1TB SSD).

I would buy a 15" non-touchbar model at that price (or a bit higher) no problem, but the 13" just doesn't seem worthwhile at that price.

 

[Queen6]

The only bummer on the price drop is the $1299 version downgrades to a 128GB SSD...

Seriously, what bunch of cheap bastards Price drop my arse, they just slashed the onboard storage by half with no ****ing SD slot what joke Apple is becoming. I just checked, yep $1229 is for just 128, you want the 256, price escalates right back up. Guess they forgot to mention that on on the Keynote

Price drop generally sounds an awful lot better than Spec Drop, talk about spin, more likely Apple has improved it's margin on a cheaper component...

Q-6

 

[raqball]

Seriously, what bunch of cheap bastards Price drop may arse just, slashed the onboard storage by half with no ****ing SD slot what joke Apple is becoming. I checked, yep $1229 is for the 128, you want the 256, price escalates. Guess they forgot to mention that on on the Keynote

Q-6

Yupppppp.... Apple, Apple, Apple......

Nobody *should* ever buy 128GB SSD especially in 2017 and even moreso since it's soldered on...

 

[SteveJUAE]

The thread is about perception about Macs being overpriced, and I just wanted to convey that for the price, there is serious quality to be had, proving that you get what you pay for, so no overpricing here, is all. There was no logic in my purchasing a MacBook Pro then, except for the fact that I wanted the experience of Macintosh software in a portable format as I was already using a hackintosh for 3 years when I did not need portability. So, a MacBook Pro was a necessary albeit reluctant purchase. I did not know the quality of hardware till I saw similarly specced HP (as my MBP) fail horribly thermally and my MBP behaving controlled. It was then then that I realised that an Apple product is better on a component level.

For no reason, that HP laptop kept crashing, and when I removed the WiFi card from it upon my diagnosis, the laptop worked. People make comparisons about Core i7 being Core i7 for everyone, so why Apple is charging more for the same spec machine, but they fail to realise that while Core i7 is Core i7, everything around that chipset is better on an Apple machine. The PCB, the soldering.

This is what it was about. That there is more to specs than chipsets and hence Apple machines cost more while having the same "spec" on paper.

2. About friend buying low spec laptop and realising later, dead wrong. Did not buy wrong specs. The HP was just a poorly designed and built machine that was not able to handle CAD. Similar and even slightly lower specced consumer Inspiron Dells were working.

3. True about the new MacBooks being totally non-upgradeable. But, apart from maybe wanting more disk space, I do not see wanting anything more than what I have in it, for the next 5 years. I have to, necessarily use external disks anyway, considering my storage needs for DSLR RAW photographs and movie library. So, on my Mac, with a 256 gig disk, I just have apps, some downloads, and a 30-40 gig iTunes library. So, upgradeability is also not really an issue. Sure, it would have been super nice to have, but this is the way His Johniness works...

My appols if you thought I was being a hard critic on your story

Whilst I agree on premium devices you would expect a better build quality but I don't think apple excel any better than any other premium device (eg MS) else extended warranties and returns would be a thing of the past

Like you if I buy Apple or MS or other similar spec and relatively expensive device I would hope for more however there is always some delta with Apple we can never explain (Apple Tax) especially on upgrades to stock builds

When you can take (personal preference) the additional perceived potential of high quality/premium 2 in 1's in to the frame Apple just cannot compete and require 2 devices

I am very much of the opinion that these latest MBP have been trimmed at the extremities both high and low. Where before there was a much more ultimate spec and a very basic spec plus with the tightening up on completion. Previously there was a model that could be spec'd to satisfy a greater spread of user. Now with a much more middle ground appeal to the most popular potential buyer. The so called balanced laptop of Mac's has shifted to a very nice premium laptop but a master of nothing other than 3 or 4 dedicated apps that only 15% of users use on a regular basis (ie High priced mediocracy at it's most refined)

 

[macintoshmac]

Whilst I agree on premium devices you would expect a better build quality but I don't think apple excel any better than any other premium device (eg MS) else extended warranties and returns would be a thing of the past

Like you if I buy Apple or MS or other similar spec and relatively expensive device I would hope for more however there is always some delta with Apple we can never explain (Apple Tax) especially on upgrades to stock builds

When you can take (personal preference) the additional perceived potential of high quality/premium 2 in 1's in to the frame Apple just cannot compete and require 2 devices

I am very much of the opinion that these latest MBP have been trimmed at the extremities both high and low. Where before there was a much more ultimate spec and a very basic spec plus with the tightening up on completion. Previously there was a model that could be spec'd to satisfy a greater spread of user. Now with a much more middle ground appeal to the most popular potential buyer. The so called balanced laptop of Mac's has shifted to a very nice premium laptop but a master of nothing other than 3 or 4 dedicated apps that only 15% of users use on a regular basis (ie High priced mediocracy at it's most refined)

True. Very true, this.

 

[SteveJUAE]

Yupppppp.... Apple, Apple, Apple......

Nobody *should* ever buy 128GB SSD especially in 2017 and even moreso since it's soldered on...

More reason the SD should of remained even the biggest fans of Mac's still say keeping an SD would of been nice but not a deal breaker but for the low end budget conscious wannabe MBP owner it's a must IMO with 128GB, what a shame

Less is never more with Apple LOL

 

[raqball]

More reason the SD should of remained even the biggest fans of Mac's still say keeping an SD would of been nice but not a deal breaker but for the low end budget conscious wannabe MBP owner it's a must IMO with 128GB, what a shame

Less is never more with Apple LOL

True... While the 2015 base only had 128GB SSD it had ample ports and an SD card slot.. These new machines just make you scratch your head...

 

[Alphonsus]

Seriously, what bunch of cheap bastards Price drop my arse, they just slashed the onboard storage by half with no ****ing SD slot what joke Apple is becoming. I just checked, yep $1229 is for just 128, you want the 256, price escalates right back up. Guess they forgot to mention that on on the Keynote

Price drop generally sounds an awful lot better than Spec Drop, talk about spin, more likely Apple has improved it's margin on a cheaper component...

Q-6

Yeah, I though OMG they actually dropped the price to $1299, now more people will buy it! When I got home and open the store, I saw 2 MBP with out touchbar and for 1 sec I was like that's weird and then looked at the spec and was like Welcome to Facebook. I really didn't understand what Apple was trying to do?!?!?! I feel like the only computers or at least modern day computer to have only a 128 SSD is Apple. Just why?, it would be better to not even have that option, the new $1299 option, disgraces Apple since it kind of shows how cheap they are and to the MBP line. If this was the MB Air or MB I understand but this is a PRO!!!! Is there no meaning to the word Pro anymore???

However for some people this might be good for them since they don't need 256 gb or even pass the 128 gb

 

[Queen6]

Yeah, I though OMG they actually dropped the price to $1299, now more people will buy it! When I got home and open the store, I saw 2 MBP with out touchbar and for 1 sec I was like that's weird and then looked at the spec and was like Welcome to Facebook. I really didn't understand what Apple was trying to do?!?!?! I feel like the only computers or at least modern day computer to have only a 128 SSD is Apple. Just why?, it would be better to not even have that option, the new $1299 option, disgraces Apple since it kind of shows how cheap they are and to the MBP line. If this was the MB Air or MB I understand but this is a PRO!!!! Is there no meaning to the word Pro anymore???

Just a cheap move, as from my understanding there was no mention of the reduced storage, only reduced price Tim & Co at their fines, all spin, no substance...

Q-6

 

[Ethosik]

Yeah, I though OMG they actually dropped the price to $1299, now more people will buy it! When I got home and open the store, I saw 2 MBP with out touchbar and for 1 sec I was like that's weird and then looked at the spec and was like Welcome to Facebook. I really didn't understand what Apple was trying to do?!?!?! I feel like the only computers or at least modern day computer to have only a 128 SSD is Apple. Just why?, it would be better to not even have that option, the new $1299 option, disgraces Apple since it kind of shows how cheap they are and to the MBP line. If this was the MB Air or MB I understand but this is a PRO!!!! Is there no meaning to the word Pro anymore???

Why does it bother you?! There are people out there that do not need more than 128 GB of storage. They won't be required to pay the $200 extra for the 256 version. Seriously, the 2016 MacBook Pros are not a year old yet. To expect a price drop is just wishful thinking at best.