Why are the new MacBooks Pro's so expensive?

[Lennyvalentin]

So you won't be getting the £6,209.00 maxed out model then?

UMMMM...no. lol But I never would go for the 15" model anyway - I prefer the smaller, neater, lighter 13" model. It is hellishly expensive too mind you - Upgrade CPU and RAM and 1TB SSD and it's ~€3.3k! Ugh. My 2011 MBP is so slow now tho and the battery is swollen and it's obsolete and can't be repaired, and Apple dropped OS support for it too, so it's pretty screwed. Plus it's thick and heavy compared to the modern MBPs, with a much inferior touchpad (IMO way comfier and likely more durable keyboard... HMM lol.)

So what. Besides True Tone, what do the new MBP's do that the old ones don't?

13" model gets quad core CPU. Dual core isn't so hot anymore with modern softwares. If you multitask heavily or run games the system gets bogged down easily and can respond sluggishly.

it makes me feel like they are pushing hard to be competitive on price.

Err, they charge a fricken thousand euros for 2TB SSD upgrade! That's 1.75TB NAND for €1000 (since 256GB is standard loadout), look me in the eye and tell me that's not hella overpriced. Since they solder everything in to the logic board these days with no upgrades possible they're definitely Apple Taxing people for all they're worth.

You can buy a top of the line 2TB Samsung 960 Pro M.2 SSD today for about €900, and that carries a full 2TB MLC flash (Apple doesn't state if they use MLC or cheaper, slower TLC in their drive) AND this price includes includes SSD controller + DRAM, which you're not paying extra for with Apple's upgrade since it's of course already included with the base configuration.

And in comparison, a 2TB Samsung 860 Evo which is only marginally slower in many usage scenarios and not even noticeably slower in everyday situations costs about €500.

 

[FrozenDarkness]

UMMMM...no. lol But I never would go for the 15" model anyway - I prefer the smaller, neater, lighter 13" model. It is hellishly expensive too mind you - Upgrade CPU and RAM and 1TB SSD and it's ~€3.3k! Ugh. My 2011 MBP is so slow now tho and the battery is swollen and it's obsolete and can't be repaired, and Apple dropped OS support for it too, so it's pretty screwed. Plus it's thick and heavy compared to the modern MBPs, with a much inferior touchpad (IMO way comfier and likely more durable keyboard... HMM lol.)


13" model gets quad core CPU. Dual core isn't so hot anymore with modern softwares. If you multitask heavily or run games the system gets bogged down easily and can respond sluggishly.


Err, they charge a fricken thousand euros for 2TB SSD upgrade! That's 1.75TB NAND for €1000 (since 256GB is standard loadout), look me in the eye and tell me that's not hella overpriced. Since they solder everything in to the logic board these days with no upgrades possible they're definitely Apple Taxing people for all they're worth.

You can buy a top of the line 2TB Samsung 960 Pro M.2 SSD today for about €900, and that carries a full 2TB MLC flash (Apple doesn't state if they use MLC or cheaper, slower TLC in their drive) AND this price includes includes SSD controller + DRAM, which you're not paying extra for with Apple's upgrade since it's of course already included with the base configuration.

And in comparison, a 2TB Samsung 860 Evo which is only marginally slower in many usage scenarios and not even noticeably slower in everyday situations costs about €500.

Well in a free market economy, apple will charge where people would pay. and by the fact that their margins have remained consistent, it tells me apple's pricing strategy has been consistent for the better part of the last 5-6 years.

 

[Rocko99991]

To pay for the keyboard failure repairs.

 

[Lennyvalentin]

Well in a free market economy, apple will charge where people would pay. and by the fact that their margins have remained consistent, it tells me apple's pricing strategy has been consistent for the better part of the last 5-6 years.

"Consistent", maybe. Just not "competitive", because they're not. Baseline specs, maybe they're pricing relatively decent, considering you get Apple build quality which is nearly unmatched in the industry, and unique Apple perks like the alu chassis, huge solid state 10-point touchpad, large color gamut LCD and so on.

...But when you begin to add upgrades - which you can only get from Apple at time of purchase these days because the thing isn't upgradeable AT ALL anymore - costs really begin to spiral out of control in a major way. Apple charges €300 for 8GB upgrade of slow 2133MHz DDR3 for example - I bought 2400MHz DDR3 five years ago for my (now old) gaming PC!

 

[FFR]

UMMMM...no. lol But I never would go for the 15" model anyway - I prefer the smaller, neater, lighter 13" model. It is hellishly expensive too mind you - Upgrade CPU and RAM and 1TB SSD and it's ~€3.3k! Ugh. My 2011 MBP is so slow now tho and the battery is swollen and it's obsolete and can't be repaired, and Apple dropped OS support for it too, so it's pretty screwed. Plus it's thick and heavy compared to the modern MBPs, with a much inferior touchpad (IMO way comfier and likely more durable keyboard... HMM lol.)


13" model gets quad core CPU. Dual core isn't so hot anymore with modern softwares. If you multitask heavily or run games the system gets bogged down easily and can respond sluggishly.


Err, they charge a fricken thousand euros for 2TB SSD upgrade! That's 1.75TB NAND for €1000 (since 256GB is standard loadout), look me in the eye and tell me that's not hella overpriced. Since they solder everything in to the logic board these days with no upgrades possible they're definitely Apple Taxing people for all they're worth.

You can buy a top of the line 2TB Samsung 960 Pro M.2 SSD today for about €900, and that carries a full 2TB MLC flash (Apple doesn't state if they use MLC or cheaper, slower TLC in their drive) AND this price includes includes SSD controller + DRAM, which you're not paying extra for with Apple's upgrade since it's of course already included with the base configuration.

And in comparison, a 2TB Samsung 860 Evo which is only marginally slower in many usage scenarios and not even noticeably slower in everyday situations costs about €500.

And a lacie 2tb ssd costs £1800 pounds.
Guess the Samsung’s are cheap for a reason.

 

[PickUrPoison]

It's still there but hasn't been updated. Same keyboard, 7th gen CPU and no True Tone.

There’s no 8th generation CPUs available for the non-Touch Bar MBP. Intel hasn’t released them yet.

Apple’s not going to hold back all the other upgraded Touch Bar models—for who know how many months—just so they can release nTB and TB models all at the same time.

 

[New_Mac_Smell]

There’s no 8th generation CPUs available for the non-Touch Bar MBP. Intel hasn’t released them yet.

Apple’s not going to hold back all the other upgraded Touch Bar models—for who know how many months—just so they can release nTB and TB models all at the same time.

Actually that's exactly what they normally do... I think they've pushed these releases ahead of time in order to mitigate the costs involved of replacing the pervious iteration's keyboard.

 

[PickUrPoison]

Actually that's exactly what they normally do... I think they've pushed these releases ahead of time in order to mitigate the costs involved of replacing the pervious iteration's keyboard.

Many times Apple has staggered the release of 13/15” MBP models based on CPU availability from Intel. It would be foolish to hold off all the TB models for what could be many months, waiting around for a 15W GT3e CPU. The TB CPUs we’re ready, and Apple released those models.

Who even knows if the 13” nTB will be updated? It may be EOLed and replaced by the rumored new 13” low-cost model.

 

[bopajuice]

Why do you need a touchbar if you are a student?

And why do students who suppsosedly have little money buy expensive laptops like Macbook pro's by the way?

When I was a student, I was doing it on a $500 laptop (which still works in 2018)

I guess it's the same philosophy behind buying a Ferrari to go grocery shopping. Nice car, feeds the ego, friends will be impressed, but has little practical use and is expensive to repair.

In every market there always seems to be one company that inexplicably charges more for their products than their competitors. Most times those premium priced products are no better than the competition, but marketing and prestige drives demand. If it costs more it must be better and people will pay it.

Great example of buying the brand name:

https://www.stereophile.com/content/lexicons-stuffs-500-oppo-bd-83-chassis-and-sells-it-350000-1

 

[Erasmus]

And a lacie 2tb ssd costs £1800 pounds.
Guess the Samsung’s are cheap for a reason.

Yep. The Samsung needs to compete with a wide range of other companies, and form factors.

TB3 SSD device manufacturers have no such competition.

To be clear, if you are suggesting that Samsung SSDs are "budget" or otherwise lesser quality, you are gravely mistaken.

 

[FFR]

Yep. The Samsung needs to compete with a wide range of other companies, and form factors.

TB3 SSD device manufacturers have no such competition.

To be clear, if you are suggesting that Samsung SSDs are "budget" or otherwise lesser quality, you are gravely mistaken.

Lacie doesn’t charge and extra £1000 just for tb3 controller .

TBC the Samsung ssd is tlc which IS budget or other lesser quality when comparing it to this AN MLC NVME.

 

[Erasmus]

Lacie doesn’t charge and extra £1000 just for tb3 controller .

TBC the Samsung ssd is tlc which IS budget or other lesser quality when comparing it to this AN MLC NVME.

(sigh)

Samsung 970 PRO is MLC:
https://www.samsung.com/semiconductor/minisite/ssd/product/consumer/970pro/

A 1TB Samsung 970 Pro costs <AU$760, with 3.5GB/s read and 2.7GB/s write.

The LaCie 2TB Bolt costs AU$3000, and contains 2 'striped' 1TB m2 SSDs, with 2.8GB/s read, and 1.3GB/s write.

I'm sure they are not charging the extra AU$1480 just for the TB3 controller, but a lot of it is. The rest is for that stupid and pointlessly complicated design.

In comparison, Apple are charging AU$1280 per TB for their SSDs (which have 3.2GB/s read speeds)

Next?

 

[Rogifan]

I invite you to review these graphs: https://www.macrotrends.net/stocks/charts/AAPL/apple/gross-margin

It might make you feel better to know that Apple's gross profit margins net hasn't increased. Considering Apple revenue is made up of more high margin businesses like services, it makes me feel like they are pushing hard to be competitive on price. so these laptops may actually cost more to make than they used to.

I wish this would get posted more often when people complain about pricing. And also people should look back at the 2008 threads when the first unibody Macs were released. Everyone there was throwing a hissy fit over pricing (I believe prices actually went up).

 

[unagimiyagi]

Sorry to sound gruff, but I would love to buy and own a 2019 Bentley Continental GT without financing one. It's a pipe dream. Apple products have been expensive from day one. Nothing new here. I paid in excess of $3000 for my MBP 8 years ago. I paid $4000 for my iMac Pro at Micro Center just a few months ago. Yeah it's money. But honestly anything under $15K for a computer system is doable - at least for me. Everyone's situation is different. Apple prices their MBP's not in the same category as a $399 Google netbook. Are Apple products worth their price? I leave that for you to decide.

I think the general feeling is Apple has raised their prices even more than their already high prices, while delivering less quality and dubiously useful features.
Quite frankly, this refresh is a glorified spec bump and is unlikely to solve the core complaints of many users which center on usability--touchbar, keyboard, fragility, port selection, etc.

 

[wwooden]

I'm going to agree with others that as a student, you don't need a brand new computer. You can find very good and reliable used Apple Computer for $500-700 that will last 4 years of school.

I work full time and have a good income and I can't even justify buying a new Apple MacBook Pro. I bought my 2012 CMBP for $400 a year ago and it does everything I could need. It may not be the lightest or the fastest, but I don't do any heavy lifting on a computer, I'm going to guess as a student you don't either.

Trust us, you'll be happy you didn't spend $2000+ on a computer as a student when you graduate.

 

[Dave245]

These are not machines aimed at the average consumer who wants to sit in Starbucks with their coffee (not hating on Starbucks here i like a good coffee ) they are aimed at professionals who want to get things done, video editing, scientist, coders, video game makers, film makers, wrtiters who also edit and make movies on their machines, photographers and many other professionals.

Also break down the cost over time and yes it’s a lot of money but just look at it from a professionals point of view, these machines will save many pro’s time, and time is money!

£5,699 for a 15” MacBook Pro here in the U.K times that by daily usage (say someone uses it every day for work) times that by 1 year usage (being generious as most people keep their Mac’s longer than 12 months) that’s £15.61 a day, ok so now let’s be fair and take off Christmas Eve, Christmas day, Boxing Day, New Years Eve and New Years Day that now comes out at £15.83 a day!

Yes I’m going a little over the top here but my point is that for a lot of professionals time is money and at £15.83 a day it’s a no brainier, most people earn more than that in a day.

 

[FFR]

(sigh)

Samsung 970 PRO is MLC:
https://www.samsung.com/semiconductor/minisite/ssd/product/consumer/970pro/

A 1TB Samsung 970 Pro costs <AU$760, with 3.5GB/s read and 2.7GB/s write.

The LaCie 2TB Bolt costs AU$3000, and contains 2 'striped' 1TB m2 SSDs, with 2.8GB/s read, and 1.3GB/s write.

I'm sure they are not charging the extra AU$1480 just for the TB3 controller, but a lot of it is. The rest is for that stupid and pointlessly complicated design.

In comparison, Apple are charging AU$1280 per TB for their SSDs (which have 3.2GB/s read speeds)

Next?

While the 970 pro is mlc the cheaper 970 Evo is tlc.

Where is the 4tb option for the 970 Pro or the cheaper 970 Evo? How about a 2 tb version for the 970 Pro?

Oh wait they don’t exist.

 

[Painter2002]

Why do you need a touchbar if you are a student?

And why do students who suppsosedly have little money buy expensive laptops like Macbook pro's by the way?

When I was a student, I was doing it on a $500 laptop (which still works in 2018)

I’ll one better you, I was using a $150 used laptop five years ago. I wanted something that I didn’t have to worry about breaking or if a classmate spilled a cup of coffee on during a group project (yep, that actually happened).

I think there is a good point to this comment... it also highlights the niche market that Apple isn’t capturing very well with the MacBook lineup, the classroom. College students should have a $500 laptop option, and not be forced to buy an iPad or windows computer because the cheapest MacBook goes for $999, and that is poorly spec’d

 

[oldmacs]

It is true though. I equate the 13 iucnh touchbar with the old 2011-2012 MacBook Pro 13 inches in terms of the lineup in those days... I was able to afford a $1200 MacBook Pro back in 2012 as a high school student (Year 11), which was great because it was the best laptop technology offered by Apple in a 13 inch laptop, not only that but it has been able to grow with me, going from 4 to 8gb of ram, 500gb, to 750gb, to 1tb HDD then a 1TB SSD. The current 13 inch Pro with touchbar costs $2700 to start and yoiu’d have to max the ram and storage at purchase due to the lack of upgrdablitly.

 

[Lennyvalentin]

Guess the Samsung’s are cheap for a reason.

Yes, if your guess is that the Samsung 960 Pro is pretty much the fastest NAND SSD money can buy (and also amongst the most reliable), then you'd be guessing correctly. Oh, and also cheaper than what Apple is offering.

Where is the 4tb option for the 970 Pro or the cheaper 970 Evo?

Which has what to do with anything? Btw, you're really going to pay Apple's upgrade cost for a 4TB SSD are you? lol they're charging an arm and a leg and the other arm and the other leg and then your nuts too on top, and it's all soldered in on the motherboard so if the cheapest little passive component breaks that makes the computer go tits up and you're out of warranty it won't be worth it buying a new board because it'll cost you so much. It'd be the worst "investment" ever, all golden goose eggs all in one basket, all soldered in place, if one goes they all go so to speak.

How about a 2 tb version for the 970 Pro?

I quoted you the price for that one. So yes, it does exist.

 

[crzdcolombian]

They are expensive to some people and reasonably priced to other people.

Apple is the king of marketing in my opinion.

Which programs need Mac OS? My niece is starting university in the fall and absolutely does not want a MacBook which made her parents happy.

$2,000 is a lot for anything. Especially basically the bottom end of the updated computers.

Things I have gotten for $2,000

A John Deere riding mower, 15 new windows for my house(installed), a whole house circuit breaker upgrade from 100 to 200 amp.

What I have bought for 6,800..... a crap ton. Don’t think my two first cars cost me that much. Have friends who went to Russia for the World Cup for 2 weeks went to 5 games and didn’t spend that much

 

[Audit13]

I’ll one better you, I was using a $150 used laptop five years ago. I wanted something that I didn’t have to worry about breaking or if a classmate spilled a cup of coffee on during a group project (yep, that actually happened).

I think there is a good point to this comment... it also highlights the niche market that Apple isn’t capturing very well with the MacBook lineup, the classroom. College students should have a $500 laptop option, and not be forced to buy an iPad or windows computer because the cheapest MacBook goes for $999, and that is poorly spec’d

From a business standpoint, I'm not convinced that Apple wants to sell a $500 laptop. I think they would rather leave the lower end to companies life Dell and HP.

$2,000 is a lot for anything. Especially basically the bottom end of the updated computers.

Things I have gotten for $2,000

A John Deere riding mower, 15 new windows for my house(installed), a whole house circuit breaker upgrade from 100 to 200 amp.

What I have bought for 6,800..... a crap ton. Don’t think my two first cars cost me that much. Have friends who went to Russia for the World Cup for 2 weeks went to 5 games and didn’t spend that much

I agree that $2,000 is a lot of money, especially to me which is why I am hanging on to my Late 2013 13" Pro and early 2015 Air. I bought the 13" as a refurb from Apple using hundreds of dollars in Apple giftcards I received and the Air was something I salvaged from Craigslist.

 

[Painter2002]

From a business standpoint, I'm not convinced that Apple wants to sell a $500 laptop. I think they would rather leave the lower end to companies life Dell and HP.

Oh, I know Apple will likely never put a computer out in that price range... that is the gap that the iPad series is supposed to fill, but it still seems like they just are missing an opportunity.

I mean if they sold a MacBook to college students in the $500-600 range, they’d be able to “hook” more people into the Apple ecosystem, which turns into more money down the road. But what do I know, clearly Apples current business model is doing pretty darn well for their shareholders, who am I to question their tactics. Lol.

 

[richinaus]

These are not machines aimed at the average consumer who wants to sit in Starbucks with their coffee (not hating on Starbucks here i like a good coffee ) they are aimed at professionals who want to get things done, video editing, scientist, coders, video game makers, film makers, wrtiters who also edit and make movies on their machines, photographers and many other professionals.

Also break down the cost over time and yes it’s a lot of money but just look at it from a professionals point of view, these machines will save many pro’s time, and time is money!

£5,699 for a 15” MacBook Pro here in the U.K times that by daily usage (say someone uses it every day for work) times that by 1 year usage (being generious as most people keep their Mac’s longer than 12 months) that’s £15.61 a day, ok so now let’s be fair and take off Christmas Eve, Christmas day, Boxing Day, New Years Eve and New Years Day that now comes out at £15.83 a day!

Yes I’m going a little over the top here but my point is that for a lot of professionals time is money and at £15.83 a day it’s a no brainier, most people earn more than that in a day.

What Dave says.
Hardware isn’t actually expensive for a business, as there are tax advantages to invest.
However a student shouldn’t be looking at these. Look at cheaper pc’s or second hand as others suggest, if you are buying yourself.
After tax, for me the top end MBP is 2 coffees a day to pay off in a year. It would really pay for itself multiple times.

 

[Audit13]

Oh, I know Apple will likely never put a computer out in that price range... that is the gap that the iPad series is supposed to fill, but it still seems like they just are missing an opportunity.

I mean if they sold a MacBook to college students in the $500-600 range, they’d be able to “hook” more people into the Apple ecosystem, which turns into more money down the road. But what do I know, clearly Apples current business model is doing pretty darn well for their shareholders, who am I to question their tactics. Lol.

As a brand, "Apple" is probably the most valuable on the planet and there is no way they would "stoop" to competing with the likes of Dell or Acer BTW, I have Dell Ultrabook too.

Unfortunately, I can't afford to be an Apple shareholder