Why is the MBP classic still so expensive?

[Tarek]

@simonsi I think I understand what you mean, and it sounds logical. Manual transmission cars are becoming more expensive over here because they are very rare to find. With the horrendous traffic conditions where I live, everyone opts for an Auto which is the main reason for that.

I myself love manual transmission cars but they're a pain to drive over here and are not even close to enjoyable.

 

[Sowelu]

Is the Classic MacBook Pro (13" with Optical Drive) still for sale on Apple.com? I don't see it. Or, was it killed with the recently released models?

 

[idunn]

Is the Classic MacBook Pro (13" with Optical Drive) still for sale on Apple.com? I don't see it. Or, was it killed with the recently released models?

Apple no longer sells the cMBP as new from Thursday, October 27, 2016; as you surmised, it was discontinued with release of the 2016 MBPs.

Depending upon availability (they come and go), it can still be purchased as refurbished from Apple.

By some measures the mid-2012 cMBP is the penultimate expression of the genre, in more than a few respects Apple has not improved upon it, but downgraded.

 

[Chancha]

I would like to add that the ability to actually run 10.6.8 on it is a selling point. It is considered the last real stable Mac OS, and also Rosetta runs on it which you can emulate PPC apps. For specialty purpose this is useful.

Also alot of "legacy" hardware such as in audio still use Firewire, so having a native FW800 port on the machine can be still useful for audio professionals. Of course the presence of the optical drive is in this equation as well.

Having two SATA ports can be very powerful under special config. You can slot 2x 2TB SSD with RAID0 config which gives you comparable speed to the soldered m.2 on the 2016 MBP, and have 4TB capacity in total. Or if your job is mission critical, you can have whatever dual drive config in RAID1 for real time instant hardware backup.

So it is the versatility of all the ports and upgradability combined makes it still a compelling buy for some. The internal screen and intel graphics are of course its weakest links and are deal breaker for normal users though.