Apple has done a phenomenal job of hedging their bet on what the market will pay, so its really not an overcharge.
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2021 and still only 256 GB in Apple Laptops
- Thread starter majormike
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Are they overcharging on upgrades or are they simply undercharging on the base models in order to lure people in? Think about it, for the performance they deliver, the base models are actually rather cheap. If you want more storage, you need to pay the "real" price, they price they really make money with.
That's where a huge part of their profit margin is. If we didn't have those overly expensive upgrades, these devices would not start at $999. So as someone with low storage needs (everything is in the cloud nowadays and I mostly run VS Code and browsers anyway), I'm fine with the way they are handling this. I'd rather have cheap entry models and expensive upgrades than more expensive products with "fair" upgrade prices.
Apple won't throw money away and when they increase the base storage (effectively reducing their upgrade sales), that will come at a cost.
A better way to see the base models are that they sell at a scale that is large enough to be offered at as a "deal". Apple is a business not a charity, it would be rather silly to think the obvious volume sellers would be a kind of loss-lead such as the case in game consoles like PlayStations (which has a valid case in selling at a loss for game licensing income and importance of market share). So conversely before the extra storage models / BTO have to be done with extra manufacturing and different parts altogether than the norm, it does make sense to offer them as much as they can charge to offset or even deter the demand.
However I myself do think the premium they ask for is indeed way too much on the consumer perspective. But nowadays there are enough methods getting around it I wouldn't mind much at all. Even if extra storage costs reasonably, it is still an extra cost, and it would be wise for every user to gauge how much he/she needs before making a purchase decision anyway. At least it is not 128GB like before or the 16GB iPhone ordeal.
I also refuse to upload any personal data to the cloud. I can easily live with an internal 256 (actually 252 in laptops) SSD. Could you just purchase an external SSD (of enough capacity for your needs) and attach it to your laptop? I have a Samsung T7 external 1 TB SSD (paid $150 for it), and is it ever small! If I were to travel now (mainly to visit either of our sons), with my Intel-based 13" MacBook Air and its internal 252 gig SSD (of which I am only using about 80 gig), the T7 would be more than enough.
No, I dont think they are undercharging on base models - until the M1 came along, the base model had quite poor performance compared to having additional RAM, better processor etc. I dont work with video or anything too strenuous, but the base models certainly couldnt handle illustrator well for me, or some other work specific programs I needed a few years back. The M1s seem to have higher performance. They dont need to increase the base storage - they need to reduce the cost of upgrading RAM and memory - they are well above market prices. Apple is getting to the point that their computers are becoming unaffordable to many who have requirements for more RAM and storage. Some people are happy to store things in the cloud - I keep some stuff there, but majority is on my laptop hard drive. I have 500GB and its pretty much full. I use externals, but thats not convenient if you travel a lot, its also not as secure as having everything in one place. From personal experiences, hard drives also fail - if you have multiple externals you really have to be on top of keeping them backed up (Im terrible with this). I just let time machine do its thing when Im at home.
im so old I recall when a MP3 player had 32 megs of storage lol that's like 7 songs . if I recall my dads computer had no hard rive
The M1 is new - they have always charged above market for RAM and storage. Im a big apple fan, but I can acknowledge when something is overpriced. The M1s bring more power to the table for sure, but storage upgrades are still overpriced
That could all be true, but the past doesn’t change that they are their own market.
I'm beginning to think that you're either trolling or a little dumb. You're literally trying to convince multiple professional users of MacBooks with 256 GB SSDs that for some reason their machines are nothing but mere toys for browsing Facebook, because you, a student, can't fit your stuff on a 512 GB SSD.
You're NOT right and you will NOT win this. The 256 GB machines are selling like crazy and no one really cares that much about your needs.
What else do you want from us? What is the purpose of this thread?
Well stated! I already provided one suggestion, about purchasing an external SSD. Unless a user has a real PRESSING need to store everything on an internal device, external SSDs have always been a good solution, and way less expensive that upgrading to a higher capacity internal SSD through Apple.
By the way, for Jonr515, here is a link for the Samsung T7 external SSD I mentioned above:
Portable SSD T7 USB 3.2 500GB (Gray) Memory & Storage - MU-PC500T/AM | Samsung US
Discover the latest features and innovations available in the Portable SSD T7 USB 3.2 500GB (Gray). Find the perfect Memory & Storage for you!
Again, I purchased the 1 TB Gray model. The drive is plenty fast enough. You might find it cheaper by doing a search on the model number MU-PC1T0T/AM.
External storage is not a good solution unless it's fixed in place like on a desktop. USB connections are so fragile. so I'd really suggest getting what you need built in, and using external storage for backups, not to be plugged in all the time. I can't even count the number of times USB storage has failed on me.
That said, I also think it's stupid to pay more for a machine just to get more internal storage when you don't need it. I do, but that's just me -- 1TB is small to me, and I really do need even more than that.
Hmm, I've never had an issue with the USB connection. And for the Samsung T7, I can plug it into my Roku Device connected to our 65" Samsung TV and watch movies and/or TV series I have.
If one is careful, there will be no issues with the USB connection. Again, though, if one must have all their information on an internal SSD, and 256 gig is not enough, then unfortunately they will need to pay Apple's expensive prices for more storage. I don't need that, and the external SSD solution has always worked well for me.
That in no way fits my own experience. (I wish it did!)
Yep, and I do. I wish it were more industry standard pricing, but it isn't, and if I want to buy a Mac, and I have, twice in the last year alone, I pay what I must to buy them.
Oh, well. I recall when the first really usable laptop came with 8K of RAM, and maxing out at 32K was a LOT of money.
Understand. I guess it all comes down to what the op's particular needs are.
Something may be wrong with your storage or files if they take up that much space. I never came close to 200 GB on documents in college.
Well thats very dependent on what you study. I have worked in biomed research in the past and genetic sequence reads can often be over 10GB each for genome sequencing. On an external they take an eternity to load. Thankfully not in that line of work anymore.
256 for entry is pretty good actually.
What I don't get is 8gig memory for macbook pro entry and 256 for mac pro.
What I don't get is 8gig memory for macbook pro entry and 256 for mac pro.
I think you're confusing two different things: How well Apple treats its customers (very well, on average -- according to independent surveys by Consumer Reports, Apple consistently ranks #1 for customer service among computer vendors), and how much it charges its customers for its products (a lot, on average). I.e., the latter doesn't contradict the former. [I've reinterpreted your "claims to care for their customer" to "how well they treat their customers" because I don't think you can apply "caring" to any large corporate entity.]
As far as the choice between a Mac and a PC goes, the conventional wisdom is this: Unless cost is not a concern for you, don't spend the money for an Apple computer unless you prefer MacOS to Windows. My own productivity and user experience are so much better in MacOS than in Windows that, for me, that added value far outweighs the additional hardware cost. That's the decision you need to make for yourself.
Although not an issue for me, as I tend to run only one application at a time, 8 gig of Ram causes some folks grief.
256GB sucks for home users, but for standard work machines (i.e. desktops or notebooks that are not intended for heavy use cases and just run Microsoft Office/iWork/Google Docs, give or take Adobe Acrobat, give or take light Adobe Photoshop use, give or take apps of similar storage and compute demands) it's usually more than plenty, especially since most places' corporate data policies are to either have data on sanctioned cloud services or on local servers and not on the machines themselves. 256GB is more than enough for most applications in those settings. Certainly if you're rocking a higher end machine, it becomes ridiculous. But for the M1 Macs (all of which are low-end in the Mac product line as a whole), it's fine.