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Bye, Bye for now Apple, it has been fun!
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We are cut from the same cloth - love it!
But if you were faced with that decision, you would. So..
This. Ding Ding, bang on. But for most people, Apple is a culture. Got to impress friends and co-workers sitting at Starbucks sipping on their overpriced $9 coffees. Apple logo + Starbucks are bread and butter to a lot of people and it's of the upmost importance in their lives to flash and dash, show the cash.
It's no different than these very same people driving cars that they can't afford but it's all about that emblem and showing it off with pride when going through the drive-thrus buying their $9 Starbucks coffee. Who cares about 10 years of car payments when you can show off your new car right away because we have to impress friends and co-workers. It makes us feel better in life. It's totally worth it!
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People have no problems paying the inflated Apple upgrade prices so Apple has no reason to change anything. As long as people pay your prices, you have no reason to lower your prices and cut your profit margins.
Apple can increase their prices by 10x TODAY and people would still buy them. Sales would not be affected what so ever.
10x might be a stretch
I think sales would be impacted if iPhones were $10,000 and MacBooks were $20k+
lol
I don't think that's true. Mac sales fell 27% in 2023. People are not upgrading as they used to. Part of that is AS, where people don't need to upgrade from the M1 to M2 or M3, but a bigger part is that the general consumer, their most significant target market, has been tightening the purse strings recently.
Apple isn't doing as well as it once did, and that will continue, in my view. Customers, even committed ones, only have so much tolerance for Apple's view of value when times are tough, and it will become more and more challenging to convince them to return to more regular upgrades without seeing more value than they do today.
@LeeW
I agree Lee - Just using the forum as a proxy, there definitely is a faction of users (and I assume this extends to a silent faction who aren't on the forum at all) who don't see the value as we once did and flat out refuse to be ripped off to this degree on upgrade pricing.
I like Apple, and I like macOS (albeit a bit less than I used to)..
But I don't have to use it if it becomes too inflexible and too expensive to do it.
By now in the ASi lifecycle, they should have had a user like me into a Mac Studio (or Mac Pro), but I'm not paying their outrageous storage and RAM prices. Just not doing it.
I agree Lee - Just using the forum as a proxy, there definitely is a faction of users (and I assume this extends to a silent faction who aren't on the forum at all) who don't see the value as we once did and flat out refuse to be ripped off to this degree on upgrade pricing.
I like Apple, and I like macOS (albeit a bit less than I used to)..
But I don't have to use it if it becomes too inflexible and too expensive to do it.
By now in the ASi lifecycle, they should have had a user like me into a Mac Studio (or Mac Pro), but I'm not paying their outrageous storage and RAM prices. Just not doing it.
To summarize your post (referring to the OP):
You strongly prefer Apple's hardware, except for the lack of a touch screen on the laptop, and moderately prefer its OS, but don't like the cost.
If you're willing to give up touch on the laptop, there's a simple solution: Buy the last generation when the next one comes out. Then you get deals like this. Even though it's an M2, this is probably a nicer laptop than anything you can get fror $1300 in a current-gen PC:
E.g., compare that to this discounted Dell XPS Plus which, at its "best-price-of-the-year" ($500 off) also goes for $1300. Its SC and MC performance are a bit weaker than the M2's when corded, and much weaker on battery. And, even corded, its GPU is only half as strong. Plus it has much worse battery life, is much noisier, and has less RAM. One the plus side, it appears to have a nicer screen (4k OLED touch):
You strongly prefer Apple's hardware, except for the lack of a touch screen on the laptop, and moderately prefer its OS, but don't like the cost.
If you're willing to give up touch on the laptop, there's a simple solution: Buy the last generation when the next one comes out. Then you get deals like this. Even though it's an M2, this is probably a nicer laptop than anything you can get fror $1300 in a current-gen PC:
E.g., compare that to this discounted Dell XPS Plus which, at its "best-price-of-the-year" ($500 off) also goes for $1300. Its SC and MC performance are a bit weaker than the M2's when corded, and much weaker on battery. And, even corded, its GPU is only half as strong. Plus it has much worse battery life, is much noisier, and has less RAM. One the plus side, it appears to have a nicer screen (4k OLED touch):
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They're charging the same per GB to go from 64 to 128 as they are from 48 to 64:
$200/(64 GB – 48 GB) = $12.5/GB
$800/(128 GB – 64 GB) = $12.5/GB
Absolutely. Did you?
I made four points about what the OP wrote:
"You strongly prefer Apple's hardware, except for the lack of a touch screen on the laptop, and moderately prefer its OS, but don't like the cost."
And here's where the OP indicates each. I've done the best I could, but please let me know if there's anything else I can do to assist you with your reading comprehension:
1) The OP clearly prefers Apple's hardware:
2) ....with the exception that they'd like touch:
3) And the main issue is the cost:
4) As for the OS, I'd characterize the preference as moderate, since while the OP really likes the Apple's OS's:
...the OP is also comfortable working in other OS's:
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I guess the question is why are you summarizing anything?
You can't read a summary with nuance, tone, and further exploration of ideas and thought, can you? Honestly, asking and not trying to criticize. Sure you can expand on the points but it is a summary so expansion of ideas has already been cut.
Do we need to shorten everything down to key points so we don't need an attention span more than a few seconds?
I don't see how your post contributes anything?
I have edited my original post as my tone was too personal and I apologize.
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That...
..and again, not every post is looking for someone to chime in with "their solution for the OP"
It's ok to talk, vent, share, commiserate ... without needing a "solution"
It's cathartic - and human
We're all free to express our thoughts here. The only rule is don't be rude to someone who hasn't been rude to you (by contrast, if someone has decided to take the first swing, it's perfectly understandable to take a swing back).
Nothing in my post was rude to you. Yet you were rude in response. Essentially, you're being a hypocrite. You want to be able to use these forums to express your thoughts freely in the way in which you want to express them, yet you criticize me for doing the same.
Each of us approaches the world in a different way. As a physical scientist, a lot of what I do is to look at complex systems and topics and attempt to capture their essentials so they can be better understood and predicted. That's just how I think about things. So I took that approach with your long post. The fact that you say "Your post literally contributes nothing" simply means you don't understand or appreciate this approach.
Just as your post was thoughtful, mine was as well--it was clearly a thoughtful summary. Since you're so insecure that you can't tolerate anyone commenting thoughtfully on your posts from a perspective that's different from your own, you shouldn't be starting threads here in the first place.
Don't you understand that the very mechanism of these threads is configured specifically so that people can interact and comment? It's like wading into the ocean and then complaining you've gotten wet.
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And a further point on that. Depending on who you believe—and we can't use Apple because they hide actual sales numbers—the highest suggestion is that there are 150 million active Macs in the world. Over 1 billion are running Windows. There are said to be 1.46 billion iPhones in the world.
150 million Macs is not a lot on a global scale. Even if you were to make the incorrect assumption that every single Mac owner also owns an iPhone, that would mean just 10% of iPhone users have a Mac. What about the other 90%? Sure, some will use Linux or ChromeOS, but some may not have anything else. However, despite all the claims of Apple privacy, most iPhone users are using Windows not macOS.
Or to put that into a clearer perspective. Most iPhone users are not that hung up on this suggestion that only Apple can be trusted.
NO. Your post is basically a veiled response of saying my post was to long, let me summarize it for you.
You are not the first person to post such things. On top of that almost daily are posts that what I wrote was too long.
So I am sorry if I didn't respond nicely. I am getting tired of the same responses and if you don't like something have the decency to just come out and say instead of summarizing. If you read the initial post and through the many afterwards you would have seen many posts already summarizing.
So I guess your post just set me off.
If you enjoy summarizing other people's writing and are not trying to imply they wrote too much then I guess okay, but no one has ever asked for you to summarize anything? Why do it. WHat is the point??
You can't distill my post into these points. There is so much more to it than that.
If you read the entire OP then you would understand there are a lot of factors at play and it is culmination of these things together that has given me impetus to write.
This entire society seems to want to distill everything down into sound bites. Life is more than a summary. Life is actually all of the fill not put in the summary. But I digress. If you enjoy summarizing then go ahead. But you are also missing a lot off the point of the thread.
Absolutely not. That was not my intention at all. As I said, I'm used to considering long, complex topics, and attempting to summarize them, to capture their essence. I never said I had any issues with the length of your post, and I did not. I thought it was a good post. I just wanted to respond to it in my own way.
Yeah, telling me "Your post literally contributes nothing" was a bit stronger that 'not nicely'.
The same applies to your post:
No one ever asked you to post what you did. Why do it. What is the point??
Answer that question about your own post, and you'll also have the answer about mine.
I am sure there are a lot of people who feel the same way on both sides. I am glad that you are happy.
Honestly being content with what you have is a skill I am still working on, but I think it is an admirable quality. Why be in a constant evaluation of everything else if you like what you have.
That is what every OEM, brand, etc should strive for right there! A customer who is totally happy where they are.
Sure, I already answered this a few times but I will do so again for you.
The point of my post was so that I could gauge how many other people feel as I do, to garner some people together based on a similar feeling, and to possibly move the needle just bit. I know Apple doesn't read these forums. I know Apple doesn't care about my personal opinion but when many people have at least a similar opinion then we can all take steps to possibly change things. By spreading my thoughts other people may resonate and share their thoughts and it can grow exponentially through word of mouth. It might be meaningless dribble and nothing more than an effort to comfort myself knowing I am not alone. I am okay with any outcome because I have no expectations.
But there was a definitive point.
What was yours?
Capturing the essence of something can be great but you can lose context and subtleties that can't be expressed in a summarization. If I were describing some complex theory then a summarization would be great but I think everyone can understand my points but will get upset without understanding the context and other things I explained.
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I edited my original response to you because I agree it came across rather personal and harsh and I apologize to you for that. I have a problem with tone and sometimes can word things too directly without considering others feelings. It is not intentional but a part of a mental health challenge I face. My essence remains the same but I took away the personal indicators to my best effort.
This isn't about you personally but the need of people in general too summarize a post. I get CHatGPT tools are fun and new which is why I was tolerant at first. But after it is done a few times it just seems like there may be other reasons to do so at this point other than use a new tool. You said you read the posts but if you read through the thread you would see that you are not adding a new summarization or anything new in the thread. You didn't add your own opinion just the summary which is why I said I didn't see how the post was contributing to the commentary of the thread in a thoughtful or meaningful way.
Of course you are free to do as you please and I am not telling you what to do but explaining to you that in my personal opinion I don't understand WHY you decided to post a summary when it is REDUNDUNT in the thread? Not trying to insult but genuinely asking a question here? If you don't like reading through a long post surely you don't like reading multiple summaries on the same thread on the same post??
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Why one of my favorite laptops still struggles against the MacBook Pro
The HP Spectre x360 14 is an excellent convertible 2-in-1 laptop and the Apple MacBook Pro 14 is an excellent clamshell. Which is the better laptop for you?
www.msn.com
Problem is the Spectre goes on sale for $1499 at Bestbuy for the $1999 model reviewed. At $1499 it directly competes with the M3 MacBook Air with 16gb ram and 512gb ssd, Same price and the air will likely go on sale too. But with the HP you get 32gb ram and 2tb ssd and Oled compared to IPS. touch vs non touch etc. Speakers on the Hp are much better than the air. So against the air the HP is faster as well but battery life is not as good but you will still get through a full day on a charge! On every metric other than battery life the Spectre is much better than the air.
If we compare to the 512gb ssd and 18gb ram M3 Pro the MacBook has gone on sale for $1799 which is a very good price and at that price against $1499 the HP still offers some advantages over the Pro. you compare both as specc'd like the Spectre the Mac is $2499. If The M3 is faster in all fronts by about 30% compared to the Ultra 7 but the Ultra 7 is not crazy far behind and is several hundred dollars less when both compared on sale. If you are already invested in the Mac ecosystem then the MacBook Pro with M3 Pro for $1799 is a pretty sweet laptop that I would not even worry about anything else. However, if I was considering either or, I would ask this? Do I have an iPhone? If yes, proceed to the Mac and if no proceed to the Spectre. Simple as that. Both offer excellent value and performance and their is no wrong choice.
This is my summarization of my post from only a hardware perspective and cost analysis. No AI needed.
And this would be my MacBook Pro M3 Pro 14" alternative, not the Spectre since graphics are not as good. MSRP are the same for the M3 MBP with M3 Pro and 18gb ram and 512gb ssd and the G14 but BestBuy will discount the G14 by $400 at least at some point this year.
Asus ROG Zephyrus G14 (2024) review
AMD Ryzen 9 8945HS | Nvidia GeForce RTX 4070 (90W) | 32GB LPDDR5X | 1TB SSD | OLED | $2,000 | £2,400
www.msn.com
Here is a model directly comparable to the MBP M3 Pro 14" and at MSRP is $1599,
ASUS ROG Zephyrus G14 14" OLED 3K 120Hz Gaming Laptop AMD Ryzen 9 8945HS 16GB LPDDR5X NVIDIA GeForce RTX 4060 1TB SSD Platinum White GA403UV-G14.R94060 - Best Buy
Shop ASUS ROG Zephyrus G14 14" OLED 3K 120Hz Gaming Laptop AMD Ryzen 9 8945HS 16GB LPDDR5X NVIDIA GeForce RTX 4060 1TB SSD Platinum White products at Best Buy. Find low everyday prices and buy online for delivery or in-store pick-up. Price Match Guarantee.
www.bestbuy.com
Also notice how I am not going to the MacBook Pro or air forums posting any of this or trying to start comparison posts and say the MacBook air is trash compared to whatever... I am trying to bring up issues in the appropriate forums and not try to provoke people on forums centered on their devices. I feel that would just be unnecessary and rude. It try to stay in my lane but then when I do people ask why I post such a post on a Mac forum.......🤯
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Technerd, keep on posting. Forums are supposed to be free speech yet many take issue with the OP or subsequent replies. Strange offensive/defensive human reactions in this thread. The thread has strayed quite a bit, and I'd like to see it get back on track. But I am entertained.