For the $2200 that Apple charges for an 8TB SSD upgrade, I purchased an entire gaming PC with good graphics card AND 10 (that's
TEN) TB of Fast SSD (2 sticks, including one as 8TB) and 32GB of RAM as "old fashioned bootcamp." And just a few weeks ago, I purchased 8TB of fast m.2 SSD to go into an external enclosure for my Mac. How much was it?
LESS than a THIRD of Apple's pricing for only an upgrade.
Pick any upgrade for Apple and shop for the same at retail. For example, here's
32GB of DDR5 RAM as a quantity 1 at retail on Amazon for $87. How much is the 32GB RAM "upgrade" purchased in Apple mass volume purchasing if someone wants 32GB in their new Mac?
Shall we try SSDs? Here's
4TB of fast m.2 SSD for $204 for retail quantity 1. How much is a 4TB upgrade from Apple, purchased at Apple mass volume?
That shared, I think you are right: Apple will not cut profit- I mean-
prices of their thoroughly marked-up customizations. How nice it is to be the
sole supplier with no direct competition for either! And while they cling to 3X-5X market prices vs. retail pricing, I continue to kick the can on replacing an aging MB. Yes, I'm aware of the Apple premium and for over 20 years, I've generally just paid up... but
this pricing is well beyond traditional Apple premium. And I- for one- will NOT just pay this much more.
I was ready to buy that new MBair 15" on launch day... until I configured it as I wanted it and the markups derailed the purchase. Instead, I put a $55 new battery in an old MB and now I wait for Apple to get more competitive on those parts while squeezing more time out of the oldie but goodie. If they never do that, my next laptop may be a PC. I don't want to go that way... but I won't ridiculously overpay for commodity items like RAM & SSD.