DEV Community

Discussion on: The new MacBook Pros are overpriced

Collapse
 
rhymes profile image
rhymes

I don't support Apple, not in the sense of "supporting" a charity or a cause anyway :) The last time I gave money to Apple was six years ago and in exchange I received a refurbished laptop, that I'm using right now to write this comment. I don't think I was scammed :).

It's a complicated argument the one about companies and "support", and it gets more complicated to discuss because some people harbor feelings (that is the thing I really don't get) about this or that enterprise.

What's the difference in giving your money to Dell or to Apple or to Lenovo or any other hardware maker?

Collapse
 
scottishross profile image
Ross Henderson • Edited

For me it's Apples clear shady business practices. Their "Buy another one, you're not allowed to repair". Their hardware has been getting more and more expensive and it can't be justified past "It's Apple".

Considering that the last generation of Macs, iMacs and I think even tablets have a chip installed that checks that all other bits of hardware has the same unique identifier at all times, and if it doesn't it won't let the system start (basically DRM) is absolutely disgusting. Forcing people pay £0000s to get simple repairs done because it has to be done by their arbitrary authorised people.

This is a good playlist by Louis Rossman who explains how bad they are, with this video showing the Genius Bar trying to charge a stupid amount to repair a simple repair: youtube.com/watch?v=o2_SZ4tfLns&in....

Thread Thread
 
rhymes profile image
rhymes

For me it's Apples clear shady business practices. Their "Buy another one, you're not allowed to repair". Their hardware has been getting more and more expensive and it can't be justified past "It's Apple".

Yes, Apple doesn't allow you to repair or upgrade your hardware but "shady" implies something done behind your back. They are upfront about it, every single review will tell you so, if you walk into a store and ask if their computers are upgradeable the staff will tell you no and I wouldn't be surprised if it was written somewhere in the copy too.

Their hardware has been getting more and more expensive and it can't be justified past "It's Apple".

That's the whole point of my post. If you read other people's comments you can sense that in saome cases that premium "hike" is justified, in other cases is not. It really depends on you, your circumstances, your needs and your abilities to spend. Yes, they are expensive but let's be honest, you're still getting a solid piece of equipment, even if ovepriced.

Forcing people pay £0000s to get simple repairs done because it has to be done by their arbitrary authorised people

Again, I don't like it either but it's their prerogative under current law. Tell me the last time you self repaired a smartphone or a tablet. Premium phones don't even have replaceable batteries anymore. If you think about it, it makes perfect sense for companies. If Samsung sells you a phone with a defective battery that you can't replace, the support chain is "send the phone back, we'll fix it or give you a new one" (hoping they charge you fairly, which they never do if you're out of warranty, no company does).

If Samsung were to sell you a phone where you can fiddle and change the battery or the parts, they would have to support every third party possible defective components and then you would probably have to pay more if your phone was damaged because Samsung could argue that it's not the phone, but the battery. So, economically, it makes a lot of sense for companies to restrict upgradeability and DIY.

Then we could argue if that is fair or not (and part of me would love the ability to perpetually upgrade anything) but that's an entire different argument better explained by the interview with the iFixit guy in the video and the argument made by the technician.

Food for thought: if I sell you a phone made by, let's say, 3 components (motherboard, camera, battery) and over the course of its lifetime you replace one or all of these, is it still a Samsung phone? Or is it a Ross Henderson phone? If I get a PC and do the same, should I have the right to go to Dell and demand repair? That's probably why laws tend to say "if you open it, your warranty is void".

Keep also in mind that they might have patents on some of the components so this might also be another reason for Apple to make it has hard as possible for third parties to fiddle.

This is a good playlist by Louis Rossman who explains how bad they are, with this video showing the Genius Bar trying to charge a stupid amount to repair a simple repair

Thanks Ross, I heard about this and yes, that's very unfortunate.

Apple definitely makes a lot of money with adapters, dongles and repairs. Even components are overpriced. Apple Care is stupidly expensive. None of these things are evil per se though (Ferrari are stupidly expensive and overpriced too :D).

Tricking people on shelling out more money because they misrepresented the damage is definitely a shady business practice, on that I agree, there's no arguing around that.

Though I want the nuances to be clear, saying "Ross, you need to give me a million dollars to replace a battery" is not shady, the shady part is misrepresenting the damage in order to get more money out of it. It's a fine line but we can understand it. Printers makers do it all the time: they sell you a printer for a few bucks and then charge stupid money for the cartridges. (Well, there's another entire argument to be made over planned obsolescence)

Going back to Apple: I wish they would just package the cost of Apple Care in the cost of the hardware because buying thousands of dollars of premium hardware without it it's risky (and it shouldn't, especially with the european warranty). They won't do it, because as insurance companies, they make money buy selling Apple Care to people who won't ever need it.

The only way all of this is ever going to change is regulations I guess.

Going back to the video: thank the heavens for that honest technician and for iFixit. I'm 100% in support of the right to repair, even if I'm probably never going to do myself.

I honestly don't know how is the law in EU about the right to repair or if we have one at all, but we have at least those two years of guaranteed warranty (unfortunately limited to construction defects)