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Apple turns monitor height adjustment into a $400 upsell

engadget.com

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Re: Apple turns monitor height adjustment into a $400 upsell

#61
post #52

Earlier quoted context omitted.

But a $400 premium? I work in a "nice" office (with a chair and motorized standing desk that each cost several thousand) and we use nearly bezel-less 4k monitors with brushed aluminum tilt-and-raise stands that aren't made by Apple. There's a huge range between Apple and AmazonBasics industrial-design-wise now, especially when you're bidding for enterprise-level equipment contracts.

Decent monitor arms easily cost $300-500.

Monitor arms are much more complicated than a monitor stand.

Re: Apple turns monitor height adjustment into a $400 upsell

#62
post #58
post #52

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Decent monitor arms easily cost $300-500.

I have monitor arm that works just fine. Cost me $149 (Canadian pesos) on Amazon.

To note I paid considerably less than half that for my $300 arm.

YMMV but shop around for corp clearance.

Re: Apple turns monitor height adjustment into a $400 upsell

#63
I think this works like the opposite of a loss-leader, a product sold at a loss to draw people into a store, and/or like minor upsells at restaurants, like guacamole on the side.

I got this theory from the Apple Explained youtube channel when he talked about the $600 wheels for Mac Pros

Apple needs some high end items to keep its luxury appeal, but they really want the middle market without losing some perceived luxury appeal.

So you have a few items with crazy prices that won't sell well to keep up your brand image. Interesting that these land on not-necessarily-deal-breaker things, like can you roll your computer? Can you adjust your monitor height? Extras, stuff you could live without or work around (especially being able to roll your mac pro)

I don't think they expect to make a serious profit on the option. It's some kind of microeconomics thing. It might make the non-adjustable option look more attractive price-wise.

Re: Apple turns monitor height adjustment into a $400 upsell

#64
post #52

Earlier quoted context omitted.

But a $400 premium? I work in a "nice" office (with a chair and motorized standing desk that each cost several thousand) and we use nearly bezel-less 4k monitors with brushed aluminum tilt-and-raise stands that aren't made by Apple. There's a huge range between Apple and AmazonBasics industrial-design-wise now, especially when you're bidding for enterprise-level equipment contracts.

Decent monitor arms easily cost $300-500.

That's untrue. Ergotron LX arms for example hold big monitors perfectly and last basically forever - currently priced https://www.amazon.com/Ergotron-Monitor-Monitors-Up-Polished...

Re: Apple turns monitor height adjustment into a $400 upsell

#66
post #18

Apple can do this because nobody else makes a high quality monitor that doesn’t look terrible. In nice offices, each chair is a couple thousand each. Full designs easily $50k+. Theyre not going to mess up a such a thoughtfully designed aesthetic with some slab of black plastic and an Amazon Basics stand (which is what I use) to save $1-2k.

Looking at the picture it is just plain boring monitor (not that there is anything wrong about it). I fail to see a single bit of "thoughtfully designed aesthetic".

Re: Apple turns monitor height adjustment into a $400 upsell

#67
post #52

Earlier quoted context omitted.

But a $400 premium? I work in a "nice" office (with a chair and motorized standing desk that each cost several thousand) and we use nearly bezel-less 4k monitors with brushed aluminum tilt-and-raise stands that aren't made by Apple. There's a huge range between Apple and AmazonBasics industrial-design-wise now, especially when you're bidding for enterprise-level equipment contracts.

Decent monitor arms easily cost $300-500.

1. Excellent monitor arms might cost that much, most are closer to $200-300. Decent ones are way less.

2. This is $400 more than the other arm. You're paying $400 for the added height adjustment.

Re: Apple turns monitor height adjustment into a $400 upsell

#68
Much more interesting from a technical standpoint:

>how would you even top a single 432mm2 chip that’s already pushing the limits of manufacturability on TSMC’s N5 process?

By enabling the M1 Ultra’s two dies to transparently present themselves as a single GPU

It’s a problem that multiple companies have been working on for over a decade, and it would seem that Apple is charting new ground by being the first company to pull it off.

https://www.anandtech.com/show/17306/apple-announces-m1-ultr...

Re: Apple turns monitor height adjustment into a $400 upsell

#70
I have zero problem with this. They designed a nice stand, it's expensive, so what? If you don't want to pay for it, just buy a VESA arm instead.

They also offer a VESA adapter instead of the stand, for the same price. That's great IMO, and a big improvement to previous Apple monitors where you had to buy the stand with the monitor and then spend an extra ~$50 for the VESA adapter.

On the other hand, it would be even better if they just built the VESA mount into the monitor itself like everyone else. I guess they just can't figure out a good way to cover the screw holes.

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