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Apple raises prices of MacBooks, iPads

reuters.com

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Re: Apple raises prices of MacBooks, iPads

#421

Post by throw0101d »

jacobgold wrote: post #274

Some unc perspective: I paid ~$6,000 in inflation-adjusted dollars for a computer in 1996. Today, I can get the same power in a $6 single board computer. A powerful modern mini PC starts at ~$600. However painful these price hikes are, and they are painful, it is worth remembering that computing has become incredibly ubiquitous and cheap.

See perhaps this 1991 Radio Shack ad (from a 2014 article):

    There are 15 electronic gimzo type items on this page, being sold from America’s Technology Store. 13 of the 15 you now always have in your pocket.
   
    So here’s the list of what I’ve replaced with my iPhone.
    
    * All weather personal stereo, [**US**]$11.88. I now use my iPhone with an Otter Box.
    * AM/FM clock radio, $13.88. iPhone.
    * In-Ear Stereo Phones, $7.88. Came with iPhone.
    * Microthin calculator, $4.88. Swipe up on iPhone.
    * Tandy 1000 TL/3, $1599. I actually owned a Tandy 1000, and I used it for games and word processing. I now do most of both of those things on my phone.
    * VHS Camcorder, $799. iPhone.
    * Mobile Cellular Telephone, $199. Obvs.
    * Mobile CB, $49.95. Ad says “You’ll never drive ‘alone’ again!” iPhone.
    * 20-Memory Speed-Dial phone, $29.95.
    * Deluxe Portable CD Player, $159.95. 80 minutes of music, or 80 hours of music? iPhone.
    * 10-Channel Desktop Scanner, $99.55. I still have a scanner, but I have a scanner app, too. iPhone.
    * Easiest-to-Use Phone Answerer, $49.95. iPhone voicemail.
    * Handheld Cassette Tape Recorder, $29.95. I use the Voice Memo app almost daily.
    * BONUS REPLACEMENT: It’s not an item for sale, but at the bottom of the ad, you’re instructed to ‘check your phone book for the Radio Shack Store nearest you.’ Do you even know how to use a phone book?
   
    You’d have spent [US]$3,054.82 in 1991 to buy all the stuff in this ad that you can now do with your phone.
* https://archive.is/https://www.huffpost.com/entry/radio-shac...

That US$1600 (in 1991) Tandy 1600 runs a 286 CPU and has a 20MB hard drive, and supported 640×200×16 resolution (720×350 mode for monochrome monitors):

* https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tandy_1000#Tandy_1000_SL_and_T...

Re: Apple raises prices of MacBooks, iPads

#423

Post by freediddy »

jghn wrote: post #343
ChicagoDave wrote: post #326

I was literally ordering an M5 MacBook Pro tomorrow. The total is $900 more now. Might have to hold off and just live with my M4 Mini.

I came very close to pulling the trigger on an M5 Air the other night to replace my venerable M1 Air. Wound up deciding I'd wait until M6. Doh!

Go to Amazon, they still have old pricing.

Re: Apple raises prices of MacBooks, iPads

#424

Post by as1mov »

jacobgold wrote: post #274

Some unc perspective: I paid ~$6,000 in inflation-adjusted dollars for a computer in 1996. Today, I can get the same power in a $6 single board computer. A powerful modern mini PC starts at ~$600. However painful these price hikes are, and they are painful, it is worth remembering that computing has become incredibly ubiquitous and cheap.

That's great, but then can you ask the manufacturers of the devices to support them for 20 years? Raw numbers mean jack shit if the device itself is completely abandoned and cannot run any applications. Banking, authentication and bunch of services require the device to be on the latest iOS/Android version, which is hard to do because the manufacturer dropped it like a hot brick after 5 years.

Re: Apple raises prices of MacBooks, iPads

#425

Post by throwfaraway4 »

qsxfthnkp2322 wrote: post #392

What a beautiful way for Tim Cook to end his career at Apple. supply chain genius can’t overcome market forces so they can keep a healthy profit margin. Outsourcing was a great idea for making America, your home, lose. Oh well. Ternus can’t come fast enough to revamp their corrupt management system and actually innovate again.

Tell me who can overcome market forces. Literally no one. I'm starting to think bots are writing these low-quality inflammatory comments.

Re: Apple raises prices of MacBooks, iPads

#426

Post by throw0101d »

mysterydip wrote: post #304
jacobgold wrote: post #274

Some unc perspective: I paid ~$6,000 in inflation-adjusted dollars for a computer in 1996. Today, I can get the same power in a $6 single board computer. A powerful modern mini PC starts at ~$600. However painful these price hikes are, and they are painful, it is worth remembering that computing has become incredibly ubiquitous and cheap.

The computing power available today is such a double-edged sword. We can do so much more so much faster, but then we (including myself in this) waste so many cycles on abstractions and frameworks and layers of libraries to make our development jobs easier.

> but then we (including myself in this) waste so many cycles on abstractions and frameworks

"what Andy [Grove of Intel] giveth, Bill [Gates] taketh away."

* https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Andy_and_Bill%27s_law

Re: Apple raises prices of MacBooks, iPads

#427

Post by thewebguyd »

draginol wrote: post #306

So this is probably not good news for the MacBook Ultra with 512GB of RAM rumors being..affordable. What's worse is that this is probably going to get worse. My angel investment group is getting inundated with pitches that amount to building an RX-6000 with 96GB of RAM and installing a local model to do "thing X". So even if the OpenAI's of the world stop trying to use up all the RAM, you're going to have thousands o…

Makes me really wonder about that new Surface Ultra pricing with the nvidia chip in it.

If Apple can't pull it off with their supply chain weight they can throw around, what is that thing going to be priced at? Microsoft/Nvidia are either going to be subsidizing it or it's gotta be close to $8,000+ at launch.

Re: Apple raises prices of MacBooks, iPads

#428

Post by eatsyourtacos »

jacobgold wrote: post #274

Some unc perspective: I paid ~$6,000 in inflation-adjusted dollars for a computer in 1996. Today, I can get the same power in a $6 single board computer. A powerful modern mini PC starts at ~$600. However painful these price hikes are, and they are painful, it is worth remembering that computing has become incredibly ubiquitous and cheap.

That is such an unfair comparison though. The reason we are now getting completely screwed on consumer electronics is because massive corporations just get to bully around the rest of the world and we have zero control over it.

Building a gaming PC right now is no longer affordable. I can't even upgrade my hard drives because they have tripled in price. And it's all because of good old capitalism.

Re: Apple raises prices of MacBooks, iPads

#429

Post by qsxfthnkp2322 »

throwfaraway4 wrote: post #425
qsxfthnkp2322 wrote: post #392

What a beautiful way for Tim Cook to end his career at Apple. supply chain genius can’t overcome market forces so they can keep a healthy profit margin. Outsourcing was a great idea for making America, your home, lose. Oh well. Ternus can’t come fast enough to revamp their corrupt management system and actually innovate again.

Tell me who can overcome market forces. Literally no one. I'm starting to think bots are writing these low-quality inflammatory comments.

Maybe those bots should send micron or Samsung a gold bar and some glass to get them to care about consumers again.

In all seriousness this timeline we are on sucks. I hate it. Send me to another multiverse.

Re: Apple raises prices of MacBooks, iPads

#430

Post by drnick1 »

SoftTalker wrote: post #287
jacobgold wrote: post #274

Some unc perspective: I paid ~$6,000 in inflation-adjusted dollars for a computer in 1996. Today, I can get the same power in a $6 single board computer. A powerful modern mini PC starts at ~$600. However painful these price hikes are, and they are painful, it is worth remembering that computing has become incredibly ubiquitous and cheap.

I'm still using ~10 year old PCs at both work and home. Running linux, still doing fine.

I recently liberated a couple of old Intel Mac laptops by installing Linux. These machines were not receiving system updates anymore. Even on the older machine with a dual core CPU and 4GB of RAM, GNOME runs well (XFCE would probably be a better choice to save RAM for programs, though). On the newer T2 machine with 8GB of RAM, GNOME feels basically as snappy as on my modern gaming PC.
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