It ’s received wisdom among a certain set of the great unwashed that even thebest Apple productsare reprehensively overpriced . According to this agency of thinking , Apple charges wildly inflated prices for its devices and only patsy pay full knock for anything it trade .
But like much of the reality ’s received wisdom , this idea is n’t always correct . In fact , I would argue that it ’s more wrong than right when it comes to Apple .
Sure , I ’m not arguing that Apple products are not pricey — because they absolutely are — and maybe in some cases they are overprice ( Apple ’s prices for Mac memory and warehousing come to mind ) . But there ’s an important difference between expensive and overpriced . Apple machine are often the former , but are they overpriced ? That ’s a different argument altogether .
The $14,000 bargain
To take an illustration , face at the iPhone . It ’s one of thebest smartphonesin the world and systematically sell in incredible number . If it was overpriced , would millions of user be dupe into buying it year after yr ? Of of course not , multitude are n’t stupid and they can tell a bomb from a land mile off ( just wait at theHumane AI Pin ) .
The recentMac Studioalso demonstrates this well . Configure this twist all the way up to the level best and you may expect to paythe princely sum of $ 14,099 . And no , it ’s not even Au plated .
That sound like an unconvincing amount of money , but consider what you get :
Try outfitting a Windows system with that variety of power and you ’ll be paying far more . Spec up something similar from Dell , for deterrent example , and you may easily ante up twofold Apple ’s ask cost for less performance in a larger , uglier case . At the gamey end , Apple is surprisingly affordable .
Priced to perform
So why does Apple have a reputation for overcharging ? Well , part of it is probably justified , as the memory board and storage upgrade I alluded to can certify . But that does n’t explain the situation entirely — distinctly , the Mac Studio is not overpriced , despite be an arm and a peg .
The way I see it , part of the issue centers on the fact that Apple is a company that unashamedly realise premium devices . As our Mac Studio reviewer said , the machine “ exhibit[s ] that dainty Apple manufacturing artistry that the company applies to all its products . ” Even its lower - priced mathematical product like theiPhone 16eproudly convey their luxury . That ’s hard to quantify on paper and might come along overpriced to someone who does n’t prise that sort of esthetic .
The other facial expression is that Apple primarily focuses on consumer products . consequently , the majority of its customers are consumers , not demand professionals . So when a consumer go out something like the Mac Studio or theMac Pro , they ca n’t understand how $ 14,000 could possibly represent value for money .
And compare to their needs , where a $ 999MacBook Airor a $ 1,599MacBook Promight easily do the Book of Job , $ 14,000 utterly is an unreasonable amount to pay up .
But these people are not the signify market of these grievous estimator . For people who want to render high - resolution videos in double - quick time , or those who crunch atrociously powerful machine learning algorithms all day long , $ 14,000 is a fair price to yield . The setting count .
So , does that mean you should grease one’s palms a Mac Studio ? Not unless you have staggeringly demand workloads and it meet your specific needs . It is , of course , extremely expensive , and both the outlay and the power will go to consume if you could middling get by on something more low-priced .
But not everyone will feel that way , and for those that need mogul — or just need a premium machine the exudes luxury — the price is well worth it . And if that eye - wateringly expensive $ 14,000 Mac Studio prove anything , it ’s that maybe $ 14,000 is n’t so much to pay for a pro - level information processing system after all .
