The pricing isn’t extortionate. It’s literally just them having to pass on the insane price of RAM (itself priced due to the massive demand and supply shortage).

And you’re right that Apple is hesitant to change prices on models. But that cuts both ways. Apple notably held off of bumping prices across their product line for a considerable amount of time, very plausibly eating the cost of RAM price increases.

It would definitely be atypical but given the unique and extreme nature of the current situation, I wouldn’t be shocked if they cut prices somewhat once the RAM situation relaxes.

Right up to the launch of the Apple Silicon Mac Pro in mid 2023, Apple would still happily charge you early 2019 prices for the 2019 Xeon processors in the previous edition, 2019 prices for memory and flash (I ordered mine with 32 and used OWC to go to 192GB, because for the exact same chips, spec, timings, OWC wanted $1,050 for 192GB, and Apple wanted $3,000 for 160GB, i.e. minus the 32GB already rolled into the price. Similar $1K to $3K margin for 8TB of SSD - I bought a PCIe card with 4x2TB Samsung Pro drives).

> Apple never drops prices, never.

The first gen apple TVs were $300.

The second gen was $99.

The first and second 4k gen were $179.

The third gen was $129.

They might not drop prices on existing models, but they have definitely dropped prices on new versions of product lines.

Ironic that you chose the Apple TV. There's a bit of nuance, and the 3rd gen was $149, not $129 (the latter is Wifi only, when the first two were Wifi+Ethernet).

They then bumped UP the 3rd gen: $249 (+$100) and $199 (+$70).

And the 4th gen has only one option, at $299.

So we've not only "not dropped" prices on the 4K Apple TV, but they've gone up forty per cent.

> Apple never drops prices, never. It will go straight into their margin.

They have dropped the price of the MacBook Air a few years ago and the Mac Mini as well. So your statement is categorically false.

That said, with cpu, ram and storage prices the way they are right now, prices won't be dropping soon. But there is hope long term.

They do drop prices from time to time, they just don’t do the live market pricing Dell and Lenovo do where it can change day to day.

I hear you though on the cost. The Mac Mini was a killer deal a year ago, especially if you could get it on sale for <$500. Not today though.

Spoken like someone who’s not tried to buy any computer anywhere in the last year.

All the pricing is bad everywhere.

Apple knows how much of a premium they can charge vs other manufacturers, if everyone else starts dropping they will as well.

Everyone who still holds on their M1's are now permanent underclass. You will never be able to afford new MacBook.

I'm in that class. My iPhone has more power than my MacBook it seems. But I do love the m1 still for what it can do.

I just bought a portable keyboard for my iPhone - coupled with a SSH client, its quite a useful combo these days.

I had to prove the OP wrong though; my M1 Max's keyboard died this year, and I had to upgrade to the M5 max this season, after the hikes. I kissed 9k EUR goodbye for something not much better functionally than the M1 Max it replaced, bought for 3.4k Canadian dollars in the wonderful 2021 (that was barely over 3200 EUR back then).

I have an M1 Max MBP (16", 64GB, 4TB) and I see no need to upgrade. I got it when the M3 came out so I saved about $2,000.

This makes no sense. What makes the owner of a 6 year old laptop less able to afford a new MacBook than the owner of a 2 or 3 or 4 year old laptop?

If anything, the longer you hold your laptop, the more you amortize the cost, and can more easily afford the next one.

Everyone who profited from AI boom has upgraded their macbooks already. The rest can go back to putting fries in the bag.

Man, I wouldn't upgrade my M1 Air to the latest Air for free, it feels as fast as the day I got it, and upgrading's a huge chore.

My work machine went from an M1 with 32GB to an M4 with 24GB and it definitely wasn't worth the time to upgrade.