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Comment by vacri | Hacker News Reader

A colleague of mine dropped nearly $3k on a personal MacBook Pro, then cancelled his order when he found out about the new touch bar. Then he started looking at other laptops that were good quality (we were suggesting lenovo X1s or dell XPSs) and he balked at the prices just above $2k.

"But these are considerably less than what you already had paid for a laptop!" -> "Yeah, but they're not Apple, and when people see Apple, they know you have a good laptop". That branding was literally worth almost $1k to my colleague...

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I guess he was willing to pay the premium to not have to mentally sift Thinkpads from Ideapads and XPSs from Inspirons. With Apple its just one "brand", Apple. It is perhaps the greatest marketing asset they possess.

Also, resale values are typically very good. Even years after the initial purchase you can recoup much, much more than a Dell or Lenovo.

Why is this even a consideration?

Apple users seems to be the only ones that even care about "resale" of their computers, almost like they are investments rather than tools.

Because Apple hardware costs more. They're trying to make a point that it sorta-kinda doesn't, in the end, if you bother to sell the old stuff.

I upgrade my PC hardware by throwing away/recycling the old one and buying a new one.

I upgrade my Apple hardware by selling the old one on Craigslist and then buying a new one.

In both cases, I spend about $1000 net each time. In the PC case, that's +$0, -$1000. In the Apple case, that's +$1000, -$2000. Either way, it's -$1000 net.

If you prefer Apple products but think they're "too expensive" because they cost ~$1000 more, this is why people tend to disagree. They paid that ~$1000 once, as an "entrance fee" for their first laptop, but they don't have to pay it again.

Because I thought I saved money by buying Lenovos on paper at least as good as the Apples. Only to have a resale value of about $10 after 3 years when time came to buy a new laptop. (If the hinges etc lasted that long.) A Macbook is more expensive, but not only did it last me +3 years, I sold it for about a third of its original price, money I used to pay part of my next Macbook. That's why.

TL/DR - only Apple devices HAVE a resale value.

Enter my annecdata: I had to surrender my work MBP and got an XPS 15, supposedly one of the best non-Apple alternatives. Alas, here I sit, typing this on my 2008 17" MBP. Even though it has worse spec is nearly every way, it's just a much more usable notebook for me. TL;DR: The Apple premium is still [so far] worth it for me.

Anyone want to buy a barely used XPS 15 (top spec)?

Again, what I quoted from my colleague was his rationale. I don't know why people struggle to accept it (and find it amusing that my original comment attracted so much downvoting - apparently people disagree with me about the conversations I was present for...).

It wasn't about 'mental sifting', or 'flexy laptops' or any of the other excuses people will try to insert. It was about paying for the brand recognition. He'd gone 'wow' at my X1 carbon, and gone 'wow' at another colleagues XPS. But he balked on price because of brand recognition, not because "a single product line is easier to deal with than a choice, so I'm willing to pay almost 50% more".

I certainly agree that Apple's greatest asset is their brand reputation.

It's interesting to take your friend's reaction apart into two components. I don't think they were actually scared of spending $3000 for a laptop, since they were willing to buy the Apple laptop. They were scared, I think, of telling people they spent $3000 on a laptop, if it wasn't a "luxury fashion" brand laptop where that kind of price is societally acceptable to splurge on.

In other words: if you buy a $3000 gaming PC, you're a weird nerd who cares too much about computers. If you buy a $3000 MBP, you're a professional and a connoisseur. Your friend wanted a $3000 computer (probably because, to be frank, they are a "weird nerd" who can put $3000 of hardware to good use), but they didn't want to be labelled as such.

I guess people are a bit in denial about the fashion brand aspect of Apples. I've got an Air and a Lenovo X201 and partly switched to the Air because I got negative comments about the Lenovo's looks - "that thing looks really old" etc. Both laptops work fine.

That or he doesn't want a laptop made of flexy plastic.

I don't know if you read my comment or not, but a core part of it was talking to my colleague about his desires in a laptop.

Brand value isn't just a "name", it's built up by a reputation of durability or usefulness.

Apple products generally have a high resale value like BMWs.

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