How much does it cost to get a device with comparable specs, performance, and 18 hour battery life?
Closer to $999 then $500.
Closer to $999 then $500.
Nobody is away from a power source for longer than 18 hours. MOST people don't need the performance that a macbook air has, their NEEDS would be met by a raspberry pi... that is, basic finances, logging into various services, online banking, things that first world citizens "rely" on.
The definition of luxury is "great comfort and extravagance", and every current Apple product fits that definition. Past Apple definitely had non-luxury products, as recently as the iPhone C (discontinued 10 years ago)... but Apple has eliminated all low-value options from their lineup.
https://www.amazon.com/Lenovo-IdeaPad-Ryzen5-5500U-1920x1080...
An 18 hour battery life is a luxury characteristic, not something penny pinchers will typically be selecting on.
Apple likes to overcharge for storage, but the drives are _really_ good.
As I said in another comment:
The point isn't that the MacBook Air isn't better by some metrics than PC laptops. A Rolls-Royce is "better" by certain metrics than a Toyota, too. What makes a device luxury is if it costs substantially more than competing products that the average person would consider a valid replacement.
Except Apple wanted $3,000 for 7TB of SSD (considering the base price already included 1TB).
Instead, I bought a 4xM.2 PCI card, and 4 2TB Samsung Pro SSDs.
I paid $1,300 for it, got to keep the 1TB "system" SSD.
And I get faster speeds from it, 6.8GBps versus 5.5GBps off the system drive.
For $2,000 I could have got the PCI 4.0 version and SSDs, and get 26GBps.
... for an eye watering $3,000 over the exact same spec Mac Studio.
I liked my cheesegrater, though I didn't like the heat output.
And I cannot justify that. I sacrificed half the throughput (2800MBps) for $379 and got an external 4 x M.2 TB3 enclosure.
Oh, and a USB 3 hub to replace one I had installed in the cheesegrater to augment the built in ports. $400 give or take.
M-series Macs is when MacBooks stopped sucking at battery life without sleeping and wrecking state every moment they could.
Like I say Audi is a luxury car because a Toyota costs less than half as much, and you ask "what about a Toyota with leather seats"?
My experiences (multiple) with Genius Bar have been decidedly more "meh" to outright frustrating, versus "luxury", oftentimes where I know more than the Genius.
Logic Board issues where on a brand new macOS install I could reproducibly cause a kernel panic around graphics hardware. There was an open recall (finally, after waiting MONTHS) on this. It covered my Mac. But because it passed their diagnostic tool, they would only offer to replace the board on a time and materials basis.
I had a screen delamination issue. "It's not that bad - you can't see it when the screen is on, and you have to look for it". Huh. Great "luxury" experience.
And then the multiple "we are going to price this so outrageously, and use that as an excuse to try to upsell". Like the MBA that wouldn't charge due to a circuit issue. Battery fine, healthy. Laptop, fine, healthy, on AC. Just couldn't deliver current to the battery. Me, thinking sure, $300ish maybe with a little effort.
"That's going to be $899 to repair. That's only $100 less than a new MBA, maybe we should take a look at some of the new models?" Uh, no. I'm not paying $900 for a laptop that spends 99% (well, 100% now) of its life on AC power.