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Comment by iwanttocomment | Hacker News Reader

The question isn't entirely whether one would pay more for a US-made computer, it's:

"Would you buy a Made In America computer from Anduril for 20% more than Chinese-manufactured options from Apple?"

I think there's absolutely a place for a high-end made-in-America Windows laptop that can compete with the quality of Apple's post 2020 laptops. Honestly, Dell and Lenovo's laptops are uninspiring and it's entirely possible that a competitor could eat their lunch. But whether I buy one? It's entirely contingent on the laptop's quality meeting or exceeding Apple's current standards.

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> The question isn't entirely whether one would pay more for US-made computer, it's: > "Would you buy a Made In America computer from Anduril for 20% more than Chinese-manufactured options from Apple?"

Yes, the question didn't fit in HN length constraint, so I had to adjust it.

> I think there's absolutely a place for a high-end made-in-America Windows laptop that can compete with the quality of Apple's post 2020 laptops.

The responses to his prompt are interesting, with many saying it depends on:

- OS (with vocal opposition to Windows)

- build quality

- degree of US-ness of supply chain, including raw material

But why not just manufacture a high-end made-in-China laptop that can compete with Apple's post 2020 laptops?

It would be less expensive, overall.

I think my question here would be why there already isn't that kind of option on the market.

I'm OS agnostic - I don't have a strong preference and I'm productive in macOS, Windows and Linux. In the problematic 2016-2019 days of the terrible Apple butterfly keyboard, I auditioned several Windows/Linux laptops from different manufacturers as my "next" laptop. They were all sub-par in terms of build quality than my five year old pre-butterfly MBP.

I'm not a huge fan of macOS, and I'm certainly not a fan of iOS, but I use Apple gear these days because the build quality is so good. Would I buy a higher quality laptop than Apple's built in either China or the US? In a heartbeat. Even with a 20% markup! I find it bizarre nobody's pulled it off, regardless of country of manufacture.

> I think my question here would be why there already isn't that kind of option on the market.

Because the [Windows] market is driven by price (or cost). There's no appetite in a large enough volume to produce a "high quality" [Windows] laptop. Or at least that is what OEMs believe, likely based on some form of market research.

I hoarded mechanical keyboards for years and years (and adapters to use these AT-connector and ADP devices with then-modern machines), and always wondered why people put up with the terrible membrane keyboards of the 90s and aughts. The answer then as now was always the same - the keyboard market is driven by price, and people wanted cheap keyboards.

Today, we all know that wasn't the case, as (often pricy) mechanical keyboards are (thankfully) back in vogue.

It was just lack of availability the whole time.

(Yes, my purchasing decisions are very keyboard-driven.)

Mechanical keyboards serve the same niche vinyl records serve.

They're great, but still a niche. And extremely rare on laptops.

The scissor-switch keyboards on most modern laptops are radically and wildly superior to the membrane keyboards from the '90s or the horrific butterfly Apple keyboards from 2016-2020.

Perhaps a niche, but it is strange how objectively bad keyboards got before literally anyone complained, even though in retrospect we all look back at those terrible keyboards with disgust.

Yes, scissor is generally fine. I had a laptop back in the 386 days and those keyboards were something else.

> Would you buy a Made In America computer from Anduril for 20% more

Honestly, I'd pay a premium to avoid supporting Anduril.

Lenovo is Chinese.

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