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Comment by Gigachad | Hacker News Reader

Apple has been doing this for ages. The base tier one always gets the fun colors while the pro models get silver, grey, and maybe some muted blue.

Not sure why they make the cheaper models cooler than the top tier ones. Maybe it's just too expensive to stock multiple colors of every product. The Neo has minimal customization options for specs so making it colorful is cheaper.

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In the very olden days of 1999-ish when I worked for a very expensive AV shop in Glasgow, we used to be an agent for Loewe. You could order your expensive (like four times as much as an equivalent top-spec Sony, three times as much as Grundig) TV in any colour you liked - they'd spray it anything you wanted.

One of the last jobs I did for them before moving onto a very early streaming video company in 2000 was opening up this pristine "Oxford Blue Metallic" (stock Landrover colour from the time, mine is that colour) 32" TV and fitting a VGA adaptor board to it so the customer could play videos and games from his PC on his new telly directly. It had a scan line doubler in to reduce flicker, which I guess was the precursor of "Mexican Soap Opera Mode" in modern TVs, and that allowed it to display 1280x720x50p smoothly.

It looked fantastic but I don't know that it was £3700-in-early-2000s-money fantastic - or about seven grand today.

Imagine paying three and a half grand for a telly, even if it was sprayed the same colour as your 80 grand Range Rover.

I still have an ATX Midi case sitting here in my office, bought in 1998, spray painted with the same Ford Metallic blue colour that my Fiesta had, a couple years later, because I only needed the can to fix a couple small scratches and had so much paint left.

I don't see anything wrong here except the price ;)

Market segmentation? High-end ones have to look "professional", I presume the thinking is you wouldn't give a serious boardroom presentation on a lime-colored laptop.

On the other hand, for students and schoolkids once you've solved "cheap", it's a plus to also tweak for "fun".

Speaking of market segmentation - this may vary by country but on https://www.apple.com/macbook-neo/ (US site accessed from EU VPN) if I scroll down a bit, what gender do you think the "blush" color is most associated with? Is it coincidence that the laptop is being held in a hand with painted nails? (And a wedding ring.)

I agree businesses would probably want dull laptops. But plenty of non corporate users would like color.

I’d still pick the MacBook Pro because it has an SD card slot which any photographer is going to want. I don’t need something that blends in at a board room.

This sadly is true in so many segments. The worst is cars. “I’d like the highest trim… oh it’s only available in three boring colors?”

I got the citrus version because it made such a change from the usual. However, I'd love it if Apple could make some truly vibrant non-pastel colours like tangerine and lime devices they did in the early days.

Ah, fond memories of the original CRT iMacs. I think you could take off the color covering and replace it with a different one?

More color choices that there are Pokemon games.

I always wanted one but could never afford it. Now I can afford it, they're not available

The G3s were cool when they came out but they didn't have swappable case covers, nor were there as many colors as you remember.

Blue Dalmatian!

> The base tier one always gets the fun colors

not universally true for all of their products. the new iphone pro max to the apple watch ultra got the bright orange going for them compared the typical muted colours for the base one. the "red" edition, while for charity, used to be the exclusive (maybe more expensive?) version when there was fewer segmentation between the products.

I'm definitely getting sick of the dull colours in the higher end laptops. Give me a yellow, give me a red, forest green, whatever, anything but silver and darker silver

$10 in enamel paints and a free half hour and you can have as cool looking of a laptop as you like!

You can fairly easily get skins that will customize your laptop. I’ve done that, in the past.

Seems the thing most people are into, these says, is “bumper stickers” on their laptop lids. I suspect neutral colors work best for that.

I’ve found that I tend to replace my primary development machine every 3 years or so. Since retiring, I don’t travel much, so I got an M4Pro Mini. Works great, and I still have my M1Max MacBook Pro (my previous development machine), for when I want to hit the road.

I large part, the sticker trend is so that people can distinguish one gray rounded slab from another. It is the reaction, not the cause.

Maybe, but I always assumed that it was for the same reason that people put them on their cars.

They are really signals to others.

I think it can be either. Mine are all novelties that help me to distinguish my grey squares from each other and bring a bit of joy.

I agree with you and ChrisMarshallNY, I think both can be true. I have a work laptop and personal laptop that would be identical if not for stickers, but at the same time I enjoy stickers because they lend personality to something that would otherwise look the same as every other one; I'm sure signalling plays a part for some people, but mine are all novelties.

I've had skins, and would probably use one now if I really wanted to go ham decorating with stickers, but I'd just prefer a neat colour that I can do the same thing with if I want.

It's cars too - you'll get muted blue, 5 greys a black, white and better enjoy being boring.

Near 2000 everything came in wild colors. I fondly miss bright red motherboards even, or orange ones.

With their phones and other stuff, sure. But colours in laptops haven't been seen since the toilet seat iBooks.

The MacBook Air has had colors for a while. Not particularly bold ones but they did blue and rose gold.

Those are such muted colours, I don't think anyone views those computers as coloured.

Dell took a stab at colors with the Mini netbooks circa 2008.

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