All right. You go online, make calls, take photos and post on social media. So how can one brand justify consistently charging more for their product, while cheaper rivals do essentially the same thing for less. Well, it's complicated. So join us today as we follow the maney and investigate exactly why is apple so expensive.
Cynics like some of you in the comment section below this blog no doubt love painting Apple stands as vacuous empty headed sheeple, who turned out 5000 bucks for a wooden spork if Tim Cook's and he was cool, then sure, a negligible subset of the population, largely those with more money than sense will indeed buy any and every Apple product solely for the flex value by Mercedes Benz or Louis return, there's no getting around the fact that Apple has a brand, hold a certain cachet let's unpack that quickly before moving on to the substantial stuff,
spiritual father of the brand Steve Jobs was a great believer in beauty and the power of compelling aesthetics. He grew up in a suburban sprawl between San Francisco and San Jose in Northern California, and made rows of attractive houses designed by mid century architects and Joseph Eichler Eichler is famous for crafting quality modernist family homes, into middle class American families. They weren't exactly mentioned, but they're designed paid appropriate attention to timeless principles of style and proportion, young jobs to note, great design as both minor and jobs understood needn't be the exclusive domain of multimillionaires. If you can make some make smart functional and easy on the eye, then even if it costs a little more people will fall in love with it.
Jobs was famously obsessive over details. For instance, when it bumped into the shade of yellow in the second row of the Google logo didn't look quite right to him on an early iPhone, he immediately reached out to Vic Gundotra Google's Senior Vice President of Engineering and told him to tackle the problem on a Sunday, indeed, it takes a lot of hard work Job said and a late career interview to make something simple to truly understand the underlying challenges and to come up with elegant solutions. And indeed, every chic rounded edge brushed metal finish or optimally cracky keyboard sound on every Apple device takes time and investment, not least in precision machinery to manufacture these shiny doodads of scale, looking and feeling so effortless actually takes a vast amount of effort and generation defining work from the likes of legendary Apple designer search on iOS.
But it's not just looks as Apple's very first marketing brochure, published in 1977 succinctly put it. Simplicity is the ultimate sophistication. Thus, in addition to their great beauty or flex value whatever you like to call it, Apple products are also much simpler to use, and get your head around and rival phones or computers in the parlance of infuriating Apple fanboys and girls everywhere for products just work this off used one liner bumped up against a frequent objection from Apple sceptics who insists that an identical specification computer or phone can be had for less money from other brands or on other platforms. If you're happy cobbling together your own Frankenstein's monster RPC the argument goes with the right motherboard, memory and graphics cards, you can save big bucks. Well, perhaps.
But that arrangement obviously requires a nuanced understanding of hardware, and the willingness to put up with tinkering, not to mention all the energy and attention you'll need to lavish on justice status, keeping on top of all those pesky driver updates for your patchwork bunkroom machine with an Apple computer on the other hand, things really do just work. Apple devices frequently update to tackle security issues, and make general subtle improvements in the background and interface or without you needing to lift a finger. As such that the price may well be higher on a Mac, but if you value your time and you don't like hassle Mac's are worth it. In fact, many analysts, even Apple sceptics will admit the comparing a new MacBook Air with a custom build machine is a fair test, because when Alvin's like Dell or HP actually do release a premium high spec PC, the prices are nearly indistinguishable from those of the Mac, and besides, it's worth noting at this point that Apple don't bother putting out body machines.
Sure, Apple phones aren't as customizable, and their computers aren't cut out for Hong Kong gaming, but most of the public aren't fragging noobs or mining Bitcoin, neither do most users have time to troubleshoot and will navigate arcane menus in order to tweak their devices. They want a phone or computer or a tablet that, at the risk of sounding like a broken record just works. And lest we forget the criticality of customer service, especially to an end user who isn't especially tech savvy, Apple's network of stores and friendly Genius Bar format is legendary among fan for its accessibility and cost effective service, not least when COVID forced the company to successfully move their entire Service Division online that level of attention is invaluable to millions and providing it doesn't come cheap. Neither does the fact that Apple would use not only hardware, almost everything, even down to the CPU in the latest models, but also software.
So unlike a PC developer who has to assume their product will be running on multiple spec machines and all manner of configurations with all the compromises that entails a Mac or iOS app developer knows the hardware inside out, and can code accordingly, and the software pre bundled with most Mac's is pretty impressive with dazzling least slaves consistently updated operating systems and powerful tools like GarageBand pie work by movie, and more for the end user who wants to make an cut together a quick home movie or a quarter simple beat with a gear they have to hand Apple machines are powerful and straightforward. They want to professionals and creatives swear by it. And that's before we even get to privacy on an Android phone running Google's, your data is part of the business model, meaning every move you make on your phone is monetized by the powers that be.
Apple is different. The Cupertino Colossus might use your data to improve their services in a strictly limited and transparent fashion, but they're not out to make a fast buck sending your info on to third party promoters your privacy worth not just today, but in a year or five years, or 10 years from now, Apple's self contained ecosystem also means their products, and especially their phones don't come loaded with so called bloatware. That is software pre installed by profit hungry third parties, below where it makes sense commercially for manufacturers of rival devices looking to fatten up their margins, put off as little of value to the end user. Let's sum up, despite critics who believe that Apple is essentially the supremum of tech firms, slapping their logo onto any old tat and laughing all the way to the bank. In reality, slick design superior build quality, great customer service, seamless software and hardware integration and a commitment to privacy are worth money. Oh, but Apple devices are better resale value to his CEO Tim Cook, offering his eloquent offensive iPhone pricing back in 2018, your phone has replaced your digital camera, you don't have a separate one anymore, it replaced your video camera, it replaced your music player, it replaced all of these different devices, we found that people want to have the most innovative product available. It's not cheap to do.
What do you think are Apple fans justified in putting a premium on excellence, who has this video convinced you were part of some fabried Steve Jobs cold. Let us know in the comments and follow us for more stylish tech content.