this post was submitted on 11 Nov 2023
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I don’t get why Apple won’t just add more RAM and storage to their base models. They’ll ship more units and get better PR. Simple as.
Because they get an extra $200 per upgrade to a usable amount, while getting to advertise the lower price. And the low specs force early upgrades for the people who purchase the base model. As always, it's about the money.
I think that was the tactic they are using. Enterprises and engineers are going to spec out the RAM and/or CPU, and anyone else will get it in the default config and possibly not even notice the difference. If you know, then you know sort of thing?
Exactly. I forget the term, but companies don't want you to buy the absolute base, budget model. Same with cars. They want it that low to advertise the line, expecting most people to pay a few hundred *more for a vastly better product.
Aye, but they could lower the starting price, increase specs and ship larger volume for an overall larger profit, right?
If I was running the company, I’d rather more people buy my product for a lower price than far fewer people buy my product for a somewhat higher price. Plus, higher sales figures itself is better, no? I don’t get the strategy. They’re leaving out the whole $2,000 that someone would have otherwise spent if the base model was actually useable.
It's that whole thing where the medium amount of ram upsells you to the large amount of ram.
The base model has 8gb of ram and 512gb of storage, but is only £1700.... But that's not useable.
1TB of storage is only £200 more, but it doesn't have enough ram.
18gb of ram is only £200 more again, but it's back to a 512gb ssd.
18gb of ram with 1tb ssd is £2500. And that's what most folk would consider to be acceptable.
And that's an £800 upsell, by making little bits unpalatable.
It's aggressive marketing. Or unfair marketing.
Like that thing where a cosmetic is 600 game-coins. 500 game-coins is £5, and 1000 game-coins is £7.50.
Might as well but 1000 game-coins. But then you have 400 game-coins left over, and you will never be able to buy the perfect amount of game-coins to spend on cosmetics, and that little amount left over makes you want a new cosmetic for "only £5 more".
It's just scammy
Have you ever tried to buy the absolute base model car at a dealership? They have few to none in stock.
It's the same phenomenon. Smaller number on the advertisement, fleece you on the upgrade.
This could be something different, but apple often feels like they intentionally hold upgrades back and instead release them in small improvements over multiple releases.
Smaller number on the advertisment really
The purpose of the base model is to make the more expensive higher end models look better in comparison than they otherwise would.