Why is Apple so greedy?

[Zest28]

The Xbox Series X costs only $499, yet it comes with 16GB RAM, 1TB SSD and is more powerful than a M1 Max.

Yet, Apple is too cheap to put regular speed SSD in their much more expensive base models.

No wonder Apple made history reaching $3 Trillion in market value.

 

[Mlrollin91]

This is like comparing an apple to a carrot. You can't build a PC for $499 that performs the same or better than an Xbox Series X. This has absolutely nothing to do with Apple being greedy.

 

[Zest28]

This is like comparing an apple to a carrot. You can't build a PC for $499 that performs the same or better than an Xbox Series X. This has absolutely nothing to do with Apple being greedy.

It’s greed. The M1 base models all had fast SSD’s and Apple made the SSD worse for more $$$$$ while Apple is making insane profits as it is already.

It’s not like Apple is struggling as Apple is the most valuable company in the world.

 

[Abazigal]

It’s not like Apple is struggling as Apple is the most valuable company in the world.

You just answered your own question as to why and how Apple is the most valuable company in the world, and it’s not by selling hardware at cost or even at a loss.

This is essentially business 101. Items are priced to maximised profits, so it’s more accurate to state that Apple charges the prices they do because they know that’s what people are willing to pay for, and we willingly pay those asking prices because that accurately reflects the value of those products for us.

In contrast, game consoles are often subsidised to build up a user base so they sell more games and the parent company can earn off game sales.

So it’s not that Sony is opting to sell a PS5 at cost out of the kindness of their heart. That’s what allows them to maximise profits once you factor in all income streams.

 

[apostolosdt]

Ha..., try Leica!

 

[Juicy Box]

I think there are all sorts of arguments that could be made giving evidence of Apple's greed, but comparing Macs to Xbox game consoles doesn't support that argument at all.

Many game consoles are sold at cost, or often at a loss, sometimes a few hundred dollars per unit, making up the loss in other ways. It is how their business model works now.

I think I read somewhere that each Xbox Series X is sold at a $200 loss.

If MS sold the Xbox Series X with even a little bit of a profit margin, it would sell a lot less units. Less units means less games sold, and less subscription services, which would most likely be less profit overall.

There are many better ways arguing that Apple is greedy.

 

[gigatoaster]

I think you’re paying for the brand. Not sure if you went to school but there is a concept in Economy called price elasticity. For luxury products, the more you increase the price, the more people would buy them. I believe Apple managed to build a luxury brand. thats why it can be considered as greedy.

They have still margin to increase prices and they are now targeting new markets like India. Meanwhile, we can see services increase like Apple TV+, iCloud while they look at cutting costs.

Not sure but I believe net margins of products have also increased.

Also the vast majority of people who buy Apple products don’t care about RAM and SSD speed: please explain to the average user the difference between an Apple product and a xbox, it’s not comparable at all to them. It’s like comparing Apple and carrots as someone mentioned earlier.

 

[JPack]

If you can offer the best products and services in the world, then it's natural to ask customers to pay the premium.

 

[bearcatrp]

It’s called the apple tax. Don’t like it, go buy something else Instead of whining about it.

 

[Ethosik]

Yet, Apple is too cheap to put regular speed SSD in their much more expensive base models.

Omg this again. If you need ultra fast SSDs you would not be buying the base spec anyway. I am able to work with 8k Red RAW with just BARELY above SATA2 speeds on the SSD performance. It needs about 280MB/s. People need to stop harping on SSD speeds.

The last video is definitely important. Also, Xbox is sold at a loss. And different memory and SSDs cost different. If you want your jaw to drop, look up how much DDR5 RAM was at launch, and yes I paid for a good amount and the RAM ALONE was $1,000. The price dropped significantly now, but not at launch.

 

[msackey]

The Xbox Series X costs only $499, yet it comes with 16GB RAM, 1TB SSD and is more powerful than a M1 Max.

Curious to know how you're defining "powerful" and where that benchmark is coming from.

 

[Ethosik]

I love it when Apple gets all the blame. I checked a few OEMs and the price is in-line, even worse on some platforms. Example of Microsoft Surface vs MacBook Air. You know, the Surface product comes from Microsoft, the same company you think is ultra powerful than an M1/M2 base at just $499. So either, consoles are sold at a loss, computer pricing is different, or a combination of them both.

Surface Laptop 5​

$1,299.99

• 15 inch
• Platinum (Metal)
• 12th Gen Intel® Core™ i7
• 8GB RAM
• 256GB SSD

Customize your 15-inch MacBook Air - Midnight​

$1,299.00

• Apple M2 chip with 8-core CPU, 10-core GPU, 16-core Neural Engine
• 8GB unified memory
• 256GB SSD storage
• 15.3-inch Liquid Retina display with True Tone³
• 1080p FaceTime HD camera
• MagSafe 3 charging port
• Two Thunderbolt / USB 4 ports
• 35W Dual USB-C Port Compact Power Adapter
• Backlit Magic Keyboard with Touch ID - US English

I will gladly take the MacBook Air over the Surface. The M2 is faster than the i7 in that Surface product.

And bumping up to 16GB of RAM and 512GB of storage, the Microsoft product is MORE expensive actually.

Summary​

Surface Laptop 5​

$1,799.99

• 15 inch
• Platinum (Metal)
• 12th Gen Intel® Core™ i7
• 16GB RAM
• 512GB SSD

Customize your 15-inch MacBook Air - Midnight​

$1,699.00

• Apple M2 chip with 8-core CPU, 10-core GPU, 16-core Neural Engine
• 16GB unified memory
• 512GB SSD storage
• 15.3-inch Liquid Retina display with True Tone³
• 1080p FaceTime HD camera
• MagSafe 3 charging port
• Two Thunderbolt / USB 4 ports
• 35W Dual USB-C Port Compact Power Adapter
• Backlit Magic Keyboard with Touch ID - US English

 

[Ethosik]

It’s called the apple tax. Don’t like it, go buy something else Instead of whining about it.

Agreed, but it's not really a tax. Take every component in to account. Not just CPU/RAM/SSD, but the quality of the screen, quality of the case, macOS vs Windows, like it or hate it iWork provided for free, etc. I mean holy cow if we want to say the barrier to entry for a Mac is much higher than anything else on the planet, the fact that I can get professional apps at just $200 and I did so YEARS ago YEARS and YEARS ago and still use it to this day, vs paying Adobe a good $20+ a month for years.

 

[Allyance]

It is not a tax nor are they greedy. It is their fiduciary responsibility to their stock holders, like me. Plenty of room in the market place for everyone, buy what you need and want, I am sure Apple will survive without you.

 

[Surfsalot]

Amazing people will justify a 2023 model being slower than a 2021 lol. Take another gulp of the cool aid.

 

[I7guy]

Greedy, like overpriced amounts to an opinion.

 

[kpluck]

Epic v. Apple trial reveals how Microsoft has never made money off Xbox hardware

Microsoft revealed in a court appearance this week that it does not, and has never, earned money on the per-unit sales for the Xbox. Each console is sold at a loss, and the profit from the project for Microsoft comes entirely from software sales.

Here endeth the lesson.

-kp

 

[The Cockney Rebel]

The Xbox Series X costs only $499, yet it comes with 16GB RAM, 1TB SSD and is more powerful than a M1 Max.

Yet, Apple is too cheap to put regular speed SSD in their much more expensive base models.

No wonder Apple made history reaching $3 Trillion in market value.

I believe they make their money from the £70 a go games that are sold.

A portion of that money goes to Microsoft.

 

[Love-hate 🍏 relationship]

You will get nothing but apologists' answers in here.

You won't be able to make a point no matter the argument, it's doomed to fail, trust me

 

[sgtaylor5]

Agreed, but it's not really a tax. Take every component in to account. Not just CPU/RAM/SSD, but the quality of the screen, quality of the case, macOS vs Windows, like it or hate it iWork provided for free, etc. I mean holy cowmen if we want to say the barrier to entry for a Mac is much higher than anything else on the planet, the fact that I can get professional apps at just $200 and I did so YEARS ago YEARS and YEARS ago and still use it to this day, vs paying Adobe a good $20+ a month for years.

"holy cowmen"; want to elucidate? 😀

 

[Ethosik]

"holy cowmen"; want to elucidate? 😀

Hah wow missed that, thanks for letting me know, I corrected my post.

 

[Flamingdeathbolts]

Heck yea Apple is greedy. All those TV commercials aren’t cheap. Alone the Super Bowl time commercial is supposedly $6.5mil.

I been working corporate sales directly for manufacturers last 10 years. There are items like someone pointed with the console that will be low profit margin but then that company will get you another way with a high profit item. Like selling them a piece of equipment at $600 that cost us about $400 to manufacture but then the consumable part that last maybe a few days use on the piece of equipment costs $50 but we manufacture for roughly $5.

EDIT: even further we have swapped out parts for inferior materials to cut costs but then claim it all under the warranty since we try to calculate well how long will customer actually use the product and can we get away with it lasting the warranty period and then it’s up to customer to figure out(pay) when it breaks right after warranty expires. Corporations are not your friend.

 

[gigatoaster]

Razor and blades model - Wikipedia

en.wikipedia.org

 

[I7guy]

[…]. Corporations are not your friend.

Apple may not be your specific friend. Nobody can be everybody’s friend, but apple does appear to be a friend to the masses

HTTPS://apple.com/newsroom

You can read about it at the previous link.