I feel sorry for you having only experienced an Apple in the Tim Cook era. Its been terrible.
Not subjective statements at all really they deliberately withhold features to charge you a premium when they should be there in the first place as standard as they used to be.
So you're happy for Apple to charge you £200 to upgrade from 8GB to 16GB of RAM and £400 for a 2TB SSD? These are just the base upgrades. If you go above 16GB of RAM and 2TB storage the prices verge on the insane.
16GB and 1TB SSD should be the standard in 2024.
Also youre happy to purchase an iPads charged at laptop prices even though they done actually run MacOS.
The same old argument is that Apple offers more choice now, but that does not benefit the consumer. Before it was one iPad model, one iPhone model and that model had all the lastest features.
Like I said in previous post if there as only one iPhone model you would be getting the 15 Pro Max at £799 the starting price of the iPhone 15.
The counterpoint is also that you may not get the 15 pro max in its current incarnation because it wouldn't be financially feasible to offer it at $799. Who knows what corners Apple would have to cut in order to hit that price point? The simple logic is that phones are costing more because they cost more to make, and the non-pro iPhones are what allow Apple to make the best iPhones possible while still charging what they believe is a fair price for them.
The fact that the majority of iPhones sold are the pro models show that users want the best, and are willing to pay for the best as far as iPhones are concerned.
And maybe I can now come in with my own personal experiences.
My first Macbook was a 11" MBA in 2012. I got the base 4gb ram model. My understanding was that the entry level 2011 MBA model came with just 2gb ram, and ran fine. So I know what a massive improvement the M1 chip has been (very noticeable increase in performance and battery life). If there are performance constraints to be had from it having just 8gb ram, I have not felt it. It still runs as smoothly as it did 3.5 years ago. I enjoy using it over my work-issued windows laptop with 16gb ram and 512gb storage, which for all its specs, takes way longer to wake up from sleep, and has on more than one occasion failed to hibernate properly and proceeded to burn through my battery life and get boiling hot while at it. Maybe it's not fair to compare a personal laptop with one that is laden with enterprise software, but I have never really had a good impression of Windows, and my bugbear with it is not something that can be resolved simply by throwing more ram at it.
I am also currently using slightly less than half of the storage on my MBA with 256gb storage, so I am not really pressed for more space either. If I ever need more in the future, I will pay.
I am happy with paying laptop-level pricing for iPads, because they have proven to be situationally way more useful than PCs in my use case. Those of you who have been following me for some time will know that I am a teacher who had been experimenting with how to incorporate the use of my iPad in the classroom since 2012. I am currently still using my 2018 iPad Pro to teach in the classroom. It's been going strong for 5.5 years, the writing experience with the Apple Pencil has never been better, and I for one am happy that my iPad does not run macOS, because it would actually be a downgrade for me (I don't want to be fiddling with a desktop UI on an 11" display).
It was also Tim Cook's iPad that added the apple pencil and Smart Keyboard and gave users options. There were third party styluses I could buy with my first iPad, and they all sucked.
When the next iPad is released, I see myself getting the top-end iPad Pro, and I am willing to pay for the new Apple Pencil and redesigned keyboard as well. I may even get both the Smart Keyboard and Magic Keyboard folios so I can swap them out (eg: keep the magic keyboard at my desk as some sort of dock, while bringing my smart keyboard to class).
I held on to my iPhone 8+ for 4 years before upgrading to the 13 pro max, and I see myself sticking with it for maybe 4 years minimum?
I am also still using my Apple Watch series 5 from 2019, and it's still working great. I have had the batteries for my Apple Watch, iPhone 13 Pro Max and iPad Pro replaced, but otherwise, they all work fine.
I am not even mad that my iPhone came without a charger because I have too many third party chargers scattered around the house and at my workplace. If anything, I would like to see more companies make charging bricks optional. They are all just collecting dust in my drawer, because the sheer number of devices I have charging at my desk means I end up consolidating them via multi-port chargers anyways.
People who complain that they have to pay $1 a month for icloud storage don't seem to realise that dropbox charges like $100 a year for 1tb, and the issue is that I don't need anywhere near that much space, and there is no option to downgrade.
So my overall experience with Apple products is that while I pay more upfront for my apple hardware, they have more than paid for themselves in the form of greater productivity and fewer problems overall, and that's really the value add for me. I am happy with my decision to embrace the apple ecosystem in its entirety, and I see myself staying a happy apple customer for a good many years to come, and I no longer need to be replacing my hardware every 2 years now because they last longer, and are supported for longer.
If this is Tim Cook's legacy, then I am all for it.
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