A lot of people wonder why Apple Macbooks and other products like iPhones, iPods, iPads, and iMacs are so expensive. Are they really worth the price?
If you compare the well known Apple Macbooks with other Windows laptops from different manufacturers you’ll find that the Macbooks cost way more than other laptops even with lower specifications.
The question of why are Apple Macbooks and iMacs so expensive is like an enigma to users who don’t own an Apple computer.
There are five main reasons why Apple Macbooks and other Apple products are priced that high.
(A) The Apple Brand and Marketing Strategy.
(B) Research and Development.
(C) Build Quality and Design.
(D) Security and Synchronization.
(E) Operating System and Battery Life.
All of these reasons justifies the high price of MacBooks and other Apple products. I will go through each of these points in-depth and explain why people are willing to wait in long queues for an Apple product.
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The Apple Brand and Marketing
Apple has established itself as one of the most popular and leading brands when it comes to Laptops and Smartphones. This is the biggest reason why people are ready to shell out a lot of cash for their products.
Steve Jobs was the biggest reason for setting up Apple as a big brand. He always wanted the Apple users to be a part of a family and not just a regular phone or computer user.
When you buy an Apple product you’re not just a regular user. You are now part of the Apple family which gives you a special feeling of accomplishment and makes you feel above others.
Apple MacBooks and iPhones have become a status symbol in the society. They draw people’s attention and makes you feel important.
Our society has become such that an Apple product helps you make more friends and get people talking about you. Owning an Apple product nowadays has become a matter of pride than anything else.
From Students to working professionals, from broke people to rich people, everyone wants to carry a MacBook or iPhone.
This shows the power of Branding. People trust Brands. You can get a lot of laptops with very good specifications at cheap prices but people would still buy the MacBook because they Trust the Apple Brand.
This is the reason why Apple is the most valuable brand in the world valued at 1.3 Trillion US Dollars.
Next up is the clever and strategic marketing strategy of Apple. Every year Apple spends billions of dollars on Advertising and Marketing.
Be it on TV or the Internet, Hoardings or Billboards, you’ll find Apple everywhere. The more advertising sources you have the higher reach you’ll get. This is the strategy what Apple follows and they obviously have a huge budget to cover all these advertising sources.
The Apple advertisements are unique in their own way. Every Apple ad is carefully designed to highlight a single feature with an attention grabbing song in the background. You won’t find one Apple advertisement focused on displaying multiple features at once.
You’ll never see Apple using high profile celebrities in their Ads. Do you know why? That’s because they don’t need to.
Most high profile celebrities buy an Apple product themselves and then release their pictures with that product. They are actually endorsing the Apple product even without being paid. This goes to show why Apple is one of the most clever brands out there.
People follow celebrities and they want to own the same products what their celebrities use. If a celebrity uses an Apple iPhone then their followers would also want to own the Apple iPhone. This strategy gets Apple a lot of sales.
Another marketing strategy is the Apple Tax which every buyer has to pay for the research and development of future Apple products. This Apple Tax is included with the price of the Apple Product.
Apple has created a loyal base of fans and followers that preach Apple over everything. They will buy every new Apple product that launches in the market.
Another big reason for their big brand is the amount of time they have been in the market. Apple has been around for a long time which has helped them develop trust among their users.
Research and Development
Apple spends millions of dollars on Research and Development. Their R&D team consists of some of the brightest minds who work day and night to bring us new and better features that no one has developed yet.
Apple was the first company to incorporate the Fingerprint reader in a smartphone. iPhone 5S was the first smartphone with a Fingerprint reader. It was a new feature but the accuracy blew everyone’s minds. All other smartphone manufacturers just copied the feature from them.
Apple was also the first company to develop the iPod which could fit in a small pocket and had enough memory to store over 1000 songs.
They also developed the MacBook which was one of the thinnest laptops of that time. Steve Jobs was always interested in making things smaller and sleeker as it can get. This motivated the engineers in Apple to develop products that are slim, sleek and powerful.
Apple was also the first company to incorporate Advanced Facial Recognition in the iPhone X which they named as FaceID.
They have also developed the first truly Retina Display that is beautiful to look at.
Apple also developed a fast file sharing system the AirDrop that no one had at that time. Apple also developed AirPrint where you can print a file using the iPhone and a printer.
Just imagine a company that has its own Operating System, Software and Hardware specifically for smartphones, tablets, computers, and iPods. No other company has done this ever. Microsoft came close with Windows but their Windows phones failed miserably and are nowhere to be seen in the market.
We can truly say that Apple has the best Research and Development for a Phone and Laptop manufacturing company.
Build Quality and Design
Apple Engineers put the most work in the design of the Apple products. That’s why the Apple products have a stunning look and perform very smoothly at the same time.
The MacBooks have an Anodized Aluminium Unibody design which is polished afterward to give a premium finish to it. You’ll find the amazing Apple Logo in the middle of the Lid which lights up when the laptop is powered on.
The great thing about Apple MacBooks is that they are very slim and thin. This is what Apple specializes in. They always tell their engineers to place the internal components in such a way that it takes very little space which enables them to make such thin laptops.
The MacBooks are very slim and sleek but they are durable at the same time. The unibody design makes them much more durable than laptops with dual body designs (plastic and metal).
Apple MacBooks are sturdy and extremely durable. The MacBooks can last for more than 4 years easily.
Another great things about MacBooks is that they are extremely lightweight. This makes them great for carrying around with you and traveling.
MacBooks use Retina Display which is a treat to look at. The screens are extremely bright and the color saturation as well as color accuracy is brilliant. The Retina display also blocks out blue light emissions and reduces the possibility of eye strain and headaches.
The keyboard and trackpad of MacBooks are very responsive. The keys have excellent key travel and great tactile feedback. You’ll definitely enjoy typing on these keyboards.
The trackpad registers every action accurately without any delays. The trackpad also has shortcuts like swiping with three fingers, two finger scrolling and many more.
Overall the build quality and design of the MacBooks is simple, sturdy and elegant.
Security and Synchronization
Apple devices are one of the most secure devices you’ll get in the market. The iPhone and MacBooks use multiple levels of security to protect your phone and laptop from being hacked.
Every update or download requires Authorization to protect you from phishing attacks. A new download for the iPhone requires your Fingerprint or the passcode to download an app.
Similarly, any changes to the System preferences on a MacBook requires you to enter the AppleID and Password to proceed.
These extra layers of security makes Apple MacBooks and other Apple devices one of the most secure devices in the market today.
The MacBooks have a FileVault which encrypts your important files which can be accessed only with a password. This prevents anyone from accessing these without your permission.
MacBooks also have an inbuilt Firewall which blocks any unauthorized incoming connections and protects your MacBook from viruses. This also prevents downloads from untrusted sources and protects your device from malware.
Apple devices have great synchronization. You can sync all your Apple devices with one another. This means you can never lose any data as long as it is synced in all your devices.
All Apple devices come with iCloud storage where you can sync your photos, videos, and other important files. They come with some free storage but you have to upgrade once you cross that limit.
The Sync helps you access all the important files from any Apple device. If you want to access an important file on the MacBook then you can do that with an iPhone with the help of Sync.
The Apple Sync makes sure you’re always connected to your devices and have 24/7 access to all your important files.
Operating System and Battery Life
The Operating System on MacBooks and iPhones is so good that you don’t need powerful hardware to run your device smoothly without any lags.
The great thing about the OS of Apple Devices is that you get frequent updates which supports many old devices. This means you don’t need to invest in new MacBooks or iPhones to get the latest software update.
The MacBook Air 2015 model still can be updated to the newest macOS Mojave and Catalina. A 5-year-old device gets the latest update and runs it without any lags.
Similarly, the iPhone 6 released in 2014 gets the latest iOS 13 update and runs it smoothly without any glitches. The above two examples show the power of Apple’s Operating System.
The macOS also doesn’t have any bloatware. Bloatware is the unnecessary apps that people don’t use generally and slows down your computer. This means that the MacBooks are very fast and don’t need unnecessary applications to slow the system down.
The MacOS is so powerful and light that it integrates with the simple hardware of Apple MacBooks to produce superior performance.
You can perform heavy tasks like video editing, graphic design and photo editing without any problems. However, they don’t support heavy gaming and 3D rendering.
The MacOS is overall very fast and light. It doesn’t have bloatware like Windows 10 and the MacOS gets constant updates that are compatible with old MacBooks.
The boot times of MacBooks are very less which means these laptops startup very quickly. Program loading times are also quick.
Users love MacOS so much that they try to install macOS in Windows computers. You can install macOS on a Windows computer with Hackintosh.
You can get the macOS in a Windows or Linux laptop with the Hackintosh but the performance isn’t that stable and the cost of setting up is very high. You can easily get a new MacBook Air at that price.
The battery life of MacBooks is excellent and you can run your laptop for 9-10 hours with a single charge. The hardware and OS combination consumes less power than most other laptops which makes the battery last longer than normal laptops.
MacBooks also use a Lithium-Ion battery that has a certain number of charge-discharge cycles. You should avoid frequent charging of your laptop to prolong the overall battery life.
Although MacBooks are good in most aspects they are by no means perfect. But, people still buy them because it performs better, faster and lasts longer than most laptops. The customer support is also good and they will address your problems as quickly as they can.
Should You Buy A MacBook?
MacBooks are great laptops for working professionals and students that are mostly using them for doing the following:
(A) Photo and Video Editing.
(B) Internet Browsing and Watching Movies.
(C) Programming and Coding.
(D) Running an Online business like Website Development etc.
(E) Writing articles and Creating PowerPoint Presentations.
(F) Simple graphic designing and sketching for Artists.
MacBooks are usually expensive so if you have the money and you want a laptop for the above tasks then you should definitely buy one.
MacBooks are not a good choice for you if
(a) You want a laptop for running heavy AAA title games like GTA V, BattleField, Call Of Duty.
(b) You want to run game design software like Unity3D and UnReal Engine.
(c) You want to run 3D rendering softwares and VFX Designing softwares like Autodesk Maya, 3DS etc.
(d) Artificial Intelligence Design.
Conclusion
Apple has a lot of customers for the five reasons mentioned in this article. But, the most important factor is the Branding. Everyone trusts a well known brand and that is why people buy Apple products.
The build quality of MacBooks are very good and sturdy. They are also durable and lightweight. The MacBook retina Display has great viewing angles and color saturation.
The Operating System has no bloatware and blends perfectly with the hardware to provide superior performance. The battery life is also excellent.
There are a lot of positive reviews on most shopping sites and laptop review sites that makes Apple one of the most trusted and reviewed brands.
The Apple Brand, money spent on Marketing, free endorsement by celebrities and the smooth performance powered with great battery life makes Apple one of the most expensive laptops in the market.