A phone is just a phone, and a computer is just a computer, right?
You go online, make calls, take photos and post on social media.
So how can one brand justify consistency 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 money and investigate exactly why is Apple so expensive?
Cynics, like some of you in the comment section below this video no doubt, love painting Apple
stans as vacuous empty-headed sheeple who’d shell out five thousand bucks for a wooden
spork if Tim Cook said it was cool.
And 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.
Like Mercedes Benz or Louis Vuitton, there’s no getting around the fact Apple as a brand
holds a certain cachet.
Let’s unpack that quickly, before moving onto 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 the suburban sprawl between San Francisco and San Jose in Northern California,
amid rows of attractive houses designed by mid-century architect Joseph Eichler.
Eichler is famous for crafting quality, modernist family homes aimed at middle-class American
families.
They weren’t exactly mansions, but their design paid appropriate attention to timeless
principles of style and proportion.
Young Jobs took note.
Great design, as both Eichler and Jobs understood, needn’t be the exclusive domain of multimillionaires.
If you can make something 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 bugged him that the shade of yellow in the second ‘O’ of the
google logo didn’t look quite right to him on an early iPhone, he immediately reached
out 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,” Jobs said in a late-career interview, “to make something
simple, to truly understand the underlying challenges and come up with elegant solutions.”
And indeed, every chic rounded edge, brushed-metal finish or optimally clacky keyboard sound
on every Apple device takes time and investment, not least in precision machinery to manufacture
these shiny doodads at scale.
Looking and feeling so effortless actually takes a vast amount of effort, and generation-defining
work from the likes of legendary Apple designer Sir Jony Ive.
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 than rival phones or
computers.
In the parlance of infuriating Apple fanboys everywhere, Apple products ‘just work’.
This oft-used one liner bumps up against a frequent objection from Apple skeptics, who
insist 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 of PC, the argument
goes, with the right motherboard, memory and graphics card, you can save big bucks.
Well, perhaps you can.
But that arrangement obviously requires a nuanced understanding of hardware, and a willingness
to put up with tinkering.
Not to mention all the energy and attention you’ll need to lavish on, just for starters,
keeping on top of all those pesky driver updates for your patchwork mongrel 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, all without you needing to lift a finger.
As such the ticket price may well be higher on a Mac.
But if you value your time, and you don’t like hassle, Macs are worth it.
In fact many analysts, even Apple skeptics, will admit that comparing a new MacBook Air
with a custom built machine isn’t a fair test, because when outfits like Dell or HP
actually do release a ‘premium’ hi-spec PC the prices are nearly indistinguishable
from those of a Mac.
And besides, it’s worth noting at this point that Apple don’t bother putting out budget
machines.
Sure, Apple phones aren’t as customisable, and their computers aren’t cut out for hardcore
gaming.
But most of the public aren’t fragging noobs, or mining bitcoin.
Neither do most users have time to troubleshoot, or 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 fans for it’s
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 Apple produce 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 Macs is pretty impressive, with dazzlingly slick,
consistently updated operating systems and powerful tools like GarageBand, iWork, iMovie
and more.
So for the end user, who wants to make and cut together a quick home movie, or record
a simple beat with the gear they have to hand, Apple machines are powerful and straightforward.
No wonder professionals and creatives swear by them.
And that’s before we even get to privacy.
On an Android phone running Google, your data is part of the business model.
Meaning every move you make on your phone is monetised 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 selling your info
on to third parties.
How much is your privacy worth, not just today, but in a year, or five years, or ten 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.
Bloatware makes sense commercially for manufacturers of rival devices looking to fatten up their
margins, but offers little of value to the end-user.
Let’s sum up.
Despite critics who bleat that Apple is essentially the Supreme 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, and Apple devices have better re-sale value too.
Here’s CEO Tim Cook offering his eloquent defence of iPhone pricing back in 2018:
‘The phone has replaced your digital camera.
You don’t have a separate one anymore.
It’s replaced your video camera.
It’s replaced your music player.
It’s replaced all of these different devices.
‘We’ve 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?
Or has this video convinced you we’re part of some vapid Steve Jobs cult?
Let us know in the comments, and don’t forget to hit subscribe for more stylish yet understated
tech content.