[peng]

You're missing the fact that he doesn't need a new MacBook Pro. It's a luxury item. If Chromebooks are perfectly functional for school use cases, clearly a new MBP is entirely unnecessary. If he wants OS X and a retina screen, the baseline MB 12 is more suitable for his needs. Or he could get an older, used MBP.

[wink]

You might be missing the point here. I think what the parent was saying is that Apple are not making a sale because they're (needlessly?) keeping their margin at X% whereas someone who currently states they can't afford that would've bought a MBP for Y% less margin.

But then again, who needs an MBP? Maybe if you have a use case that is only covered by an Apple Laptop and not a similarly specced model with Windows and Linux - but most people who buy a MBP want one, not need one. (Which is perfectly fine, I'm not judging)