[simonh]

I people freely move from one service or product to another, usually it's because the new service is cheaper or better than the old service or product. That's direct value to the end user right there.

Moving to AWS from running your own data centres is vastly more cost effective for most companies, you can build systems faster, you can scale them instantly, you can move resources between regions easily, you can focus on your company's core competencies. AWS creates massive value, that's why we use it.

I used to look up the phone numbers of restaurants in a phone book, but now I use Google. That doesn't mean they are equivalent to me and they provide the same value. Looking up a restaurant on Google Maps is quicker, I can do it from anywhere, I can look at reviews and I can see exactly where it is and get routing direction. The experience now is orders of magnitude more powerful and that creates huge value for customers and businesses.

Apple hardware is highly customised, and dramatically better than anything their customers have with better performance and advanced features like machine learning and secure authentication all implemented in custom hardware. That's been true on the phones for many years, and now with their in house designed desktop processors it's true for the Mac as well. Although the Mac has had unique custom hardware like the T1 and the 5K iMac video system for a while too. You cannot buy hardware like it anywhere else, at any price.

[withinboredom]

> You cannot buy hardware like it anywhere else, at any price.

Strange, I bought a PC with 2x the specs at the same price as a maxed out Mac…

[ChuckNorris89]

I'm no Mac user but the value of a Mac to its users has more to do with its seamless integration with all other Apple products and services rather than a purely utilitarian perspective in raw specs/performance per dollar.

This has no value to me as their pricing is out of my budget and I don't like the idea of being locked into a proprietary ecosystem, which is of course down to everyone's personal preference, but judging by sales numbers, it looks like Apple's ecosystem has gotten some things really on point.

[jakelazaroff]

You’re sidestepping GP’s point. Does your PC have an equivalent to Apple’s Secure Enclave, for example?

[swiley]

Most PCs do at this point, also that secure enclave is very rarely both effective and something empowering the user so it's often ignored outside of very closed systems like Macs and phones.

[jakelazaroff]

Not sure what you’re saying here — most PCs have the hardware but they don’t use it?

[simonh]

Or in some cases implement it so poorly you'd be better off not having it. But hey, let's just check that box anyway.

[CRConrad]

Reverse perspective: Outside the "Walled Garden", perhaps "Solitary Confinement" isn't seen as all that much of a selling point.

[kelp]

I’m not sure what dimensions you are considering 2x the specs, but Mac laptops with an m1 beat any PC laptop on CPU performance, battery life and heat output.

Yeah, you can get a PC with more ram, more storage and a bigger GPU.

[sgt]

Specs like GHz doesn't really paint the whole picture. In any case, M1 is a whole other story, and Apple went from simply being better to being a decade ahead.

[simonh]

Raw speed isn't everything. They are offering performance per watt, per weight, and per battery life metrics that are unavailable anywhere else. Add in display, camera, security and hardware accelerated machine learning capabilities, and there are many, many axes on which they offer unique capabilities.

[danlugo92]

And I bought a Mac with 2x the ergonomy and 2x the battery life at the same price as a maxed out Dell ;)