[gbaygon]

Theres is one thing non apple manufacturers can’t do: iOS

I’ve given old iphones / helped purchase new ones to my Android friends over the years - none got back to android.

The experience is subjective but a well designed user interface with attention to detail an very responsive hardware/software combination that keeps working like that after 4+ years beats every other option. Specially after apple focused on selling services and now old devices seem more performant than ever.

Also you don’t need a $1000 iPhone - a refurbished 2nd gen SE is about 250 on amazon.

[goosedragons]

I tried iOS. The fact that you can't even do something as basic as alphabetize your app icons was infuriating to me. And it was even more infuriating when they finally added some way to access your apps as alphabetically as a scrolling list at the very end of the home screen with less priority than their terrible AI auto-categorized apps. It doesn't really scream attention to detail when they put "Mini Metro" in an auto group with transit apps.

[vaxman]

I disagree. This isn’t Mac System 6 vs Windows3

The Apple brand carries the day now. It’s called “aspirational luxury”. Even PhD students who could solder together a laptop with parts off Alibaba still want a MBP because: sex.

PS: What’s more powerful: “aspirational luxury” or “fame seeking”? I think Apple better build-up that SharePlay feature a whole lot (and come up with ancillary features to identify and add people with whom to SharePlay) or we are all going to find out in VisionPro vs QuestPro.

[phil21]

> It’s called “aspirational luxury”. Even PhD students who could solder together a laptop with parts off Alibaba still want a MBP because, you know: sex.

It's really not though, for me. I resisted going Mac for many years, to my personal detriment. I finally threw in the towel during a business trip where my current Thinkpad was getting less than 2.5hrs per charge, while the MBP I picked up at Best Buy lasted 12+.

I haven't looked back for laptops ever since, and w/ the M2 the gap is growing even more.

The form factor is far and away a secondary consideration these days to it simply being useful as a tool. Perhaps the windows laptop ecosystem has caught up since - but Apple would have to fuck up for me to consider it a priority worth spending the time on switching again. A $1,000 "apple tax" every 3-5 years when I need a new one is money well spent to avoid such things.

Mobile devices are similar. I'm still on Android, but just barely. The ecosystem continues to get worse in my opinion, and a lot of the benefits of "open" are slowly being eroded into a shittier version of the Apple walled garden.

For me, personally, I'd be in the market for Apple devices that are "skinned" to look like they are not Apple devices. I actually hate bringing my Macbook out with me since it makes you stand out as a target for theft in some areas. I use them because they simply get the job done better for me, and my daily computing is no longer a hobby I enjoy tinkering around with.

[alemanek]

Well said. For Macs specifically I just tell people for me it is basically Linux where the hardware always works really well and you don’t have to screw around with drivers.

[mattkrause]

When I was a PhD student, I switched to a MBP because I had more interesting things to solder (and code, analyze, write, etc). I wanted something that just worked and keeping it that way would be someone else’s problem.

“Sex” definitely didn’t enter into it!

[gbaygon]

I work as a software engineer, my daily driver is Macbook Pro (m1, 16gb) and update them every 3 years on average. Do you know how much downtime I’ve had b/c broken package updates (linux), long unapproved software updates (win) malware or hardware failures? exactly zero.

That’s not luxury, thats a good tool to do the job for me.

[bitwize]

There's also the fact that the most powerful laptops on the market are made by Apple.