[baq]

Race to the bottom. No reputation of quality => can’t raise price => cutting costs beyond the red line => mishaps => no reputation of quality => …

Cf Apple who charge an arm and a leg for anything above the base config (which admittedly is tight but still usable) because people trust them to not pull such dumb moves.

[varjag]

What's funny is that HP consumer business had started out with reputation of quality from their top of the shelf professional electronic products.

[samatman]

I would prefer to call this tragic actually.

[can16358p]

This.

I buy Apple mainly for reliability (not just that but that's an important factor), and HP is polar opposite of reliable in my view as a consumer.

[acchow]

Apple does not charge an arm and a leg. Their prices are quite competitive with similarly performing alternatives

For the lower end, you can get a refurbished from various resellers all over the internet.

[duped]

Unless you want a reasonably sized disk or enough memory, that is. The charge for disk storage is particularly egregious.

[baq]

They really do for extras. The base config is IMHO on the contrary best price/experience ratio available on the market even including the subpar macOS.