Mkay.. just disinfect it, please. 🤓
this post was submitted on 21 Jul 2026
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After you return it, they shred it. It’s too hard to sanitise (both physically and in terms of configuration, not to mention indelible per-device flags apps can set to block scammers using the same device to make multiple accounts), and destroying it helps to maintain scarcity and keep prices up.
Macs don't get viruses!
I hope you're being sarcastic.
It wasn't about that, but more about physical cleansing after every use. 🤭
Physical cleaning also helps prevent the spread of viruses!
Yesss
While there are still cheaper DDR5 options at lower speeds, the 32GB of DDR5 @ 8000MT I bought at $579 in February is now $700 on Amazon and even more elsewhere.
At the time I was convinced that the industry was moving towards a full-leasing only model, and so I decided to invest in some future proofing. It took less than 6 months for the price to start jumping again. Whether this is deliberate, or simply an emergent quality of supply/demand of the new AI economy probably doesn’t matter. The bar for private compute power is being shoved higher and higher by data centers and the PC industry’s response is to move towards a leasing model.
I foresee that eventually that when PC hardware becomes too expensive or completely unavailable in consumer markets, your PC will become like your phone - a locked-down, remotely managed, integrated hardware system that you lease as a unit, along with a cloud services subscription. Or, a thin client with the bare minimum specs to accommodate cloud computing. Extrapolating from this - a privatized Internet hostile to client computers unauthenticated by a major company or government entity running a recognized digital fiefdom where uncontrolled local compute will be viewed as highly suspicious.
If you still have the means and the interest, I suggest investing in consumer PC hardware to:
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Demonstrate this market is still viable.
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Buy hardware before it jumps in price again.
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Claw back some of the local compute power being engineered away from consumers.
Of course, the AI economic bubble is due for collapse and cheap hardware may suddenly flood the market in a few years. However, I’m betting there is enough runway and monetization left to fund the pathway to the end of common PC ownership.
Whether this is deliberate, or simply an emergent quality of supply/demand of the new AI economy probably doesn’t matter.
Both...
The handful of companies that can make ram realized that as long as they all go full in on AI, no one else can make consumer ram without spending tens of billions of dollars on fabrication sites
So the less they make, the more profit per unit. If any one of them started making more, we wouldn't have the price crunch and they'd all have to make more to justify keeping production running, further reducing price.
That makes at home computing cheaper, pulling people away from various cloud infrastructure they want to keep afloat because that's where the high priced chips go.
It's all a house of cards to shove data centers down our throats, because that's where the profit is in the moment.
End datecenter, and ram prices plummet
People lease apartments, houses, cars, appliances, games, why not crapples?
[2028] Apple announces that they will no longer sell phones to consumers, only rent them. "Our customers love the ease of monthly rental payments that never stop and we listened!" said one Apple exec.
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Uh-oh
Exploit, not defeat.
knew this was coming. it's Apple's MO since...like....ever since the company started. Let someone else do it first and then try to do it better. HP is already doing this, Apple is going to "improve it".
You will own nothing... and then you will realize you have nothing to lose. try realizing that sooner than later.
Uhh people are financing their weekly groceries now, dumb as this is I am not exactly stressing it, being able to lease cars didn't take away cars from the rest of us.
"Fuck you, I got mine" attitude.
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What?
Wait, don't new iPhones and Macs have that unified memory? Maybe I'm missing something, but shouldn't Apple be in the best position with regards to memory prices in their products?
Yes, you are missing something. You are assuming they get their memory from a different supplier than the rest of the industry.
For some reason lots of people assume this.
My understanding, though, is they have their own chip specs, for custom die nobody else uses , and they integrate that into their chiplets or whatever it is they are using. So it's not like those vendors can just sell those die to other customers. Whoever is making Apple's RAM is making it specifically for them.
Unless their contracts with Apple have some sort of escalation clause, I would figure Apple would be pretty insulated from all this price nonsense. Heck, they have enough cash on hand that I bet they can buy a smaller RAM vendor if they had to. It mainly depends on how much of that custom RAM tech they own vs. licensing from any particular vendor. If they are using patents from their vendor, then that makes it harder to just switch.
I see. Yeah, I think the problem is that they can’t insulate themselves from the overall production timeline constraints. Because even if their chips are unique, they don’t have their own private production lines. They only get a share of available production capacity.
And as I understand it. Buying out a memory production facility is something they are not interested in. They don’t want to be in that part of the supply chain. And getting in now, only for memory supply chain constraints to go back to “normal” in 2 years isn’t a strategy they want to take.
Apple would rather have a diverse supply chain, and have the ability to pit different vendors against each other.
Some of this is similar to why just building a new facility isn’t a solution in the near term either. Because by the time it’s online, the situation is likely to have passed. And then you are back in a commodity market that’s historically difficult to compete in.
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To be fair, there are millions of Americans who upgrade their phones with their cell carrier every year. Technically this is a 2-year loan that will pay off the device if you do nothing, or give you the option to trade in the device after 1 year of payments in exchange for a new device. This pays off the original loan, assuming the device is in good working order.
The details matter here, but this is also very similar in the end result as a lease. You pay every month for an installment, get to use the latest and greatest hardware, and can trade it in for a new model. This model works very well for phones. Why not apply a similar principle to a laptop, but amortize the upfront cost over 4 or 5 years with the option to trade-in and upgrade after two years?
It’s interesting enough for businesses that it may be a great model. The amount of older e-waste laptops filling closets and IT departments is staggering.
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Glad I scooped up an M4 Mac Mini earlier this year before all this RAM shortage. Say what you will about Apple, but their M chips are great. Leasing a laptop though? Yeah, no.
Who did not see it coming? That was the whole plan since long ago. This way or that, you are the target to squeeze
Who want to own that shit now when they announced they'll implement Israeli chips in the future versions!?
Wait for Motorola with Graphene OS, or get a Pixel and switch to Graphene.
"You will own nothing"
So Apple fanatics trade in their iPhone for the newest one every year. Does Apple executives think that maybe they can get folks to do the same on their laptop?
Lol to apple fanboys. ThinkSubscription
If it works for Apple, Samsung and Google will be next in line to do the same. Enshittification is in no way limited to Apple.
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My 2020 MacBook will probably last another 10 years, at that time I will have no issue buying a new base model even if it is 3x the price