[Lack of] Choice Has a Cost

Apple notebook computers, despite the prevailing notions, are not that expensive compared to similarly configured machines by competitors.

What makes it look expensive is in the way Apple chooses for the customer. Apple doesn’t ask you “what do you want” but rather it tells you “these are the things you want, what’s your budget?”

You don’t have much money? Here’s the Mac mini. Money isn’t an option? Here’s the Macbook Pro with all the bells and whistles. Somewhere in between? You can have the Macbook or the Macbook Air.

Contrast this to other computer manufacturers that offer you multiple choices with regard to design, hardware availability, screen resolution, and many others. If you have the time to research all the different features and their price-value relationships, you will end up with a computer that matches your usage and budget preferences perfectly.

Then again, who has that time?

No wonder technology review sites and youtube channels are having a field day. The amount of choice available makes it necessary to have a filtering system in place.

Apple cuts through all of these by doing the filtering themselves. The customer needs to spend less time choosing, because many of the choices have been premade.

This apparently works, because customers are willing to pay extra so they don’t have to make the hard (i.e. time consuming) choices themselves.