Macs retain value. Buy the spec you need, use it for 2-3 years, sell for 70 percent the original value, then buy the newer version. Besides, I highly doubt Intel CPUs are going to massively improve over the next two years since they haven't for the last 5.

Yes, it's insane. It's a lifestyle accessory.

But put in the context of _workstation_ prices -- which I guess is what it's sort of in the category of -- check out what a Sun 2 (68010) workstation cost in 1986:

"A color 2/160 with 8Mb of memory, two 71 Mb SCSI disks and 60 Mb 1/4" SCSI tape cost $48,800 (1986 US price list)."

That's $109,766.16 in today's dollars.

Or more modest and perhaps more comparable, an HP 9000 Model 705 PA-RISC workstation (32mhz, HP-UX) in 1991 was priced around $5000. That's $9000ish in today's dollars.

People bought stuff like that back then. Low volume, prestige item, specialized market, and I guess Apple must figure they will still do that now.

Workstation class machines have always been overpriced.

Yea, you know, if I'm doing work that requires 18+ cores of CPU and gobs of RAM, I'm going to pack that beast into a rack (bet I could build a sweet epyc based system with more capability for less than $10k) and connect to it from a laptop/small desktop.

Besides, that thing is going to get hot, and Apple doesn't exactly have the best track record when it comes to thermal design (see: apple ///)

Really the Apple /// a computer that came out in 1980? Is that what you are going to base your doubts on the thermal design of the iMac?

It was the start of Apple's long tradition of form over function.

How has Apple survived over 40 years if it were just about form over function while most of its contemporaries over the years have disappeared?

Arguably it's not the same Apple. I don't see a lot of continuity in approach between the company that brought us the Apple IIe and the company that makes the iPhone.

Both the company that brought the Apple //e and the company that brought the world the iPhone had Steve Jobs in charge and very much went for vertical integration.

could have looked at the more recent thermal paste gpu issues with mbp 2011 (which i was hit by) or the similar imac problems in 2012(?)

I know. This sort of thing is the reason I'm not a mac user anymore. Remember the old PowerMac towers? Expensive, yes, but those things were made to be opened up and upgraded.

Perhaps Apple has market research indicating that most companies don't upgrade or repair these kinds of machines.

Yep, many companies don't upgrade these machines and actually dump them at the end of the warranty. Hacker news actually turned me onto going to ebay to buy used workstations as a pretty good source for inexpensive computers that have Xeons. HP or Dell give you a 3 year warranty, you don't upgrade or change parts because that fucks with warranties, then you dump them onto a reseller. Or, frequently, you actually rented it from HP or Dell for those 3 years, and they are the ones dumping computers onto resellers.

Dell workstations are really easy to open up and replace parts in. Do you think we ever open hem up and replace parts?