Those price have nothing in common with logic. 16 -> 32: +$400, 32 -> 64: +$400. They just put random prices based on marketing research, not on component cost.

Companies don't price products based on component costs.

With healthy competition product price is reduced almost to component cost. Not the case with Apple, sadly.

There's tons of competition in the PC space.

If nobody makes alternative Mac-like machines people want to buy for cheaper (or if Macs are seen as Veblen goods), that's a different matter.

But Apple doesn't charge $4000 for a MacBook Pro for lack of competition in the laptop space.

"But only Apple makes MBPs" is not an argument. Only Acer makes Acer machines, and only MS makes Surfaces too.

The argument is that only Apple makes computers that run macOS well. If they would allow macOS to run on other computers (legally), they would face real competition.

All PC makers had to do was come up with their own competing operating system around 2000. It’s not like Apple was rolling in cash back then.

PC manufacturers only have themselves to blame for being low margin commodities.

Nonsense, we'll see the PC OEMs come up with their own first-class OSes to compete any day now. /s

>The argument is that only Apple makes computers that run macOS well

Apple also makes macOS. Dell, Acer, and co are free to make their own OS. MS and Google already did. Heck, even some student in Helsinki did IIRC.

Can't blame Apple if people don't want their PC+generic OS bundle and prefer Mac+macOS.

Soldering in the RAM amounts to apple resorting to extortion. Where else are you gonna get this RAM other than paying the toll troll hundreds of dollars over what it should cost solely because apple greedily removed alternatives.

The RAM is quite frankly easily upgradeable on the iMac.

I hear some models they have a nice little door but some models involve a lot more frankensteining. At least on macbook's its been impossible for a while.

I would never buy an iMac but from what I hear, storage options and their pricing are even more frustrating than RAM (which you can upgrade yourself on the iMac 5K). While a neat trick when it first came out, I don't think fusion drive makes sense in 2019, so you're left with very expensive NVMe SSDs, when a 500GB or 1TB SATA SSD would be plenty enough to most people, for a fraction of the cost.

You can get a 500 GB Samsung nVME for about $150 now, not much more than what a regular SSD was a couple years ago... but totally agreed that a regular SSD is more than fast enough for most people. If it was manufactured this decade, it should probably boot to desktop in less than 20 seconds.

Why use a sata SSD as your primary boot disk and not a M.3 drive which is the goto primary drive for performance PC builds

This has been the case ever since I can remember. When I was buying a MBP in 2012, this was the case as well. Of course, at that time, you could say 'screw it' and buy your own ram stick. Good ol' times. Nowadays, Apple is just not worth it (especially in Europe).

isn't the RAM soldered in on iMacs?

I don't think so at least as of mid-2017, I just searched and found videos on how to do the upgrade. Basically turn the thing over, open a latch, and swap out the ram.

The 21 inch model seems to have RAM slots, but not easily accessible like its larger sibling. The 27 inch has 4 user accessible SO-DIMM slots.

iMacs still have a latch to swap out RAM [1]. That, too, may soon be gone. Because on the iMac "Pro"s you have to disassemble the whole unit to get to RAM [2].

[1] https://www.ifixit.com/Guide/iMac+Intel+27-Inch+Retina+5K+Di...

[2] https://www.ifixit.com/Teardown/iMac+Pro+Teardown/101807 and https://everymac.com/systems/apple/imac-pro/imac-pro-faq/ima...

It's been user-replaceable on all but a very few models. Apple even puts a little panel on the 27" models that you can easily pop out to replace on your own OWC has been selling iMac upgrades for a long time, but you can use any brand memory.

In most models there's a door on the back for a quick swap.

https://support.apple.com/en-us/HT201191#install1

In 2017 generation it was not soldered. It's soldered in 21" from 2014 and 2015 years. I think that even CPU is not soldered in latest generation.

thanks all for the answers.

@vbezhenar posted a link to Apple Support in his comment: https://support.apple.com/en-us/HT201191

right at the top, if you scroll past “27-inch” you’ll see this gem: “*Memory is not removable by users on iMac (21.5-inch, Late 2012), iMac (21.5-inch, Late 2013), iMac (21.5-inch, Mid 2014), iMac (21.5-inch, 2017), and iMac (Retina 4K, 21.5-inch, 2017). If the memory in one of these computers needs repair service, contact an Apple Retail Store or Apple Authorized Service Provider.”

i call this the “iMac pitfall”.

I don’t think so - but you used to have to separate the screen from the base of the computer which while very doable was much more involved than popping open a case and inserting an additional stick of of ram