Apple charging ridiculous amounts for their RAM isn't news.

I don't understand how they can sell computers in 2012 with 2GB soldered in with a straight face (http://store.apple.com/us/configure/MC968LL/A?).

$100 to add 2GB of RAM? I bought 8GB of DDR for $30. To me the upgrade pricing is the worst part about Apple. I'm lucky that my employer is pricing my fully maxed out MacBook Pro (8GB, 128GB SSD, 1680x1050). There's no way I could afford to actually buy that model myself.

They can because people are willing to pay for it. Also try fitting a SODIMM slot into a Macbook Air.

Plus, it is a machine with a small screen and an SSD, which means, people aren't as likely to be interacting with multiple apps, and swapping isn't as painful as it is with a spinning disk.

"You’ve found market price when buyers complain but still pay." - pg

Plus, people who want a Mac, but find the RAM prices odious, can save a bunch of money for a slightly more effort.

This allows apple to capture larger margins from people who aren't as price sensitive, while still Making a sale to those who are.

As long as the device is upgradable. The soldiered 4gb ram on the mb air sucks.

This is actually one of my biggest concerns that keeps me from moving to an Air from a MBP. With the unibody MBP design it's actually pretty easy to do things like upgrade the memory and hard drive, and not pay the ridiculous upgrade prices that Apple wants at time of purchase.

With everything soldered on the Air, you lose that choice.

Coincidentally I'm having a similar issue tonight. Heading to somewhere like Crucial usually gets you compatible memory way cheaper, but for an extra 8GB for my Mac Pro Crucial is coming in at $355. I dread to imagine what the official Apple price is, I didn't even check..

macsales.com

FWIW new models custom 8gb costs $200.

But yeah.

I bought 16GB of ram for my MBP for $135 at Fry's. Almost (but not quite) beats the 24GB I bought for my desktop for $100.

This is for 1066 memory. For 1333 they charge a more reasonable $200, which is only about 4x the market price.

Now that's how you run a business.