Apple does cheap better than most companies do good

Welcome to… Experience Week.

On a scale of one to “bubble bath with Bad Bunny”, how would you say you are enjoying the experience so far?

As of this writing, the experience so far has consisted of just two new products announced via press release: the iPad Air and the iPhone 17e. It occurs to the Macalope that the week that Apple has announced its new cheap phone and is widely expected to also announce a new cheap iPad and its cheapest MacBook ever, it’s a good time to remind you of something it feels like a lot of people have forgotten:

You don’t have to buy the best, most expensive Apple products. It’s okay to get the cheaper ones.

Of course, some people can only afford the less expensive products, but tech has taken on such a role in our daily lives that having the best has become a matter of status and self-worth. It is not uncommon to hear tech podcasters focus solely on the iPhone Pro lineup because that’s what they have. Well, of course, they have that, they’re tech podcasters.

But if a tech podcaster jumped off the Brooklyn Bridge, would you? (Use code BRIDGEJUMP for 15 percent off your fall!)

The Macalope has a base model iPhone 17 and the next time he buys an iPhone, there’s a good chance it’ll be an iPhone [number]e. Looking at the 17e Apple announced on Monday, the only things he’d really miss if he switched are the Dynamic Island and always-on display (your mileage may certainly vary). The question is, will Apple continue to produce a cheaper iPhone in the spring when it moves the base lineup to shipping in that timeframe next year? As a long-time iPhone mini fan, if Apple gets wind the horny one likes a particular model, you can bet on the company canceling it soon.

Okay, now time to do some math.

No, you don’t! You sit down! You can go to Tosche Station and get some power converters after the math.

Honestly, sometimes the Macalope doesn’t even know why he hired you to work on his moisture farm.

The original iPhone started at $499 when it was released in 2007, which is equal to about $779 today. However, it’s fair to say that the original price was inflated because Apple reduced it by $200 just two months later and even refunded $100 to those of us who bought one early. So, if we say the original price was effectively $399, that comes out to $623 now, just $24 more than the iPhone 17e. (It’s worth noting that the SE line was consistently cheaper than the original iPhone in converted dollars.)

When you consider that the higher-priced Pro line sells better than the base line and the e-line, people are spending vastly more for iPhones than they did 19 years ago. And that’s before Apple has shipped a foldable. Sure, we’re getting vastly more for our money, and Apple’s products are fairly well priced for premium products, but we’ve also just become inured to paying more for iPhones over the years.

While we don’t yet know what price point it will have, the low-cost MacBook, on the other hand, is likely to legitimately be the cheapest laptop Apple’s ever sold (at least directly and without an educational discount). It certainly won’t be the best Mac in terms of speed and features, but Macs have never held their value better thanks to Apple Silicon.

We live in a time where tech companies are making decisions many feel are burlap-underwear-level uncomfortable while they are ramming technologies down our throats that most simply never asked for and do not want.

Meanwhile, most Apple customers are already sending Tim Cook a monthly tithing for extra iCloud storage, an Apple TV subscription, and, the Macalope’s just looking at his list of Apple subscriptions here…

Is that Bob Mansfield’s OnlyFans? Argh, why is the Macalope still paying for that?! He stopped doing it years ago!

In an era when actual humans are getting laid off in the name of AI, it’s worth thinking about what you really need versus what you want. You don’t have to buy the best. Sometimes, good enough is better, and even Apple’s cheapest products are better than “good enough”.