davgreg

What he signed off on was not a finalized deal, but he called off an action he had ordered earlier under special authority Presidents have available.

Any trade deal- usually in the form of a Congressional -Executive Agreement - must pass both Houses of Congress in order to take full effect. The USMCA, for example, has been through the Congress and has been modified and will be acted upon in the House shortly.

If you are a veteran or current military do not forget to order through the Apple Store for Veterans and Military as you get a 10% discount. If you are an Apple Card holder you can also get 6% back. That will help lower the price or allow you to buy a much nicer spec Mac Pro. Just the Veteran/Military discount would be $600 and in many places that would offset the sales tax.

The Military/Veteran Program uses ID Me for verification and takes just a few clicks and is used by other retailers for similar discounts.

https://www.apple.com/shop/browse/home/veterans_military

Merry Christmas

While reading this I was thinking about all the people I know who at the time were invested in Android (usually Scamsung) who insisted they did not like Apple stuff and would never buy an iPhone, iPad or a Mac.

Most of them have a variety of Apple devices and the switch happened downstream of what is detailed here. The choices they made in thei period allowed Apple to pull away from Samsung/Android in the minds of the ordinary Joe/Jane.

Apple's loudest critics know plenty ... including the price of everything.  But they know the value of almost nothing at all.

Value is not what is on a sticker, but what a market will pay for it. Price is simply a starting point for negotiation.

Have you ever paid full sticker price for an auto or a truck? Most have not. The same is true of many other things. The overpricing in a jewelry store is nothing more than an attempt at a good first position in a price negotiation.

I know the value of many things- woking in medicine and seeing diagnostics detect disease and injury that allows treatment and recovery has shown me many things of true and lasting value. Likewise, the high price of a skilled surgeon or other specialist reflects the valuable knowledge acquired over many years and great effort. I have seen patients with a thrombolytic stroke present with profound symptoms that were reversed quickly by the actions of a well trained medical team where the patient went home with no neuro deficits where previously they would have been permanently disabled or died. That is something of true and lasting value.

What Apple is selling is something that will live on your desk for a couple of years before being cast a side to a trash heap or a recycle bin. It does not hold the monitor any better than any number of less expensive options without the Apple brand attached. The value/price analogy kind of withers in light of what is truly important in life and commerce.

The stand is a nice bit of engineering but in no way is worth $1000. In the end it is a monitor stand.

Comparing a handful of machined aluminum parts to a complex pro grade, multi-element lens is also a bit of a stretch. For a while I worked as a Pro photographer (pre-digital) and understand what is involved in high quality lenses.

Now, if you are someone who can write off the stand on your taxes it probably is just something you will complain about and then buy. However, there is a significant market for people who want a high quality display but have no desire to be robbed of $1000 just because it was "designed by Apple in California".

This fashion mentality where $20 Levi 501s made in America become designer "jeans" that cost hundreds of Dollars has infected Apple. Charging high prices just because you can evokes the kind of rapacious pricing of medical equipment where a simple lamp is intentionally put on a proprietary mount and priced 10-100x more than a similar lamp with a standard mount. It may be legal but it is not good business.

I am planning on ordering a Mac Pro when it becomes available but will not be buying the display. I simply have better uses for the money.