otacon :
John Bauer :
I do admit, it'd be cool to own a Macbook Pro- not because of functionality, but because it'd be a novelty... And when the novelty wears off in 4-8 months, you can sell it for the same price you bought it for. Apple products to retain an extreme amount of resale value after all...
I get 75% back of what I paid years later hence why I switched to Apple products. Try that with any other electronic device. In the long run you pay much less for Apple products then non.
I'm pretty sure this is because Apple makes it virtually impossible to tell how old a Macbook is. You have to remove the battery, read a model number underneath, and look it up on the Apple website to figure out what year it was made and what internal components it has. With the newer models with the non-removable battery, you have to type in your serial number into their website to get the model number.
When my cousin was shopping for a Mac at his school's Apple store, he was nearly tricked by this into buying a "new" Core 2 Duo Macbook when the current models were Sandy Bridge based. Fortunately he called me first. I was able to instruct him on where to find the model number, and we figured out the laptop was 3-year old inventory the store was trying to clear at a "huge" $200 discount.
Make it near-impossible to tell how old a laptop is, and combine it with a userbase which is mostly computer illiterate, and yeah it'll hold its "value". Because most of the buyers think the 3-year old laptop they're buying is last year's model. My morals prohibit me from ripping off a buyer in this way, but if you don't have a problem with it then go ahead and enjoy the better resale "value".