What is the answer? T2 based system which are locked = $12 scrap!

In my view, market in the end always finds its balance. Now we’re just in a no man’s land in between Apple reputation and what Apple is nowadays. The main problem here is ourselves, “spoiled” by Apple devices that could last and be useful for years and years if they were not beyond repair.

Let’s be honest, nobody gives a %#*@ if the same thing happens with Windows based PCs and laptops, as their residual value after a couple of years is usually neglectable. Not to mention android based smartphones, not worth fixing most of the times, unless it’s just a broken display.

Older Apple preowned products kept a very high marginal value for years. They were top class hardware devices that were worth fixing. I believe that today’s new Apple hardware prices pretty much reflect such implied higher quality expectations, that come from older days, when resale prices of Apple devices were significant for years and years.

That’s changing pretty fast, we’re seeing it already with iPhones. Their resale price is dropping faster and faster, year after year, making bigger refurbished business profitable almost only to countries like China, where labor is still a minor cost. New iPhones prices are following the same trend, discounts start showing up a couple of months after presentation everywhere, except official Apple Stores for obvious reasons. Today, the iPhone 11 already sells 25% cheaper than 6 months ago, brand new. You can’t find many used iPhone 11 yet, but who would be ready to pay more than 60/65% of the new, for a used device ? That brings down the current preowned reasonable price of an iPhone 11 at abt 55/60% of the original presentation price in just 6 or 7 months. Worth fixing in 18 months from now ?..

Market moves fast..if resellers are not making money anymore for dumb engineering choices, resale value will collapse and we will start seeing Macbooks prices competing with Asus and Huawei PCs, just like we’re seeing it happening with iPhones today, being compared on specialized sites to Samsung, Xiaomi or Oppo, just to name a few. Market doesn’t need Apple, no more than it needed Nokia, Blackberry or Motorola.