Waiting for Something Better
Mar. 25th, 2022 12:58 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
canyonwalkerAfter buying a new iPhone last weekend I've been wondering whether I also want to replace my laptop, a MacBook Air. While my old phone was just over 5 years old, my Air has already turned 6. I bought it in January 2016.
When a technology area matures, buying new technology becomes a waiting game. Instead of eagerly buying the new model when it comes out, consumers increasingly look at it and think, "Meh. The latest model isn't compellingly better than my old one. I'll try waiting for the next one."
I've been in that zone for a year and half already with my MacBook Air. With the arrival of the new M1-powered Air in late 2020 I was both intrigued and disappointed. Intrigued, because of the promise of greater processing power. Disappointed, because these new Airs no longer have an SD card slot.
That slot is huge to me because it makes loading images from my camera so easy. Meanwhile the increased processing power doesn't really move the needle for me. The main increased capability I'll value is having more storage. The 256GB SSD on my 6 year old laptop only lets me keep 2 years of photos in addition to everything else.
The upshot of new technology models provoking "Meh" responses is that consumers buy them on the same cycle they buy replacement goods in traditional sectors: Not so much when a new one is released but rather when their old one breaks.
I was nearly in that pattern with my last iPhone. Initially I planned to replace it after 3 years, not quite waiting until it was broken but waiting to skip 3 generations of technology. Except then when the 3rd anniversary rolled around we looked at the market and decided to wait another year. And when generation n+4 appeared we decided to kick the can down the road yet again.
Hawk replaced her phone after the 3½ year mark because it had just broken. There's a separate calculus for repair-vs-replace decisions. Repair costs were enough to tip in favor of replacing an aging phone.
I kept mine until last weekend, limping along with a cracked screen the past several months. I was holding out for the anticipated announcement of the SE 3. It was what I was waiting for so I bought it before my old one totally broke. After 5 years there's no need to wait until it becomes an emergency.
Some technologists criticize the decision to wait for new technology— or, more specifically, to wait for something better to come out. Understand that a lot of these people are actually paid marketers. Once you factor out the profit motive the landscape of opinions on whether to buy, buy, buy or wait it out a bit looks different. I can tell you, for example, that after a week of owning my new iPhone it has made little difference over the old one. It doesn't feel faster or more powerful than the old one. The only killer feature so far is, "The screen's not cracked." 🤣
So, I'm waiting for later this year to see what the anticipated new MacBook Air model holds. Hopefully my 6 year old laptop doesn't crack or break before then.
When a technology area matures, buying new technology becomes a waiting game. Instead of eagerly buying the new model when it comes out, consumers increasingly look at it and think, "Meh. The latest model isn't compellingly better than my old one. I'll try waiting for the next one."
I've been in that zone for a year and half already with my MacBook Air. With the arrival of the new M1-powered Air in late 2020 I was both intrigued and disappointed. Intrigued, because of the promise of greater processing power. Disappointed, because these new Airs no longer have an SD card slot.
That slot is huge to me because it makes loading images from my camera so easy. Meanwhile the increased processing power doesn't really move the needle for me. The main increased capability I'll value is having more storage. The 256GB SSD on my 6 year old laptop only lets me keep 2 years of photos in addition to everything else.The upshot of new technology models provoking "Meh" responses is that consumers buy them on the same cycle they buy replacement goods in traditional sectors: Not so much when a new one is released but rather when their old one breaks.
I was nearly in that pattern with my last iPhone. Initially I planned to replace it after 3 years, not quite waiting until it was broken but waiting to skip 3 generations of technology. Except then when the 3rd anniversary rolled around we looked at the market and decided to wait another year. And when generation n+4 appeared we decided to kick the can down the road yet again.
Hawk replaced her phone after the 3½ year mark because it had just broken. There's a separate calculus for repair-vs-replace decisions. Repair costs were enough to tip in favor of replacing an aging phone.
I kept mine until last weekend, limping along with a cracked screen the past several months. I was holding out for the anticipated announcement of the SE 3. It was what I was waiting for so I bought it before my old one totally broke. After 5 years there's no need to wait until it becomes an emergency.
Some technologists criticize the decision to wait for new technology— or, more specifically, to wait for something better to come out. Understand that a lot of these people are actually paid marketers. Once you factor out the profit motive the landscape of opinions on whether to buy, buy, buy or wait it out a bit looks different. I can tell you, for example, that after a week of owning my new iPhone it has made little difference over the old one. It doesn't feel faster or more powerful than the old one. The only killer feature so far is, "The screen's not cracked." 🤣
So, I'm waiting for later this year to see what the anticipated new MacBook Air model holds. Hopefully my 6 year old laptop doesn't crack or break before then.
no subject
Date: 2022-03-25 09:27 pm (UTC)I ordered a new Pro near the end of last year, due in large part to it having:
* A Mag-Safe charging port so tripping over a cable will not damage the computer
* An SD card slot so that I can download photos from my camera and I can also fiddle around with music files on external media
Obviously I got rather more storage than my old computer had, and the new processor more or less came along for the ride. It was expensive, especially since the new Pro models had just been released, but I'm happy with the new laptop.
no subject
Date: 2022-03-26 01:05 am (UTC)For $300 I figured I could hold on a year longer... which came and passed last Fall when Apple didn't materially update the Air. So now I'm holding on to see if I can last through late this year, when a major Air update is rumored. If the Air doesn't come back with an SD card slot at that point— I'm hoping it will since they already re-added it to the Pro— then I'll reassess which model is better for me.
no subject
Date: 2022-03-30 02:59 am (UTC)I was less patient than you. I went 2015 MBP => 2018 MBP (still with the old keyboard) => 2021 M1 MBP. I am so happy with this new machine. Not only does it have that SD card slot, but it is just so fast and responsive. My old one was no slouch - Intel i9, 32 GB ram, 2 TB SSD. But this is faster in every little way, and it's faster in many big ways, and it's dead silent no matter what.
For work purposes, I wanted Excel to be faster - well, that and to never have to be waiting for my mail program or anything else to be processing. For home purposes, I wanted Lightroom and photo management to be faster. It's doing a great job at both.
If the new "Mac Studio" machine had come out at the same time, I almost certainly would have bought that instead, and used the 2018 MBP whenever I needed portability. I used to work from a coffeeshop or the library 1-2 days a week, but I haven't done that for the past two years, strangely enough. A desktop would've been fine. But this is a nice machine.
no subject
Date: 2022-03-30 05:15 am (UTC)My work MBP has an SD card slot. That's not a solution for my photography, though, because it's company property. I refuse to do any personal work on it. Like, I don't even check news headlines on it while waiting for video calls to start. I pull out my personal phone or laptop for that.