Apple’s spring event — dubbed Peek Performance — has featured some pretty incredible new products, including a fancy new monitor called the Studio Display. Yet even the slickest Apple promo video can’t hide one thing: Apple is charging $400 to let you adjust its new monitor’s height, setting you back $1,999 in total. Whew.
As the world’s most prominent technology company, basically anything Apple does is bound to grab the headlines. You’d think CEO Tim Cook and friends would know that and try to avoid, well, silly mistakes, but the Studio Display has just proved the company still can’t help but make itself meme-worthy.
I’ve used Macs for years, including in a busy office with hundreds of Apple computers, and I don’t think I’ve ever seen an iMac that wasn’t propped up on a pile of books. It was a comical statement on the predicament Apple had put us in — spending thousands on a computer, yet unable to natively move its screen up and down a few inches. Even 10 years ago, it was ridiculous.
With the Studio Display, Apple has signaled it is more than happy for that ridiculousness to continue. Charging one-fifth the price of the entire display for such basic functionality? It’s fodder for the trolls, naysayers, and meme creators — and will likely become a justified criticism from ordinary users.
Maybe Apple thinks people who are paying $1,599 for a monitor already won’t care about another $400. But that just makes it seem even more like a tone-deaf cash grab. It’s reminiscent of when the Mac Pro launched in 2019 and Apple came humbly asking, cap in hand, for $699 in return for four little rollers. It boggled the mind then — just as the Mac Studio’s height adjustment price does today.
So, while I’m excited for the Studio Display itself and what it has to offer, I still can’t believe Apple is sticking to bad habits. I mean, $400 just to raise your new monitor up and down? No thanks, I’ll stick to Tolkien’s finest for my height boost.
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