Are there really people who buy a new car every 2 years?
Yes. Yes there are.
Some people like to have the newest stuff and don't mind living paycheck to paycheck to do so. Or maybe they're rich.
I recouped the cost of the M2 MacBook Air 24GB RAM/1TB in less than 15 hours worth of work - taking my after tax rate into account.
My work was not compute intensive so the Air was fine. But I would definitely pay for a 30% improvement at that bill rate.
Imagine you go to see a lawyer who is charging you $750 per hour, but instead of using a computer, they are writing everything out by hand and then personally using a typewriter to type up their notes. You ask why they don't use a computer and they point out that they can make more money by billing you for the time it takes to use slower technologies.
Might you consider a different lawyer?
And yet, regardless of how moral it is, the calculation seems correct - billing at $150 an hour means things which take longer, get you more money. Two people have claimed that a faster computer will earn them more money, while describing a situation wherein a faster computer will earn them less money. It doesn't make sense.
With your lawyer comparison it's easy to see paper and tyepwriter; are you suggesting that customers know whether contractors are using an Apple M1 or an Apple M3, and have an idea of how much time that ought to change the quote by, and would consider a different contractor based on the computer they are using? I doubt clients have that insight or interest. Are you saying they buy Apple M3 because they are more moral contractors and it's the right thing to do? Even if it is more moral, I find that unlikely to be the reason since the argument was explicitly "it makes me more money" not "it saves my customers money".
> "people are probably counting on you to not be someone who would think, "If I keep a slower computer, I could bill for more because the client would pay for the time I spend waiting for my computer.""
I think people would see you upgrading your M1 to an M3 and decide you were being extravagant and therefore charging them too much, and leave for a competitor who is more frugal. Far more than they would decide you were a con artist because you didn't have the latest and greatest. Are you saying that the reason to invest in a new top of the line Apple laptop is to compete on a race-to-the-bottom where you can undercut competing quotes? That also feels unlikely - you could likely do that more effectively with a second hand AMD Ryzen desktop than a new Macbook Pro (something the well-informed customer would know) and that people competing in a race to be cheapest tend to aggressively penny-pinch rather than aggressively spend on the best.
And good luck taking that AMD Ryzen desktop on a customer site.
Most of my time is spent between the AWS console and VS Code writing Python and Node. A faster computer wouldn’t speed that up.
However.
I expect that the majority of people who upgrade their computer regularly can't justify it as a business expense. But I could be wrong.
I sit on desktops for 5 years+ with modest opportunistic upgrades, and I consider that extravagant.
I think people forget that $4k+ for a computer is Quadro workstation territory.
M3 MacBook Pro 16" is $2499, roughly the same as an equivalent Dell XPS / Precision laptop (for the same price Dell typically has half the screen resolution, much worse battery life, and more RAM)
Divide $2499 over five years, that's $500 per year. Not expensive on a developer salary in high income countries. It's a business expense.
That said, I do not find much appeal to upgrade unless there is a specific reason myself. But there seems to be something in apple customer culture where people upgrade for the mere sake of stuff like new design or colour.
And that's with the general Nvidia price gouging these days, and paying a premium for ITX as well.
$2K is very expensive for a PC.
- One of them supports a family of 3 on one income. - One of them is single and supports only themselves. - One of them is married with dual-income and no kids.
This has nothing to do with wealth.
I really only upgrade if my current PC cannot do a thing that I need it to do.