Devil's advocate: please defend the $999 monitor stand

[zassou]

my argument:

pros already use their dr octopus-arms as monitor stands anyway, and some even ditch the stand and go wall mounting, selling the stand seperately makes sense.

apple already turn pc hardware into luxury items, and the luxury item like watches do sell expensive accessory seperately.

 

real thought:

money isnt the problem, the decision is.

i think it would be a much less a backlash if they include the stand, even with the 999 pricetag too.

[kokakolia]

A 999$ stand is acceptable if optional. The $200 vesa bracket makes me wanna smash things. 

[The King of the Undead]

it looks nice

[Lord Mirdalan]

I can't stand it...

 

 

[imreloadin]

8 hours ago, zassou said:

and the luxury item like watches do sell expensive accessory seperately.

Last time I strolled through a Rolex store when you bought a watch they didn't only sell you the watch head and then charge you another grand for the band. Sure you can by them like that but it's not the DEFAULT option...

[DezGalbie]

The argument for it (and in my mind possibly the only argument for it) is that people should be free to charge whatever they want for their wares as long as they don't have some kind of artificial and unfair monopoly on the market.

There are tons of other monitor/monitor stand options out there if you don't think Apple is worth the price they are charging. Vote with your feet, as they say, and buy another brand.

If Apple can convince a significant number of people to buy it at that price then more power to them. It would be a fascinating and impressive achievement. But I won't be one of them.

[Worstcaster]

Like AMD with the AM4 socket,  Apple might be promising completely with future Apple Pros until 2019.

[Drak3]

How else is one supposed to demonstrate that they're abhorrent with money?

[oahbpn]

The $999 monitor stand is worth it because it's got dual purpose. It can also be used to hold toilet paper.

[TetraSky]

You literally can't defend it.
That's like saying "defend this child molester's rights to approach children", you just can't. It's simply not something any sane person could defend, regardless of how it is perceived. (insane comparison for an insanely overpriced product... but there are actually some people out there defending those scumbags, so it fits)

 

Unless that stand somehow has magic imbued in it that increase the power of your mac, then it's literally just a hunk of metal that is shaped in the form of a stand that they are charging $1k USD for it.
You could actually pay a company that does CNC work professionally, to build you a custom stand with engraving on it and what not, for cheaper.

 

Just the fact that they require a separate, costly, adapter if you want to use a VESA mount instead of simply making their monitors VESA compatible from the get go... cost to show that Apple really just want all of the money and they know their customers are crazy/fanatic enough to fork it over.
This stand is frankly just the latest Apple attempt to fuck over their customers who have more money than brain.
Because anyone who is even remotely smart, regardless of how much they make/can afford, will just get the VESA adapter + a monitor arm... (or the much cheaper third party alternatives) 

[harryk]

3 hours ago, TetraSky said:

Unless that stand somehow has magic imbued in it that increase the power of your mac, then it's literally just a hunk of metal that is shaped in the form of a stand that they are charging $1k USD for it.

You could actually pay a company that does CNC work professionally, to build you a custom stand with engraving on it and what not, for cheaper.

Maybe if all you want is a single piece of aluminum cut to shape. The biggest component of the Pro Display stand will cost at least $1k if you wanted a professional CNC shop to make one. Now add in the dozens of smaller pieces which make up the balancing mechanism and the monitor attachment. Making a one off Pro Display stand clone will likely cost thousands. 

[PlayStation 2]

3 hours ago, TetraSky said:

You literally can't defend it.
That's like saying "defend this child molester's rights to approach children", you just can't. It's simply not something any sane person could defend, regardless of how it is perceived.

Maybe it's the cautious side of me, but you really should be careful making the argument of comparing a ridiculously overpriced monitor stand to a serious crime. One's a material waste of money and the other is heinous and vile.

I can't really defend this monitor stand (and the VESA mount I can't defend even more) but it's very hard to make that comparison.

[kokakolia]

3 hours ago, Dan Castellaneta said:

Maybe it's the cautious side of me, but you really should be careful making the argument of comparing a ridiculously overpriced monitor stand to a serious crime. One's a material waste of money and the other is heinous and vile.

I can't really defend this monitor stand (and the VESA mount I can't defend even more) but it's very hard to make that comparison.

Absolutely!

 

And you have to consider these things too:

 

- Some say that the performance competes with monitors that cost over $10k~20k. Even with the $999 stand, this monitor costs less. So it's a bargain?

- For regular people, a good monitor can be found for several hundred bucks, maybe $1000 if you want the "best" consumer grade monitor. So it's not like you're in the market for a $5000 monitor to begin with. 

- Like I said before, forget the stand. It's 100% optional. The $200 vesa bracket is truly anti-consumer. But I expect to see third party vesa brackets for much less, or third party stands that work with the Apple monitor. 

 

Overall, very few people would consider buying a monitor for $5000. So getting mad at this $999 stand on a $5000 monitor is like complaining that champagne is way too expensive at the finest Ritz Carlton hotel suite. 

[duncannah]

it's meant for professionals so the company would pay for it no?

[harryk]

2 hours ago, duncannah said:

it's meant for professionals so the company would pay for it no?

I expect a majority of sales will be to businesses, so yeah. And if they are buying displays by the dozen, adding on the stand is simply another line item versus purchasing the Vesa mount and then sourcing an additional mounting solution. 

[greenhorn]

For that kind of money, I would expect some crazy features to even consider buying it. This would include electric motors to move the monitor (up/down, tilt, left/right, rotate), a self-leveling function and some collision sensors used for a mode that moves the monitor to exactly align with adjacent walls/furniture/other objects such as other monitors.

I believe the existing monitor stand's functionality could be beaten by a model designed and built by Alex during a weekend with the CNC and the rest of LTT's workshop equipment (all for much less money of course).

[orbitalbuzzsaw]

It's optional; they probably don't want to make too many of such a specialized item so they jack the price way the fuck up. On the other hand the $200 VESA adapter makes me want to punch Tim Cook in the face.

[79wjd]

Free marketing.

[XR6]

I honestly can't. I've thought long and hard about how I could defend this terrible, overpriced pile of junk and I've come to the conclusion that it's just not possible to defend such a thing. I can't find any good reason as to why a monitor stand should cost that much.

Apple's pricing is a joke. I don't care about the fact that it's targeted towards professionals, that doesn't excuse the fact that Apple are demanding just under $1000 for a monitor stand. It's ridiculous.

[kokakolia]

1 hour ago, harryk said:

I expect a majority of sales will be to businesses, so yeah. And if they are buying displays by the dozen, adding on the stand is simply another line item versus purchasing the Vesa mount and then sourcing an additional mounting solution. 

Yeah, professional equipment is always overpriced. I don't doubt one second that companies will buy the vesa mounts over the stand. And if the monitor performs as well as people claim it does, then $5000 + $200 should be a bargain compared to buying a $10k monitor.