Class signaling via Apple products

[firecat]

"A Macbook Pro is just as much of a status marker as a Louis Vuitton purse or a BMW."

I recoil at the notion because I think Vuitton purses and BMWs signal a different class than ones I identify with. (At least I tend to have prejudices about people who have those things—I'll assume "not like me" unless I get evidence to the contrary.) But I do think that, in California at least, there's a class I might call "hi-tech professionals" and having Mac products can signal identification with it.

FWIW, I think I'm kind of clueless about class.

Anyway, it's interesting to contemplate. What do you think?

Comments

[bunnybutt.livejournal.com]

Huh. Well, I have a mac laptop because I won't have anything in my house that I can't support myself, and I stopped trying to troubleshoot windows even before I went to work at Infinite Circle. For a long time I felt the pricepoint was misleading, as the initial cost was higher, but support costs were minimal. Of course, I found that was also true of cars - the lifecycle cost of my volvo turned out to be lower than that of the saturn it replaced. I stopped thinking that about apple when they revised their policies on backwards compatibility, but I still use them because I can support them start to finish on my own.

[firecat]

Those are some of the reasons I have Apple things, plus I've had them since 1984 and I'm used to them. But I did get an Android phone instead of an iPhone because I can't imagine paying $80 for cell phone service. (I wonder what it says about me that I don't mind paying for gadgets but I do mind paying high monthly service fees.)