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00:30Hey, what's up guys, MKBHD here, welcome back to quarantine content, just a little entertainment for you while we're all staying inside.
00:36I'm your host, Marques Brownlee, and you might have heard by now that Apple was selling these wheels for the Mac Pro.
00:46You remember that clip at the end of our Mac Pro review of it just kind of rolling away because there are no locks?
00:52Yeah, those wheels.
00:53Now on the surface, it's not actually clear why anyone would actually need wheels to their computer considering your computer just sits at your desk anyway.
01:01But hey, you know what, there's nothing wrong with selling a product that very few people actually need.
01:07But they are a $400 option when you configure them alongside the new Mac Pro.
01:12And if you don't do that and you decide you want them later for some reason, you can buy them to install yourself separately for $700.
01:20$700 for these wheels, I have some thoughts.
01:28So there's a lot of reactions I could give, a lot of things I could say about these wheels, about how ridiculous they are, how stupid they are, how insulting it would be that they would even offer that.
01:38But I decided to take a step back and actually try to consider why they exist in the first place.
01:45Now, as you saw by the unboxing, I actually have the wheels and I got to say, having them in person, which very few people obviously do, they are some really nice wheels.
01:55Objectively, these might be the nicest computer wheels I've ever seen.
01:58Now, I don't know about you, but when I think of computer wheels, I'm thinking of like the dusty plastic, like those standard casters you see in schools.
02:05These wheels are complete and total overkill.
02:09They're entirely metal and rubber.
02:11And you can tell as soon as you pick one up, it's hefty, like there's weight to it.
02:15How much weight, you might be asking?
02:17Well, one wheel weighs more than twice an iPhone 11 Pro.
02:21So you can tell it's basically solid metal.
02:23They come with this metal dual-sided hex tool with a black rubberized sleeve around the middle for grip.
02:30That just says China.
02:32There's also two nearly identical installation guides in the box for some reason, but one of them with more languages than the other.
02:39Why would they make two of these instead of just printing it all on one?
02:43I don't know.
02:44And the wheels themselves, they fully articulate 360 degrees at every joint.
02:49So the top joint rotates totally around and also says China on the top of it.
02:54And then there's two fully independent, fully articulate, super smooth rubber treads.
03:01So kind of like a car with torque vectoring, it can create an even tighter turning radius than if it was a one-sided single tire.
03:07So all that being said, are these wheels actually good to cost $700?
03:13No, of course not.
03:14Still, if this piece of metal with tiny microchips and RAM and a motherboard and batteries and cameras and software tying it all together and a screen costs $400,
03:28then the material cost is clearly not there.
03:30But you know, sometimes you can argue the value of something is higher based on the value it delivers to the person who buys it.
03:37But still, the value of these wheels is just putting the Mac Pro on wheels with no brakes.
03:44And the Mac Pro has to be plugged into the wall to be on anyway.
03:47So that argument doesn't really work.
03:51Really, the only reasonable argument you can come up with having actually seen these is,
03:55okay, these are such high quality wheels that the tooling required to make them costs so much
04:01and the volume that they're going to sell is so low that they have to price them super high to make their money back on selling these wheels.
04:10But Apple doesn't need to make their money back on every single product they make.
04:14They regularly don't do that and they often subsidize their less successful products with their more successful ones.
04:20So why would Apple make these $700 wheels if they know that?
04:26The answer, I think, to keep their shine.
04:29See, Apple loves to keep this image of a premium luxury brand.
04:35It's what allows them to charge more for a lot of stuff.
04:37But everyone knows every luxury brand's got some luxury products that are so expensive
04:44that people aren't really mad that they can't get it, but it's super easy to make fun of.
04:49We see this with brands we talk about all the time.
04:52Supreme, Gucci, Rolex, Bugatti.
04:57You know, there's a ton of them and no matter what you think of them,
04:59you've heard of them and you know what they stand for.
05:02Now, let's be perfectly clear.
05:03Apple is a tech company, obviously, but in this tech world, they are the luxury one.
05:11And keeping that status, keeping that perceived image of high quality isn't easy.
05:17That doesn't just come effortlessly.
05:18You know, they're in a competitive tech world
05:20where other companies are throwing their absolute best at them
05:23and trying to make their best possible products
05:25and make as much money as they possibly can.
05:28And so that competitive landscapes crafted the likes of the $329 iPad,
05:33which is an incredible deal in the tablet world,
05:35and, of course, the recent $400 iPhone SE.
05:39That's super competitive, again, one of the best deals ever from their camp.
05:43So they're not allergic to pricing things competitively,
05:45especially when it benefits their business.
05:47But on the other end of the spectrum,
05:49to keep their premium luxury image,
05:53they, of course, need high-priced products.
05:56See, this is something I've talked about in some previous Apple-related videos
05:59because as much products as they do make,
06:01I've wished that they would make more to fill in the gaps
06:04because often in some categories,
06:06they will choose to keep up their image.
06:08They will choose to just make the expensive version of that thing.
06:14Like when making a desktop tower computer,
06:17they only make one,
06:19and they made the expensive one.
06:21Now, there are many things that can change the perceived quality of an item,
06:26you know, the actual hardware quality and fit and finish and materials
06:30and even the name and the design of the packaging,
06:34but the price is also one of those things.
06:36There have been studies done, and I'll try to link one of them below,
06:39where you put two essentially identical things next to each other
06:43and price one item higher than the other,
06:46and if you ask people which they think is the better, higher-quality item,
06:50they'll pick the more expensive one.
06:52People literally just assume with no other context
06:55that the higher-priced item is better.
06:57But here's the thing, competition is brutal,
07:00especially in tech,
07:02so you can't just raise all of your prices across the board
07:05and then boom, suddenly you're a luxury company.
07:08It's not that easy.
07:09So Apple is uniquely positioned in a way
07:12where they can be competitive where it matters,
07:15but then they can also, on the other end,
07:17sacrifice some products for the memes
07:20in the name of keeping up their luxury status
07:23and, I guess, why not make something extreme while you're at it?
07:27Linus from Linus Tech Tips made a great video touching on a lot of this,
07:30which I'll link below,
07:31where he also brings up another great point.
07:33Tell me if you've heard this before.
07:35Media attention.
07:37All press is good press.
07:39Literally every article written about the Mac Pro's crazy wheels
07:43mention other Apple products,
07:45shed light on the Mac Pro and on Apple's history,
07:49sometimes literally even list a couple other Apple products
07:52that you could buy for the same price as those wheels.
07:56So you can see how it feels like all press is good press.
07:59So Apple can choose to make that sacrifice
08:02with certain products.
08:03And the Mac Pro's wheels,
08:06that's a perfect place to sacrifice.
08:09Were you gonna buy these anyway if they were 200 bucks?
08:13If these were 25 bucks,
08:14were you gonna buy the Mac Pro's wheels?
08:16No.
08:17So this is a perfect no-brainer.
08:19You know what else is a no-brainer?
08:20The $1,000 monitor stand.
08:22The $300 coffee table book.
08:25The $17,000 gold Apple Watch.
08:29So while pretty much no one in their right mind
08:31should buy any of these,
08:35it makes perfect sense that they exist.
08:37And the more you talk about and comment about
08:40their crazy $700 wheels,
08:43the more Apple kind of just gets exactly what they want.
08:47More attention.
08:49Unless it's this video.
08:50Either way, that's been it.
08:51Thanks for watching.
08:52Hope you learned something.
08:53And I guess I gotta go find something
08:56to attach these wheels to now
08:58to feel like I spent them for good reason.
09:01It's probably not gonna happen.
09:03Either way, the merch also by the way is also on sale.
09:05All those links that I talked about
09:06are below the like button.
09:07Check them out.
09:08Thanks again for watching.
09:09Catch you guys in the next one.
09:11Peace.