I always love a good trip to the Apple store. A little to gaze at all its capitalist glory, but I usually have a good chat with the person sorting my stuff out and enjoy meeting some new people. Picking up my Apple Watch last week was no different and I had a good chat about the recent iPhone with the person helping me. We chatted for quite a while about their range of Pro devices.

We joked about what even is a Pro device, and that it means different things on different products, but they pointed out the surprising range of people that buy Pro branded products. To give you the cliff notes of our conversation, they pointed put how great the iPhone 13 is, and the iPad / MacBook Air. It’s great to have a device at every price point, but the reality is that a lot of people buy the most expensive one they can afford and often stretch to buy the Pro device without the need.

The anecdotal evidence seems to point towards the same conclusions. Your local coffee house features people browsing the internet, or writing Word docs on £1500+ laptops, and I have lost count of the number of friends whose children have written a MacBook Pro on their Christmas list. Every year when the new iPhone comes around, I see a whole new range of people that buy the expensive Pro phone and start taking photos walks for a few weeks to justify the costs. Sure, people can spend money however they wish, and more power to you, but Pro shouldn’t be your default.

This was even more evident, something I almost feel for myself, at yesterday’s event. Apple launched some new, good but staggeringly expensive, laptops yesterday which most people have zero need for. I work in a field that typically relies on powerful equipment to export video and manipulate designs easily and the power is still far more than I need. My 2017 iMac still doesn’t miss a beat, and no doubt more power would speed things up, but the cost isn’t worth the trade-off.

These Pros are for those that need serious power on the go, yet I have a feeling I will see these all over the place in a few weeks. Apple devices have always been a status thing for some. Like designer clothing the enjoyment comes from brandishing something just for the cost – or so I am told. I can’t wait to be able to pick those notched screens out with not too much trouble and have a look at what tasks are being done on a machine that is at least a thousand pound more expensive than required.

Of course, you do you, but the rest of the range are great too you know. Perhaps something cheaper might actually be better for you.