We recently witnessed the launch of Apple’s own online store in India for the first time. Many Apple enthusiasts, including us, were eagerly waiting for the Cupertino giant to start e-stores for our market. For as long as I remember, I have envied folks in western countries as they could get their Macs customised, get special engravings for their devices, and more. Oh, the dream, to be able to customise Macs in India and not have to stick to the shelf models.
But finally, with this new online store, we can go on par with our friends in the US when it comes to getting the AirPods with cute emojis. Not only this, AppleCare+ has arrived, and now we can worry less about warranty related issues. We also now have access to a host of other services, like EMI options, buy-back schemes, and free home delivery. And at long last, the one thing we’d been eagerly waiting for, the option to customise our own Macs.
Heartened, I started working on my dream project of configuring a device I love and admire the most: a MacBook Pro 13-inch. With the processor of my choice, preferred memory for RAM and HD storage options, I completed the necessary formalities and got stuck on the payment page.
Not because of some glitch on the website, it was purely and simply because I can’t afford it. Well, not at the moment but surely soon. Right?
Well, anyway, this gave rise to a sense of curiosity to find out the most expensive Apple product on sale. And, well, maybe I was naive but what I found kind of left me shook for a couple of weeks at the least.
An Expensive Curiosity: Customised Mac Pro in India
So, I go back to the home page and select a Mac Pro device, I select the Rack version that already costs ₹5,49,900 and hit Configure. The choice of processor is the first step; I directly scroll down and select the 2.5 GHz 28-core Intel Xenon W processor that adds ₹ 7,00,000 to the bill.
Then comes memory preferences. I add the 1.5 TB (12x128GB) ECC device that costs a whopping ₹ 25,00,000. For that price, you can get a lovely SUV. Someone once told me, you need to check the graphic card configuration before buying a computer, and that’s my next step. I chose Apple’s Two Radeon Pro Vega with 2x32GB of HBM2 memory each costing ₹ 10,80,000. That’s nearly what my dad paid for his car.
Now we come to storage options. I know a lot of people are concerned about how many GBs you can get. Here I’m talking TBs, not GBs. I throw in 8TB SSD storage, adding ₹2,60,000. I also added an Apple Afterburner Card for ₹2,00,000 for better video performances while editing.
Moving on to the finishing touches, a Magic Trackpad 2 for ₹ 4,000, and pre-installed Final Cut Pro X and Logic Pro X software costing ₹24,900 and ₹15,500 respectively. The final math—hold your breath—stood at ₹ 53,34,300. Yes, that’s the price for Apple’s most expensive “configured” product.
You know what, I think I was fine when options like this weren’t directly available to me.
Side note: This was a fun article, and I have no intention for buying a device costing half a crore, even with all my excitement of being able to customise Macs in India. I would, however, love a MacBook Pro. Boss, are you listening?