"Consumers don’t want tiny cheap laptops. In the past few years, people have financed progressively more expensive laptops over much longer periods, suggesting they don’t want the cheapest options.
SWEs view laptops as status symbols, not just tools. Hence, tech companies, like Apple, sell laptops as status symbols, not just utilitarian commodities."
SWEs are not a random demographic. They are FAR more likely than the broader public to care about function than form. And their laptop isn’t seen by everyone in all of their social circles, as a car more likely is.
Anecdotally, my observation is that SWEs are the group of people who are the least likely to think of laptops as status symbols. People buy $1500 laptops because (they think) they work efficiently on those machines. Otherwise, people are very happy to use $300 Chromebooks or framework laptops as long as they get the job done. Many people put very little thoughts into which laptop they buy.
You probably are thinking about a different group of people.
Though I've been in sw dev for nearly a decade I've not seen other software developers brag about their laptops and if anything, scoff at modern consumerist non-repairable equipment.
And yet I'm constantly issued high dollar laptops that are way overspecced to run a web browser (no computer yet built can run Outlook desktop without crying) and emacs. When I point this out I'm told some combination of "this is the standard for your job title" and "developers need zippy machines". My coworkers seem relieved to finally be done with the "junk" they were issued three years ago that is still massively overspecced.
