On a price tag basis I also don’t recall Apple’s cheap days, and I’ve been here from the start. However on a value basis there has always been a good case that their excellent usability and build quality means you get more out of their products for much longer, therefore your money is stretched. In simpler terms: everyone is always out with pitchforks over the new iPhone’s cost, meanwhile tons of people are still on their iPhones from 6 generations back with no need to upgrade.

The last Apple I purchased was the Apple IIc. Has much changed since then? Do we still need to flip the floppy disk or can they do that with a robot now?

I can say that around 2010, the value proposition was there. Longer lifespan, held their value for resale, better built in software. iLife and iWork were a crazy value compared to what you got from Office and whatnot. New versions of the OS were way cheaper. Wasn't snow leopard like $60?

What about right now? Isn't the MacBook Neo reasonably priced (compared to the competition) for a 16Gb RAM laptop?

Edit: I was wrong, it has only 8Gb