Why is the retina Macbook unrepairable? Why is the RAM soldered? How can you upgrade the memory then? Why is the battery glued? Why is the LCD also glued to the laptop? Why all this?

Despite all the comments I will say this:

Regardless of whether you are in favor of or against the soldering of the Ram into the board this is a poor decision. This is more "Getting Screwed" for the consumers and particularly the ones who are less likely to fork out the money for a brand new computer. When I first was into Apple I purposely would buy my computers with minimal RAM and small Hard Drives because I could get both waaaay cheaper than the price Apple charged to put them in. What this soldering has done for people like me means I would be forced into shelling out money that I feel is way overpriced for what it is.

Let's face the fact, Apple has become a company that cares more about monopolizing on its devices than anything else. This is why they are opposed to jailbreaking, this is why they solder ram, this is why they do so many things that all lead to the almighty dollar and forcing users to come back to them for the repairs. This is also why Apple devices such as the iPad and the iPhone never will probably see a replaceable battery, because when that battery is dead Apple wants you to come back and be forced to buy a new phone for 200-500 dollars or spend 100 on a 20 dollar battery. It's absolutely nuts.

When you really boil things down to the nutshell the only pot that Apple has to pee in is the software. The Software is the only thing Apple fans truly care about because anyone can get the hardware (and it's totally true), and it always has been the software, the user experience etc. The software was the only thing that keeps anyone constantly in the Apple environment, and the software still is great (other than dropping Rosetta, that was a stupid move on Apple's behalf). Anyone who says "Oh the hardware" would be a complete idiot because none of the hardware is, or ever has been Apples. One peek at the inside of any Mac and what you see are great pieces of hardware that any manufacturer of any personal computing device can get their hands on. It's all about the software. Apple on the other hand has decided to go one step further and make it once again harder for the poverty stricken consumer to be able to DIY.

But honestly I'm just tired of shelling out money into devices that I feel I'm not the administrator to. I want to be able to upgrade my own ram, upgrade my own hard-drive, and I want to be able to replace my own LCDs, and not have to pay a premium price for the parts because they're all soldered together, that's absolute bull crap.

And anyone can say well blah blah blah, but unless you know a lot about computers and repair them day in and day out like I do, you're not a very credible person to talk to about the issue. What I'm talking about really comes down to the level of IT Technicians that know exactly what I'm talking about. This is a classic re-creation of why manufacturers can't even make parts for cars anymore until a vehicle is over "X" amount of years old. It's about being lock-n-key about the product as a whole, and monopolizing by forcing people to buy products locked at their specs.

The day I see this happen to Mac Pro, will be the day I leave Apple, remove all my Apple stickers off every vehicle and window I'm associated with. I've always been a huge Apple fan, but as of now... that's debatable.. I could handle the battery not being removable, but the RAM?! Are you nuts? That's got "I'm Greedy" written all over it.

Fact is this... If I buy a product, the product is now MINE, I should be able to jailbreak it, modify it, upgrade it, degrade it, smash it, or even embed it into the back-seat of my car, etc. and any company that thinks different than that doesn't deserve my money. I gave you my hard earned money, and if you can't even allow us to upgrade it, or change the hard drives.. you've become trash to me. The user experience will never surpass my ability to change my hard drive or upgrade my ram as I please, unless you economically can keep the price down and start shipping the lowest cost mac with 16GB of ram out of the box, no way... but 8gb soldered to the board and unable to be upgraded.. that's just stupid.

This is why Dell gives their users 2 options: You fix it, or we fix it.. take your pick. But again that is because Dell knows people like to fix their own stuff. Dell doesn't make the Operating Environment though, they just buy hardware, stamp a logo on it and be done with it. Apple knows that the minute their Operating System was open to any hardware they'd be screwed because it's always been a monopoly on the hardware based off the user experience of the software.

Soldering everything onto a single mini-PCB instead of socketing the components has allowed the brand to make the devices thinner and "win" the "hey look! mine is thinner!!" ******* match vs. Samsung, Lenovo, whatever. And had the attractive side effect of making the buyer totally dependent on the maker. Yet the products sell like hotcakes.

When and only when sufficient numbers of potential buyers talk with their wallets and go elsewhere will there be a change. Given the outrageous profits being made with any and all products being churned out, that is not going to happen anytime soon.

Yeah, but honestly who cares about thinner? I mean you can only get a phone so thin before it starts feeling cheap, and makes everyone afraid they're going to break it. Yes the products sell like hotcakes, but again this is not the hardware experience, this is due to the software experience.

How many consumers actually open their iphone up to see the inside? This is why my post said

And anyone can say well blah blah blah, but unless you know a lot about computers and repair them day in and day out like I do, you're not a very credible person to talk to about the issue. What I'm talking about really comes down to the level of IT Technicians that know exactly what I'm talking about.

While I do have the consumer in mind, my complaint is that there are technologically savvy people out there who can fix their own devices that are going to be royally ticked by this decision. Not to mention it doesn't take a braniac to upgrade ram. And by removing an end-users ability to save a few bucks by upgrading on their terms and when they want as opposed to being forced to shell out big bucks.

What I'm talking about is the people who do Music, or do Videos, or do Graphic Design with Apple Computers. Who are waiting for a couple paychecks to clear to upgrade their Mac... well sorry guys you have to buy a new mac if you want that much ram! It's clear bullcrap that Apple puts limits on modern hardware to limit the amount of ram a particular model can support when there are clearly better hardware choices out there.

Apple on the consumer end has been clearly positive, but Apple has appeared to not give a crap about their first love which was graphic designers, music composers, and video editors... WE were once the epicenter of Apple, and now Apple has done everything from make great titles such as Final Cut to appeal more to the clueless while hiding or removing vital features, while in Logic Pro X they completely re-organized everything and forced the Logic Pro veterans to have to re-learn half the software, not to mention drop any backwards compatibility which means 3/4 of our AU-Audio Units dead in the dust until someone makes them 64-bit capable. Apple is NOT looking out for these people's best interests... Not to mention there are STILL issues with Logic Pro that still haven't been fixed such as mapping the ES2 synth with the learning controller assignments window that have been existent in EVERY installation of Logic Pro X since the release with Mavericks.

Apple for the last decade was the "Go To" platform for doing these things, and they've cut support that was vital to musicians, they've changed what shouldn't have been changed, and have made it harder especially for musicians utilizing Logic Pro to do what was once said to be the best DAW, and now the RAM soldering bomb-shell... I'm ready to drop Apple and go back to FruityLoops and Pro Tools..

I understand the consumer position... but where were you a decade ago when Apple was making the difference for people such as mentioned above. You clearly don't understand the difference between Apple a decade ago, and Apple before they became involved in the whole "Lighter, Thinner" bull-crap that nobody honestly cares about. "Look how thin I am!" yeah, and "look how easily you bend.." Apple's not alone though, Samsung made the same mistake with their Note 4 which is why I won't own one, not to mention they did a back-flip and down graded their USB port to 2.0 instead of 3.0 (which was on the Note 3).

Trust me I'm not biased, I've been an Apple fan for over a decade. I'm not big into Windows like I was nearly 2 decades ago, and think Windows 8 had plenty of flaws as well such as removing the start menu... They clearly didn't have people without touchscreens in mind, or had the Windows Veterans in mind either.

Thinner and Lighter can only go so far before it becomes "Compromise". Smaller and thinner form factors can be cool, but what do I care about smaller and thinner for something sitting on my desk? iMacs are not meant to be carried, and thinner is really not saving me that much more desk space.. Laptops I understand, Phones I understand, Tablets I understand, but the iMac is a desktop... Soldering Ram for a smaller footprint is just not worth it in my opinion.

If I want to get any thinner... I'll buy a projector. The form factor is cool, but form factor only goes so far. Apple should keep it's focus on Mac OS which is the epicenter of every Apple device.

Excellent piece man, I shall share this among my PC customers who are thinking of changing to MAC devices. Sheer greed! Well done for bringing this to our attention, it is very well written. Keep up the good work. Gary (Hardware and software support technician) UK