This week Apple announced a bunch of new Macbook Pro laptops with their scary powerful M1 Max chips, which Apple claims can keep pace with Nvidia’s RTX 3080 graphics cards. While impressive as that news is, it’s a different Apple product announcement that’s been occupying my waking thoughts.
The Apple Polishing Cloth is an Apple-branded microfiber cloth it’s selling for a whopping $19. Now, Apple is no stranger to selling its own accessories at a premium, but a $19 microfiber cloth is beyond egregious. What’s even more flummoxing is these things are selling like hotcakes. So much so that there’s a 10-12 week wait on all online orders.
The product listing for the Apple Polishing Cloth says the following:
“Made with soft, non-abrasive material, the Polishing Cloth cleans any Apple display, including nano-texture glass, safely and effectively.”
That’s a microfiber cloth, everyone. Amazon sells a pack of 24 for $12, and they come in a bunch of colors like blue, pink, and green. Apple’s only comes in white. That’s basically around $.50 a cloth. That isn’t the only option either; our friends over at Tom’s Guide put together a list of other cheap microfiber cloths that will do the same thing as the Apple Polishing Cloth at literally a fraction of the cost.
Listen, I get it. You might be all-in on Apple products, the same way someone is with Razer, Corsair, or the Alienware product ecosystem. There’s nothing wrong with that. What is wrong is a company overcharging for a product that most likely costs them pennies on the dollar to make, just because there’s a logo on it.
I’m not one to tell folks what to do with their money, but I feel obligated to let folks know when they are getting ripped off. Don’t spend $19 on something you can get for less than $1, please. I’m begging you.