Apple Event & Ringgit Depreciation

If you only read ths title you probably wonder what this blogpost is all about. I watched the Apple Event live on Youtube early this morning for about an hour until they got to the most exciting product, the Iphone 14 pro max. The top end model costs RM8,299 while the previous model costs RM700.00 less. The price in US remains the same across board but you have nearly a thousand ringgit increase in the top tier model. It's all about the exchange rate. Being an Apple user who had just purchased a 2-year old MacMini with the old price is a steal when Apple estimated the Ringgit to be 4.3. I told my friend that Apple products would be more expensive and sure enough when the M2 Macbooks were launched two months ago Apple pecked the Ringgit at 4.6 when the Ringgit was hovering at 4.3.

Now the new Iphones are priced at 5.2RM to the USD showing how little faith Apple has on the Ringgit and its likely depreciation in the coming months. IMAGINE just a few months ago the Singapore dollar is buying 3.1 Ringgit but is now at 3 23RM to 1SGD. How the Malaysian Ringgit has fallen. 

It is not that laptops and phones are luxury. Three months ago I helped a fellow pastor sourced RM1,500.00 to buy his Windows laptop. Yesterday I worked for at least 5 hours on my Galatians commentary, in the morning, afternoon and at night. I did not have to crouch or strain my eyes because I have a good 27inch monitor to work on. It's a miracle that I published two books solely on a 13inch laptop that is already nearly 5 years old, with Intel chips that warm up as soon as you turn on the computer. Technology has progressed and the scholarly and the writing class is seldom from the jungles of Borneo. I told my friend recently that my life is filled with contradictions, a paradox wrapped in an irony like the book of Ecclesiastes. Like Paul says he knows how to abound  and how to live in poverty though never lacking in anything. I travelled for 5 hours into one of most remote villages in Sabah and preached to one of the smallest tribes in Sabah, the Lundayehs. Then I returned to my home in KK, nothing fanciful but it is an abode that has produced three books and the fourth is forthcoming. GOD'S Name be praised.