At least it’s cheaper than an iPhone.
Apple is now selling a “Polishing Cloth” for $19 — even though similar products go for $1 elsewhere online.
The costly cloth, which the company says should be used to polish displays on its products, was quietly posted on Apple’s online store on Monday alongside the company’s new slate of MacBook Pro laptops and AirPods earbuds.
“Made with soft, nonabrasive material, the Polishing Cloth cleans any Apple display, including nano-texture glass, safely and effectively,” reads the listing for the white piece of cloth, which comes emblazoned with the Apple logo.
This is the first time Apple has sold a polishing cloth independently, but a similar cloth has shipped alongside the “nano-texture glass” edition of Apple’s Pro Display XDR computer monitor, which goes for a cool $5,999, since 2019.
That means customers who are thinking about buying the $19 cloth have the option to throw in a high-end computer screen for an extra $5,980.
For more budget-conscious customers, there are other options. Amazon sells a variety of similar microfiber cloths designed for electronics for less than $1 each.
On Twitter, users poked fun at Apple’s ritzy rag.
“I hate that I want the Apple microfiber cloth just because it’s made by Apple. Dammit,” said Joe Rossignol, a writer at the Apple news site MacRumors.
Another Twitter user wondered if the cloth would work with other electronics, asking, “It is compatible with Android devices?”
The company says its $19 cloth is made out of a “soft, nonabrasive material” but does not specify what material, so it’s unclear if there’s anything to differentiate it from cheaper options.
Apple did not immediately reply to a request for comment on what makes its cloth so special.
