Columnist: The Secret Behind Mac and PC Price Comparisons
Columnist: The Secret Behind Mac and PC Price Comparisons
by , 1:15 PM EDT, June 8th, 2007
For as long as PCs and Macs have existed, people have debated whether PC prices are lower. The promise of the Intel Macs was that all that would finally be put to rest, and it has been, but a key wrinkle remains, according to Computerworld on Friday.
Scot Finnie, who recently moved from PCs to a Mac, set out to do the best price comparison possible on similarly capable PCs and Macs. What he found was that, "If you start with Apple's relatively short list of SKUs ... and then look for comparable Windows machines, you'll find that Apple bests the competition in some ways and not in others, but the pricing overall is surprisingly on par."
Indeed, it has been possible in the past to buy very low end PCs, but if one restricts the search to name brand models [from HP and Dell], that's just no longer true. What is true is that Apple's simpler product line leaves some holes, while PCs tend to have a model and price for every need. Filling those holes creates prices points that can be found both below and above similar Macs.
"The key to the perception that Macs are more expensive is that Apple offers very few in-between models," Mr. Finnie wrote. The author looked at and researched a significant number of systems from Sony, Dell, HP and Apple to back up that assertion.
The author concluded, "When you configure low-end and midrange notebooks and desktops, you'll find that except at the very bottom of the heap, Windows machines are roughly comparable in price to Macs. There are fewer Mac models, so if your needs vary from what Apple has decided on, you may find a Windows model that costs less for you. But Apple's choices make a lot of sense for most people, and when you do the point-by-point comparison, Apple is actually a better value for some needs."
This reporter notes that, in the past, IT managers dedicated to the idea of buying a PC when a Mac would do, have exploited that interpolation effect to always find a PC just a little less capable and a little less expensive in order to justify its purchase. While this PC industry practice will probably continue forever, and helps perpetuate the myth, Apple's coarser product matrix may be a contributer to higher gross margins.
That's probably hard for Apple to pass up, even if it does introduce a slight penalty competing in the enterprise. It also makes selecting a Mac a lot easier for those overloaded with the minutiae of specifications.
Observer Comments
1. Sure there are cheaper M$ systems, initial costs, but over all a mac will last longer and there are sources for economical repairs, unlike M$ systems.
2. Macs require less resources, due to better coding, so a mac will be have a longer service life.
3. The latest OS can run on a very old machine.
QuoteTHATS CAN BE A VERY OLD MACHINE IN COMPUTER TERMS. LETS SEE YOU GET VISTA TO RUN ON A MACHINE TWO YEARS OLD, OR EVEN TWO MONTHS.Requirements for tiger(As of 6-8-07 10.50am Pacific)
A PowerPC G3, G4 or G5 processor
Built-in FireWire
DVD drive for installation
256MB of RAM
3GB of available hard disk space (4GB if you?install the developer tools
In the long run A mac will last longer, run cheaper, and cost less in Aspririn, and maybe you wont need the daily aspirin for your blood pressure nor the cardiac surgean.
QuoteGuest wrote:
THATS CAN BE A VERY OLD MACHINE IN COMPUTER TERMS. LETS SEE YOU GET VISTA TO RUN ON A MACHINE TWO YEARS OLD, OR EVEN TWO MONTHS.
In the long run A mac will last longer, run cheaper, and cost less in Aspririn, and maybe you wont need the daily aspirin for your blood pressure nor the cardiac surgean.
Actually, I have had Vista running since the betas came out (and recently upgraded to rel) on my computer that I bought in 2002. And, no I don't need to see a cardiac surgeon.
Macs are a better value. Better quality, last and work longer and you get everything you need included when you buy the hardware. You will not find a Mac without an ethernet connection for instance. All the software is standard. There are no Macs sold today without the same software even the Mac Mini.
Fri Jun 08, 2007 7:02 pm Subject: Re: Macs are a better value
QuoteAnonymous wrote:
Macs are a better value. Better quality, last and work longer and you get everything you need included when you buy the hardware. You will not find a Mac without an ethernet connection for instance. All the software is standard. There are no Macs sold today without the same software even the Mac Mini.
You won't find many Windows PCs (other than real cheapies) sold without Ethernet, either.
As for software, there are differences among Macs. All have iLife plus trials of iWork & MS Office. All but the Mac Pro have Front Row. Those with built-in iSight cameras (MacBook, iMac, MacBook Pro) have Photo Booth. The iMac & MacPro come with OmniOutliner & Comic Life, the MacBook Pro with OmniOutliner, and trials of Filemaker Pro and Aperture.
Gone are the days when the consumer Macs each had a significant game or two (often from Pangea) and Quicken and the PowerBooks had QuickBooks. I'm still using the QuickBooks that came with my 12-in PowerBook G4. I got Bugdom, Otto Matic, Nanosaur, Cro-Magnon Rally, Chess, Art Director's Toolkit, and Marble Blast with various Macs (Late 2001 iBook, 15-inch and 20-inch iMac G4, 12-inch PowerBook).
Sure that is possible, but the comparison is still not the same because if your being honest you cannot run the souped up version of Vista on that machine (with all the effects) unless either 1) you added a non-standard graphics card and tons of RAM, or 2) you bought a very high end model. There is only one version of Mac OSX, and it runs efficiently on Macs dating back over seven years.
For instance, right now my main Mac is a Dual 500 G4 tower that is six years old and the only thing I upgraded was the RAM (to 500MB). I am running Tiger on it, and I occasionally use programs like Photoshop. There is no way you can run the fancy version of Vista on a six year old Windows box without serious modifactions. Moreover, until recently my stepdad was running OSX on a second edition iMac. The performance was fine for wordprocessing and email, which is all he used it for.
QuoteGuest wrote:
Actually, I have had Vista running since the betas came out (and recently upgraded to rel) on my computer that I bought in 2002. And, no I don't need to see a cardiac surgeon.
I love my Macs, and your comments holds true for most. However, don't ask me about my G3 iBook that just lost its third logic board.
QuoteGuest wrote:
Macs are a better value. Better quality, last and work longer and you get everything you need included when you buy the hardware. You will not find a Mac without an ethernet connection for instance. All the software is standard. There are no Macs sold today without the same software even the Mac Mini.
QuoteTerrin wrote:
Sure that is possible, but the comparison is still not the same because if your being honest you cannot run the souped up version of Vista on that machine (with all the effects) unless either 1) you added a non-standard graphics card and tons of RAM, or 2) you bought a very high end model. There is only one version of Mac OSX, and it runs efficiently on Macs dating back over seven years.
For instance, right now my main Mac is a Dual 500 G4 tower that is six years old and the only thing I upgraded was the RAM (to 500MB). I am running Tiger on it, and I occasionally use programs like Photoshop. There is no way you can run the fancy version of Vista on a six year old Windows box without serious modifactions. Moreover, until recently my stepdad was running OSX on a second edition iMac. The performance was fine for wordprocessing and email, which is all he used it for.
QuoteGuest wrote:
Actually, I have had Vista running since the betas came out (and recently upgraded to rel) on my computer that I bought in 2002. And, no I don't need to see a cardiac surgeon.
I'll do you one better...
I have a couple of macs and one of them I bought new when it was first released. G3 300 B&W. I can't remember the date though.
I agree, his pc must be souped up some or a lot. Macs that go far back as my mine can still run the latest tiger os with factory specs. I'm curious to what he's running.
QuoteGuest wrote:
Macs are a better value. Better quality, last and work longer and you get everything you need included when you buy the hardware. You will not find a Mac without an ethernet connection for instance.
Those "facts" are a bit outdated. No ethernet? In this century?
PC prices are so low now they can almost be viewed as disposable. A Core2 notebook for $5-600 isn't hard to come by so is "better value" and "last longer" even relevent anymore when you can annually update and still pay less for better specs?
Here's my Macbook vs my wifes annual notebook replacement
Macbook Jul06: CoreDuo/512/80gb
$1500 My Macbook
+120 1GB Ram upgrade
+130 120GB HDD upgrade
TOTAL: $1750
HP Notebook Jan06: Centrino/512/60GB
$650 Best Buy sale (Now a media center in bedroom)
Dell Notebook May07: Core2Duo/1GB/160GB
$600 Dell w/online coupon
TOTAL: $1250
So clearly there is some incredible value in being cheap. Start looking long term and next year she'll upgrade and spend $1800 in 3 years and I'll upgrade and spend somewhere over $3000.
One can buy cheap shoes at payless or somewhere similar, but shouldn't. Spend more money on average and they are more comfortable over the lifetime of the shoe, spend less and have more variety but less comfort. Same cost but I like the one where My feet are more comfortable throughout.
Things do break, everything breaks, some for no foreseeable reason, but overall Apple has always produced better hardware, and support. I really hope they just come out with an excellent unlimited online backup, for a reasonable price. That will make .mac worth it.
QuoteGuest wrote:
One can buy cheap shoes at payless or somewhere similar, but shouldn't. Spend more money on average and they are more comfortable over the lifetime of the shoe, spend less and have more variety but less comfort. Same cost but I like the one where My feet are more comfortable throughout.
Things do break, everything breaks, some for no foreseeable reason, but overall Apple has always produced better hardware, and support. I really hope they just come out with an excellent unlimited online backup, for a reasonable price. That will make .mac worth it.
Good analogy, for many people, the payless shoes are comfortable, even more comfortable than the expensive shoes you paid a premium to have some corporate logo on the side of. Sometimes the cheaper product is also the better product. Many people just don't like Macs, and find other products to be better for them. As they say... walk a mile in another man's shoes.
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