And no premium for ease of setup and use either. I just bought a Mac Mini (Core Duo 1.66) and a 20" screen. I had been considering getting the Mac Mini and a ViewSonic screen I saw from Buy.com via DOTW. I saw the ViewSonic screen at Office Depot yesterday. It's plastic, flimsy, shakey and $500. The Apple screen has a solid metal case (so you can stick your iSight to it) and does not shake on the desk where it sits. The Mini benchmarks faster than a friend's HP he bought at Best Buy (with 15" flat screen) for $1000 a few weeks ago.

The other guys have all gotten on the price competition bandwagon, and the products are suffering. As Apple's marketshare gains what it's going to gain naturally over the next 6 months, more people will start to see what makes a Mac so nice and elegant on the outside and realize that the price difference, whether 10% or 30% justifies being cool. It's the ultimate iPod Halo effect -- by letting the competition cut corner after corner to compete on price, Apple sits back and collects from people who want nice looking, durable, easy products.

... stupid :p

I couldn't really care less what costs less, hell I'll even go with a flimsy piece of junk, if the software on one blows the software on the other straight to hell.

I'll tell you right now, I don't care what the quality of Apple's hardware is like (although it is nice) if I get to run the clear winner of the 'best OS of all time' award.

It's funny. I work in higher education. Everbody touts Dell as being the low price leader. Not always. Their higher ed prices actually sky rocket over retail prices! It's amazing. Unless you're buying in bulk and dealing with a rep, just using their education portal for your school really doesn't save you money. It costs more!

HP's prices are reasonably stable. Gateway is now pretty much non-existant. I'm surprised more "analysts" haven't noticed their $2 stock price. A bargain it ain't. It's probably a little more safe than a lawyer hunting with Dick Cheney, but not much.

So as for the "premium" you pay for a Mac? Those days are in the past. Car analogies are still very appropo in fact. Honda's = Dell. Gateway's = Yugo. HP = Ford. Alienware = Ferrari. Apple = BMW.

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Bosco wrote:
The other guys have all gotten on the price competition bandwagon, and the products are suffering. As Apple's marketshare gains what it's going to gain naturally over the next 6 months, more people will start to see what makes a Mac so nice and elegant on the outside and realize that the price difference, whether 10% or 30% justifies being cool. It's the ultimate iPod Halo effect -- by letting the competition cut corner after corner to compete on price, Apple sits back and collects from people who want nice looking, durable, easy products.

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Guest wrote:

I'll tell you right now, I don't care what the quality of Apple's hardware is like (although it is nice) if I get to run the clear winner of the 'best OS of all time' award.

HALO effect... no, no, OSMOSIS!... er, maybe it'll just happen by word of mouth. I don't know, that seems like a fairy tale we were told as children, not sure it works anymore but a lot of people would like to believe in it.

I'd like to see the pricing comparison for an out-of-the-box PC that allows me to edit and create HD content and music and then publish it to a polished website or create a fully menu-organized DVD.

*waits patiently*

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Biff wrote:
So as more people get Mac's, more people will know what Mac's are like? And then through some sort of effect, others will hear about how good Mac's are too? How will this effect work? Do you think it will involve words? Perhaps they will come out of mouths? I wonder if there is a common term for this?

For most home-computer users I know, it's not the sticker-price that swings them, but the credit/finance package on offer. If Apple really want to get sales moving they should either offer 3 years interest-free credit [like my local store is offering on HP gear] or a "lease-purchase" scheme where you put 1/3 of the price down as a deposit, pay the finance on 1/3 of the price over 3 years and at the end of that period either return the computer or pay off the remaining 1/3 as a cash buyout and keep the computer.

To use an auto-industry comparison - remember that GM's most profitable area for the last decade has been their finance/credit business!

Check out a PM Quad and a 2 * dual Core Xeon Dell Precision 470. Swedish webstores:

Dell Precision 470
2 dual core Xeon 2,8 GHz
2*1GB ECC SDRAM
250 GB SATA
16x DVD+-RW DL
Quadro FX 4500
20" widescreen Dell 2005FPW
SoundBlaster Xfi
WiFi
Windows XP Pro
3 years Business Support

Price SEK 58 690,50 ex VAT

Apple PowerMac Quad
2 dual Core G5 2,5 GHz
2 GB ECC SDRAM
250 GB SATA
16x SuperDrive DL
Airport Extreme + Bluetooth
Quadro FX 4500
20" Cinema Display
Mac OS X
Apple Protection Plan 3 years

Price SEK 53 556 ex VAT

Difference approx SEK 5 000 = 700 $.

"Car analogies are still very appropo in fact. Honda's = Dell. Gateway's = Yugo. HP = Ford. Alienware = Ferrari. Apple = BMW."

That being very generous to the non-macs. I would put it like this:

Dell = Hyundai. Gateway = Cheap Chinese-made car not yet available in US. HP = GM. Alienware = Corvette. Apple = BMW/Mercedes/Audi

Quote

Guest wrote:
"Car analogies are still very appropo in fact. Honda's = Dell. Gateway's = Yugo. HP = Ford. Alienware = Ferrari. Apple = BMW."

That being very generous to the non-macs. I would put it like this:

Dell = Hyundai. Gateway = Cheap Chinese-made car not yet available in US. HP = GM. Alienware = Corvette. Apple = BMW/Mercedes/Audi