Got a lot of visits today on my last post (over 200 today, which is pretty good traffic for this blog). Here's an interesting comment, and my response. I guess I should clarify even more though -- there's a lot you can TRY to quantify about why Macs are "a better value" -- but I'm talking really about price. Pure, easily quantifiable $$$$$$. Sure, your frustration with Vista may equate to money -- but that's hard to quantify. That's value, not price. You can't say that the price for ground beef and steak is "a wash" because steak is so much better. It IS more expensive.
Blad_Rnr said...
I agree with the premise of the article, but you repeatedly say Macs are more expensive. I think you are generally wrong.
When compared to what you get on a Mac (Firewire, the iLife suite, Unix security, no AV software needed to subscribe to, ability to run multiple OSes, etc.) the price is not a representation of what you would typically get on a Windows PC. Yes, when you compare a $1099 MacBook to a $699 Inspiron, it appears more expensive. But if you equip the Dell with what the MacBook has, it is pretty much a wash. Numerous comparisons have been done to show the gap is very small and sometimes favors the Mac.
I do agree that MSFT is out of touch with consumers. They have failed miserably in the consumer market, i.e. they lose money on everything they make (Xbox, MSN, Zune, etc.). They are not hip anymore and they just don't get it. $399 for an OS that is a resource hog and requires 2-3 times the processing power when compared to a four-year-old Mac that can run Leopard, it's no wonder they are failing with Vista as well.
Cheers.
9:32 AM, December 07, 2007
James said...
Ah, perhaps I should clarify then: I've read the articles that show a Mac as about as expensive as a similar Dell -- but they really don't take into account the frequent sales. There are frequent sales on Vista machines, so if you're a smart shopper you can really get stuff at a great price. Also, some additions (like RAM) can be bought far cheaper on your own.
To illustrate, I have a friend who just got a dual core laptop with 2.5Gb RAM for under $500. That's about half the price of a basic model macbook, AND has more than twice as much RAM.
If you want a decent video card, price rises very quickly. A Dell XPS with a 8600GT in it is $1500 -- a MacBook Pro with that same card is $2000, and has a smaller hard drive. That's NORMAL price for the Dell -- I'm sure sales can bring that down. In fact, you can't get leading edge consumer video cards at all on a Mac, even on the top of the line models.
Lets not even consider crazy coupon codes and rebates, and just take a look at some desktop models to drive home the point.
You can get a 20" imac with a midrange graphics card -- OR a dell with a 20" monitor, three times the ram, nearly the fastest consumer video card out there, and quad instead of dual core . That Dell also includes Office BTW, so don't say that it doesn't have the same software!
http://www.dell.com/content/products/productdetails.aspx/xpsdt_420?c=us&cs=19&l=en&s=dhs&~tab=bundlestab
No shopping around, and I've found yet another example of how Macs really are more expensive!
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