Macs are a gigantic ripoff...

[Fingon]

I was over at a friend's house yesterday, and he spent half the time bragging about his new Mac pro. Never having researched the specs of the newer Macs, i was pretty much shocked by how little you get for such high of a price. He ended up spending $3000 for:

 

a Core I7 920 processor

3 GB DDR3 1066 MHz RAM

GeForce GT 120

640 GB Hard drive

and a sh------- stock motherboard

 

 

Anyone who buys a Mac is either too rich to care, or an idiot.

 

I built my current computer for $1300 (already had the case, monitor, and DVD burner)

 

Core I7 920

12 GB DDR3 1600 MHz

2x GeForce GTX 260s

1.5 TB Hard drive

Gigabyte UD4P X58 Motherboard

650w Corsair power supply

 

And 64 bit Windows 7 RC for my OS.

 

 

The kind of prices these idiots will pay are absolutely outrageous. You are paying thousands of dollars just for the little apple on your case.

[SDS]

enjoy your new machine.

[Corp000085]

I love my macbook pro. I realize that its marked up, but this laptop is second to none.

[Dan]

I couldn't find the original article, but its somewhere on the iSuppli site. About a week ago they had an article listing the cost to produce various computers, game station, and phones. None of them had 300% markups. The margins were actually quite small. Most all the gaming Xbox things are sold at a loss because they're trying to get people hooked on their game platform. Thne they make their money on the games and other peripherals. Pretty interesting when you think about it.

[Fingon]

I couldn't find the original article, but its somewhere on the iSuppli site. About a week ago they had an article listing the cost to produce various computers, game station, and phones. None of them had 300% markups. The margins were actually quite small. Most all the gaming Xbox things are sold at a loss because they're trying to get people hooked on their game platform. Thne they make their money on the games and other peripherals. Pretty interesting when you think about it.

10 minutes on newegg.com, and i was able to almost exactly replicate the Mac specs above. Want to know how much it was?

 

$720.93

 

 

That's 25% of the cost of the Mac.

[Peevo]

Anything Apple does is going to be expensive. Their market isn't targeting the average computer user. While the markup on their products is steep, you're paying for top craftsmanship, performance and longevity. OS X simply runs much more efficiently than Windows. You can read the reviews on cnet.com Photoshop, Final Cut, Pro Tools all run much faster and with less CPU clock than a Windows PC running the same program. Leopard is super stable, has a load of simple, brilliant features and really changes how I look at computers. Windows requires you to take so many steps to accomplish a task, when on OS its all simple, point, click, and drag. Hot corners and spaces make navigating through windows and different programs super easy.

 

Most of its clientele are involved in digital media production or editing of some sort. Any sort of photo, video, or music editing, web design, graphic design, etc is simply the best on Mac OS X. If you're not gonna do that sort of thing, its a lot of money to spend to send email, write documents and blog/facebook and what not. Is their attitude slightly pretentious? Probably. I love my macbook and it has given me not 1 problem since I bought it last year in April. No headaches, slow load times, viruses or spyware of any kind. That's what you pay for. I have no patience for XP or Vista anymore, I can't stand clicking "Start" and waiting for the menu to pop up.

[blzrul]

You pay for the brand. You know how FEW ODMs there are? Not even a handful - they make computers for all the major OEMs. (Same with iPhone etc). Engineering at the EOM makes a difference but...the ODM doesn't run one "junk" line for one vendor and one "good" one for Apple. It just doesn't work that way.

 

If people are happy with their Macs - great. But you shouldn't really kid yourselves about "superior" technology. It's the same. The combination of features, a few cutesy touches, plus the advertising, is the difference.

[BillsWatch]

Sounds like Fingon would put ketchup on Filet Migon. The piece of crap OS Microsoft produces is the difference. There is no sense purchasing a top of line box and put Microsoft on it. And "almost" is relative.

 

I have Microsoft on my boxes yeah but they are under $500 including Microsoft and all of the crap you have to remove. Only ones I have spent more is on the laptops and in that case you can not get the hardware independently.

[Fingon]

Sounds like Fingon would put ketchup on Filet Migon. The piece of crap OS Microsoft produces is the difference. There is no sense purchasing a top of line box and put Microsoft on it. And "almost" is relative.

 

I have Microsoft on my boxes yeah but they are under $500 including Microsoft and all of the crap you have to remove. Only ones I have spent more is on the laptops and in that case you can not get the hardware independently.

Are you really that uninformed? It's a gaming rig, and last time i checked, there were very few for OS X. Windows 7 is an awesome OS, and the previews have the new apple OS and windows 7 about equal.

[Dan]

Edit to my original post: Here's a synopsis of the article I was initially referring to.

 

These prices, unless I'm mistaken, just take into account cost of the parts. Not software, marketing, development, etc. I thought it was interesting just because I would have assumed the margin on electronics would be much higher than what these guys claim it to be.

 

I'm not arguing that Macs or better than PCs or vice versa. My point is that the idea that Macs are marked up 300% (more or less) is false. I'm sure you can price a machine with the basic components as a Mac for next to nothing, but I'd wager you're forgetting all the extras - firewire, gigbit ethernet, weight, battery length, software, etc.

[Fingon]

Anything Apple does is going to be expensive. Their market isn't targeting the average computer user. While the markup on their products is steep, you're paying for top craftsmanship, performance and longevity. OS X simply runs much more efficiently than Windows. You can read the reviews on cnet.com Photoshop, Final Cut, Pro Tools all run much faster and with less CPU clock than a Windows PC running the same program. Leopard is super stable, has a load of simple, brilliant features and really changes how I look at computers. Windows requires you to take so many steps to accomplish a task, when on OS its all simple, point, click, and drag. Hot corners and spaces make navigating through windows and different programs super easy.

 

Most of its clientele are involved in digital media production or editing of some sort. Any sort of photo, video, or music editing, web design, graphic design, etc is simply the best on Mac OS X. If you're not gonna do that sort of thing, its a lot of money to spend to send email, write documents and blog/facebook and what not. Is their attitude slightly pretentious? Probably. I love my macbook and it has given me not 1 problem since I bought it last year in April. No headaches, slow load times, viruses or spyware of any kind. That's what you pay for. I have no patience for XP or Vista anymore, I can't stand clicking "Start" and waiting for the menu to pop up.

It sounds like you need to learn to use a computer. I've had 1 or 2 viruses on my computers in over 15 years.

 

from gizmodo:

Overall Snap Crack and Pop

Both Windows 7 and Snow Leopard are designed to be faster, leaner, stronger and more stable than the OSes they're building on. Windows 7 is markedly more responsive, and you simply feel like you're more in control. We'll have to see with Snow Leopard, but if it lives up to Apple's promises, we're definitely looking forward to the performance prowess.

 

There' s a whole lot that goes into deciding whether you're a Mac or PC, but whatever one you pick, you definitely won't go wrong upgrading your OS this fall.

http://gizmodo.com/5285452/os-x-snow-leopa...final-countdown

 

 

You get the EXACT SAME hardware that you get in a PC. Don't give me the crap about "superior craftsmanship".

[/dev/null]

If people are happy with their Macs - great. But you shouldn't really kid yourselves about "superior" technology. It's the same. The combination of features, a few cutesy touches, plus the advertising, is the difference.

 

Don't forget that false sense of security

[Fingon]

Edit to my original post: Here's a synopsis of the article I was initially referring to.

 

These prices, unless I'm mistaken, just take into account cost of the parts. Not software, marketing, development, etc. I thought it was interesting just because I would have assumed the margin on electronics would be much higher than what these guys claim it to be.

 

I'm not arguing that Macs or better than PCs or vice versa. My point is that the idea that Macs are marked up 300% (more or less) is false. I'm sure you can price a machine with the basic components as a Mac for next to nothing, but I'd wager you're forgetting all the extras - firewire, gigbit ethernet, weight, battery length, software, etc.

What software do you want? 90% of it is free. You have to pay a very large amount of money to get Apple's bloatware. Anyways you really don't know what you are talking about. A GeForce 9500 GT does not weigh less in a Mac, and most decent motherboards have most of the rest already built in.

 

 

I can build any Apple computer for 1/3 the price they are going to sell it to you for. That cannot be debated.

[Fingon]

I think the best way of putting it would be to say:

 

Apple= Monster Cable

[Dan]

What software do you want? 90% of it is free. You have to pay a very large amount of money to get Apple's bloatware. Anyways you really don't know what you are talking about. A GeForce 9500 GT does not weigh less in a Mac, and most decent motherboards have most of the rest already built in.

 

 

I can build any Apple computer for 1/3 the price they are going to sell it to you for. That cannot be debated.

Of course.

[Live&DieBillsFootball]

Edit to my original post: Here's a synopsis of the article I was initially referring to.

 

These prices, unless I'm mistaken, just take into account cost of the parts. Not software, marketing, development, etc. I thought it was interesting just because I would have assumed the margin on electronics would be much higher than what these guys claim it to be.

 

I'm not arguing that Macs or better than PCs or vice versa. My point is that the idea that Macs are marked up 300% (more or less) is false. I'm sure you can price a machine with the basic components as a Mac for next to nothing, but I'd wager you're forgetting all the extras - firewire, gigbit ethernet, weight, battery length, software, etc.

 

The article you quote is comparing the cost of components in Jan 2006. That's like a century ago in terms of technology.

 

Intel macs and intel pcs have the same hardware inside. How can you justify spending the extra $1000 on an operating system and a fancy keyboard and mouse?

[Wacka]

Want to play games, buy a Wii. Want to do work, buy a Mac.

[Lv-Bills]

I think the best way of putting it would be to say:

 

Apple= Monster Cable

LMAO............nice!

 

Wow, so simple, yet says it all.

 

[Dan]

The article you quote is comparing the cost of components in Jan 2006. That's like a century ago in terms of technology.

 

Intel macs and intel pcs have the same hardware inside. How can you justify spending the extra $1000 on an operating system and a fancy keyboard and mouse?

Again, the point of my post was not to say that Macs are better or that they're not over priced. My point was that there does not appear to be a 300% markup on Macs (nor any other of the items iSuppli looked at). Yes, the iMac teradown was dated 2006, but just as the price of components has changed, so has the configuration of the computers, as well as Apple's price. I would assume that their markup is similar on a computer sold today.

 

And, yes, none of these numbers are for a MacBook Pro. However, it would seem odd that all these items have relatively small margins and the MacBook Pro is triple marked up. Maybe it is, but I doubt it.

 

If you think you think you can go on Newegg and buy a computer just as good as a MacBook Pro for 1/3 the price, go for it. I'm sure you'll get exactly what you wanted. However, if you want a computer with all the details of a MacBook Pro, you'll pay quite a bit more than $800 - whether its a mac or a PC equivalent.

[BringMetheHeadofLeonLett]

I work on both every day. Apple has always had a better conceived operating system- from a user standpoint. The Mac is exponentially more reliable, and frankly a more elegant interface. Over the course of their lifetimes, the Macs will probably come out costing a few cents more an hour. Also, I was starting to develop carpal tunnel from working on PC's so much- I have still never found a PC mouse that works for me. Now that I'm back primarily on Macs, the condition has actually reversed to the point where it's a non-issue.

 

No brainer- The Macintosh is far superior and well worth the extra money.

 

My only complaint is the lack of separators on the F-key portion of the MacPro keyboard. All my keys are mapped and I find I have to look down at the keyboard too much, as they're not split into groups of 4.