Why your Apple computers are so expensive?

[Barfo]

I use apple computers because OSX is Unix and there are are simply no dell/hp/whatever laptops on the market with the same features and linux. There are quite a few features on osx laptops that simply are worth the few hundred more I'd pay over a similarly equipped dell. Hell I'd pay 200.00 extra just to get the apple trackpad on a dell laptop.

So for me, the reason I switched from building my own computers to apple is pretty easy to outline.

1) OSX is Unix. Building a computer for linux was wrought with minor issues. By switching to OSX I am now working with my computer instead of working on my computer. I can use all my old favorite linux tools, plus a ton of really awesome osx tools.

2) Hardware features such as the trackpad, keyboard, unibody design (it's much thinner then my dells), better screen quality, etc.

3) More gaming then on linux (I'm no longer a gamer, but I do like to game now and then, OSX has a good lineup of games to fill that gap + all of wine. So I get all my linux gaming and then some.)

4) Better tools - honestly, I'm not sure how I got work done without textmate, coda, xcode, etc. I'm just more productive.

5) Consistant UI feel - In most cases (screw you itunes 10) software for OSX is more consistent in design. This is a huge problem on linux.

6) Microsoft Office - my job requires me now and then (as much as I hate it) to work with office documents. MS office exists for OSX and that prevents any compatibility problems like i used to have with open office and linux.

7) Really nice built in applications. I have to say that I really enjoy using tools like iPhoto, Xcode, iChat, safari, terminal.app, iMovie, hell even itunes.

8) More commercial software choices. As much as I love free software, finding good high quality commercial software to fill those gaps was hard with linux.

9) VMWare fusion - why is this product so much better than VMware workstation?

10) Finally, the desktop just works better in my opinion. I have less overall complaints and problems with osx.

I was very worried about making the switch. I thought it was a scam, my wife thought it was a horrible idea and everyone I knew said it was a stupid idea. Fast foward a few years. We all have macs.

*than

 

[Platypus]

They cost so much because all the foxconn employees keep killing themselves and there are less slave labor hands to make them for you.

 

[schneiderguy]

lol. What a stupid question. Apple computers are works of art, and priced accordingly. I remember once I had put my Unibody Macbook Pro down in class for a few minutes, and when I came back someone had dumped several huge piles of shit right next to it. I was furious, but then I realized that it wasn't a pile of shit; it was just a Dell, an HP, and a Lenovo, which belonged to some of the less fortunate students. I pitied them, but I still moved to the other side of class where the rest of the Macbooks where.

lol. Your precious "work of art" is made in China. By Chinese people. lol.

 

[TuxDave]

lol. Your precious "work of art" is made in China. By Chinese people. lol.

Are you saying that the Chinese have no art?

 

[nerp]

I use a macbook pro because my employer sent it to me as my work machine.

I bought an iMac because my wife has been begging me for one and it made sense for a small home office on the second floor of my house. One wire and we have a solution. (I will admit I have a Unicomp Model M keyboard tucked in the sliding keyboard tray.) The 27 inch screen is fantastic, I must say. I wasn't worried too much about price when I bought it due in part to my employee discount at the Apple store and a feeling of entitlement because I got the new job recently, which is Mac-centric.

I have a good PC mid-tower in the living room for gaming, Thinkpad, an MCE box with a tv-tuner hooked up with remote, the works, a WHS box with lots of space as the brain of my media empire. . . the iMac suited the role for the home office the same way all my Windows machines do a great job in their roles. It's a very space efficient machine, very minimalist but more than powerful enough for what we'll use it for -- e-mail, writing, web, photo editing, skyping/iChat with family and watching DVDs on occasion. Sure, I could have saved a bundle with a cheaper PC solution, but it's not always about the money.

OSX is pretty cool too.

 

[Martin]

When I brought mine, I priced it against the nicer Lenovos and Dells and it cost the same.

 

[DivideBYZero]

Why is a Tag Heuer $1200, it's just a watch?
Why is an Aston Martin $150,000, it's just a car?
Why is 1 bedroom apartment in London $1m, it's just a place to live?

 

[Ns1]

lol. What a stupid question. Apple computers are works of art, and priced accordingly. I remember once i had put my unibody macbook pro down in class for a few minutes, and when i came back someone had dumped several huge piles of shit right next to it. I was furious, but then i realized that it wasn't a pile of shit; it was just a dell, an hp, and a lenovo, which belonged to some of the less fortunate students. I pitied them, but i still moved to the other side of class where the rest of the macbooks where.

lol

 

[Nik]

I was in the store offered a laptop Apple, but it turned out that he was 2 times more expensive, but there are a number of other computers that have the same processor and hard drive, they are the same. Why Apple is much more expensive?

Because there are really dumb people who run out and buy anything with an Apple logo on it, regardless of the price.

Then, they run right back out 6 months later and buy the new version (ooh, with a digicam built in!) for the same price or more than they bought the old version 6 months prior, and Apple just sits behind their solid gold desks and laugh their way all the way to the bank.

People are stupid, that's why Apple products are so expensive.

 

[MrX8503]

The MBP 13" line isn't too bad cost wise, which is why I got one. To me, I liked the construction of the aluminum and its slim profile. There was just a lot of little things about it that I liked that added up. Even the lid hinge I like better than any other laptop. I hate it when you you lift the laptop lid and the base comes up with it.

 

[TheStu]

It is kind of weird, since Apple pricing stays fairly static (the 13" Pro threw a slight wrench into the works) and if anything has gone down over the years (When I got my MacBook back in '06, the MBP 15 was $2000 base, it is now $1800 base I think), but the specs change. And there are times, usually right at the time of refresh where they are the best deal on the block, and sometimes the only place to get something. They were the first with the 8600m and Santa Rosa I think, and held that for a couple of months.

There are also lots of little features:
1: Glass trackpad (and before the ignorant can say anything, it does click, the whole thing is hinged at the top, and you can flip a software setting that allows the bottom right click to be a right click) with multi-touch. The, hands down, best trackpad in the industry. It is spacious, will basically never wear down or get shiny, feels great to use, is sensitive and responsive, is automatically disabled when you start to type and is just amazing to use (especially when compared to any other trackpad out there)
2: Long battery life without extra battery packs, and with a full powered system. Regardless of whether you think they could have crammed a Core i7 Quad into the MBP 13, the fact is that the Core 2 Duo that is in there is still faster and better than the ULV chips in other laptops with 10 hour batteries.
3: Backlit keyboards on the Pro lines.
4: MagSafe connector.
5: Sudden Motion Sensors in all the laptops.
6: Ability to dual boot anything, legally.
7: The VM software on OS X is incredible. They are easy to use, good looking, fast, stable, and are pushing what they can do (3D graphics, gaming support, use your bootcamp partition as a VM so you don't have to waste HDD space, or reboot to make changes)
8: Apple retail presence. They have a store in almost every state, often more than one. If something goes wrong, you can take it to an actual human to have it be diagnosed. They can either fix it there, or send it out from there, and it can either be shipped to you or you can pick it up from there.

Are they more expensive than their PC counterparts? Most of the time yes.
Is it by a lot? If you happen to want everything that the Mac has namely, WirelessN, Gigabit LAN (not all laptops have this yet, but almost), BT, backlit keyboard and whatnot then usually not by much, and sometimes are darn near on parity. If you can get by with fewer features, then you can save a lot going with a PC.

Is it the only legit way to run OS X? Yes. So if you want that, then you should buy a Mac.

 

[Fingolfin269]

Because there are really dumb people who run out and buy anything with an Apple logo on it, regardless of the price.

Then, they run right back out 6 months later and buy the new version (ooh, with a digicam built in!) for the same price or more than they bought the old version 6 months prior, and Apple just sits behind their solid gold desks and laugh their way all the way to the bank.

People are stupid, that's why Apple products are so expensive.

You seem like a good candidate to help me with the challenge I laid out earlier. Which laptop should I buy next to compare to the 13" MBP I bought a few months ago for curiosity purposes? I paid around $1000 for it and it is the current gen version MBP. I'm sure that whatever option you provide will prove once and for all the stupidity of my experiment, and that is okay, because I will have no problem selling this puppy on CL for close to what I paid.

 

[MrX8503]

1: Glass trackpad (and before the ignorant can say anything, it does click, the whole thing is hinged at the top, and you can flip a software setting that allows the bottom right click to be a right click) with multi-touch. The, hands down, best trackpad in the industry. It is spacious, will basically never wear down or get shiny, feels great to use, is sensitive and responsive, is automatically disabled when you start to type and is just amazing to use (especially when compared to any other trackpad out there)

This is another "little" thing that adds up to my list of why I got the 13" MBP. The trackpad on it is amazing. Its weird because I thought the previous gen MBPs had a horrible track pad, but this new glass design is a step above the rest.

Because of the glass, the trackpad is smooth, which cuts down on friction when sliding your finger. Throw in multitouch for good measure you and got a rocking trackpad.

 

[Nik]

You seem like a good candidate to help me with the challenge I laid out earlier. Which laptop should I buy next to compare to the 13" MBP I bought a few months ago for curiosity purposes? I paid around $1000 for it and it is the current gen version MBP. I'm sure that whatever option you provide will prove once and for all the stupidity of my experiment, and that is okay, because I will have no problem selling this puppy on CL for close to what I paid.

You paid a thousand dollars for a 13" laptop.

Good god.

I'm not even going to bother taking your retarded bait.

 

[Ns1]

You paid a thousand dollars for a 13" laptop.

Good god.

I'm not even going to bother taking your retarded bait.

You know, some of us picked 13" laptops deliberately because we didn't want to carry a 15" beast around with us.

 

[Nik]

Two inches is enough to make people cry uncle?

I like how some of the Mac users in here judge their laptop not on utility but on silly things like the fucking screen hinges.

 

[Ns1]

Two inches is enough to make people cry uncle?

I like how some of the Mac users in here judge their laptop not on utility but on silly things like the fucking screen hinges.

Weight = mobility = utility in my book

 

[Nik]

Weight = mobility = utility in my book

The 13" starts at $1200. The 15" starts at $1700. The 17" starts at TWO THOUSAND TWO HUNDRED.

You people are fucking insane.

The 13" is 4.5lbs. The 15" is 5.6lbs. Really? 1.1lbs will kill you or something? 5.6lbs is somehow not mobile?

 

[Ns1]

The 13" starts at $1200. The 15" starts at $1700. The 17" starts at TWO THOUSAND TWO HUNDRED.

You people are fucking insane.

The 13" is 4.5lbs. The 15" is 5.6lbs. Really? 1.1lbs will kill you or something?

I waited until Apple released the new model and got the last gen at a 25% discount or something.

Not a big deal to you but a big deal to me, more so then say, a standalone video card.

 

[highland145]

Two inches is enough to make people cry uncle?

She did when I said,"Just 2 more and the fun starts."

 

[Fingolfin269]

You paid a thousand dollars for a 13" laptop.

Good god.

I'm not even going to bother taking your retarded bait.

Ah so instead of finding something comparable to support your argument you resort to flaming. Please contnue to troll.

 

[zinfamous]

Aesthetics are purely subjective, but I can still argue this point easily. You can get a PC in any configuration you want, including the ones Apple uses. If you get an Apple, you have no choices. This means PC wins hands down with options for aesthetics. Build quality isn't even worth talking about.

you really don't know anything about the consumer market, do you?

Apple obviously does, and their profits show it.

 

[zinfamous]

Why isn't it worth talking about? The build quality on Apple laptops is peerless - why wouldn't you discuss this?



Apple's sales of PCs and their market share is growing steadily, showing that there's still plenty of morons out there.

I don't get you guys - it's so easy to hate on Apple gear legitimately, I don't know why you have to be illegitimate about it. There are some things they do well, but on balance their gear is overpriced, underspecced garbage. That's all you need to say.

haha. i love how you've been forced to play devil's advocate and argue for Apple in this thread.

:thumbsup:

 

[zinfamous]

LOL, they will all be ace reporters.

The irony is that there aren't ~200 journalism jobs available in the open market today..or so it seems.

98% of them will become "professional" bloggers.

 

[cheezy321]

Blind hate for apple is hilarious.

Its even more hilarious when the assclowns from New Zealand also have the blind hate.