Why your Apple computers are so expensive?

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cheezy321

Diamond Member
Dec 31, 2003
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I carry a shoulder strap laptop case with zipper pockets for charger and other electronic goodies. When finished they go back into the case. As a matter of fact my mind is trained where if the laptop is out and not in use "it dosen't feel right" unless it's back in the case. I guess the only argument against my logic is if you are in the middle of a grassy area/woods public area where there is absolutley no electrical outlet within a practicle reach. Then in that case you should go somewhere else or you have high expectations of current battery technology.

When I bring my laptop out to the family room to use during a football / baseketball game, I want it to last for the entire game.

Some people dont want to carry around an adapter everywhere they go. Some people actually believe in the fact that *gasp* a laptop should be portable!
 

bfdd

Lifer
Feb 3, 2007
13,312
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Haha. Well it depends what you call fanboy. I'm not trying to hide anything, I like my Mac more.

Just trying to point out that most people who hate either have no clue what they are talking about.

Edit: And what incorrect arguments did I use?

I'm not a fan of Apple by any means and most people would probably classify me as a hater, but I've had the opportunity to use a lot of Apple hardware and software and I just don't get the hubbub. I don't find anything particularly special with Apple products outside of them being marketed as such. Paying a premium to be in a niche market with far less support than cheaper competitors(strictly talking about their computers here, not the iPod and such) seems like a bad "investment". I've never really been fond of buying gadgets for myself so I don't own an MP3 player, but I've had enough hands on experience with the iPod and it's competitors to know I wouldn't buy an iPod. Especially since I'd HAVE to use iTunes or void my warranty. Apple just isn't for me.
 

Ns1

No Lifer
Jun 17, 2001
55,420
1,600
126
Paying a premium to be in a niche market with far less support than cheaper competitors

Problem with apple = walk into apple store
Problem with dell = call india helpdesk and wait for RMA boxes
 

cheezy321

Diamond Member
Dec 31, 2003
6,218
2
0
I'm not a fan of Apple by any means and most people would probably classify me as a hater, but I've had the opportunity to use a lot of Apple hardware and software and I just don't get the hubbub. I don't find anything particularly special with Apple products outside of them being marketed as such. Paying a premium to be in a niche market with far less support than cheaper competitors(strictly talking about their computers here, not the iPod and such) seems like a bad "investment". I've never really been fond of buying gadgets for myself so I don't own an MP3 player, but I've had enough hands on experience with the iPod and it's competitors to know I wouldn't buy an iPod. Especially since I'd HAVE to use iTunes or void my warranty. Apple just isn't for me.

Have you actually sat down and used the trackpad for an extended period of time? It is bar none the best part of any mac laptop. I will never go back to a shitty windows trackpad.
 

James Bond

Diamond Member
Jan 21, 2005
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I'm not a fan of Apple by any means and most people would probably classify me as a hater, but I've had the opportunity to use a lot of Apple hardware and software and I just don't get the hubbub. I don't find anything particularly special with Apple products outside of them being marketed as such. Paying a premium to be in a niche market with far less support than cheaper competitors(strictly talking about their computers here, not the iPod and such) seems like a bad "investment". I've never really been fond of buying gadgets for myself so I don't own an MP3 player, but I've had enough hands on experience with the iPod and it's competitors to know I wouldn't buy an iPod. Especially since I'd HAVE to use iTunes or void my warranty. Apple just isn't for me.

The hardware support for Apple is the best I've ever dealt with personally. It's really, really good.

I don't really consider it a niche market. I mean, there are more Windows users, but there are so many Mac users that you can find whatever you're looking for easily.

I guess you could split the argument into two halves for hardware and software. I love OS X though, I think it's an awesome OS.
 

James Bond

Diamond Member
Jan 21, 2005
6,023
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0
Have you actually sat down and used the trackpad for an extended period of time? It is bar none the best part of any mac laptop. I will never go back to a shitty windows trackpad.

This is so true.

After getting used to my Macbook's trackpad, it is torture having to use a PC.
 

cheezy321

Diamond Member
Dec 31, 2003
6,218
2
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Trackpad is small time. Real men use the nub.

Nub is the only thing that is (somewhat) comparable to the trackpad.

All other windows trackpads blow serious ass. Every single one of you that buys a windows PC enables them to give you a shitty, subpar trackpad that makes the computer useless without a mouse.
 

steppinthrax

Diamond Member
Jul 17, 2006
3,990
6
81
magic elves

I did some early "googling" because I had a feeling you wern't going to come back with anything, but anyway, you don't have to google far. Macbooks are made by the same people who make the OS. So they make the software/hardware. Of course we know you can run Windows on a mac because they switched over to x86 arch.

Anyway Apple specifically designs both the operating system and hardware. This makes life easy, since Windows isn't exactly open source, and dell can't try to convince microsoft to make changes to their OS in response to their hardware (we all know about driver issues). And we all know microsoft won't be very forthcoming with what they believe is "proprietary". Dell and most PC companies have to make their PCs very generic in response to this. As far as power saving systems. Dells or "IBM compatables" have very primative power saving techniques. I have a feeling OSX has the ability to individually address very small componenets of hardware in a comlex manner to reduce/throttle power. The OSX operating system has specific code taylored to the hardware "on a very intimate level", that you just don't see in the average PC...
 
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cheezy321

Diamond Member
Dec 31, 2003
6,218
2
0
I did some early "googling" because I had a feeling you wern't going to come back with anything, but anyway, you don't have to google far. Macbooks are made by the same people who make the OS. So they make the software/hardware. Of course we know you can run Windows on a mac because they switched over to x86 arch.

Anyway Apple specifically designs both the operating system and hardware. This makes life easy, since Windows isn't exactly open source, and dell can't try to convince microsoft to make changes to their OS in response to their hardware (we all know about driver issues). And we all know microsoft won't be very forthcoming with what they believe is "proprietary". Dell and most PC companies have to make their PCs very generic in response to this. As far as power saving systems. Dells or "IBM compatables" have very primative power saving techniques. I have a feeling OSX has the ability to individually address very small componenets of hardware in a comlex manner to reduce/throttle power. The OSX operating system has specific code taylored to the hardware "on a very intimate level", that you just don't see in the average PC...

Apple uses the same processors, memory, hard drive and batteries that a PC does.

So why cant PC manufacturers have respectable battery life?
 

steppinthrax

Diamond Member
Jul 17, 2006
3,990
6
81
Apple uses the same processors, memory, hard drive and batteries that a PC does.

So why cant PC manufacturers have respectable battery life?

Your looking at a general view. On the motherboard you will also have power managment circuits. In the PC world we call this ACPI, this is a standard PCs use and is common between Toshiba, Dell, Compaq, HP, whatever. Macs have their own proprietary system.
 

Ns1

No Lifer
Jun 17, 2001
55,420
1,600
126

From an end user standpoint, I don't give a fuck about any of that. I just want a laptop with 5+ hours of battery life

When I was searching for laptops, the MBP got waaaaaaaay less battery life then the macbook.

The battery life out of the new MBP's is flat out amazing.
 

bfdd

Lifer
Feb 3, 2007
13,312
1
0
Yes I have used Apple's track pad I mentioned it in one of my earlier posts. I really like the track pad Apple has. The gestures are amazing and in terms of innovation this is something Apple definitely got right as far as I'm concerned. However I do like the FEEL of my Lenovo trackpad on my finger, like the actual touch sensation, I like better.

To the other dude about the niche market, yes it's a niche market, sure there's a lot of OSX users out there, but Apple does not even have 10% of the computer market. It's actually closer to something like 7%. That's incredibly niche and when I'm talking about support, I don't mean Apples customer service. I'm talking about software and hardware selections. Apple and OSX are far behind even today.
 

cheezy321

Diamond Member
Dec 31, 2003
6,218
2
0
Your looking at a general view. On the motherboard you will also have power managment circuits. In the PC world we call this ACPI, this is a standard PCs use and is common between Toshiba, Dell, Compaq, HP, whatever. Macs have their own proprietary system.

My point exactly.

People try and dog the macs by just looking at the price (general view). They dont realize how much more macs have to offer over PCs. Then they just spout blind hate. Like our resident retards from New Zealand
 

bfdd

Lifer
Feb 3, 2007
13,312
1
0
Apple uses the same processors, memory, hard drive and batteries that a PC does.

So why cant PC manufacturers have respectable battery life?

Battery technology isn't the same, Apple does it slightly differently. Also, while they use MOST of the same hardware, Apple has tweaks done specifically for their hardware. This is why you see things like "Mac Memory" etc.
 

Ns1

No Lifer
Jun 17, 2001
55,420
1,600
126
That's incredibly niche and when I'm talking about support, I don't mean Apples customer service. I'm talking about software and hardware selections. Apple and OSX are far behind even today.

I bet that depends on the market. If you're a final cut pro user you're kind of stuck...

that said, I'm a financial analyst and Excel on OSX makes me want to break things
 

bfdd

Lifer
Feb 3, 2007
13,312
1
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My point exactly.

People try and dog the macs by just looking at the price (general view). They dont realize how much more macs have to offer over PCs. Then they just spout blind hate. Like our resident retards from New Zealand

Tell me what the Mac offers over the PC. I have yet to see any reason to switch and battery life isn't even on my list of things I care about. I'm mostly a desktop user, I use a laptop because I got it from work. Apple doesn't build anything up to the quality I can build myself.
 

bfdd

Lifer
Feb 3, 2007
13,312
1
0
I bet that depends on the market. If you're a final cut pro user you're kind of stuck...

that said, I'm a financial analyst and Excel on OSX makes me want to break things

Oh no doubt. We have artists that work here where I work, they all use Apple pretty much exclusively. Not because what they need isn't available anywhere else, but because they're so used to it after YEARS of using Apple computers when they were different. My cousins buddy edits porn for a living and he pretty much exclusively uses Apples because of Final Cut Pro.
 

cheezy321

Diamond Member
Dec 31, 2003
6,218
2
0
Tell me what the Mac offers over the PC. I have yet to see any reason to switch and battery life isn't even on my list of things I care about. I'm mostly a desktop user, I use a laptop because I got it from work. Apple doesn't build anything up to the quality I can build myself.

Trackpad. Enough said.
 

cheezy321

Diamond Member
Dec 31, 2003
6,218
2
0
Battery technology isn't the same, Apple does it slightly differently. Also, while they use MOST of the same hardware, Apple has tweaks done specifically for their hardware. This is why you see things like "Mac Memory" etc.

I upgraded my macbook pro with 4 GB's crucial memory that was built for PC's. It worked just fine.
 

TheStu

Moderator<br>Mobile Devices & Gadgets
Moderator
Sep 15, 2004
12,089
45
91
Apple uses the same processors, memory, hard drive and batteries that a PC does.

So why cant PC manufacturers have respectable battery life?

Because asking each of them (the OEMs) to figure out the best settings for each of their varied and multivariate systems and then find a way to include those settings on an actual recovery disk that doesn't install a ton of bloatware, so that when users have to re-install the OS they can reliably turn to that instead of a bog-standard 7 disk and dealing with their own drivers would be an excercise in futility?

Apple makes the MacBook, MacBook Pro (13, 15, 17) and MacBook Air. Of those, they have 3 GPUs (9400m, 320m, 330m), and 7 CPUs (Core 2 Duo: 1.86, 2.13, 2.4, 2.66. Core i5: 2.4, 2.53 and Core i7 2.66). They all use the same wireless card, ethernet controller, firewire controller, SD card reader, and optical drives.

The hardware pool that they are dealing with is a fraction of the size of probably even 1 model line from Dell (who has, at last count, 6? Inspiron, Studio, XPS, Vostro, Latitude, and Dimension).
 

steppinthrax

Diamond Member
Jul 17, 2006
3,990
6
81
Because asking each of them (the OEMs) to figure out the best settings for each of their varied and multivariate systems and then find a way to include those settings on an actual recovery disk that doesn't install a ton of bloatware, so that when users have to re-install the OS they can reliably turn to that instead of a bog-standard 7 disk and dealing with their own drivers would be an excercise in futility?

Apple makes the MacBook, MacBook Pro (13, 15, 17) and MacBook Air. Of those, they have 3 GPUs (9400m, 320m, 330m), and 7 CPUs (Core 2 Duo: 1.86, 2.13, 2.4, 2.66. Core i5: 2.4, 2.53 and Core i7 2.66). They all use the same wireless card, ethernet controller, firewire controller, SD card reader, and optical drives.

The hardware pool that they are dealing with is a fraction of the size of probably even 1 model line from Dell (who has, at last count, 6? Inspiron, Studio, XPS, Vostro, Latitude, and Dimension).

True
 

steppinthrax

Diamond Member
Jul 17, 2006
3,990
6
81
From an end user standpoint, I don't give a fuck about any of that. I just want a laptop with 5+ hours of battery life

When I was searching for laptops, the MBP got waaaaaaaay less battery life then the macbook.

The battery life out of the new MBP's is flat out amazing.

I think that's the whole jist of this thread. Many people who say one is better than the other. I feel Macs have their adv/dis and PCs have their adv/dis. It's like those who say Macs can't every get viruses. Without realizing what they are saying. Macs obtain what's known as "Security through minority" meaning evil virus writers won't get much fame writing a Mac only virus.