Mac prices double the average PC

Robert Hallock 6 Aug, 2008 at 7:20pm ET Article published in Tech

As if the zealous fanboys did not have enough fuel in their fire, the NPD group has figures indicating that your average Apple Mac costs twice that of your average PC. However, the study found that superior hardware is not to blame as the average PC typically offers better hardware.

Eweek’s resident Macintosh fan Joe Wilcox came to the disheartening conclusion after analyzing the NPD’s numbers. In fact, Wilcox discovered that the gap has widened from 180% to 210% more expensive over the last few years. Thanks to introductions like the Macbook Air, the average Apple PC has increased in price.

It better be a good OS for $800.

Comments

6 Aug 2008 ~ 9:23pm Nomad yawn fanboys
6 Aug 2008 ~ 10:27pm kryyst Don't care, I have my mac, I have my pc that's got more hardware in it then my mac and did cost me less. My PC sits idle 90% of the time and the mac gets used. My PC only finds itself loved when I feel like playing some video games.
7 Aug 2008 ~ 12:38am Leonardo

In fact, Wilcox discovered that the gap has widened from 180% to 210% more expensive over the last few years. Thanks to introductions like the Macbook Air, the average Apple PC has increased in price.

Due in fact also to those poor saps who allow themselves to be influenced by television ads! (Kryyst, I don't include you in this group.)

Ah, it's nice to have Apple stock! (No, I wasn't smart enough to pick it. It's a fairly large holding in one of my mutual funds. I don't buy individual stocks.)

Same goes for Craigslist. I'm amazed at the asking prices for 'old' Macs - approximately double for equivalent PCs...or more. All power to the sellers!
7 Aug 2008 ~ 8:41am kryyst Apple has a great thing going. They are selling consumer confidence in their product and deriving huge profits from it. Most macheads deep down know they are paying more for an equivolent product from the hardware point of view. But part of that also comes down to usability that they don't get or at least don't percieve to get from other products. It's not just on the imac front but on ipods or iphones for that matter. There are many other products that do the same thing and cost less. But and this is my own personal view point the mac stuff just has a useabilty and confidence factor other products don't have. That's what most knowning mac people pay for. The washed masses they often just pay because mac's seem trendy and it's a name brand, with inspired confidence.

However this phenomenon is hardly the sole ownership of mac. It's seen in every market of the consumer sector. Designer clothes, luggage, watches, food - whatever. Often a namebrand does have a better quality then a similar product. However seldom is the greater quality that much better by the same ratio as the greater price.
7 Aug 2008 ~ 10:18am MrTRiot

kryyst wrote:

Apple has a great thing going. They are selling consumer confidence in their product and deriving huge profits from it.

You really think Apple has a good thing going for it? I think otherwise. Who else sells "customer confidence" and derives huge, sometimes insane profits from it? Oh ya, The oil companies; and I dont see you saying they're doing a good job

Steve Jobs is greedy and I fully believe people are going to realize that paying double the price for something that may or not be better is not worth it.
7 Aug 2008 ~ 10:25am Thrax Oil companies are making money hand over fist. People are incited by them because the primary byproduct of crude oil that they know is gasoline, which is conveniently indexed in a price we see every day. There's no confidence in it because it simply burns up in our car and we are left with nothing but an unrewarding travel time. Nobody ever rallied behind a rapidly-expendable product.

Meanwhile, crude oil also goes into the production of hygiene products, plastics and other malleable materials. Nobody bitches about those because those products don't go up in flames in a week, and provide a tangible, physical, operable product. While the increasing cost of crude could effect the prices of these products, manufacturers have simply dipped into their margin rather than passing it onto their customers. No one gets offended because nobody sees the rise in oil except at the pump.
7 Aug 2008 ~ 11:02am Snarkasm I tend to think the iPod phenomenon is a self-driving cycle; they started out ok, then suddenly there was an explosion of dock-connector hardware and everybody got an iPod because the tie-ins were so numerous. How many cars can you buy with an iPod adapter? Stereos? Crapware speaker sets? It just kind of became the defacto standard, even though aux in was probably there all along.
7 Aug 2008 ~ 11:10am kryyst

Mr TRiot wrote:

You really think Apple has a good thing going for it? I think otherwise. Who else sells "customer confidence" and derives huge, sometimes insane profits from it? Oh ya, The oil companies; and I dont see you saying they're doing a good job

Steve Jobs is greedy and I fully believe people are going to realize that paying double the price for something that may or not be better is not worth it.

How can you think apple doesn't have a good thing going - they have customer confidence they are making money = winning formula. Until the customer confidence has a massive failure they are going to continue to do well and get stronger. Their sales across the board continue to improve.

Greed is not a factor it's the by product of running any business and selling at a price point the market is willing to pay. People aren't at anytime going to realize they are paying to much any time soon. It won't be until some other consumer grade product comes out that gives mac heads something they don't get. Also keep in mind most new mac converts are either flocking because of their distaste of windows or because they have another mac product like an ipod that they are happy with so they figure why not give mac a chance.

Nope mac will continue to grow for the conceivable future.
7 Aug 2008 ~ 11:46am RADA

kryyst wrote:

....their distaste of windows or because they have another mac product like an ipod that they are happy with so they figure why not give mac a chance.

Nope mac will continue to grow for the conceivable future.

I don't agree. I have an iPod, and agree is it a decent piece of technology, and I also can't stand Vista, but I still have ZERO interest in paying Apple prices for lesser technology that is harder to upgrade...

At my current network job we have new Macs that are nothing more than big dust collectors because they need parts that are too expensive to justify replacing. (Apple waranties are a thing of beauty - pay a whole lot of $$ up front, then get stuck with "service charges" in the back) But our lowly PCs get fixed because it is cost effective to do so.

My uncle was a huge Apple fanboy who constantly touted his G-whatever as being better than my last desktop, untill my machine blew his out of the water on performance, cost and upgradability...

Mac will continue to grow because they have instilled this touchy-feely image of being superior.. IMHO I think the hype/price premium will come back to haunt them....
7 Aug 2008 ~ 11:53am Nomad These types of threads are such jokes, no one is going to prove anyone wrong. It's ridiculous to think Mac users are bandwagoners when all PC users are basically in the same boat. They've never used any alternative.

Apple warranty is perfect if you have it. It will cover any problem--even some things you've done yourself--It's if you're not covered that you get hit, but that's no different from any warranty really.
7 Aug 2008 ~ 1:02pm BuddyJ Agreed. Broad observations like those in the thread's topic do not give the full picture. They only serve to highlight one piece of a larger puzzle. Hardware cost isn't the end-all-be-all metric.
7 Aug 2008 ~ 1:03pm stoopid Issue is with the control Jobs has chosen over the hardware side. If the Apple OS was available for a PC platform I might actually buy it for certain uses, maybe even as a primary OS (but only if the software available was increased ten-fold). But because they are choosing to retain complete control I remain only a fringe Mac user (have an old G4 laptop I use when vacationing).

The pricing structure is completely insane. I've seen old G4 laptops selling for three times what an equivalent PC laptop costs. There's no real reason for this other than the current market supporting this inflated price. I agree that this won't and can't last forever. I've had many people ask me if they should go to Vista, if they should buy a Mac, etc. I tell them to stick to XP unless they game (and even then there's exceptions), and to buy a PC unless they're rich (or have small genitalia).