Joel and I have been commenting back and forth in one of his posts, and I thought it would be better to just post a blog entry of my whole argument here in my site – instead of second guessing what “perspective” one has to take when stressing the point of the Apple-PC debate in terms of “value for money.”
In summary, the “debate” began from a linked article stating that the “myth” of Apple being more expensive than PCs is finally being debunked, now that the platforms are on a level x86 playing field. And just for the record, I agree that it is in fact a myth when it comes to a certain price-point with laptops.
What I just wanted to clarify however was at this point in time, when it comes to the desktop realm. This isn’t a myth at all. Apple products are indeed much more expensive than the PC counterparts beyond any doubt.
So I thought I would just post the following scenarios and points to clarify my stand.
Laptops
I’ve always said that I never considered any other laptop other than an Apple. I mentioned stuff like better resale value, etc. But one of the main reasons was ultimately because, like what the article said, Apples were indeed as cheap (or even cheaper) than their PC alternatives… in the portable/laptop realm.
The reason why it seems that Apple laptops are more expensive than PCs is simply because Apple gives too little choices when it comes to their portable line. You could definitely go BTO, 1 Built To Order (customized purchase) but it still has a configuration floor wherein the specs can’t go any lower. If you look closely, that “configuration floor” is pretty high end-already as far as laptops go.
This is a very good thing for enthusiasts, because to us, whether we get a PC laptop or Apple portable, we would never consider anything lower in the first place – in fact we would even think that floor of Apple portables would still be too “low” to our standards.
So what does this entail?
Simple: translate that configuration floor of Apple to a PC laptop and what do you get? Now try canvassing PCs that offer similar configurations. You then end up seeing those particular configurations falling into the upper bracket of PC laptop setups… yes, the very same PC laptops that cost quite a penny. Now you will be further surprised that Apples in fact can be cheaper depending on which brand you’re comparing it to. Compare it to a VAIO, and Apples don’t look expensive at all!
But that doesn’t mean that there aren’t PC laptops that are much cheaper… the only difference is there are no Apple counterparts for them. And the biggest mistake people make is comparing those low-end, cheap PC laptops with the Apple portables, which floor at a considerably higher configuration (ergo price) – which is obviously an unfair comparison.
Desktops
Desktops on the other hand are a whole different issue altogether. Apple is clearly putting a hefty premium on the hardware than what you can build yourself.
To be fair, just like in the laptops, let us compare the really high-end conterparts so that we know we’re on a pretty level playing field. On the comments I made on Joel‘s blog, I tried comparing PC desktops to the Mini – because price-wise, it falls under a reasonable budget for a normal consumer to have. I also mentioned however, that ultimately, a Mac Mini is really a desktop which uses laptop components – ergo I personally consider it as a laptop in a desktop casing.
To get around this, let’s only consider the high end counterparts – that way we can clearly see that if price were no object, given all the premiums component manufactures can incorporate into their sales, which setup will come out cheaper. The comparison would be simple:
- Configure the highest-end Mac desktop you possibly can (BTO if you have to).
- Take a look at it’s receipt.
- Take that amount and use that as a budget for a PC desktop system.
- Try building a PC system using that budget.
- Since the new Macs are now on x86 processors, then a legitimate comparison can be made when running Windows 2 If Apple would quit being a snob and allow OSX to be run on non-apple hardware, then we could do the same comparison on the OSX environment. programs.
- Get back to me and tell me if you still believe that Apples aren’t more expensive than PCs 🙂
So again, in terms of raw hardware potential, I honestly believe that at this juncture, Apple wins the bang-for-buck argument only when it comes to the laptop realm.