Macs are bad ‘cause they’re expensive, right?

The other day a coworker forwarded this screenshot around the office (click for larger size):

 

It made me rage a little bit, especially considering how loyal of a Mac user I am. Here's a summary of the key points made above, and their rebuttals:

 

Most importantly: This is last year's Mac Pro Build yet it's compared it to current prices. This is the Mac Pro released in March 2009. So when you complain about prices, think about them in March 2009 terms, cause that's when this screenshot was taken. You cannot run OS X on any PC. Hackintosh installs are not as easy as it seems. Apple only writes drivers for hardware they support. That's not so bad, it's possible to write drivers for most devices that have open source drivers already written... but they also only use half of a mangled version of the ACPI standard, meaning that even on the most vanilla-ready hardware, CPU fan control, sleep, and hibernate probably won't all work properly. Most people have trouble with non-ATI video cards, audio hardware, PS/2 hardware, and ACPI. In March 2009, jumping from 2.26ghz to 2.66ghz CPU was a major increase in cost. What's more, most PC manufacturers do this kind of price hike on CPU boosts too. For Dell, it has to do with the manufacturing process - the boxes arrive pre-assembled, and different CPU means someone has to swap it out. The RAM is ECC RAM. That's expensive even when you're buying parts. The RAID card is an SAS RAID card with 512mb cache and a 72 hour integrated battery for said cache. You can get cheapo SAS raid cards for as cheap as $150, but with this much cache, a battery backup, PCIex8, and 800mhz throughput the cards start around $650 today. The Apple card is about equivalent to the Areca ARC-1880i, current retail price about $650. The hard drives are when we really see the data storage cost of March 2009. At the time, retail cost-per-gb of 7200RPM SATA storage was about 25c/gb. Suddenly the price doesn't seem so out there. The numbers on the video cards and the "superdrive" are just out of date. In summer 2010 you can get DVD burners for $25. Winter 2009 we got DVD burners for $75-$100. The screen was one of the top quality available in terms of responsiveness, brightness, color accuracy, and size. It is still an impressive monitor - it's just not a direct comparison to the cheapest 24" you can buy on Newegg. OF COURSE they overprice MS Office, Apple has their own line of office products they're trying to sell... and in case the poster didn't notice, Microsoft is Apple's COMPETITION.

 

Of course most Mac users don't buy Mac Pros for simple web surfing and email, that's what iMacs are for and they do a damn good job at it. These computers are for professionals. Music producers, video editors, graphic designers, and serious scientific researchers use Macs. Why? They need their computers to work. If you're given a large budget and are expected to give professional results, you aren't going to skimp on your computer to save a few hundred bucks. Plus they retain their value, I can look on Craigslist right now and find a four-year-old Mac Pro selling for $800+.

 

Saying a high price is no reason to buy is like saying you shouldn't buy a BMW or Mercedes because Kias and Hyundais are cheaper. As my fellow Mac-loving coworker puts it, "I'd hate to have dinner with the guy who wrote this article - he probably drinks boxed wine, and eats hot dogs with ramen."

 

As an amateur DJ, I own a Macbook for music production and performance. Sure, it was more expensive than a PC, but the cost of the software and equipment I use with it far exceed the cost of the original computer. And you know what? I've never had a single problem with it. It's never frozen, locked up, had a failed part Apple didn't fix, or had any software problems that weren't my own fault.

 

Call me a mindless fanboy if you will, but it won't change the fact that I love my Mac. Of course this wouldn't be a legitimate argument without considering the alternative, so I welcome you to read a response from one of my Windows-loving coworkers.

Comments

[JOKe]

Very outdated but totally agree...
ASUS and ACER rox...
:D
cheap and powerful and you have a lot of choices with less money I can buy a ASUS G51Vx with Nvidia GTX260 for 800 euro, where is such a powerful mac ? even for 8 000 euro? NOWHERE because if they make it .. it will be around 8000 euro indeed.

[Thai Dang Vu]

I would say: Go for any Apple products if you have enough money and don't know where to spend.

[terry]

I think it's pretty clear here that a ripoff is afoot on Apple's part but the author might be too much of a Apple fan to recognize it.

[Mac and PC User]

I've been a Mac user for about 20 years now and you're just blowing smoke. I bought my first PC hesitantly in 2005 because the software I needed to use for my career was not supported on the Mac. (Note: I was a Computer Science student in college and had plenty of experience using Macs and Unix based machines, but only passing familiarity with PCs.)

Most of what's written here in defense of Macs being overpriced is assertions without evidence or proof. The fact of the matter is that while a rare few Mac users might need, for example, a medium-level RAID card with some high-end functionality (the Mac RAID card featured is most definitely not comparable to the Areca ARC-1880i card you claim it is) - Most Mac users looking for RAID don't need a $700 card, they just want to set up a basic RAID 0/1 to back up their data.

Similarly, most people ordering Mac Pros will not need Apple's monitors. Sure, if you are a graphics professional you may want to splurge on an expensive monitor - But a musician or academic? Heck, even someone who just plays games primarily will want a monitor with better response times as opposed to color fidelity and good viewing angles.

These high end expensive Macs are less like purchasing a BMW and more like purchasing a sports car with a flatbed rear end and trailer hitch in the back, off-road tires, etc. Sure, someone somewhere may need specialized equipment like that - But Apple basically presents very specialized equipment as the "only" choices for general needs, leading to many people being ripped off.

[Kawazoe]

I think you were a little low on your critic. You could have mentioned a lot more technical details about RAM like why 6x1gb is a $100 cheeper than 4x2gb which is true even for non-ECC memory. You could also have mentioned the differences between a TN LCD and a IPS LCD. Also, Office is NOT over-priced. It is the price listed on Microsoft's website. The real issue here is that it is compared to Office 2007 which is a Windows software. We're talking 2008 here.