Quote:
Originally Posted by Vintage Racer
We will see if, in this economic climate, people will continue to pay such a premium for a computer that adds little additional value. In addition, I see little growth in iPods. How many more people need one?
Steve Jobs had carcinoma of the pancreas. The tumors hide in the head of the pancreas and get into the bile ducts. Patients rarely survive long. Do a search.
MSFT actually is bringing its employee count back to levels of last June 30 as they have been hiring in sales and marketing as well as R&D.
That moron just guided the company to a $50B profit in the ttm period. The operating margin is 39%. MSFT has $2B in debt and $20B in cash.
What will happen when the economy slows purchases of Apple products as the stock market realizes that Jobs will not be returning to the office?
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There is no price premium for Apple computers. People love to compare them to $600 PC's.
If you take the time to compare the specs to offerings from the other guys you'll find that for the same performance hardware there is no premium.
It's like going to a Lexus dealer and arguing the Hyundai down the street is cheaper.
Apple 17 Inch Powerbook. Base Price. $2,799 upgrade HD to match Dell configurable option, $2,849
Dell Precision M6300. (Closest base config to MacBook but still lower spec) Base Price. $2,314 with $915 Instant Savings = $1,399.
Configure spec to match Apple, memory, processor, video card, etc.. base price goes up to $3,643 - instant savings of $915, total for Dell is $2,728
For a nearly $3,000 box I don't see a delta of $120 as a premium. And what about that instant savings from Dell? Without it they are $800 more. Is their box really that much or is it the old shell game, inflate the price and then give a deep discount so it looks like you are getting a deal when you really are not?
Let's look at work stations.
Apple Macpro base box Dual QuadCore 2.8 Xenon = $2,799
Dell Precision T5400, configured to match the MacPro, $3,923-$150 instant savings = $3,773.
So the base Dell that matches the base Macpro is $1,000 more.
Bottom line, yes you can get hardware cheaper, much cheaper than Apple, BUT you are buying cheaper hardware. That's why it's cheaper.
Not everyone needs a $3,000 computer. If you only need a $500 computer then buy what fits your budget. If you are in the market for a high end machine, then that's a different story.
Edit: And the Mac runs Vista/XP native if you want so if you don't like OS X then you don't need to run it.
And go to an Apple store, open up a MacPro, look inside. The engineering and build quality is staggering. Not a wire to be seen as opposed the the spaghetti you find inside a non Apple product.