The Critics Are Losing the Apple Price Argument

The Critics Are Losing the Apple Price Argument
The Critics Are Losing the Apple Price Argument | The Tech Night Owl ? Cutting-Edge Tech Commentary

In any case, the next time someone tells you that Apple’s gear is way overpriced, remind them of the iPad, iPhone and iPod. At $49 for an iPod shuffle, you can’t call it costly, nor can you say anything of the sort about the $499 iPad. Indeed, that trendsetting product is priced far more cheaply than pretty much any alleged analyst expected when it was introduced earlier this year.

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I have thought for a while and mentioned it in a previous thread that  pricing structure has been fair of late. Mind you this is only on Hardware and i was talking about the 10.7 release....... I think  will surprise us with it and keep it cheap for us ...

Add in ilife11. That's amazingly priced for what it offers.

And the8thark after a lifetime's experience, let me tell you critics never lose their arguments! They just never recognise the facts.

I agree, but it's still annoying to see a friend buy a new Windows laptop with a 17" screen and i7 chip for less than $1k.

ezcompane said:

I agree, but it's still annoying to see a friend buy a new Windows laptop with a 17" screen and i7 chip for less than $1k.

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Stand over his shoulder and watch him fight with crashes, freezes, almost daily "security updates", and observe the paranoia that a vulnerable OS brings.
Then remember why you went the Mac route and breathe a sigh of relief.

harryb2448 said:

And the8thark after a lifetime's experience, let me tell you critics never lose their arguments! They just never recognise the facts.

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Very true, whether it be politics, religion... or computers.

harryb2448 said:

And the8thark after a lifetime's experience, let me tell you critics never lose their arguments! They just never recognise the facts.

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That's exactly why you let them live in their own little fantasy world. While we all can enjoy the great things the real world has to offer.

MYmacROX said:

Stand over his shoulder and watch him fight with crashes, freezes, almost daily "security updates", and observe the paranoia that a vulnerable OS brings.
Then remember why you went the Mac route and breathe a sigh of relief.

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That is fairly debatable. Before I switched to Macs, 2 years ago now, I never really had problems with any of my PCs, other than the occasional hardware failure.

My current Macbook Pro has had it's CPU fan replaced twice since I purchased it. That's actually the only machine I've had hardware failures more than once. I've never had issues (security related, crashes, freezes or anything else) with my previous PCs.

So, when my friend, who has had pretty much the same experience as me with PCs, asks me what justifies the higher price or lower specs of Macs for same priced machines, I really don't know what to tell him.

Then there's my girlfriend's PC that I constantly need to fix something on because she isn't tech savvy. On top of that, her two daughters also use that PC. It's a mess of a machine and she's actually starting to consider switching to an iMac (which would make MY life so easier).

So if I use my girlfriend's PC as an example to justify the price to my friend, he'll of course point out that it's their (my GF and her daughters) if the PC is a mess, which is absolutely true.

Thankfully, I don't feel the need to actually justify my choice to him, because to me the higher price is very much worth it. But he'll never see it, and the same can be said of many PC users.

NumberSix said:

But he'll never see it, and the same can be said of many PC users.

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And that there my friend, until they do have time on OS X or any  OS for that matter, they will always never see it

But then again i am paying higher prices for the OS ..... and my Aluminium Unibody ;P

It really comes down to simple aesthetics in my opinion. A lot of us like pretty things and we are willing to pay more for pretty things. If you're a Loius Vuitton kind of girl, buy a Mac. If you prefer GAP then grab that latest Windows 7 netbook. I don't think a Mac is any better functionally than a Windows 7 PC. They both get the job done just fine. Macs sure are sexy.

Let's not turn this sensible thread into a flame war!

Where exactly is this a flame war? You guys get too sensitive anytime the word PC is used in this forum.

PC=Personal Computer.

So far this thread has gone really well, but we are watching it closely. As long as it stays civil and with the Community Guidelines, it's fine.

I normally do not post on these threads, but, I do like Mac computers and I'm a switcher. Having said that, I have had more hard ware related problems on our two I Macs one being only 7 months old, than I have ever had on a PC. Also, it seems Apple seems to upgrade every thing, and we must pay the price to have the new goodies, sometimes worth itand other times not necessary. But the bottom line is the Apple OS system, is still the heart and soul of Apple, and may be worth the price.

ukchucktown said:

It really comes down to simple aesthetics in my opinion. A lot of us like pretty things and we are willing to pay more for pretty things. If you're a Loius Vuitton kind of girl, buy a Mac. If you prefer GAP then grab that latest Windows 7 netbook. I don't think a Mac is any better functionally than a Windows 7 PC. They both get the job done just fine. Macs sure are sexy.

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Couldn't be further from the truth IMO. When I have to "fix" or "configure" a friend's or family member's Windows machine I FEEL that the fluidity is totally gone. The steps it takes to get from A-B on an Win machine seems more like Ad-A-A#Bd-B ! Especially when on a laptop. If you even think of comparing the functionality of an Win trackpad in conjunction with the operational features of the OS vs that of an Mac's trackpad, you'll realize just how incredibly flat out wrong your statement was.

Let's throw in all the features of Spaces and Exposé on top of that, as well as using the Magic Trackpad ? ... Come on dude... Not even CLOSE to being an aesthetic issue !

Personally, I could care less about how pretty my Mac is (even though my set up is d****d spiffy) since I'm one to modify things anyway. I use my MacBook Pro in clamshell mode, which basically takes the pretty out of anything. See here:

Ya see that thing in the very left hand corner by the window ? Aesthetics aesshmetics. I love my Mac because OS X is a freegin' pleasure to use compared to Linux or Windows, not because it matches my clothing or designer shoes. (as if I own designer shoes.. .pfff)



Edit: Yeah, I need a chair so bad. Ikea was out of the one I wanted.

I see you have the same desk as I do!

Yeah, I don't buy into this apple tax business, anyway, and neither do I feel it's a "designer" issue.

OSX is a beautifully designed OS, which works with great fluidity and finesse. The hardware is designed in such a way to take advantage of the OS design, and makes the experience even better in my opinion. The requirement to buy the hardware at the same time looks unfortunate from the outside, and to those who can't afford a mac, it is unfortunate. However, the long-term savings, and the better experience (in my opinion) make it worth the higher initial price. That's even debatable, considering the mac mini exists.

None of this is a knock to windows 7, btw. I never had a single issue with vista, and I've recently gotten to play with windows 7 a bit. I personally find it to be inferior to OSX, but it does run well enough, as long as you take the proper precautions that should be well-known to everybody by now.

I think where your friend may not have any issues with is PC might be because he's learned how to maintain it better than others so as to avoid or at least lessen any issues that come with a Windows machine. I say that because, before I switched, I had less issues with my PC than my wife or kids, whose machines I was troubleshooting on a weekly basis, because by now I've learned how to continually update everything, run registry cleaners and run those dang spyware scans everyday to keep things running smoothly.

Now that I've switched, the time I save not having to constantly do all that crap is worth the extra price of admission because now I can get some actual work done on my MBP laptop, which brings me more income so I actually come out ahead in the money game.

In any case, the next time someone tells you that Apple’s gear is way overpriced, remind them of the iPad, iPhone and iPod. At $49 for an iPod shuffle, you can’t call it costly, nor can you say anything of the sort about the $499 iPad. Indeed, that trendsetting product is priced far more cheaply than pretty much any alleged analyst expected when it was introduced earlier this year.

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Seems to me any time the price issue comes up, it's when people are talking about Apple computers and not Apple's other devices.

MYmacROX said:

Stand over his shoulder and watch him fight with crashes, freezes, almost daily "security updates", and observe the paranoia that a vulnerable OS brings.
Then remember why you went the Mac route and breathe a sigh of relief.

Click to expand...

My XP, Windows Home Server, Vista, and Win7 installs have ran impeccably for me; just as my OS X installs have. I've not had Windows 7 crash yet, or freeze. The security updates are done on start up and shut down and take no time at all. In fact, Win7 took over my video transcoding duties from OS X because of it being able to use CUDA technology. Not sure where this paranoia thing comes from either...

Village Idiot said:

In any case, the next time someone tells you that Apple’s gear is way overpriced, remind them of the iPad, iPhone and iPod. At $49 for an iPod shuffle, you can’t call it costly, nor can you say anything of the sort about the $499 iPad. Indeed, that trendsetting product is priced far more cheaply than pretty much any alleged analyst expected when it was introduced earlier this year.

Click to expand...

Seems to me any time the price issue comes up, it's when people are talking about Apple computers and not Apple's other devices.



My XP, Windows Home Server, Vista, and Win7 installs have ran impeccably for me; just as my OS X installs have. I've not had Windows 7 crash yet, or freeze. The security updates are done on start up and shut down and take no time at all. In fact, Win7 took over my video transcoding duties from OS X because of it being able to use CUDA technology. Not sure where this paranoia thing comes from either...

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I'm glad everything has been so smooth for you. Not so much for me. I haven't used Vista or 7, but have had 2000 and XP. Buggy, freezes, crashes, reinstalls, and sometimes just downright can't get it to work. I'm by no means technologically-challenged either. Fairly savvy. ;D

I've never had a virus or anything like it because I'm cautious and sensible and understand computer security and maintenance. So I'm not referring to myself when I say "paranoia". I meant the feeling your "average" Win user has every time they open an email or click on a link to a funny video their friend sent them or when they hear of the latest virus/malware that is floating around. They "just never know".

So yeah, I breathe a sigh of relief every time I use this MBP and I cringe whenever I have to touch a Windows machine. Even when occasionally running Win XP via Bootcamp I try to avoid the internet. I only use Bootcamp for 2 applications that I can't get or can't afford to get for Mac and they do not connect to the internet. Sometimes even one of them freezes up.

Just speaking from personal experience here...