In what situations would buying a mac be the cheaper option?

Everyone always tells me that macs are overpriced. They are indeed expensive, but in my case I ended up saving money by buying a mac because the software I needed would have cost me $1000 on a PC, but the mac includes it at no extra cost.

I'm curious to know how and why others find macs to be less expensive.

When one looks at value rather than just price, Macs are almost always less expensive.

Macs are considerably cheaper when you value your time. A recent study I read said that Mac users usually spend less than an hour a year troubleshooting and fixing their computers, while Windows users spend several days.

Another very important consideration is that your Mac will actually be worth something even when quite a few years old. For resale, the value you get in return for keeping your machine in decent physical and working condition can equate to a great deal of money you can use toward your next Mac. In that regard, PC's lose value far faster than a Mac. You can verify that by looking at used Mac prices online versus used PC's of similar age.

it really depends on how much one values their time.

If you like chasing popups every 15 minutes telling you something you couldn't care less about, or foxing something almost daily, PCs are for you.

Even though I used to build every PC I owned, and upgrade my own computers when needed etc., I generally like to press the on button, make money, communicate or do what I like, and press off and go do something else. So, the mac is worth every penny to me.

Time and use are subjective. But there are tangible examples too. Look at most PC 'ultrabooks' and compare spec and price vs the market leader - MacBook Airs. 9 times out of 10 the Mac is cheaper than it's rival.

mrplow said:

Time and use are subjective. But there are tangible examples too. Look at most PC 'ultrabooks' and compare spec and price vs the market leader - MacBook Airs. 9 times out of 10 the Mac is cheaper than it's rival.

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Cheaper and of a higher build quality.

And holds value over time so you get to use the product a great deal and still get money out of it when you move on to another machine. I have never owned a PC worth very much a few years down the road, but with Mac you get that added value to consider in the overall purchase value.