advertisement

Weblog:   Mac vs. PC, a small cost comparison experiment
Subject:   On the pricing front...
Date:   2004-05-17 09:11:03
From:   eableson
For all practical purposes, if you are willing to invest the time and be an educated consumer, you can build a PC box with relatively close specs for the same price or cheaper than an 'equivalent' PC. Heavy on the 'equivalent' since every consumer has different priorities that translate into different specs.


However, on the high end laptop front, the current Apple lineup is (oddly enough) the value leader when you compare equivalently equipped PC laptops, with many features that simply aren't available on most PC laptops. The only place the Apple laptops fall down is not offering a stupendously high res screen like some of the DELLs and SONYs with their insane 1600*1024 LCDs, but you really need to have good eyes to use those ones :-)


I think that one of the reasons that you often see Mac machines with a longer lifecycle is because today's machines are shipping with leading edge technologies, so there's less incentive to upgrade just to get access to something new.


The PC market generally waits until a given technology has reached critical mass on the production front to drive down the costs. Case in point, try finding a laptop equipped with FW800 and Gigabit ethernet. Rationnally, I don't need either of these things today, but I won't be desperately looking to upgrade in two years because I want to buy the latest FW800 array or am running up against the 100Mbit wall transferring multi Gb video files to a client's server.


My 2 cents, for what it's worth...
Full Threads Oldest First

Showing messages 1 through 2 of 2.

  • On the pricing front...
    2004-05-31 08:27:36  microcrap_sucks [Reply | View]

    I think the reason you stated for why Mac machines have a longer lifecycle is true in part, but the technology actually changes very rapidly on the PC front. My old clunker PC is more than 3 years old and cannot be upgraded past the point of perhaps a new graphics card. I would literally have to throw the guts away and start afresh. I bought an iMac last year, and since going mac I will never go back. I now use the PC very occasionally as it generally gives me headaches, and screws up for no apparent reason on a daily basis. The Mac just lasts and lasts, and thats why people hang onto them longer, the old PC just runs like a dog unless you keep the same old buggy systems running on them. Every time Microsoft releases a new operating system, it requires you to use hardware made for the system, and if you don't you are just asking for headaches.
  • On the pricing front...
    2004-05-18 00:14:54  boud [Reply | View]

    I have very bad eyes, but I just love my Dell's 1600 * 1200 screen -- all fonts are perfectly formed, not fuzzy as on my old Pismo Powerbook. Anyway, I've done a similar price comparison, but for laptops when I was in the market for a new laptop. I really wanted to be able to justify a 15" powerbook, but it was twice as expensive as a similarly specced Dell:
    Comparing Apples and Dells.
Showing messages 1 through 2 of 2.