Apple Tax: Stealing your Benjamins, one wallet at a time.
Here are two notebooks which are very similar in configuration and features:
Apple MacBook Pro:
- 2.4GHz Intel Core 2 Duo
- 4GB 1066MHz DDR3 SDRAM – 2x2GB
- 320GB Serial ATA @ 7200
- SuperDrive 8x (DVD±R DL/DVD±RW/CD-RW)
- NVIDIA GeForce 9600M GT 256MB
- Backlit Keyboard (English) / User’s Guide
- Apple Mini DisplayPort to DVI Adapter
- Mini DisplayPort to VGA Adapter
- AppleCare Protection Plan for MacBook Pro (w/or w/o Display) – Auto-enroll
Price: $2,706.00
Dell Studio XPS 16:
- Intel® Core™ 2 Duo P8600 (3MB cache/2.4GHz/1066Mhz FSB)
- Genuine Windows Vista® Home Premium Edition SP1, 64-bit
- 3Yr Ltd Hardware Warranty, InHome Service after Remote Diagnosis
- Edge-to-Edge HD Widescreen 16.0 inch WLED LCD (1366×768) W/2.0 MP
- 4GB Dual Channel DDR3 SDRAM at 1067MHz (2 Dimms)
- 320GB 7200 RPM SATA Hard Drive
- 8X DVD+/- RW(DVD/CD read/write) Slot Load Drive
- ATI Mobility RADEON® HD 3670 – 512MB
- Intel® 5100 WLAN Wireless-N (1×2) Half Mini Card
- High Definition Audio 2.0
Price: $1,518
Difference (also known as the “Apple Tax”): $1,188.00
What the hell? Even if you deduct the retail price of iLife ’09 and Mac OS X Leopard, you’re still paying an extra $980, and for what? A “multi-touch glass trackpad” which for the most part is useless as you can’t configure the gestures, and an aluminum enclosure (which can be attributed to beer cans and Faraday cages the world over). Having used a MacBook Pro, I can tell you this – there are better things that you could spend that $1,188 on. Like useful software. Or groceries.
Editors note: This is a guest post by Kristan Kenney
25 Responses to 'Apple Tax: Stealing your Benjamins, one wallet at a time.'
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You should not buy it if you aren’t willing to pay a premium for good service and construction and a sleek look. Not only that, but you also are buying into the mac experience and lifestyle. If you don’t have the money then buy your dell, you get what you pay for.
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February 19, 2009 at 5:35 pm
stephen:
Yes because we buy a laptop to stare at it all day and think about how good-looking it is. Macs are economically just as much as a lifestyle as Starbucks, and you can see where they’re going. Yeesh.
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February 19, 2009 at 6:06 pm
Mark:
Just but the Dell and install OSX86 on it. Apple Tax: no thanks!
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February 19, 2009 at 6:07 pm
Mark:
Just buy the Dell and install OSX86 on it. Apple Tax: no thanks!
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February 19, 2009 at 6:15 pm
Chris123NT:
Or just use Windows and have a boatload of application choices at your disposal
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February 19, 2009 at 7:07 pm
Mark:
Maybe, just dual boot Windows and OSx86 and get the best of both worlds.
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February 19, 2009 at 10:25 pm
Reality Distortion Field strikes again! at Chris’ Repository of Knowledge:
[...] I posted a quick and dirty article entitled “Apple Tax: Stealing your Benjamins, one wallet at a time“, with the purpose of illustrating the difference in cost between a Dell Studio XPS 16 [...]
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March 5, 2009 at 2:18 pm
Rommie:
I’d been using pc’s for my whole life (save for the amiga when i was a kid) and about two years ago i was given a macbook pro by my job (much to my dismay as i was a vehement hater of apple) . A year ago i purchased a mac pro then a mac mini for my mother then an air for my girlfriend then a macbook for my sister and i’m getting ready to buy a unibody macbook pro.. yah, you may get more dell for your money but you also get more indian tech support ( but wait, you can now pay 100 dollars more to get american tech support ), more plastic, more windows errors ( and it got tiresome to pay another 150/200/300/however the hell much windows costs to update ).. oh yah and more bills for motherboard replacement because your dog ran into the laptop cord while you had it on the table and borked the socket…
personally.. i’ll pay the apple tax because i’ve had nothing but a good experience (short of the busted audio jack but they replaced that for free even though i was out of warantee)…..
so in short.. fuck dell..
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March 6, 2009 at 11:04 pm
And lest we forget: your great PC warranty does NOT cover Windows Corruption or damage from viruses and spyware. You will spend about $300 per year just getting things like that fixed. So in a couple of years, you are at the price of a Mac anyway. How do I know this? I owned a computer service store and had to fix them!
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March 7, 2009 at 1:14 am
Timmahh:
D.D Tannenbaum thinks that Apples do not get viruses? Right? What Operating System fell first in the yearly OS security competition? OSX.
The bottom line about Mac is this.
Steve Jobs hates poor people.
Mac is used primarily by those who want to be seen as “cool, hip, and intelligent” and are more worried about symbolism than anything else.
With Mac you are lead around by the nose because there is no competition with software, hardware, or other computer components. PC users have more of a choice in what they can install into their computers, because of competition with 3rd party components, so not only do you get better software but software that will continue to evolve. -
March 7, 2009 at 7:10 am
The_Dude:
I wrote an article about this very topic a year ago when I switched from PC to MAC.(http://www.athensexchange.com/articles/673) There is very definitely a “MAC tax” Most importantly, I coined the phrase “Steve jobs hates poor people”…
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March 7, 2009 at 7:45 pm
lordwhatshisface:
@Timmahh
FYI, it wasn’t OS X that fell first, it was Apple’s shoddy excuse of a web browser, Safari. Check out some known security flaws between Windows and OS X and tell me what you see. Say what you will about Apple, I use both, but OS X is definitely a strong system, stability and otherwise.
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March 8, 2009 at 5:49 pm
Caspar:
I think Macs are more expensive, but I also think the difference shown on your blog is too much.
I configured a Dell XPS 16 with much the same specs that you did, with one major exception – I I includeded Windows Vista Ultimate Edition. The cost came to $1974.Windows Home Premium is a crippled OS as it disallows important features such as remote control of your system.
The Dell has these advantages: A larger HD, more ram, a bigger screen.
The Apple has these advantages: A better graphics card (2 Cards, both better), multitouch trackpad [which is fantastic - you need to use it to appreciate it]The Apple also (arguably) has these advantages:
-A new construction technique that results in a longer life for the laptop – my Macbook Pro does NOT flex in any way.
-Extremely light and thin.
-Other apple innovations such as the MagSafe adaptor and the backlit keyboard.
Intangibles: Look and feel, OS preference, Limited exposure to virues (which apparently won’t be a problem until the “tipping point” of a mac marketshare >= 20%)The difference is about $500 dollars, and you could argue that this is explained by the “arguable” advantages outlined above.
Basically if you like Windows machines, you are going to buy one and if you like Macs you’ll get one of those.
Why the hell did I bother writing this??? -
March 9, 2009 at 9:04 pm
johnny:
the world needs companies like Apple so that it will help improve the US economy and bring us out of the recession.
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March 9, 2009 at 10:28 pm
Nicholas:
Hey some one orgot to mention the Mac has more L2 cache and lower bottle necks with an OS that Fails less. I am getting so mad that you Mac Haters have to try and make up shit to knock down Mac. Guess what we have less failures than you PERIOD. the Ratio of problems is way lower hell its not perfect but nothing is in life so I rather pay to be less stressed by that so I can be stressed about my customer’s computers, and make some money instead of lose it like you guys teand to do more in the life of your “PC” than mine. So wise up and at least look at Ubuntu if you wont Mac cause even they make you guys look like a bunch of tools. thank you sorry I had to be an ass about it this shit has gone way too far for too many years…
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March 9, 2009 at 10:37 pm
@Nicholas:
“Hey some one orgot to mention the Mac has more L2 cache and lower bottle necks.”
Uhh no. The processor used in the examples in this post is the SAME in both machines and has the same level of L2 cache.
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March 9, 2009 at 11:11 pm
Chris123NT:
The processors in the Mac offerings are the same as the PC offerings. So I don’t know where you’re getting your information, but I suggest you go read up about the hardware, it might open your eyes to reality.
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March 10, 2009 at 12:03 am
Kris:
Actually by including any version of Windows in the PC model you would have to add a penalty of at least $500 for all the frustration and lost time dealing with the OS.
@Timmahh who can’t get past the oft repeated Mac myth about “no competition with software”… it truly shows you are totally ignorant about what is available for Mac users. There are thousands of applications available for OS X and virtually every one of them is of higher quality than their counterpart in the Windows world. Granted you might find some unique apps used by industry not present in Mac format but being able to run Windows in parallel to OS X on one machine solves that problem.
One thing not noted in the article or comments is the resale value and long life of Macs. I presently am using a Mac that was originally made 2001. Upgraded a couple years ago with faster processor, RAM, SATA drives, new video card, etc, this machine is running the latest OS X and doing it quite nicely. Who said you don’t have access to hardware components?
If you ever spend a significant amount of time working with a Mac you will see that the ‘experience’ is worth a lot more than the so called “tax” quoted above.
Sometimes you do get what you pay for. -
March 10, 2009 at 3:57 am
I was a PC user until about 1.5 years ago when I went to get another desktop and asked for one with XP instead of Vista and was told “No”. I said gimme a MAC then and bought a 24″ IMAC. I had a small learning curve adjusting to the MAC, but I will never go back to Windoze again.
The reason ? Macs work.
Every PC I have ever had would struggle with Photoshop & other photo editing software without getting hung up or crashing. I dont care about status as nobody see’s my IMAC at my home anyway but it is a pure joy to use – fast, effecient, easy, no constant defender updates, constant virus & spyware crap.
Microsoft just doesn’t work well for artists which is why all my artist, photographer & musician friends all have MACs. I turn it on, do my work and turn it off. Try that with a PC as you try to open something while popups are screaming at you to update their screwed up software.
I’ll happily pay a tax for a MAC that I enjoy to use rather than save a few $$ for a windoze machine that I have to fight with and is no fun to use.
MACS rule – Windoze drools…. -
March 10, 2009 at 2:02 pm
Jeremy:
Well here is something to think about. I took 20 people in my office out of new highers over the past year. These people had said that they did not have a computer at hom and had little to no computer experience. Half got mac’s and half got pc’s. I had a mac support person ans pc support people on staff. At the end of 3 months everyone was asked if they wanted to keep the machine they had or go with the other one. All but one of the mac people said they wanted a pc and none of the pc people wanted to go to a mac. The company wanted to know the direction they should go in since we had graphic designers with mac’s and everyone else with pc’s. PC won I use both Pc and mac myself and i felt this was a fair test.
Mac lost pc won. The test showed why mac has around 20% market share and why they had to be bailed out by a unknown person a few times over the years. Apple would have been bankrupt years ago. The fact that they where bailed out shows the products poor connection with the public as a whole. Also keep in mind it’s not the mac that saved apple it was the ipod.
They went from there own hardware and Os to something that basically is a pretty gui on linux with standard pc hardware running it. Why because what they had flat out was not working. for a company to make such a change you have to wonder.. why?
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March 11, 2009 at 3:06 am
Kris:
Geesh, it’s hard to know where to begin after the prior comment. After I figured out what “new highers” were, I then struggled to believe any of what followed. I suppose there must have been a close correlation between administration and employees capability and competence. :rolleyes:
As to the rest of the FUD, I’m just shaking my head. Sigh.
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March 12, 2009 at 3:40 pm
Jeremy:
Yeah my spelling is off. I could care less about it i have more important things to care about like Keeping my offices servers up time at over 99% year after year. Yeah i could check grammar I’m sure it’s all off but then i would have less time saving the company i work for money year after year. My spelling might be off and my grammar is not perfect but my increasing 6 figure income and the happiness of my users and bosses matters to me not petty crap.
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April 5, 2009 at 12:45 am
Gars:
Edge-to-Edge HD Widescreen 16.0 inch WLED LCD (1366×768) W/2.0 MP
That’s a really sad resolution. It makes me want to cry.
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April 7, 2009 at 5:32 pm
Gars: Some people prefer not to go with eye-bleeding 1920×1200 for many reasons. Having used a 15.4″ 1920×1200 display, I can tell you that prolonged use would have made you go blind.
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April 21, 2009 at 3:58 pm
interval:
@gremme: “…you also are buying into the mac experience and lifestyle.”
You’re kidding, right? I suppose you consider buying a box of Cherios a life-changing experience as well?
February 19, 2009 at 1:30 pm
gremme: