Mac vs. PC costs

[Jarod Wilson]

On 06/20/2009 08:08 AM, Jack Coats wrote:
> Real numbers from real life installations are always fun to see.  Vs the
> FUD that M$ put out about how much more it cost to run Linux than M$
> products some time ago.
>
> I think most of us will concede that Mac costs more to acquire (initial and
> software) than PC based products.

I still disagree that its the huge gap people make it out to be, though 
with caveats. A unibody aluminum MacBook Pro with an LED backlit screen 
is NOT comparable to some random PC laptop with a flimsy, fugly plastic 
case and a non-LED screen. If you actually try to spec out an attractive 
PC laptop with similar features across the board, not just cpu/hard 
drive/memory, there's really not all that much price difference. The 
main difference is that you can buy really really cheap PC laptops, 
while the bar is much higher for a Mac laptop.

Some examples:

The Dell Adamo, Dell's supposed answer to the MacBook Air, actually 
costs *more* than the MacBook Air, last I looked, and that was before 
Apple cut their prices down a few weeks ago. Features are pretty 
comparable on the two.

The current Dell laptop I'd put on par with the 15.4" MacBook Pro is the 
Studio XPS 16. Similarly decked out as the $1700 MBP, the XPS runs $1674 
(though admittedly w/a slightly larger HD and screen, the screen being 
of higher resolution).

The current Dell laptop I'd put on par with the 13" MacBook Pro is the 
Studio XPS 13. $1300 for the MBP, $1174 for the XPS, so a bit of an 
advantage for the Dell.

Oh, reasonably sure neither of the Dell XPS systems have backlit 
keyboards w/ambient light sensors that light them up like the MBPs, 
which, if you've used 'em, you *know* is a very cool feature.


> But I have no clue how the continuing costs really go.

The amount of money I've spent on repair, ongoing costs, whatever, for 
my c.2004 PowerBook is less than $200. I bought a new hard drive for it 
at one point (the original 80G got filled up) and upgraded the memory.

I'm sure others have contrary experiences, but in my personal 
experience, cost of ownership for both my PowerBook and my ThinkPad are 
pretty much identical. The PowerBook, despite being about four years 
older, is still a much nicer looking machine, and has the backlit 
keyboard spiffyness, while the ThinkPad has the "ThinkLight" (what a 
joke)...


> Some friends have related horror stories about getting their Macs
> maintained and failures, others think Apple walks on water.
>
> Reality must be somewhere in between.

Yup. They have their flaws. Its a BITCH replacing the hard drive in a 
PowerBook or a MacBook Pro. Its one screw in my ThinkPad.

--jarod