Apple Online Store“Loyalty comes at a price. For Apple, it’s between $1,600 and $4,100,” Jason Notte writes for TheStreet. “With the launch of its iPad tablet last month, Apple established the four pillars of its tech toy box. If you want to be Steve Jobs’ best buddy and become the most design-savvy techie in the coffee shop, you’ll need an iPod, iPhone, iPad and MacBook.”

MacDailyNews Take: All iPhones contain iPods, so Jason’s math is going to have issues throughout the rest of his article.

Notte continues, “The Apple clique’s minimum buy-in — which would cover a featureless iPod Shuffle, an aging and flawed iPhone 3G, an iPad with as much memory as your iPhone and a MacBook that hasn’t gone Pro — is $1,656.”

MacDailyNews Take: Apple’s iPod shuffle isn’t “featureless” at all. See all of iPod shuffle’s features right here. Although they’re really quite cool, especially for runners, as we said above: You don’t need one if you have an “aging and flawed” iPhone 3G (chuckle), so subtract that.

Notte continues, “Though Apple’s quality starts to outpace the pack in the upper echelons, so does the price. Amassing all of Apple’s mid-range models — an 8-gigabyte iPod Touch, a 16-gigabyte iPhone 3GS, a 64-gigabyte wi-fi-only iPad and a 160-gigabyte MacBook Pro — would cost $2,296.”

MacDailyNews Take: Again, iPhone contains an iPod touch, so subtract again.

Notte continues, “On the high end, a 64-gigabyte iPod Touch, a 32-gigabyte iPhone 3GS, a 64-gigabyte 3G/wi-fi iPad and a 17-inch MacBook Pro with a 500-gigabyte hard drive would set fanboys back $4,026.”

MacDailyNews Take: Subtract out that US$399 for the 64 GB iPod touch.

Notte continues, “Apple’s anchor MacBook has earned its keep so far, contributing to a 22% increase in computer shipments in the fourth quarter from a year earlier, Gartner says. ‘Apple laptops end up at the top of the list in every size category,’ says Paul Reynolds, Consumer Reports‘ electronics editor. ‘Apple’s tech support is also still better than that of any PC company.’”

“This sums up the Apple cult,” Notte writes. “There may be cheaper, leaner, more functional devices out there, but who wants them? Apple’s users want toys they can use without taking night school courses that will be durable enough to keep them out of Best Buy for years at a stretch.”

Full article here.

MacDailyNews Take: With Apple products, you get what you pay for. For people who understand quality, ecosystems, innovation, resale value, and Total Cost of Ownership, choosing Apple is a no brainer.