“If you caught the Mac Pro’s introduction during last week’s Worldwide Developers Conference keynote, you know that Phil Schiller, Apple’s senior vice president for worldwide product marketing, punctuated his demo of the new high-end desktop by uttering the ‘D’ word—Dell. Specifically, Schiller brought up Dell to compare its price to the standard 2.66GHz Mac Pro Quad’s $2,499 price tag. By Schiller’s math, a similarly configured Dell Precision 690 would run you $3,448—around $950 more than the Mac Pro,” Dan Frakes reports for Macworld.
Frakes reports, “That’s an eye-catching figure, especially in light of the widely held perception that Macs are more expensive than their PC counterparts. But is it an accurate figure? To double-check Apple’s math, I went on a virtual shopping spree. My mission: configure a Mac Pro and a comparably-featured Dell model and see how their prices measured up.”
Frakes found that “the significance of the Mac Pro, from a price perspective, is not that it’s debatably price-competitive with somewhat similar offerings from Dell (and other Windows-PC vendors); rather, it’s that the Mac Pro is the first Mac in a long, long time that is unquestionably less expensive than its Windows counterparts in the same market segment.”
Full article, with price breakdown chart showing an Apple Mac Pro that’s US$1,347 less than a comparably-equipped Dell (plus the Dell can’t run Mac OS X) here.
Related MacDailyNews articles:
Microsoft Windows five times more expensive for users than Apple’s Mac OS X – August 15, 2006
Apple Mac Pro with/ 20” Cinema Display less expensive than Dell Precision 690 sans monitor – August 10, 2006
Bear Stearns: Apple’s new Mac Pro, Xserve pricing well below comparable Dell systems – August 09, 2006
Apple cuts prices across entire Cinema Display line – August 08, 2006
Dell warns of earnings miss; shares plunge 15% – July 21, 2006
Survey shows big jump in consumer interest in buying Apple Mac; Dell takes steep slide – July 06, 2006
The Wired 40: Apple #2, Microsoft drops to #36, Dell falls off list – June 28, 2006
Time Magazine on Apple’s 13-inch MacBook: ‘Dell and HP should be very worried’ – June 07, 2006
Apple passes Dell in market value – May 02, 2006
Dude, you got a Dell? What are you, stupid? Only Apple Macs run both Mac OS X and Windows! – April 05, 2006
All the barriers to entry in the Mac market are tumbling down.
Throw in a Windows XP Pro license and the Apple is STILL cheaper. Running OSX and Windows in one beautiful box (for those that need to)… is there really a choice here? People just need to taste OSX, then they’ll be hooked.
The article did not even include a monitor for the Mac. nor did it compare equally priced CD/DVD drives.
and then the dude shamelessly talks about Maximum Ram? Go ahead and add the prices for the Ram to your final price list. Infact pick the same for both then see the price difference.
and by the way Adding the “Maximum Ram” suggested to the price bumps it up by $5400, for the Mac Pro, thats already way beyond the $3,048 priced out for it.
Sorry but this article is misleading. Go to Dell online and go to apple store online and price these bitches out with comparable devices!
When i did it it was for the 3.00 Ghz Xeon processors and they were ~equally priced with the apple being only slightly higher.
Hooray for apple equally pricing their products!
( or is it? )
Steve Jobs said the decision to go to Intel was based on a FLOP/WATT ratio. Claiming that IBM could not make the performance to power ratio.
I think they used a price/FLOP ratio. And it may pay off. As long as Intel is able to offer one or two “premium” performance CPU’s that are on par with everybody else, this will be a good long term plan.
“price bumps it up by $5400”
okay.. that’s sane.
Sorry but this article is misleading. Go to Dell online and go to apple store online and price these bitches out with comparable devices!
And the Dell comes out with the HIGHEST price…
http://systemshootouts.org/shootouts/desktop/2006/0809_dt3200.html
And the Mac Pro comes with a 20″ Cinema Display even and still cheaper!
I hate to say this, but the Dell includes a $250 Dell 19” UltraSharp 1907FP monitor, which I guess you could purchase and use with the Mac Pro; Apples 20″ Cinema Display is $699. They should do something about they’re display prices. They didn’t figure that into the price. Please don’t shoot the messnger.
We had Dells once at work, never again. Still haven’t gone fully over to Apple though. Gotta keep evangelising
Indeed… Said..
“And the Dell comes out with the HIGHEST price…
http://systemshootouts.org/shootouts/desktop/2006/0809_dt3200.html
And the Mac Pro comes with a 20″ Cinema Display even and still cheaper!”
Care to tell me why in the final price list the author of that article decides to charge 2 Xeon processors upgrades when no other website does that when they compare the 690 against the Mac Pro?
On System Shootout website:
For the DELL
Base system price: $1,579
2.66 GHz Dual Core Xeon upgrade: $520
Second 2.0 GHz Dual Core upgrade: $869
For the MAC PRO
Base system price: $2,124
+ 2x 2.66 GHz Dual Core Xeon Upgrade: $300
Do me a favour try pricing it yourself, TODAY. I cant even find a Xeon 2.66ghz 690 on the DELL website all they have is 3.00 GHZ and up.
Will somebody please tell me why Macs don’t come with more RAM?? I find it frustrating that although I am willing to put down $2500 on a new MacPro, I have to spend an extra $300 for 1 Gig more RAM, and $1100 for 2 more Gigs! WHY??? Anybody??
Dear AL,
The RAM prices are as such because like ipod gear “THAT’S HOW THEY GET YOU”
Bais/Bias.. dude you cant spell, but you do have a point.
Thanks for wasting our time cause we still are going to get an Apple, becasue in the long run Macs are cheaper to maintain.
Yes I agree it is rather difficult to find anything on the Dell site.
Care to tell me why in the final price list the author of that article decides to charge 2 Xeon processors upgrades when no other website does that when they compare the 690 against the Mac Pro?
Care to tell me what is the point of comparing a single Xeon Dual Core processor price with a Mac Pro that HAS two Xeon Dual Core?
What’s the point in comparing Apple to a Banana?
If you want a 690 with TWO Dual Core Xeon as the Mac Pro those are the prices.
Comparison is with EQUALLY (to the best match possible) configured systems, otherwise what is the point?
Getting OS X, the most advanced operating system in the world, justifies any kind of plastic box from Dell.
“Will somebody please tell me why Macs don’t come with more RAM?? I find it frustrating that although I am willing to put down $2500 on a new MacPro, I have to spend an extra $300 for 1 Gig more RAM, and $1100 for 2 more Gigs! WHY??? Anybody??”
I can’t think of any reason other than Apple’s marketing strategy, which is based on fixed price points for each of their systems. They don’t have to do what Dell does, which is to change pricing literally every day. Try pricing the same system on different days (sometimes even hour to hour on the website), and you will see significant changes. Dell does this to balance inventory of components in their buid-to-order system. Apple’s manufacturing is note really BTO.
This is especially relevant to memory, because it is priced as a commodity, with pretty significant changes possible in short periods of time. Apple doesn’t want to have to factor volitile memory pricing into their costingof systems, so they keep it to a minimum. This let’s them keep the price of a system steady for long periods of time.
By the way, this also let’s Apple increase their margins during a product cycle, as the processors of a given speed get cheaper in its life cycle. They then upgrade to a faster CPU at the original cost of the earlier processor, and the cycle begins again.
Compare with Dell, where you can probably still buy a 1MHZ pentium for dirt cheap, if you want it. (No, I’m not going to check Dell myself)
Mac Pro
Suggested configuration:
Two 2.66GHz Dual-Core Intel Xeon “Woodcrest” processors
4MB shared L2 cache per processor
1.33GHz dual independent frontside buses
1GB memory (667MHz DDR2 fully-buffered DIMM ECC)
NVIDIA GeForce 7300 GT graphics with 256MB memory
250GB Serial ATA 3Gb/s 7200-rpm hard drive1
16x double-layer SuperDrive (DVD+R DL/DVD±RW/CD-RW)
$2,499.00
or as low as $59 a month
Ships: Within 24 hours
Free Shipping
Shall configure a Dell with same stuff? Wonder about the price?
Oh wait, Dell offers a two dual Pentium D that cost about the same as the Mac Pro. Worth comparing…NOT!
Care to tell me why in the final price list the author of that article decides to charge 2 Xeon processors upgrades when no other website does that when they compare the 690 against the Mac Pro?
So a single dual core costs less that a Quad core? (two dual Xeon core)
WOW, I couldn’t even imagine why is that!
Indeed… said
“Care to tell me what is the point of comparing a single Xeon Dual Core processor price with a Mac Pro that HAS two Xeon Dual Core?
What’s the point in comparing Apple to a Banana?”
The Dell website already comes with one processor installed (no charge for that), and you have an option to purchase a seconrdary one.
The author of the website you included in your post charges for TWO of them separately, when this is not the case at all on the Dell website.
What the folks at system shoot out should have done is not charge for the primary chip. which lowers the price by $520 for the dell, which makes it.. still cheaper than the Mac. (according to the website you suggested)
Please fire your fact checker.
naaa naaa naa, i can’t hear you (fingers in ears) dells are cheaper, macs are expensive, laaaaa laaaaaaa
MDN – “Full article, with price breakdown chart showing an Apple Mac Pro that’s US$1,347 less than a comparably-equipped Dell”
The hint is: COMPARABLY-EQUIPPED.
If you get a base Dell offering for less than the Mac Pro for less… frankly…
who gives a fsck care? You get cheaper because you get less.
It’s not rocket science… or is it?
The Dell comes with ONE Xeon at 2 GHz. You have to pay more for two Dual Core Xeon at 2.6 GHz.
Processeur Intel® Xeon® 5130 Dual-Core (2GHz, 4Mo L2 Cache, 1333MHz FSB)
and the above costs 2199 Euros or over 2800 US$
for a SINGLE dual core Xeon at 2.0 GHz.
Again, compare equally equipped computer please.
It’s a waste of time but here we go…
said…
“The hint is: COMPARABLY-EQUIPPED.”
Shouldnt that mean that you should put a price point down for your RAM and not say “Maximum Ram”
If you want to be comparabe at least get the basics specs of a machine (like RAM Allocation) ironed out on paper before making that statement.
I dont mind not including a monitor and other peripherals or even software for that matter, but i will not tolerate basic specs being left out. That is misleading.
Dell Precision 690-One Intel® Xeon® 5130 (2.0GHz,1333,4MB) 1KW [base price]
Dell Precision 690-One Intel® Xeon® 5140 (2.33GHz,1333,4MB) 1KW [add 144,00]
Dell Precision 690-One Intel® Xeon® 5150 (2.66GHz,1333,4MB) 1KW [add 391,00]
Dell Precision 690-One Intel® Xeon® 5160 (3.0GHz,1333,4MB) 1KW [add 824,00]
to base price of 2199 Euros.
Having TWO dual Xeon costs about 1000€ more a whopping $4073
I am not even adding other stuff like hard disk, memory and bundled software.
Fire YOUR fact checker
Indeed…
I dont know what website you are looking at but from the way you spelled “Processeur” it sounds kinda out of the USA to me.
ANYHOW i am comparing USA price points and i cannot find a 2.0 ghz or a 2.66 ghz xeon processor on the USA DELL website.
Like spyinthesky said the DELL website is a difficult mother to surf through.
If your price points are indeed outside of the USA and you priced the apple to be lower than kudos to you as I will not goto a different region and price their product.
Configuring the Mac Pro with 2 GB memory (equal to the 2GB included in Dell price) I get from Dell:
Dell, ONE dual Xeon 2.66 GHz : 2792 €
Mac Pro, TWO dual Xeon 2.66 GHz: 2799 €
to have TWO dual Xeon 2.66 GHz Dell (over the phone) charges almost 700 € for over 3500 €
Pretty easy to check – with Dell – that they cannot get me a Mac Pro configuration for 2800 €. I need to cash out 800 € more.
AND, I cannot run as well OS X there.
On the Mac Pro I can run OS X and Windows. If I have to include the bundled sw that comes with the Mac Pro… not even worth looking at how much I would have to pay for a similarly configured Dell wrt the Mac Pro.