“At the low end… PC desktops are marginally less expensive than the Macs — if you can do without their connectivity and multimedia capabilities — and considerably more expensive if you can’t. At the very high end, however, all of the design focus is on multimedia processing and the PCs simply aren’t competitive from either hardware or cost perspectives,” Paul Murphy writes for LinuxInsider.
“So, bottom line, are PCs cheaper than Macs? No, despite what you read in the PC press, it’s the other way around. Compare Apples to apples, and Macs are cheaper than PCs,” Murphy writes.
Read Mr. Murphy’s reasoning here.
I just explained this to a PC person ready to switch over to a Mac. She was all hung up on the myth that Macs are soooooo expensive. But after the conversation, she saw the light.
Cool. The truth is out.
Yeah, Apple’s Macs are not “cheap” as in CHEAP but they’re not expensive considering what you get.
Here’s a reference about what you get for $799 (eMac)
http://www.mac360.com/index.php/mac360/more/bargain_power_a_799_mac_with_power_to_burn/
http://www.mac360.com/index.php/mac360/more/wither_art_thou_low_end_mac/
It’s surprising how many people think Macs are expensive. Both these sites specialize in Low End Mac information.
http://www.lowendmac.com
http://www.mac360.com
eMacs are only $799 now and come with AppleWorks and MacOS X. AppleWorks is a real bargain over anything on Windows.
http://www.mac360.com/index.php/mac360/more/the_best_and_worst_of_appleworks/
Sorry Charlie…
You can get a cheap pc for under $300. That is less than half the eMac’s $799 – far from “marginally” cheaper.
You can get a cheap pc laptop for $598. That is about $500 less than the lowest iBook. Again, not exactly “marginal” for a high school or college student on a budget.
The features comparison is valid; where Murphy fudges the issue is in the initial cost of entry at the bottom end. And when we talk “cheap” isn’t that what we’re talking about?
Smart consumers have known this now for some time. Now if we could only educate the clueless sheep that Dell and the Wintel empire have brainwashed all these years.
Yeah, but that cheap $349 desktop won’t do half of what that $799 eMac will do. So again as the article states, start comparing Apples to Apples, instead of Apples to Crap. You get what you pay for and $349 gets you nothing but cheap crap. Same goes for any $599 laptop you’ll ever find on sale too.
So what? There are not great hordes of Windows users rushing to the nearest Apple Store.
Why? Ignorance (deficit of knowledge and analytical capacity), prejudice (deficit of character), lack of cash to buy a new computer (deficit of resources), and/or fear of the unfamiliar (deficit of desire).
Only those Windows users with objectivity, open-mindedness, financial means, and willingness to change will be convinced after reading this article to switch to Mac.
For the rest of �em, it�s life as usual.
How many folks go to Dell’s web site to purchase the cheap PC and end up spending $1,000 once they option the computer and add software to do what Apple’s iLife suite does? My guess is many end up spending much more than the lowest advertised price. It is a loss leader meant to drive traffic. It works (better than the actual computers do).
The cheap $349 desktops I have seen do not come with a monitor and usually have Lindows (oops Linspire) installed.
ive been saying this for a long time to pc users, it should also be added that windows sucks
new imac…coming soon to a desk near you.
Xenon,
Sure, they’re cheap, but what do you get for your money? On a feature-by-feature comparison, the base Macs give you a lot more. It’s way past time people made the distinction between “cost” and “value”.
“You can get a cheap pc for under $300. That is less than half the eMac’s $799 – far from ‘marginally’ cheaper.”
Well, as the article points out, the “under $300” PC won’t include ethernet, will have lousy graphics, etc. If you can do without these things, you can pick up a good deal.
You’re right–if I’m using my PC as a cash register or to print mailing labels for shipping, I certainly don’t need all the extras that an eMac gives me. I’d be silly to spend $799 for a machine if all it was going to do is print mailing labels.
Also, in order to be “fair”, the person who wrote the article is comparing major manufacturers against major manufacturers. Obviously, your brother could build you a good machine for cheaper than it would cost you to buy an eMac.
xenon, show me some ads for a PC (with Windows included) for under $300.
Compare what you get with the the cheapo PC to the base model eMac.
– high quality monitor (have you seen some of the PC monitors?)
– ethernet built in
– wireless capable
– non-Linux OS (it’s not what people use in numbers)
– CD/DVD-ROM
– AppleWorks equivalent
Add it all up and most cheapo PCs are not quite so cheap.
http://www.mac360.com/index.php/mac360/more/bargain_power_a_799_mac_with_power_to_burn/
Sure, you can get a lot of computers cheaper than a Mac. I’ll even sell you my Dull 1.8 at half price, which is cheaper than an eMac.
You see, I’m getting rid of it because I’m bloody tired of the crap that goes along with Windows. Been there, done that and now I’ll never go back to Windows. Not even for Longhorn.
Basically you get what you pay for (if you’re lucky) and you pay for what you get. There is an “apple Tax” on each box because the cost per unit of OS X is more than PC makers pay for XP Home, or Linux. Add to that the other little things like iLife and a lot of other little Mac apps, customer service by Apple employees (who are NOT in India) who actually give a damn about solving your problems and some time & money actually put into styling products that don’t look like high school projects and it’s easy to see where the money goes.
If you think a really cheap PC (purchased or build for $500) is the way to go then get one – and come back and tell us how great it is in 2 years.
ECT News Network produces these titles: E-Commerce Times, TechNewsWorld, MacNewsWorld, CRM Buyer & LinuxInsider
Why was this article on LinuxInsider? All of the other titles are more appropriate place to publish.
Remember MacNewsWorld had those Enderle vs Chaffin Death Match articles.
This is a troll article from a tabloid source, they don’t support Mac or Linux, they just try to cause controversy to get hits. This seems like an attempt to get Linux users riled and start a flame war with Mac users.
Boycott ECT, well at least be forewarned that they’re just after hits.
If you go to the usual Apple sites on the web you’ll see Apple fans constantly complaining about the price of Apple products. Old habits die hard I guess. Facts are useless with them. They also complain about GHz when PC users no longer are concerned. Go figure.
OT What’s with the share price and very high trading volumes today? Some insider know something we don’t?
http://finance.yahoo.com/q/bc?t=1d&s=AAPL&l=on&z=m&q=l&c=msft,dell,hpq&c=^IXIC
what about return on investment? the frequently forgotten about value rating? ROI?
an average PC is out of commission from worms, trojans, viruses or bad Microsoft updates on average of full working days a year. let me tell ya – since we have no IT department in our small office of Macs and PCs, i lose no less than 20 billing days a year to fixing somebody else’s problems. lets put that in perspective – I bill out $1400 a day when i am using my mac, but cost our company when i have to fix
correction, that is 8 FULL WORKING DAYS a year. our company loses more than 20 full working man days a year from that.
Gandalf…it’s probably due to the fact that HP will be announcing their version of the iPod tomorrow and new iMacs are expected early next week.
YES, PCs are cheap, that’s why you “get what you pay for; CHEAP”!
yeah, those $600 Dells you hear about are vastly underpowered… when you customize it on the website, it’ll probably come out to around 1000-1100
about the same as an eMac…
if you want to play all those windows games.. it better be around $2000 i shit you not
Thurrotts $400 gaming PC does not exist (he’s still playing Doom 3 on this imaginary cheap dell)
You can build a good gaming PC on your own for around $1,000 (sans display) if you know what you’re doing and buy your components on sale from multiple sources. But most consumers don’t have the knowledge or patience to mess with all of that though. Besides, you can “game” good enough on a $149 console anyway. I’d much rather have the better computer (Mac) myself.