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A good chunk of your money is buying a brand name, and contributing to Apple's higher margins. Ah, but the question is: Which chunk? How much of the money buys

A good chunk of your money is buying a brand name, and contributing to Apple's higher margins. Ah, but the question is: Which chunk? How much of the money buys the brand, and how much buys the OS? The answer is that we aren't allowed to know. So the question doesn't really come into play. It's clear that if you could save money by buying a box without Apple's brand, or their industrial design, but with the Mac OS a lot of people would be interested. Probably including me. But that's not Apple's game plan, for good reasons that were explored back in the Mac clone era, a time when (probably not by coincidence) the company nearly went out of business. As it is, you're stuck with the whole package. So the question is: How much is the Mac OS worth to you? Given that even if I accept all of this guy's arguments the price difference is of order $600 to $800 -- less than 10 hours of my time -- the Mac OS doesn't have to save me much time or pain at all over the lifetime of the machine to justify the higher cost. The real lesson here is that both PC and Mac hardware are cheap. Compared to many people's time, hardware is cheap. Compared to a developer's time it is really, really cheap. The Mac-PC pricing flame war is obsolete; it's a relic from the Elder Days when Macs cost $3000 to $5000 and didn't even run Unix.

thorax 18y ago
I disagree a lot on the relevancy of prices. When you're a startup or a family looking to buy a handful of machines, the extra $800 adds up quickly to cut in half (roughly) the number of machines you can afford. Do I get a Mac for me or do I get a PC for both my wife and myself? Do I put off upgrading some employees to more modern hardware or buy fewer of them Macs? I really do want to use more Macs around here, but the economics don't make sense at the current price points. I welcome a drop in price which could get Mac a great deal of marketshare.
- thorax 18y ago
  Which makes me wonder if we're going to see something crazy: What if Apple's new announcement this year will be a lower-priced Mac notebook with built-in 3G-- price-subsidized by carriers to make it feel more competitive? How many of you would buy the Macbook 3G?
  - elai 18y ago
    It more depends on the carriers than the laptop. Many laptops have a "built in 3g" card option to order, but it's not significantly popular outside of business due to carrier retardation.
  - netcan 18y ago
    I wouldn't be surprised if apple is considering that route. Especially now after they've successfully bamboozled carriers with the iphone. But I actually think that the cheap ultra-portables (eg Eee) wuld have the edge here. If we take the mobile phone industry as a guide, the carriers will probably pay up to about $150 - $250 to get you on a $30 - $50 p/m plan. That doesn't make too much dent in an Air. If you bundle it with home broadband plan (maybe they'd subsidise $300) they could give out mini laptops for free or at $100 or so. Apple is actually in a spot. Experience & connections with carriers that no one else has, but no product to which a few 100s makes much of a difference.

thorax 18y ago

I disagree a lot on the relevancy of prices. When you're a startup or a family looking to buy a handful of machines, the extra $800 adds up quickly to cut in half (roughly) the number of machines you can afford. Do I get a Mac for me or do I get a PC for both my wife and myself? Do I put off upgrading some employees to more modern hardware or buy fewer of them Macs? I really do want to use more Macs around here, but the economics don't make sense at the current price points. I welcome a drop in price which could get Mac a great deal of marketshare.

thorax 18y ago
Which makes me wonder if we're going to see something crazy: What if Apple's new announcement this year will be a lower-priced Mac notebook with built-in 3G-- price-subsidized by carriers to make it feel more competitive? How many of you would buy the Macbook 3G?
- elai 18y ago
  It more depends on the carriers than the laptop. Many laptops have a "built in 3g" card option to order, but it's not significantly popular outside of business due to carrier retardation.
- netcan 18y ago
  I wouldn't be surprised if apple is considering that route. Especially now after they've successfully bamboozled carriers with the iphone. But I actually think that the cheap ultra-portables (eg Eee) wuld have the edge here. If we take the mobile phone industry as a guide, the carriers will probably pay up to about $150 - $250 to get you on a $30 - $50 p/m plan. That doesn't make too much dent in an Air. If you bundle it with home broadband plan (maybe they'd subsidise $300) they could give out mini laptops for free or at $100 or so. Apple is actually in a spot. Experience & connections with carriers that no one else has, but no product to which a few 100s makes much of a difference.