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I'm still not sure why people are so fascinated by this. I don't know of any blog articles complaining about the porsche boxster: "but look! it's jussstt like t

I'm still not sure why people are so fascinated by this. I don't know of any blog articles complaining about the porsche boxster: "but look! it's jussstt like the pontiac solstice!" It's just the way it is. Of course "the way it is" happens to embody a significant amount of contemporary economic theory.

axod 18y ago
I agree. It's a weird phenomenon. People just don't question high performance sports cars. They seem to understand why someone would want to pay a lot of money for a porche, but they don't seem to understand why people would want to pay slightly more for a mac :/ A mac isn't even in the same league though. A luxury sports car could be 10x the price of a comparable 'standard' car. Mac's are only slightly more expensive than other some cheapy laptops. I'll just stick with my Macs though :) edit: That 'advert' is completely bizarre.
- elai 18y ago
  I totally question why someone would purchase a high performance sport car. 10 to 100 times the price of an already very expensive thing for performance you can't legally use and a nicer looking design. They're nice, but they're not $200'000 nice for a marginal increase in power, ability, & a nice body panel design. Plus you can get motorbikes that would beat any ferrari for the same price as a prius.
  - eugenejen 18y ago
    You forget that exotic cars arouse female interests in owners of the cars. That's what the owner pays for the price difference. At the other hand, an exotic laptop doesn't arouse female interest in their owner. Probably they know it is just $700 difference.
  - jodrellblank 18y ago
    If you can and would pay 10 to 100 times the price, then you wouldn't describe the original thing as "very expensive". (A prius doesn't cost an arm and a leg. boom boom.)
  - axod 18y ago
    If you have the money, of course you're going to spend 100x the price to get the best. Getting a performance car isn't about the top speed, or performance in itself, it's a status symbol, a big toy, something to marvel over, something to show people, etc etc etc (I don't have one BTW.... yet).
    - ericwaller 18y ago
      To me, sports cars are about appreciating the bleeding edge in engineering/design (I don't have one either.. haha). And I think anytime a product is priced at 100x it's functional equivalents it's about connoisseurship. Now I'm not saying that macs are a work of art (though OSX is in many ways the cutting edge of UI design), but they also aren't 100x the cost, maybe just +50%.
orib 18y ago
Culturally, cars are status symbols. Computers aren't (except in small geek circles, sometimes). When you pay extra for a car, you're paying for prestige. When you pay extra for a computer... well... you're paying extra. Apple is trying to change this, and for some people it seems to be working. (As for me, I wouldn't spend extra on a fancy car either, unless it had some significant technical advantages)
jacobscott 18y ago
By having a unique product in terms of operating system and hardware design, Apple avoids their products becoming commodities. Thus they aren't subject to the same economic forces as Acer (jeez, how can you compare Apple to Acer, anyway...). I'm not an economist but I wonder how much profit they get from positioning as a luxury good and how much from having a unique, single-vendor non-commodity product "ecosystem" that includes things like the iPhone, iPod, etc.
- notauser 18y ago
  Acer actually do make some nice laptops, no, really, I'm not kidding. There are a few sexy/slim/light ones. But they are not the laptops they sell for $399. Those are pretty much not laptops but rather movable computers - they serve _a_ purpose, but not the same purpose as a portable laptop.
cturner 18y ago
If the supercar experience is what you want in a computer you'll be running unix or something more obscure on souped up hardware. Maybe the Mac Pro rates here (it would be a lot more certain if you could practically separate Darwin from the candy), but there's no way the macbook equates to a supercar. Careful with those car anologies - I have heard people make remarks like that about Volvos.
- ericwaller 18y ago
  I intentionally picked the boxster because it is by no means a supercar. It's a reasonably priced sports car (<50k) from a well respected brand. The analogy works for any class of car, or any consumer product. That's the argument, really -- that this is a pervasive phenomenon, but we only seem hear about it in regards to laptops.
zhyder 18y ago
The reason the arguing never ends is because the Mac faithful deny that a Mac is actually more expensive. No one would say "but the Solstice is the same price as the Boxster, if you just drop a more powerful engine in the Solstice..."
kyro 18y ago
Yeah, you're right. A Civic with an Integra Type-R engine isn't an Integra Type-R, although it may go just as fast. There's more than just power metrics. The 'Mac aura' is a big part in why Apple has been so successful. I've never understood why people tend to downplay the 'aura.' Most of us find meaning in design and aesthetics. I know I do. I made the switch to Mac after 18 years of using Windows, and every extra penny spent was well worth it; and I can speak for another 20 I know that have done and feel the same. I've seen many comments here that express the same sentiment in the article. And it's funny, you'd think those that are trying to build a strong user base by providing their users with the best product experience possible (mostly UI focused) would see that there's great importance to be found in aesthetics. By dismissing the 'aura' and being 'hip' you neglect a big part of what makes us humans. We all want to be cool, and we all want others to admire our design choices, at least most of us do -- a majority not accurately represented by this community. And from a purely business standpoint, positioning your product to appeal to this part of the human psyche can reap huge rewards. If you can fulfill those wants, people will pay.

axod 18y ago

I agree. It's a weird phenomenon. People just don't question high performance sports cars. They seem to understand why someone would want to pay a lot of money for a porche, but they don't seem to understand why people would want to pay slightly more for a mac :/ A mac isn't even in the same league though. A luxury sports car could be 10x the price of a comparable 'standard' car. Mac's are only slightly more expensive than other some cheapy laptops. I'll just stick with my Macs though :) edit: That 'advert' is completely bizarre.

elai 18y ago
I totally question why someone would purchase a high performance sport car. 10 to 100 times the price of an already very expensive thing for performance you can't legally use and a nicer looking design. They're nice, but they're not $200'000 nice for a marginal increase in power, ability, & a nice body panel design. Plus you can get motorbikes that would beat any ferrari for the same price as a prius.
- eugenejen 18y ago
  You forget that exotic cars arouse female interests in owners of the cars. That's what the owner pays for the price difference. At the other hand, an exotic laptop doesn't arouse female interest in their owner. Probably they know it is just $700 difference.
- jodrellblank 18y ago
  If you can and would pay 10 to 100 times the price, then you wouldn't describe the original thing as "very expensive". (A prius doesn't cost an arm and a leg. boom boom.)
- axod 18y ago
  If you have the money, of course you're going to spend 100x the price to get the best. Getting a performance car isn't about the top speed, or performance in itself, it's a status symbol, a big toy, something to marvel over, something to show people, etc etc etc (I don't have one BTW.... yet).
  - ericwaller 18y ago
    To me, sports cars are about appreciating the bleeding edge in engineering/design (I don't have one either.. haha). And I think anytime a product is priced at 100x it's functional equivalents it's about connoisseurship. Now I'm not saying that macs are a work of art (though OSX is in many ways the cutting edge of UI design), but they also aren't 100x the cost, maybe just +50%.

orib 18y ago

Culturally, cars are status symbols. Computers aren't (except in small geek circles, sometimes). When you pay extra for a car, you're paying for prestige. When you pay extra for a computer... well... you're paying extra. Apple is trying to change this, and for some people it seems to be working. (As for me, I wouldn't spend extra on a fancy car either, unless it had some significant technical advantages)

jacobscott 18y ago

By having a unique product in terms of operating system and hardware design, Apple avoids their products becoming commodities. Thus they aren't subject to the same economic forces as Acer (jeez, how can you compare Apple to Acer, anyway...). I'm not an economist but I wonder how much profit they get from positioning as a luxury good and how much from having a unique, single-vendor non-commodity product "ecosystem" that includes things like the iPhone, iPod, etc.

notauser 18y ago
Acer actually do make some nice laptops, no, really, I'm not kidding. There are a few sexy/slim/light ones. But they are not the laptops they sell for $399. Those are pretty much not laptops but rather movable computers - they serve _a_ purpose, but not the same purpose as a portable laptop.

cturner 18y ago

If the supercar experience is what you want in a computer you'll be running unix or something more obscure on souped up hardware. Maybe the Mac Pro rates here (it would be a lot more certain if you could practically separate Darwin from the candy), but there's no way the macbook equates to a supercar. Careful with those car anologies - I have heard people make remarks like that about Volvos.

ericwaller 18y ago
I intentionally picked the boxster because it is by no means a supercar. It's a reasonably priced sports car (<50k) from a well respected brand. The analogy works for any class of car, or any consumer product. That's the argument, really -- that this is a pervasive phenomenon, but we only seem hear about it in regards to laptops.

zhyder 18y ago

The reason the arguing never ends is because the Mac faithful deny that a Mac is actually more expensive. No one would say "but the Solstice is the same price as the Boxster, if you just drop a more powerful engine in the Solstice..."

kyro 18y ago

Yeah, you're right. A Civic with an Integra Type-R engine isn't an Integra Type-R, although it may go just as fast. There's more than just power metrics. The 'Mac aura' is a big part in why Apple has been so successful. I've never understood why people tend to downplay the 'aura.' Most of us find meaning in design and aesthetics. I know I do. I made the switch to Mac after 18 years of using Windows, and every extra penny spent was well worth it; and I can speak for another 20 I know that have done and feel the same. I've seen many comments here that express the same sentiment in the article. And it's funny, you'd think those that are trying to build a strong user base by providing their users with the best product experience possible (mostly UI focused) would see that there's great importance to be found in aesthetics. By dismissing the 'aura' and being 'hip' you neglect a big part of what makes us humans. We all want to be cool, and we all want others to admire our design choices, at least most of us do -- a majority not accurately represented by this community. And from a purely business standpoint, positioning your product to appeal to this part of the human psyche can reap huge rewards. If you can fulfill those wants, people will pay.