Apple Loved You Pro Users; Loves Your Money More, Now
Linked by Universal Mind on Fri 6th Aug 2010 16:16 UTC
Apple The "Macs are too expensive" argument is one of the most tiresome and long-lived flamewars in internet history. Obviously, Apple makes a premium product and charges premium prices, and you can always find a computer from another vendor that seems to match or exceed specs that costs less. But if you look at Apple's Mac Pro line, and compare it not so much to other vendors, but to the past lineup of Mac Pros, you discover some very unpleasant truths that help explain why Apple is enjoying record earnings for their Mac line, but doing so to the detriment of some its most loyal and valuable customers.
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alcibiades
Member since:
2005-10-12

My interest is not that there is a Mac product I want, so I look around and try to get it cheaper, and may or may not.

My interest is, I (or a client) have a need, and this need can be met with a given hardware configuration available from a variety of sources in the market. I look and see, does Apple have anything competitive.

90%+ of the time, the answer is no. You want to match it, you have to buy more than you need, or get less than you need. The result of this is what interests me and my clients: buying Apple results in spending more money and getting nothing for it, or else it results in spending the same amount of money, and geting less than you need. In short, 90%+ of the time, its just stupid.

The classic case this occurs with is the Mini. What you get with the Mini is mediocre performance at an inflated price, but with something quite exceptional in addition: its a machine you can carry around in your coat pocket.

Try and duplicate that functionality at a cheaper price, in general, you cannot. Well, with Intel mini ITX boards for i3 and Core2, maybe you are becoming able to now. Until recently it was impossible.

But do you really, really need to carry it around in your coat pocket? When that feature costs you a few hundred dollars? 90%+ of the time you don't. Or you want more performance. So buying Apple will, as usual, lead you to less performance or more cost. In short, most of the time, its stupid and a waste of money.

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