Apple is not overpriced

I think some have been overpriced and others not. I think a a lot of upgrades have been rather grotesquely overpriced.

I think the current line of Airs and the rMBP represent very good value for money.

It always depends on what you do with it, what you need it for, what is important to you.

Compared to a business workstation ala elitebook w series even the retina MBP is reasonably priced.
Compared to many business class notebooks there at least okay priced.
Compared to cheap notebooks for people that just need a bit of web access some word typing they are expensive. If you don't need the stuff enough it doesn't make any sense to shed out too much money.

The thing is they have only one line of notebooks. Maybe two if you count airs seperately. Not every series is for anybody. Some are a waste of money and overpriced. Some are cheap crap for others. It is a perspective thing.
Other companies usually have more lines.
BTW Alienware is considered seriously overpriced in the Gaming community too. Especially with the short life span those last given that they are soon too slow, Alienware is a waste.

If you buy a MBP for mostly gaming and some web surfing you are an idiot.

I'd say everyone is wasting money if he/she buys something that doesn't fit the needs or they pay for things that don't make any difference.
Say you buy a Enterprise grade SSD for your notebook like an Intel 710. That is overpriced for that use case and just idiotic to buy. Not every feature is worth paying for.

Mac also have one oddity about the pricing. Most manufacturers actually price smaller notebooks with similar parts higher than the bigger ones. Because stuff like a logicboard gets more expensive the smaller it must be. Apple always prices more towards what people are willing to pay rather than what it costs to produce. They can do it with their sort of monopoly in their Mac Area.

If you define overpriced as something that could be much cheaper if there was more competition and the companies would take a smaller margin than they definitely are overpriced. Given Apple yields some 30% margin on average.
The 13" ist probably the most reasonable priced one. 15" is much more expensive while probably only slightly more expensive to produce. So 15" are a lot more overpriced.

Yes, they are

My Macbook Pro 13" i5 Dual-Core 2.4Ghz / 8GB / 512MB Intel HD / 500GB@5400RPM / Aluminium Unibody was 1,400 Euros and my father's Asus 15" i5 Dual-Core 2.5Ghz / 8GB / 2GB Nvidia GDDR5 / 750GB@7200RPM / Aluminium Case was 800 Euros.

Now, the "little" things :

USB Ports : MBP 2 / Asus 3
Battery life : MBP 7 hours / Asus 5 hours
Backlit Keyboard : MBP yes / Asus no
Multitouch trackpad : MBP yes / Asus yes
Numpad : MBP no / Asus yes
HDMI : MBP no / Asus yes
Thunderbolt : MBP yes / Asus no
Blu Ray : MBP no / Asus yes
HD Speakers : MBP no / Asus yes
Sexy : MBP yes / Asus no

Overall, while I think the price gap has narrowed in Macs vs. PC's lately, the retina displays Apple is now changing to in both MBP laptops will once again price those out of reach for many people.

Hence, you'll continue to see a lot of MBA sales.

Yes, they are overpriced.

Yes, I will continue to buy them.

dusk007 said:

If you buy a MBP for mostly gaming and some web surfing you are an idiot.

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Hey, I resent that! I wanted a MacBook and I had the money for the retina. So I got it. I have no other major outgoings and it was a treat to myself. Why does that make me an idiot?!


I didn't think I needed an iPhone before I got one. You find uses.

Let's look at the Retina MacBook Pro. The laptop has absolutely no competition. How can anyone say a computer is overpriced when there is nothing from any other manufacturer that comes close? PC laptop makers are only now starting to incorporate Thunderbolt into their machines, my goodness!

It's all relative. Overpriced or not, there's no point in commenting. The unique aspect present amongst the Mac fanatics is their emotional, deeply personal connection to their inanimate objects. To upset them is to be irreverent.

For laptops, I'd say not really "overpriced" vs their competition (some of the other slim ones actually start higher and can price higher). Sure you can pick up the cheaper ones for less than a grand, but there's still that edge the MBs are worth getting for like the generally longer battery life and trackpad that's still tops (though windows laptops have made great improvements there) and the solid aluminum uni-build vs others that are more like plastic with aluminum panels stuck on (again they are getting much better than before though). Plus I enjoy being able to run OS/X and Win7 parallel for certain things.

Now for the desktops, way overpriced IMO. I had an iMac and it paled vs my much cheaper quad core HP at my office. And then I built an desktop for my home use for everything, even tied into my home theater that just blew the iMac away. Have an QC HP that was still better at home, but wanted to build a cool custom setup. Used a Mac Pro as well and still not worth the money even for a power users unless you must have a "mac and os/x" at that level.

NikkiJayne said:

Hey, I resent that! I wanted a MacBook and I had the money for the retina. So I got it. I have no other major outgoings and it was a treat to myself. Why does that make me an idiot?!

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You have to see it in respect to price. Naturally if you have unlimited money and the speed of the 650M is enough why not. Doesn't make it brilliant buy. It is not great value for the money though in respect to gaming.

If price is not a complete none issue and your primary concern is gaming there are better options. Notebooks with decent 1080p panels that offer faster GPUs and or cost so much less that you can buy a new one every 1.5 years for the price of a 4 yr rMBP. You can even add a small mobile Air to the mix.
Basically you can get the same for a lot less and more for still less.

You end up running Windows most of the time with the crap trackpad drivers and use a mouse anyway. A real Windows multitouch pad is better for browseing. Running OSX games puts the rMBP on equal footing with really cheap stuff.

Using it with a mouse in Gaming most of the time means it is barely as good as stuff that costs a fraction. That isn't smart. Might not matter to you if it is smart because you got the money but that doesn't make it a smart buy. Just makes it a luxury treat.

You compared ALIENWARE to APPLE. They are both overpriced. Looking at a 13" and 15" MBP, they are obviously overpriced. The air, not so much compared to the competition.

I think Apple is generally not as overpriced as people think. For instance, my MBA was a very good deal with the student discount, especially compared to the price of any similar ultrabook. What is overpriced are storage upgrades and heir refurbished products. I don't know of any other manufacturer that sells year old, used computers at almost their original price.

Used Apple products in general are a lot more expensive thn they should be (I saw a white plastic Macbook for sale recently for $600) but the good thhing about that is if you own one you can resell it easily and get most of your money back. My last laptop was $1300 new and two years later it was worthless. I sold the RAM out of it for $40 on eBay.

For base machines I agree with you OP

Apple gets expensive when you add on extra RAM and SSD's etc

sital said:

yes, they are overpriced.

Yes, i will continue to buy them.

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it's apple baby!

hamiltonDSi said:

Yes, they are

My Macbook Pro 13" i5 Dual-Core 2.4Ghz / 8GB / 512MB Intel HD / 500GB@5400RPM / Aluminium Unibody was 1,400 Euros and my father's Asus 15" i5 Dual-Core 2.5Ghz / 8GB / 2GB Nvidia GDDR5 / 750GB@7200RPM / Aluminium Case was 800 Euros.

Now, the "little" things :

USB Ports : MBP 2 / Asus 3
Battery life : MBP 7 hours / Asus 5 hours
Backlit Keyboard : MBP yes / Asus no
Multitouch trackpad : MBP yes / Asus yes
Numpad : MBP no / Asus yes
HDMI : MBP no / Asus yes
Thunderbolt : MBP yes / Asus no
Blu Ray : MBP no / Asus yes
HD Speakers : MBP no / Asus yes
Sexy : MBP yes / Asus no

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I'd caution against using the European pricing as an example for the difference. Apple tax seems to be considerably higher in the EU, even with student discounts and such.

Forkjulle said:

I have researched long and hard, and can't find a single computer that is less pricey when factoring in everything. I compared Alienware laptops to the rMBP and they're actually more pricey at times, and heavier and thicker etc. Perhaps more powerful, yes. But computing isn't only about brute power.

I've searched for ultra thin laptops and, while there are thinner ones than Apple, they aren't as powerful.

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The thing that most people don't realize is that everyone values money differently. Money is worth a lot more to someone who pays rent while making minimum wage, vs a student with financial backing form parents, vs someone who makes a comfortable salary.

Why is this relevant? Because this is how we evaluate whether a product with worth the asking price. Is the retina display worth ___? Is an aluminum body worth ____? Is the Apple logo worth ____? etc etc etc. For those that do not think that it is worth it - this product is overpriced.

Also, most people make improper comparisons of price/value. With the exception of Apple, other manufactures often have deals and coupons that significantly lower the price of the desired machine. These companies also have the ability to haggle with consumers. For example, I bought an Alienware M18x with a 25% off coupon - on top of other discounts; the inflated MSRP of about 4k dropped to a little over 2k.

Other companies also offer much better warranties for their premium products, which include accidental damage and next business day dispatch.

At the end of the day, I bought a rMBP because it fit my needs more than any other machine - and I understand that I am paying a premium for it to get it in this form factor. Do I believe it's overpriced? - My response is that Apple products are certainly not bargains.

minnus said:

My response is that Apple products are certainly not bargains.

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Nor are they intended to be. Apple could sell to the Wal-Mart bargain hunters if they wanted to. They have never expressed a want for this other than in their iOS mobile stuff. It costs what it costs. At the end of the day experience is paramount and they know certain discerning users will pay a premium for a good experience. Do you want to eat at a 5 star bistro or an all-you-can-eat buffet? Completely different consumer markets.

A Hebrew said:

You compared ALIENWARE to APPLE. They are both overpriced. Looking at a 13" and 15" MBP, they are obviously overpriced. The air, not so much compared to the competition.

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Alienware are definitely overpriced (my M17x R2 (6gb, 1.73 GHz i7, 2x300GB HDD) cost more than my MBPr (2.6/16/500 SSD)) though the Alienware has better gaming options (5 to 1 surround sound output, many more ports, 17 inch hi res screen looks more impressive for gaming, blu-ray burner makes it a good film watching PC, multicolour animated keyboard makes for a nice lightshow, face recognition logon, runs cooler than the MBPr

Both of them are a luxury item, and similar or even more power (with less credo) can be had for cheaper.

One thing about the Alienware though, at 7.5 Kg, it is more luggable than portable

Alienware also have crap batteries and break immediately.

Apple is overpriced imo, but I will still buy them too lol.

derbothaus said:

Nor are they intended to be. Apple could sell to the Wal-Mart bargain hunters if they wanted to. They have never expressed a want for this other than in their iOS mobile stuff. It costs what it costs. At the end of the day experience is paramount and they know certain discerning users will pay a premium for a good experience. Do you want to eat at a 5 star bistro or an all-you-can-eat buffet? Completely different consumer markets.

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You apparently ignored the first comment of my post which touches on essentially 'consumer markets'. At the end of the day, you do not believe it is overpriced. You can state as much without creating a poor analogy with food. To follow on that, I've been to enough '5 star' bistros to be able to confidently say that not all 5 star bistros are equal in terms of value, quality, and price. Back to computers, you are attempting to compare a $400 Dell with a $2000 Mac.

I don't think they're overpriced. Why? The trackpad. That's it for me.

..because apple has the best customer service and warranty i know! I feel confident buying their products.

minnus said:

You apparently ignored the first comment of my post which touches on essentially 'consumer markets'. At the end of the day, you do not believe it is overpriced. You can state as much without creating a poor analogy with food. To follow on that, I've been to enough '5 star' bistros to be able to confidently say that not all 5 star bistros are equal in terms of value, quality, and price. Back to computers, you are attempting to compare a $400 Dell with a $2000 Mac.

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Better than a car analogy. I am only comparing lame threads about the same stupid topics again and again and how everyone feels the need to compare PC's to Mac's by pure dollar definitions and hardware boxed costs. I just grabbed your last comment as a starting point. They are overpriced sometimes and usually but not always. I know, I know, contradiction. But that is what a prefrontal cortex is for.