Airport Extreme Base - Why so expensive?

[friendlyghost]

I'm in the midst of switching and am also going to pick up a new Wifi base station. I figured I would buy an Airport Extreme base station as well, but the prices seem sort of crazy.

Of the two models, the cheaper is $200. I can get a Linksys Wifi base station that supports both b and g for about $100. I realize the apple one is easier to setup, but what gives?

I've worked with the linksys ones before, so I'm comfortable with them, but I don't understand why apple isn't being competitive here.

I do want to give them kudos for the most expensive model since I really haven't seen anyone integrate an old-school modem before. Still, the price is pretty nuts for that too.

 

[ZildjianKX]

There are only two advantages to the Airport base stations... one is being about to share a modem connection easily... if you need that (which most people don't).

The other is wireless bridging... so you can easily connect base stations together.

I don't need either, so I use a netgear 802.11g access point, which is MUCH cheaper ($80 new about) and has faster performance according to CNET.

I'll buy an Apple Tower and Apple DVD-Rs... but that's it. No studio displays, airports, or other expensive accessories... Well, maybe the pro speakers... they look cool (with an iFire of course).

 

[Ramsos]

I have an Airport extreme Base Station and I love it even though I'm using a Tibook for now, I have found one of the most usefull advantages to be wireless printing or print sharing. I have the more expensive model with the built in modem (which I don't need because I have DSL) and external antenna port, it also has a usb port that makes virtually any usb printer print wireless. I think the cheaper model has usb too.