Apple Charges Customers Up to 69%+ Extra For New Macbooks When Compared To others

[riz78612]

http://www.itproportal.com/articles...rges-customers-800-extra-new-macbook-laptops/


The Apple Macbook 13-inch has a 2.4GHz Intel Core 2 Duo Processor, 2GB DDR3 memory, a 250GB SATA Drive, an integrated Nvidia 9400M graphics chipset, a Slot-in DVD writer and a few more bits and bobs. The price you can expect to pay for it would be £1149

On the other hand, the Dell Vostro 1310 business oriented laptop offers the same configuration with 3GB memory and a lesser Geforce 8400M GS graphics module. The price you will pay, before any discounts is £680.

Price difference here is £469, a 69 percent premium on the Vostro price.


The next on the list is the Macbook Pro 15-inch laptop which costs a whopping £1399. It comes with a 2.4GHz Intel Core 2 Duo, 2GB DDR3 memory, a 250GB SATA Drive, an integrated Nvidia 9400M graphics chipset + 256MB 9600GT dedicated graphics card, a Slot-in DVD writer and a few more things.

A cheaper option is Asustek's relatively stylish G1SN-AK014C laptop. As for the above, it shares the same subsystem (processor and hard disk drive) but adds an additional GB worth of memory, a lesser Nvidia 9500M GS with 512MB memory but makes up with a 1680x1050 15.4-inch LCD display. The laptop on sale at Asuslaptop also comes with a free optical mouse and a free carry case. The price? £729.68.

Price delta is £669.32, an incredible 92 percent premium on the Asus price.

The last laptop on test is the 17-inch Macbook pro which sells for an eye-watering £1949. For this price you get a 2.5GHz Intel Core 2 Duo flanked by 4GB memory, a gargantuan 320GB hard disk drive and a stunning 17-inch 1920x1200 LED-backlit display. The 17-inch Macbook Pro also comes with a Geforce 8600M GT video.

The cheaper option available is the Asustek G71V laptop which is the Taiwanese company's ultimate gaming machine and is available for sale at IT247 for £1152.68. This Gamers laptop not only packs a slightly more powerful CPU, but also comes with two 250GB hard disk drives, Bluray disk player, a Geforce 9700M GS video card plus an 17-inch 1920x1200 pixel screen as well.

The Macbook Pro costs an additional £792.32, that's a stonking 69 percent extra

 

[Compile 'em all]

Apple Charges Customers Up to 69%+ Extra For New Macbooks When

compared to other Mac manufacturers?

 

[Davidkoh]

Far as I know none of the ones you mentioned have the same battery life, features, can run OS X good. Nor are they made from Alu.

 

[aleksandra.]

Far as I know none of the ones you mentioned have the same battery life, features, can run OS X good. Nor are they made from Alu.

It doesn't change the fact that compared to previous generation MacBooks, those seem overpriced. New chipset, new display (same resolution though), new case and $200 more? And that is compared to the price from a year ago? I refuse to consider new chipset's cost as really significant - they didn't raise Air's price, and they would have otherwise.

In fact, I think there're two reasons why it's a bad moment to buy a MacBook or MacBook Pro. First, Apple's market share rose, so Jobs is milking it right now. Second, I suppose most of the cost was about new case and iMac like screen bezel, product transition, that is. Apple needs to get it back, so right now we're paying for the sheer novelty of it.

Of course, if anyone needs a laptop right now, I can see how those would still be better than a PC. But I think it's going to be a bad year for buying a MacBook or a MacBook Pro, in terms of value.

 

[cal6n]

Oh, and @ the OP: Go and buy one of your options and stop posting here. I seriously doubt that there is one person on this forum who will miss you!

 

[Scarlet Fever]

On the other hand, the Dell Vostro 1310 business oriented laptop offers the same configuration with 3GB memory and a lesser Geforce 8400M GS graphics module. The price you will pay, before any discounts is £680.

Price difference here is £469, a 69 percent premium on the Vostro price.

I don't know what computer you configured, but I configured the XPS M1330 (which is 1.3" thick at its thickest point compared to 0.95" for the MacBook) to be comparable to the Apple offerings (eg vista ultimate, LED screen, 2.4GHz CPU, a comparable battery and bluetooth), and the dell comes out to around £839, resulting in about £310 difference.

The non-tangible differences come with battery life (a user claims the battery lasts only 2.5 hours with the upgraded 6-cell battery vs 5 hours claimed performance with the MacBook's battery), slower RAM (667MHz vs 1066MHz), ethernet (100mbps vs 1gbps), compatibility (Dell can run windows, mac can run OS X and windows), the keyboard (non backlit in the dell vs the backlit of the macbook), wireless speed (b/g in the dell vs b/g/n in macbook) and the design material (plastic vs aluminium).

 

[magallanes]

Can you install at full OSX in those notebook?.

IMHO :The success of Apple is the couple of hardware and software. And for bonus you can install Windows and OSX in the same machine (virtualization and/or bootcamp). . I tried the opposite, running OSX in a pc machine and wasn't unable to do it, hackingtosh is unstable and virtualization is too slow.

Its the same as the console wars, ps3 can cost x3 times the price of a wii, yet if you want to play "little big planet", then the only choose is to buy a ps3.

 

[okrelayer]

Sometimes people forget, a lot of the reason Windows PCS are cheaper are not because of apples markup, its because of all the trial software thats bogs down your pc.

Those Free 90 day norton, AOL free trial, ect packages included in your windows machine have all helped to lower the initial price. As AOL will pay so many dollars per machine to get their name infront of you. Some computer companys like SONY have been given flack for charging their customers 200 or 300 dollars to take out the added software.

Thats one of the reasons why these windows pcs you mention are "SO MUCH CHEAPER". Apple does markup their products but , you get no virus's, no spyware, no added software, the best OS out there, state of the art design, a brand new trackpad design ect ect. Do as you wish mate

 

[Snowbell]

riz78612 is right on the money.

In the US the new 15inch 2.53Ghz Macpro is $2500. Usually in Korea(here) the price is that plus about $300. No problem. Imagine my surprise when I looked at the Apple Korea store and found the price was 3,890,000won! And the 17incher is 4,390,000won! Two days ago the old 15inch was about 2,600,000won, and the 17inch was about 2,900,000won. As far as I know, the 17incher hasn't been updated. We usually trade at about 1,000won to the dollar. I know the won is down about 20% right now, but that doesn't explain this.

The prices people in the US are reasonable, but people buying overseas (UK and Korea) are getting gouged something awful. Can someone please explain this to me?

I would really appreciate it.

P.S. My first thought was to buy Asus too.

 

[Wolfpup]

On the other hand, the Dell Vostro 1310 business oriented laptop offers the same configuration with 3GB memory and a lesser Geforce 8400M GS graphics module.

NO! The Geforce 8400 is BETTER, not worse. They're virtually the exact same thing, except the 8400 in that Dell has it's own RAM.

The big difference between the Macbook and a lot of Windows system is the LED backlit screen-but a lot of Dells have that option. The new Macbook is finally a lot more competitive with what Dell and Sony put out in 13" systems, though it dosen't really blow them away or anything.

Ignoring LED backlights, you can EASILY get a system with a vastly more powerful GPU and Blu Ray for cheaper than the Macbook. (Though I'd gladly pay a few hundred more for LED backlighting.)

Sometimes people forget, a lot of the reason Windows PCS are cheaper are not because of apples markup, its because of all the trial software thats bogs down your pc.

Which is annoying, but completely irrelevant on Dell's systems as they give you a clean OS DVD.

I PREFER getting the cheaper system, as I'm going to wipe the drive anyway (actually on a laptop I'm not even going to use the original drive).

Thats one of the reasons why these windows pcs you mention are "SO MUCH CHEAPER". Apple does markup their products but , you get no virus's, no spyware, no added software, the best OS out there

There are all kinds of security vulnerabilities on OSX, and many anti-spyware, anti-virus solutions are free on Windows, with no real equivalent on OS X. And I for many reasons like XP and Vista considerably more than OS X-it's just opinion as to which is "better". I was planning on probably just going Vista exclusive on my Macbook Pro (had they included Blu Ray )

 

[waloshin]

Not exactly true

For the people that complain that they can get a pc for a lot cheaper than a Mac especially the Macbook Pro, then they should remember that the Macbook Pro is a Professional laptop. When you compare the Macbook Pro against Dell's Mobile Precision M4400 a Pro laptop, with the same specs as a Macbook Pro you get the same price point. The Macbook Pro isn't three times more than the Dell, they are the same price. The Macbook Pro has ddr3 at 1066mhz while the Dell is still running ddr2 at 800mhz. And how can we forget that the Macbook Pro looks so much better than Dell anyways.

 

[Wolfpup]

For the people that complain that they can get a pc for a lot cheaper than a Mac especially the Macbook Pro, then they should remember that the Macbook Pro is a Professional laptop.

This "it's a Professional laptop 'cause it says Pro!" thing was old 10 years ago.

It's a laptop. It has the specs it has. You need to compare it by specs, not based on some theoretical positioning.

Dell's "business" laptops are rip offs too for what you get. It's mostly just a thing to be able to sell the same hardware at different price points. Same thing Microsoft does with Windows basically. I don't really mind, but that's not a good argument.

It is still overpriced compared to like the XPS with pretty equivalent specs (although I do think the new Macbook Pro looks better, although the equivalent XPS has been on the market a year longer and will probably get replaced soonish).