You're only ripped off if you buy the RAM from Apple. But you're not ripped off because you have a choice. It's pretty easy to head to OWC and get the same RAM for a fraction of the price.
Unfortunately this thread has been hijacked into a ridiculous and irrelevant tangent, despite my succinct and logical plea to keep it on target, which seems to have fallen on deaf ears.
Apple is selling software, not hardware. Yes, Apple hardware comes at a premium and yes, they put a lot of thought into design and yes, some people even jump on the bandwagon simply for the design, but design is not responsible for the success of their platform - software is. People put enough value in Apple's software that they are willing to put up with the hardware niggles. So Apples and PCs are apples and oranges because you can't run the Mac OS on a PC.
Let's get back on track and talk about the Apple platform and Apple hardware. Again, if it wasn't about the software, then all of us in this thread would simply build our own inexpensive PCs - that a no-brainer. We value the Mac platform enough to put up with the proprietary nature of their hardware, even when it makes us cringe. So let's talk about Mac hardware because PCs are not an option for 99% of the people on this forum and if they are for you, then what are you doing here?
Everything about mac hardware makes it more worth it. Give me a mac pro anyday over a beige plastic box with cables everywhere inside and blue leds everywhere outside. Intelligent cooling and tool-less upgrading too. After using macs for well over a decade, I just can't imagine using a non-apple PC as a serious computer, even though building one would be fun to play around with.
TV and thought it was the new Mac Mini. 
