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Besides, a product is worth what people will pay for it. As long as we see Apple continue to gain marketshare, their prices will remain high. If enough people think they are overpriced, then not enough people will buy Apple products, and so there would be a need to drop their prices. As things stand however, a sufficient number of people are turning to Mac because they think it's worth the extra.
 
Do not feed the troll.

Obviously, he puts no value on Mac OS X. For some, the price differential isn't worth it - Windows is good enough (or preferred). For others, there's no option but Mac OS X.

If he cared about Mac OS X on his laptop, the thread would have gone like this instead... "An Apple laptop with extra build-to-order RAM is quite pricey. Where can I find a better deal?"

If the OP doesn't see that there's more to a laptop than what chipset its running and what size the screen is measured diagonally in inches, then we should just let him be happy with his HP z6502 or whatever it was and be done with him. See he saved a bunch of money. Happy days.
 
Apple products can be a bit more expensive than similarly configured PC's but with them you get OSX and a nice software suite - that works (mostly:rolleyes:.)

I just set up my mothers happy new Dell and after hacking my way through Windows to do the most simple things, I'll gladly pay the price difference. My time and hair is worth it:D
 
My MBP is the thinnest, lightest, and nicest laptop I've ever owned. Also faster than similarly configured PCs we have here at work, even when I have to run Windows on it. Battery life is decent, has extras like a fw800 port, which I use, and now I can back it up with TM wirelessly. It was worth every penny I paid for it. We'd all like Apple's machines to be cheaper, but it is what it is. Don't buy them if you don't like it, or get it second hand, like a refurb or something, and upgrade the RAM yourself for cheap.
 
Apple products can be a bit more expensive than similarly configured PC's but with them you get OSX and a nice software suite - that works (mostly:rolleyes:.)

I just set up my mothers happy new Dell and after hacking my way through Windows to do the most simple things, I'll gladly pay the price difference. My time and hair is worth it:D

Don't I know it. On a recent trip to my parents house, I had brought my iMac with me. My parents have seen my wife's MB and what it can do and how easy it was to use.

My dads pc died (dell) and he bought an e-machine to replace it. My mom out of the blue asked me "How much did you spend on Sandy's (my wife) laptop?" and the conversation pretty much went down the path of my Mom (the most computer ignorant person I know) wants a MacBook like my wife's. I said, you can get a regular laptop cheaper and instantly without hesitation she said "HELL NO! I want one that will work!" I just laughed.

After I told her the price I was concerned. My parents aren't rich, they 'get by' and they're from the old school thinking 'you work hard, pay the rent, sleep, do the same thing tomorrow.' I honestly don't think they have must invested for retirement. They just don't make that much.

She was 200% more than willing to pull the money from savings to buy a MB cash since they don't have credit cards. I told her for what you guys need and what you plan to do with it, you can buy 2 dells for that price (the middle priced MB) ok maybe not but pretty close to it, they could get 2 dell 1501's for about 550 a piece. She told me again "I don't want anymore windows *****. Dads computer is always locking up, he always has to do something to it, we have to buy this software and that software, yours comes with it, it's to confusing and yours is easy to learn, yours come with everything, with his we have to buy a new camera, new this, new that, I don't like vista, bla bla bla" the excuses went on.

So Macs aren't exclusively for the rich. People can see some value in paying more and the benifits they get in return. My parents certainly aren't money rich, but they'll shell out a few extra bucks for a better quality product.
 
I love my mac! I hated my Dell.

Actually I had a Dell for like 6 (horrible) years and it crashed 6 times and it was full of spyware. In all fairness it was a pretty old computer. But I saw it as just that, a computer. But owning a Mac, theres a whole new light to it. I guess you just have to be an owner to get it.
 
Can we just club this baby seal instead?

Eating newbies gives me gas, and they tend to stink up the bathroom for days after you flush the toilet.
 
I am an Apple fanboy that uses my MB in a Windows corporate environment every single day... and I put up their 'why do you have to be different" rhetoric daily...

With that said, I do believe that Apple charges a premium for their products. Fine. So does BMW et al. its a known fact and no one bitches about it.

So stop saying that they are not, even if slightly, overpriced, because they are, but we pay it because we like the products.
 
I've never met a knowledgeable person who would recommend an HP if you're looking for a quality laptop.


At least compare Apple with a good PC brand. Then you'll find that Apple isn't overpriced at all.
 
Get a second job...

you have too much time to sit and start a b:tchfest and the second job would give you enough money to buy the computer you really want.
 
Don't I know it. On a recent trip to my parents house, I had brought my iMac with me. My parents have seen my wife's MB and what it can do and how easy it was to use.

My dads pc died (dell) and he bought an e-machine to replace it. My mom out of the blue asked me "How much did you spend on Sandy's (my wife) laptop?" and the conversation pretty much went down the path of my Mom (the most computer ignorant person I know) wants a MacBook like my wife's. I said, you can get a regular laptop cheaper and instantly without hesitation she said "HELL NO! I want one that will work!" I just laughed.

After I told her the price I was concerned. My parents aren't rich, they 'get by' and they're from the old school thinking 'you work hard, pay the rent, sleep, do the same thing tomorrow.' I honestly don't think they have must invested for retirement. They just don't make that much.

She was 200% more than willing to pull the money from savings to buy a MB cash since they don't have credit cards. I told her for what you guys need and what you plan to do with it, you can buy 2 dells for that price (the middle priced MB) ok maybe not but pretty close to it, they could get 2 dell 1501's for about 550 a piece. She told me again "I don't want anymore windows *****. Dads computer is always locking up, he always has to do something to it, we have to buy this software and that software, yours comes with it, it's to confusing and yours is easy to learn, yours come with everything, with his we have to buy a new camera, new this, new that, I don't like vista, bla bla bla" the excuses went on.

So Macs aren't exclusively for the rich. People can see some value in paying more and the benifits they get in return. My parents certainly aren't money rich, but they'll shell out a few extra bucks for a better quality product.

Direct them to the refurb store. They'll get more for their money and it'll do them just fine:)
 
As far as price goes... Apple is near the top.

As far as value goes... Apple is the standard which others should be judged, and most will fail.
 
for a PC buyer, there are two options
1) you can go for value for money PC's
2) you can go for the best configuration

normally, people go for the first one, when they think that it gives more configuration than PC's with the same price. it may be so, but it will always have some crappy things.
if you go for the second one, you can definitely look into apple
but not the first one.
normally, people go for the first one, when they think that it gives more configuration than PC's for a cheaper price. it may be so, but it will always have some crappy things

if you are willing to spent some little more cash, look into apple
although, it may not give you the highest configuration, it uses whatever configuration it has to the maximmum. PLUS, it has mac OS and usually relives you from common PC problems.
on the other hand, windows PC's rarely do this.
here, money spent on apple is money well spent
also, an average buyer, should always look for macbook
don't ever think about macbook pro(here, apple really cheats you)
simply,macbook is MBP without graphics card

so, in a way, apple is cheaper or atleast comparable to similar PC's
the only problem with mac's are you have to buy apple warranty which is costly. this is optional, but i strongly recommend it. for win PC's, you need not do it as even if it has any problem, it is cheaper to replace parts or solve problems because of its market share.

one more thing that bugs me is that apple's external keyboard and mouse are costly compared to other. in this, they charge a premium for style.

go for apple, if you are looking at vaio or xps or mid range.
but then, it still depends on user perception.
 
Normally I'd buy a PC laptop every 2 years since they get old, break, or whatever.

My PowerBook is 4 years old and not a bit of damage on it, or inside it. So yea that's saved me another £700-1000 right there. Plus it was only £70 to upgrade the OS. Never had to send it for repairs (unlike my laptops, ~£100 each time). Or call any support.

But then again at the time my £933 PowerBook was more powerful than my £999 laptop (bought a month before). So even then the Powerbook was cheaper...
 
Well they use the same hard drives, the same capacity memory. Plus see second post- it is still cheaper even with Intel processor than mac. OK, it is 15 inch model so it is cheaper than macbook AND Macbook Pro! :p

whats your point? go buy an HP.
 
Some people here are saying he HP 6000 series laptops are a cheapo product. Absolutely not true. I have a dv6000 from HP that's a little over a year old, running XP. I've also got two Macbooks; a white and a black, both the latest revision released at the end of last year.

I prefer the HP 90% of the time. It's really solid, the keyboard is great, and the video performance is outstanding. The screen is superior in color resolution and brightness to the Macbooks. In 15 months of use I've never had a single crash or had to reboot!

I'd say the only thing I like better about the Macbooks is the shorter boot up time; the HP is agonizingly slow compared to the Macbooks. With 2 GB of memory, I paid around $1000 for the HP. Damn good computer for the money.
 
Had to call HP tech support a while ago for a friend, since they were clueless on this type of thing. After a 40 minute wait and several poor englsih speakers, we got it fixed.

When I call Apple - I talk to people who speak ENGLISH, and I talk to them within 5 - 10 minutes. Oh, and I can take my computer in for service in a face-to-face meeting when I want to, something you can't with HP.
 
I've never met a knowledgeable person who would recommend an HP if you're looking for a quality laptop.


At least compare Apple with a good PC brand. Then you'll find that Apple isn't overpriced at all.

Whats wrong with HP?

I have an HP dv6500t notebook. I got it in October. It has a 2GHz SR based C2D, 2GB of RAM, 160GB HDD, GeForce 8400M GS w/HDMI output, DVD writer, 15.4" screen and real world battery life of over 3 hours at a higher brightness level than the MacBook. Plus the HP version of the GeForce 8400M GS does deblocking and inverse telecine for all video formats supported in hardware. It does full hardware decoding, deblocking, deinterlacing, upscaling, etc. of MPEG-2, H.264, VC-1, etc. It also has a fingerprint reader. So far I have not had an issue with it at all. It also has a memory card reader, firewire port, 3 USB, VGA, modem, gigabit ethernet, S-Video, and a FULL ExpressCard 54 slot as well as two headphone jacks.

The build quality is great too. Its solid, not "bendy" at all. Its every bit as strong as my MacBook. I don't have to worry about the issues my MacBook has had or might have either. Like the case discoloring and cracking from heat because of an improper cooling system. Or the "top case" coming apart (which it already has) or cracking because of the "feet" and magnetic latches pushing down into the case and causing it to separate.

As far as price goes... Apple is near the top.

As far as value goes... Apple is the standard which others should be judged, and most will fail.

Heh. So a $1406 (after taxes) MacBook is the standard at which all others are judged? That $1406 MacBook which only has an Intel GMA X3100, which has proven to be an underperformer and all around terrible especially when it comes to stability. That $1406 MacBook which has no HDMI, no memory card reader, no fullsize ExpressCard slot, no optional blu-ray drive..

The MacBook is a nice little computer. But the $1299 model should be $999 and the "entry level" model should have a DVD writer and cost about $200 less.

Had to call HP tech support a while ago for a friend, since they were clueless on this type of thing. After a 40 minute wait and several poor englsih speakers, we got it fixed.

When I call Apple - I talk to people who speak ENGLISH, and I talk to them within 5 - 10 minutes. Oh, and I can take my computer in for service in a face-to-face meeting when I want to, something you can't with HP.

You only get the "face to face meeting" if you live around an Apple Authorized Repair Center or Apple Store. And if its not "mobile certified" then you're SOL with your MacBook, MBP, or MBA. If you're someone like me, then you're SOL with "Face to face meetings".

I've also spoken to people at Apple with bad English.

HP also runs their own repair center. You don't have to worry about Flextronics scratching up and practically destroying your system like they've done to BOTH of my Macs MULTIPLE times. Oh, and HP customer support is open 24/7. If your system dies Friday night, you can call and get a repair setup. With Apple, since there are no Apple Stores or authorized repair centers within reasonable driving distance, I have to wait until Monday and then be sure I call before 6PM local time.

HP is not in the upper echelon of laptop manufacturers.

HP does not make as good a product as Lenovo, Sony, or even Dell.

With my HP I don't have to worry about case cracking, case discoloration, or the case coming apart like my MacBook already has.

Lenovo is purely a "business notebook" computer. However, anyone can tell you that their build quality is not even close to what IBMs was. Sony's consumer notebooks are every bit as "bad" as the rest. Their line geared towards the business person costing $2,000+ is okay. Same goes for Dell. But see, if you're spending as much on an HP as you would on a Mac, you can get their "business" line which is built much better than the consumer line. So good in fact that they generally come with THREE YEAR warranties standard.

My MacBook only has two advantages over my HP. Battery life and OS X. But OS X falls short in a couple of areas. First of all, it can't take advantage of GPU features for video playback. So videos don't look nearly as good as they do on Windows. My HP is better in every other respect. It plays video better, it plays my games while costing more than $1,000 less than the entry level MBP. It has HDCP certified HDMI output so I can hook it and a blu-ray drive in a USB external enclosure up to my HDTV and watch blu-ray discs. The screen is bigger, better. It has that ExpressCard slot so I can use a nice, slim, and out of the way TV tuner. It has the memory card reader, so I can just pop the card in rather than getting out the USB cable and connecting my entire camera. Etc.
 
She told me again "I don't want anymore windows *****.
I've been racking my brains for what five-letter word an American (not of Irish/Scottish/Northern English origin) might use in this context. Can you please give me at least the first letter and maybe the last ?
 
I've been racking my brains for what five-letter word an American (not of Irish/Scottish/Northern English origin) might use in this context. Can you please give me at least the first letter and maybe the last ?

The first letter is probably s and the last e.
 
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