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Why so expensive?

SephirothXR said:
Apple sure loves to make money, they have more than $25 billion in the bank
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I think it's around 31 billion now.

and sure they make more by making these MBPs really expensive, but they could benefit if more and more people bought them at a cheaper price
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I just don't think that, "Hmm. We're still having record profits every quarter in this recession. Let's lower prices!" crossed the mind of anyone at Apple. :eek:

as in hold a bigger market share of people that will then update to future Macbooks.
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They don't really care about gaining marketshare any faster than they are. I'd rather they gain at a pace at which they can equally expand their support to be able to retain the customer service for which they are known.
 
SephirothXR said:
I'd really like to know the manufacturing cost of the MBP. Apple sure loves to make money, they have more than $25 billion in the bank, and sure they make more by making these MBPs really expensive, but they could benefit if more and more people bought them at a cheaper price, as in hold a bigger market share of people that will then update to future Macbooks.

If Apple is giving a student discount on a $1200 MBP to make it $1100, then you can probably guess they're still making plenty of money on students. And we all know that RAM and HD from Apple are also overpriced. Just imagine if Apple went bare minimum and tried selling the MBP for about $950. People would see this simple, sexy, powerful laptop for so cheap and they would instantly buy it. Microsoft has the advantage of how many different companies try and use their OS. So there's the alienware high end line and then the dell and hp low end lines that appeal to the mainstream audience. If Apple had actually reduced their prices, they would have gotten a huge market share before Windows 7 comes out.
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Man, I respect your opinion however your post is full of flaws in terms of your logic.

"Apple sure loves to make money"? What company doesn't? In fact what human doesn't?
Years ago, people were ragging on Apple being a worthless company that should shut down. Now that have billions in the bank and you sound like you're unhappy about that.

In your own logic you might feel that if Apple lowers their prices they will sell more. Well, be honest with yourself, if you were running a business that was bringing in billions of dollars, would you feel the need to lower your prices? Isn't the reason most companies lower their prices because business isn't doing well? Apple's business IS doing well, why would they lower their prices? Why should they? People are still buying their product. They are not committing a crime. Good thing you aren't their board of directors, the company would lose share holders, according to your business plan.
And before you or anyone decides to call me an Apple fanboy, I'm speaking in terms of "business".

Market share isn't the end all and it certainly doesn't define how well a company is doing. There are very exclusive products sold at very exclusive stores (such as Tiffany) and those companies (such as Tiffany) are doing a lot better than many others that offer near the same product that mass market at local retailers.
And why doesn't Microsoft lower the price on their overpriced office suite? Why should they, people are buying it anyway.
 
I don't mind spending money on a Mac as they have much longer lifespans in the software world, which is why I still use my PowerBook G4. The only "PC" (which is technically incorrect, they are all personal computers) company that ever really matched Apple in my opinion was IBM. Lenovo fell behind a little but are still doing good compared to other brands. Still got my IBM ThinkPad T43 right next to me. Just a beautifully built machine. Rock solid in every way.
 
PowerGamerX said:
I don't mind spending money on a Mac as they have much longer lifespans in the software world, which is why I still use my PowerBook G4.
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That's probably based on what you do with it. For iTunes and Safari a G4 is more than enough.

On the other side you have people trading out their notebook every time something new shows up from Apple.

You'd be amazed to see how many Pentium 4 Northwood 2.4 - 2.8 GHz desktops are out there.
 
Demarrer said:
One question, why do MacBook pros cost so much? Compared to pc laptops
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because only an apple laptop can give you the "apple experience"*. thats worth more money to the many people who own them.


*note: i am not being facetious or sarcastic with this comment.
 
SephirothXR said:
If Apple is giving a student discount on a $1200 MBP to make it $1100, then you can probably guess they're still making plenty of money on students. And we all know that RAM and HD from Apple are also overpriced. Just imagine if Apple went bare minimum and tried selling the MBP for about $950. People would see this simple, sexy, powerful laptop for so cheap and they would instantly buy it. Microsoft has the advantage of how many different companies try and use their OS. So there's the alienware high end line and then the dell and hp low end lines that appeal to the mainstream audience. If Apple had actually reduced their prices, they would have gotten a huge market share before Windows 7 comes out.
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Really?

DELL 13.59
MSFT 23.42
HPQ 43.67
vs.
AAPL 164.72

Have we not seen the benefits of staying out of the downright trashy razor thin margin sector? Well, that and not paying dividends.
 
AppleT&T is a small, struggling company and needs to fleece it's fashion obsessed cultists. Think of it as tithing for the terminally cool and hip. :D

Achooley they are not so expensive for what you get. Great design, fast, best OS, no security headaches, no bloatware and best included sortware, iLife. But that's not nearly as humorous as the first statement.

Now if MS would just run another set of laptop hunter adds and Apple lowers the price of the 17" MBP to $2K so I can get one. I'm not a rich yuppie or trust kid, I sell Macs for a living. :D
 
HLdan said:
And before you or anyone decides to call me an Apple fanboy...
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We're all fish in the same pond, I wouldn't worry about that.

mikes70mustang said:
Their expensive. No need to bs it.
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Apple's are not expensive, you ever think that everybody complaining about the prices are after something that is out of their normal price range?

My CAMERA BODY costs more second hand, than any Mac laptop.

But I get more use out of the laptop, that means there is more value with using the mac but is ends up being cheaper? No, Apples are not expensive, its just everybody wants to have the best, something easily attainable in the windows world. Mac's are not PC's so why expect PC prices?
 
Shake 'n' Bake said:
A full-size FW is nice, but not totally necessary.
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Ah, and here is where we start dipping into the waters of muddy comparison. If you are trying to truly compare machines that are specced as closely as possible (which I'll touch upon in just a bit), then you need to leave the opinion-driven "what's necessary and what's not" out. Otherwise, the whole argument of comparing starts to devolve into personal preferences. Anyways, it is pretty much impossible to compare machines of the exact same spec because they don't exist. There will always be differences. Besides, getting "mired down in the numbers" forgets a whole other factor in the equation: the less-quantifiable but equally-important qualitative aspects. These are not as easy to compare but influence a user's experience tremendously.
 
Demarrer said:
Wirelessly posted (Mozilla/5.0 (iPhone; U; CPU iPhone OS 3_0_1 like Mac OS X; en-us) AppleWebKit/528.18 (KHTML, like Gecko) Version/4.0 Mobile/7A400 Safari/528.16)

One question, why do MacBook pros cost so much? Compared to pc laptops
Click to expand...

would you rather pay less money for a cheap computer that will be defective in months or pay a bit more to have a stable computer that will last for couple of years? that's what i think when it comes to buying macs. please don't be negative if you disagree with me. it's just what i believe and convinced me to save up to get my umbp. :)
 
CrackedButter said:
We're all fish in the same pond, I wouldn't worry about that.



Apple's are not expensive, you ever think that everybody complaining about the prices are after something that is out of their normal price range?

My CAMERA BODY costs more second hand, than any Mac laptop.

But I get more use out of the laptop, that means there is more value with using the mac but is ends up being cheaper? No, Apples are not expensive, its just everybody wants to have the best, something easily attainable in the windows world. Mac's are not PC's so why expect PC prices?
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You pay for osx. 2 or more grand is a lot for electronics. btw, no one cares when you brag about your camera. I understand if its for work. But its kinda ridiculous having like a nikon d3x for family photos.
 
johata3 said:
would you rather pay less money for a cheap computer that will be defective in months or pay a bit more to have a stable computer that will last for couple of years? that's what i think when it comes to buying macs. please don't be negative if you disagree with me. it's just what i believe and convinced me to save up to get my umbp. :)
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apples to apples, or what ever. The vast majority of people will view macs as expensive. I definitely am all for buying quality stuff, b/c it last longer and all that stuff, but quality stuff is mostly expensive. Hand made clothes-durable & expensive, hand made cars-durable and expensive, just b/c its worth getting doesnt mean its not expensive to get.
 
Demarrer said:
Wirelessly posted (Mozilla/5.0 (iPhone; U; CPU iPhone OS 3_0_1 like Mac OS X; en-us) AppleWebKit/528.18 (KHTML, like Gecko) Version/4.0 Mobile/7A400 Safari/528.16)

One question, why do MacBook pros cost so much? Compared to pc laptops
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Because of their design. Pretty things cost more, why do you expect something else? It's like this with furniture, clothing, cars, kitchen tools, ... yes pretty much everything. Why do you expect it to be different when it comes to computers? :confused:
 
Eddyisgreat said:
Really?

DELL 13.59
MSFT 23.42
HPQ 43.67
vs.
AAPL 164.72

Have we not seen the benefits of staying out of the downright trashy razor thin margin sector? Well, that and not paying dividends.
Click to expand...

GOOG 456.61
Google must be blowing everyone else out of the water!

Absolute share price comparisons mean absolutely nothing. You'll need a relative % movement to illustrate your point because share price floats all vary in volume: high price and low volume verse low price high volume.
 
what i have to say

all i have to say is that ive been using windows laptops and desktops for years, good ones. fast ones, expensive ones, then i made the jump to mac about 2 years ago when the first alu imac came out, n i wont go back to windows, full stop. i would gladly play £200+ extra my macbook pro cost me than the most cheaper less equipt laptop simply for osx

other thaughts are, that comparativley speaking, you arent actually paying that much more. like the other poster said, look at teh little things, like built in blutooth, backlit keyboard, alu chassi, trackpad.

if you dont see these things as worth the percieved extra money, then apple arent for you, and dont buy.

i like what i have, i paid what i consider to be a fair price, (aprox £700, for baseline UMBP 13")

then you have to consider TCO.

just summat my mum says, if you pay **** you get ****.:D
 
Someone had to ask that didn't they.

-They don't cost 'so much' IMO. Configure a dell to the exact same specs, it will be more expensive.

And you're largely paying for the support, the support you get is great compared to Dell where you have to send it back to india and wait 3 weeks to get it back. With apple, take it into apple store, if its unrepairable they give you a brand new one there and then.

Oh, and you're also paying for a machine that won't get viruses, won't crash etc..
 
Compared to my previous HP Pavilion and Toshiba Equim laptops, my macbook build quality is 1000% better. The fit and finish is super and everything just sort of works better.

I used my 1yr old HP laptop yesterday for 5 minutes to transfer some files to an external harddrive and i almost smashed it to the floor. Frustrating!
 
Why do people always compare PC and Mac prices? If you can't afford a Mac then don't buy one. If you can afford a Mac but think it's too expensive then don't buy one. But don't moan about the price of a Mac compared to a PC. A PC does not equal a Mac therefore PC prices do not equal Mac Prices.

I too thought Mac's were expensive until I made the switch. Now I know where the saying "You get what you pay for" comes from...
 
1. Unibody Aluminium build
2. OS X
3. Overall far higher quality than a HP or Dell.

But really, considering all the above plus the way I can do what I want, reliably and professionally without fuss is why I buy :apple:
 
sammich said:
GOOG 456.61
Google must be blowing everyone else out of the water!

Absolute share price comparisons mean absolutely nothing. You'll need a relative % movement to illustrate your point because share price floats all vary in volume: high price and low volume verse low price high volume.
Click to expand...

Google makes retail software or hardware? Meh. :cool::apple:
 
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