Apple products are priced too high?

[tsupersonic]

it may sound pathetic at first but you have to look again. an apple 13" laptop like system with a dated i5 CPU which are all dual cores.... for "close" to the price I paid for more power in my 17" LAPTOP is the logic. paying $1,499 for a 13" macbook and that's the same price I paid for my Qosmio gaming rig with an i7 4700MQ that is a quadcore and in taskmanager it shows 8 virtual cores with mine having double the ram (16GB) , the mack system has a 256GB PCI-e storage, sounds like an SSD but still uses the integrated intel graphics versus my Nvidia Geforce 770m with 3GB AT THE SAME PRICE as what  Ipaid for this.. I'd feel jipped. putting aside the OS, looking straight hardware vs hardware, both intel. APPLE is really ripping people off

Yes your laptop may have better perceived specs, but it's also twice the weight, a lot bigger in every dimension, has far worse battery life, has an inferior display, and has a lot slower disk. I don't think you understand how expensive it is to produce a laptop that is smaller. Look at all the other (Windows) ultrabooks that compete with the MBP and look closely to their price. No one goes into the market thinking gee would I rather have a Toshiba Craposmio or a MBP. You have to compare products WITHIN their class. You'd compare your laptop with another competitive gaming laptop (ex: Asus ROG, Alienware, etc.)

 

There is a reason why Apple is the most valued company in the world. Whatever they are doing, it's clearly working very well. I'm not praising Apple here, but you have to admire them for their brilliant marketing and engineering.

 

Everyone has different needs in a laptop. Putting aside this discussion, gaming laptops are a pathetic waste of time. Just buy yourself a proper desktop and get proper components, not mobile versions of CPU's and GPU's, which tend to be slower. They are bulky, have terrible battery life, produce too much heat, all of which are negatives in my book. I'd much rather have a small laptop/tablet to carry around for on the go needs, and have a powerful desktop at home.

[chrisj1968]

Yes your laptop may have better perceived specs, but it's also twice the weight, a lot bigger in every dimension, has far worse battery life, has an inferior display, and has a lot slower disk. I don't think you understand how expensive it is to produce a laptop that is smaller. Look at all the other (Windows) ultrabooks that compete with the MBP and look closely to their price. No one goes into the market thinking gee would I rather have a Toshiba Craposmio or a MBP. You have to compare products WITHIN their class. You'd compare your laptop with another competitive gaming laptop (ex: Asus ROG, Alienware, etc.)

 

There is a reason why Apple is the most valued company in the world. Whatever they are doing, it's clearly working very well. I'm not praising Apple here, but you have to admire them for their brilliant marketing and engineering.

 

Everyone has different needs in a laptop. Putting aside this discussion, gaming laptops are a pathetic waste of time. Just buy yourself a proper desktop and get proper components, not mobile versions of CPU's and GPU's, which tend to be slower. They are bulky, have terrible battery life, produce too much heat, all of which are negatives in my book. I'd much rather have a small laptop/tablet to carry around for on the go needs, and have a powerful desktop at home.

 

I agree, I won't argue about the weight. I'm talking about what you get for your money. sure everyone has different needs in laptops. this one isn't a shot put. its slightly heavier than my old one from toshiba I gave my daughter. but there has to be some trade offs. I was strictly looking at the parts, part for part. dual cores are quite old as systems go. at any rate. I'm a budget minded person who bought this laptop for writing, entertainment(gaming, netflix and other)

 

on a personal note, purely preference, if I had bought one of the 13" macbook systems hypothetically, my wife would have me committed thinking my cheese slid off my cracker. but if the size is what you prefer, by all means, go for it. I just don't think they should be charging people so much for hardware that isn't worth it in terms of age, generation(CPU build) and more and more macs are becoming gaming systems to a lesser or greater degree

[nosense]

Asus zenbooks and dell xps 13 spec for spec are a way better buy than macbook pro\mac book\mac air. The zenbook even beats apple in the thin department.

[tsupersonic]

I agree, I won't argue about the weight. I'm talking about what you get for your money. sure everyone has different needs in laptops. this one isn't a shot put. its slightly heavier than my old one from toshiba I gave my daughter. but there has to be some trade offs. I was strictly looking at the parts, part for part. dual cores are quite old as systems go. at any rate. I'm a budget minded person who bought this laptop for writing, entertainment(gaming, netflix and other)

 

on a personal note, purely preference, if I had bought one of the 13" macbook systems hypothetically, my wife would have me committed thinking my cheese slid off my cracker. but if the size is what you prefer, by all means, go for it. I just don't think they should be charging people so much for hardware that isn't worth it in terms of age, generation(CPU build) and more and more macs are becoming gaming systems to a lesser or greater degree

If you're happy with your laptop, that's awesome

 

If you compare the CPU in other ultrabooks, they are slightly inferior to the MBPr, or their GPU is not as good as the MBPr. MBPr uses Broadwell CPU's which are the latest and greatest. I think the MBPr is pretty competitive price wise. If you do the research, you will see

 

Asus zenbooks and dell xps 13 spec for spec are a way better buy than macbook pro\mac book\mac air. The zenbook even beats apple in the thin department.

I love the new XPS 13. The infinity display looks great. However, if you goto Dell's site, their $1299 version lines up perfectly with the base MBPr 13". Not to mention the base i5 5257U CPU in the MBPr is far superior to the i5 5200U in the XPS 13. Also, the MBPr has superior iGP (Iris 6100 in the MBPr vs. HD5500 in the XPS 13). Keep in mind that's just the base MBPr; you can configure it with a faster i5/i7, more RAM, and more storage. You're getting slightly better value/specs in the MBPr. Me personally, I'd still go for the XPS 13 though.

[The_Observer]

I see everyone talking about hardware, but with apple you get the OS X (each year) / Office (Notes...)  / Support (Apple Care). Can anyone tell me another brand maker that has this sort of service. Its not just the hardware you paying with Apple, your getting Software and Applecare imho worth every cent!. Is it over price yep, but i feel it is worth it. Have 2012 rMBP laptop and no issues. Only had to reinstall once (cant i say that about windows) and that was cause i was playing around with the OS. The machine runs great and alot better than any windows laptop i have owned, (for a 3 year laptop). I know the resale vaule will be great which will help me get a new 2015 or 2016 model.

[nosense]

 

I love the new XPS 13. The infinity display looks great. However, if you goto Dell's site, their $1299 version lines up perfectly with the base MBPr 13". Not to mention the base i5 5257U CPU in the MBPr is far superior to the i5 5200U in the XPS 13. Also, the MBPr has superior iGP (Iris 6100 in the MBPr vs. HD5500 in the XPS 13). Keep in mind that's just the base MBPr; you can configure it with a faster i5/i7, more RAM, and more storage. You're getting slightly better value/specs in the MBPr. Me personally, I'd still go for the XPS 13 though.

That's because it got an refresh in march 2015. When xps was announced\relased it was a better deal.

[Defcon]

Macs have never been more durable, longer lasting or better built, that's just a popular myth propogated by media and by those glamorous Apple ads about 'unibody' etc. They overheat, fail, have reduced speeds just like any other regular laptop except they cost 3-4x as much for the benefit of the fruit logo and shiny looks.

 

And can we stop with the trackpad glorification. I've used many laptops and while Apple may have been the first to feature a big trackpad (I'm not even sure abotu that) its certainly not that much better. Using a Mac means, by necessity, spending a ton of $$ on proprietary accesories, and it keeps going up with every gen. They *always* come with less standard features and cost more, and Apple fans always declare something is useless right upto the point Apple 'invents' it.

[Astra.Xtreme]

Uh huh.

 

Except I can grab the MBP that starts at 2499 and add a 1tb SSD to it and hit 3k and thats with the slower i7..

 

On the W541, I can go 3k multitouch screen, faster i7, 4GB ram, extended battery, and a 500GB HDD for 1781.  Then I can go to newegg, add a 1tb SSD (or two 512s) and 32GB ram, and max out at 2426.

 

Twice the ram, faster cpu, and 500 bucks cheaper.

 

Upgrade the CPUs in both (w541 geting extreme edition), there is still a 300 dollar discrepancy. I guess you could get base upgrades and update the MBP....oh wait.

 

Awating the imminent "but apple is higher quality and better" built comments... 

Cool story... I guess then you don't care about warranty...

Personally I'd value a warranty, battery life, weight, and the backlit keyboard than extra RAM and CPU cycles that won't be utilized in 99% of applications out there.  You know, things that are actually useful...

 

New pricing on the MBP will be changing in about 2 weeks, so the story will be different.

[nosense]

Cool story... I guess then you don't care about warranty...

Personally I'd value a warranty, battery life, weight, and the backlit keyboard than extra RAM and CPU cycles that won't be utilized in 99% of applications out there.  You know, things that are actually useful...

 

New pricing on the MBP will be changing in about 2 weeks, so the story will be different.

Says you, any body using a latop for DAW ,video editing, photo editing , gaming , running virtual machines. Would take ram and processors, over the thiings you mention.

 

 

Asus ZenBook Pro UX501  $1,499.00(sale price on asus site right now 1,799)

• Display

[chrisj1968]

I see everyone talking about hardware, but with apple you get the OS X (each year) / Office (Notes...)  / Support (Apple Care). Can anyone tell me another brand maker that has this sort of service. Its not just the hardware you paying with Apple, your getting Software and Applecare imho worth every cent!. Is it over price yep, but i feel it is worth it. Have 2012 rMBP laptop and no issues. Only had to reinstall once (cant i say that about windows) and that was cause i was playing around with the OS. The machine runs great and alot better than any windows laptop i have owned, (for a 3 year laptop). I know the resale vaule will be great which will help me get a new 2015 or 2016 model.

 

applecare and the extras you speak of don't mean a thing is your hardware if outdated when you buy it? I have OEM software with the system I have now. most people on the PC genre buy a system that will give them 1-2 years tops. but we're talking about bleeding edge technology and the best money can buy (in most cases). It seems to me that Apple is geared more for a group of users willing to pay more for lower specs and an applecare service.

 

here's the battle between PC and MAC. Bill Gates said in an interview I think it was in the early to mid 90's that, he wanted to have it  so that there's a PC in every house or home. in order to accomplish this, MS created licensing with OEM's so as to lower the cost of PC's and proliferate PC's as bill wanted.

 

Apple on th eother hand is the ONLY manufacturer of the equipment (hardware wise) and the OS unless people did the unthinkable with a hackintosh. (sorry mods if I did wrong by naming this, but for discussion purposes ONLY). outside of APPLE, Apple is in pure control. nothing wrong with that however if APPLE adopted the similar marketing model, there would be various manufacturers and the prices of the products would go down. Now, here's the real kicker. Apple doesn't want that. Apples model is to micro manage (this is their own choice, they are a business) the construction and design of each macbook and desktop mac. I don't buy into the "Apple wants the control over the hardware so as to not induce design issues" like some PC's have in the past. faulty hardware with faulty drivers. however, Apple uses intel products UNLESS you buy the most expensive macbook pro with retina display at $2,499 and that comes with an Nvidia card. pretty sad when a person plunks down  $1,799 for a 13" using cheap intel integrated 6100 graphics.

 

here's what my MB manufacturer installed on my system: Intel HD 4600. I don't buy into the , buying quality aspect when the hardware is obsolete when you buy it.  You're only buying into the APPLE NAME. that's it. for the money you spend you aren't even getting cutting edge hardware and recently, the OS was known to be highly prone to attacks but Apple to this day refuses to see the writing on the wall.

 

 

exmaples of the hardware versus what you pay for:

[The_Observer]

applecare and the extras you speak of don't mean a thing is your hardware if outdated when you buy it? I have OEM software with the system I have now. most people on the PC genre buy a system that will give them 1-2 years tops. but we're talking about bleeding edge technology and the best money can buy (in most cases). It seems to me that Apple is geared more for a group of users willing to pay more for lower specs and an applecare service.

 

here's the battle between PC and MAC. Bill Gates said in an interview I think it was in the early to mid 90's that, he wanted to have it  so that there's a PC in every house or home. in order to accomplish this, MS created licensing with OEM's so as to lower the cost of PC's and proliferate PC's as bill wanted.

 

Apple on th eother hand is the ONLY manufacturer of the equipment (hardware wise) and the OS unless people did the unthinkable with a hackintosh. (sorry mods if I did wrong by naming this, but for discussion purposes ONLY). outside of APPLE, Apple is in pure control. nothing wrong with that however if APPLE adopted the similar marketing model, there would be various manufacturers and the prices of the products would go down. Now, here's the real kicker. Apple doesn't want that. Apples model is to micro manage (this is their own choice, they are a business) the construction and design of each macbook and desktop mac. I don't buy into the "Apple wants the control over the hardware so as to not induce design issues" like some PC's have in the past. faulty hardware with faulty drivers. however, Apple uses intel products UNLESS you buy the most expensive macbook pro with retina display at $2,499 and that comes with an Nvidia card. pretty sad when a person plunks down  $1,799 for a 13" using cheap intel integrated 6100 graphics.

 

here's what my MB manufacturer installed on my system: Intel HD 4600. I don't buy into the , buying quality aspect when the hardware is obsolete when you buy it.  You're only buying into the APPLE NAME. that's it. for the money you spend you aren't even getting cutting edge hardware and recently, the OS was known to be highly prone to attacks but Apple to this day refuses to see the writing on the wall.

 

 

exmaples of the hardware versus what you pay for:

 

 

LOL "MS created licensing with OEM's so as to lower the cost of PC's and proliferate PC's as bill wanted" and dont we all love the BLOATWARE (and security issues) you get from this! and before you use the line, you can just uninstall it, i should not have to spend 1-2 hours getting rid of it. I turn on my macbok and away i go. Did i pay too much, mmm yea i guess so, but 3 years with just my rMBP and i travel everywhere with it and never had a issues i feel i got my vaule out of it. Also i could resell it for 1000NZD easy and use that towards a 2015 model.

 

This battle is never going to end, the problem is we are all power users, and know the true price of hardware. Get people who are everyday people and a bunch of tests.

 

Apple have done very well from pre-steve job era (before his death). We have to give them this.

[offroadaaron]

its the software that caters to the braindead populous that keeps me away.

 

 

How so? I have a work DELL laptop and a personal MacBook, I wish I could use my MacBook in my current role because the built in networking tool are great! dig, whois, ping's without the -t, pings that show duplicate replies. The Unix backend is great and my 2-3 year old MacBook Pro that use to be my old work machine (used every day) still looked like it pretty much did from day dot, my DELL work machine looks like it's been used a lot and I've only had it 4 months.

 

I can also sell my MacBook and get a decent amount for it, I couldn't sell this DELL laptop for hardly anything.

[Ryoken]

So before I answer, let me start with saying around me right now there's a MBA, an older MBP, a custom built PC, and a retail PC. I have and do use them all.

 

With Mac's there is a higher fee. No point in arguing about it, they go generally cost more. That said, they are not Silly overpriced like some people make them out to be, or use edge-cases to make a point ignoring the rest,

They are good hardware, are they always the BEST hardware? No, but just because your Windows laptop has technically better specs doesn't mean it runs better. Apple, having a closed ecosystem, means that their software and OS is designed to run on it. My older C2D MacBook Pro will run circles around my newer i5 Windows laptop, even though the specs say the Windows one is better. It boots faster, programs load faster, etc. 

They have excellent Customer Support. There is a reason they get rated so highly every year. If you have a hardware issue they will almost always bend over backwards trying to fix it, or replace it.

Design. And here is where I add the so called Apple Tax onto. Are there some nice Windows Laptops? Yes, but as a general rule, most are cheaply built, often with poor cooling, and simply don't look good. As I said, I have an older MBP, and it still looks almost new, and damn fine if I do say so myself. Never overheats, even with games. MBA, well ya that'll overheat with games, but it's not designed for it. I take the MBA almost everywhere, it's feather light, 13" is just the right size, charge lasts a day on casual use. Even when I was at school a full charge would last me the whole day, even running several VM's, browsing the web, etc. It look good and it works good.

 

At the end of the day the choice is yours. If ALL you care about is Specs, then you'll be getting a PC. If ALL you care about is design you'll (likely) get a Mac. If you're needs are in between, well then it's a choice. I don't regret owning a mix. I have a Windows Desktop for games and other things that need high performance, and Mac Laptops for day to day use.

 

 

As for the poster a few above, I'd love if it Apple offered more video options. But with that said, I've found games built for Mac run better on Intel Cards than most games built for Windows. Beyond that, Apple has never really saw a huge need for high end videocards for games, as really, if you're a gamer, you're not using a Mac to begin with. Once you get outside of games, midrange cards perform very well for everything else. Be it just watching movies, casual games, video editing, etc.. none of that needs more than decent Intel card.

[PGHammer]

I can argue with this one. I don't care how good a trackpad is, they're all awful.

 

As for the Mac ports - I see an entirely different set of ports on one chassis vs. the other so any comparison would be invalid.

The issue with trackpads - and especially in Windows, is that the support HAS been awful on the driver side. (It's not even one ODM, but most of them.)

 

That was why I bounced so hard off the ceiling with the Windows 10 Technical Preview - the trackpad driver issue went away.  (And completely away starting with 9941.)

 

While both my notebooks are from HP, they have different trackpads from each other.  (One has an ALPS trackpad - the other has one from Synpatics.  One is running Enterprise; the other is running Pro.)

 

There are other differences (in terms of portable support, merely going from 8 to 10).  The need for third-party battery utilities is far less (10 v. 8) - especially in the current builds; even Microsoft admits it got off to a late start there.

 

How many of you with older portables (especially notebooks going back to 7) rely on third-party utilities to keep track of your battery state (such as Battery Bar - one of the better ones)?

 

Things that we used to rely on third-parties for are now supported natively.

 

Is that another part of the issue - more native support and less reliance on third parties?

[T3X4S]

Personally, Apple products are way higher priced.

 

my Qosmio, 17" laptop mobile quad core 4700MQ intel CPU (which gives me 8 logical processors)

Nvidia Geforce 700M 3GB GPU discrete card

16GB ram

1TB HDD

both intel wifi and Atheros qualcomm wired network nic

and other minor stuff

 

$1,400-$1,499

 

Here's what you get for a 13" display and 15" display (INSANE!) all you get are DUAL core i5 CPU's on the 13" and a quad core if you buy a 15" no thank you

You're basically comparing a Saturn to a Mercedes - and saying - "they both have 4 cyl engines but the Benz cost 5x more !"

 

[chrisj1968]

LOL "MS created licensing with OEM's so as to lower the cost of PC's and proliferate PC's as bill wanted" and dont we all love the BLOATWARE (and security issues) you get from this! and before you use the line, you can just uninstall it, i should not have to spend 1-2 hours getting rid of it. I turn on my macbok and away i go. Did i pay too much, mmm yea i guess so, but 3 years with just my rMBP and i travel everywhere with it and never had a issues i feel i got my vaule out of it. Also i could resell it for 1000NZD easy and use that towards a 2015 model.

 

This battle is never going to end, the problem is we are all power users, and know the true price of hardware. Get people who are everyday people and a bunch of tests.

 

Apple have done very well from pre-steve job era (before his death). We have to give them this.

Emphasis mine so can we agree to the fact that both are horrible then? But the PC aspect gives you more... freedom of choice. please humor me.

 

PC's, a person can upgrade a PC GPU by buying a new card, installing drivers. PC's can change the CPU by changing the motherboard to accomodate the new CPU pin design.

 

As far as I know, observer, maybe you can clarify and educate me on this, can you upgrade a GPU and CPU/MOBO legally on an Apple system?

[chrisj1968]

You're basically comparing a Saturn to a Mercedes - and saying - "they both have 4 cyl engines but the Benz cost 5x more !"

 

yes. but by appearances, and I may be wrong, if so I'm wrong but, Apple seems to give you what they wanna give you in terms of hardware whereas PC hardware allows for GPU and CPU/MOBO upgrades usually no problem.

 

there are only two GPU vendors now, AMD and Nvidia. before there was 3dfx and a slough of others I've forgotten and that's when the drivers issues were plenty. but with 2 vendors, sure simplifies things. lol. hey Ilike simple sometimes.

 

Granted, with my OEM laptop I am also somewhat limited but I believe I could upgrade the discrete Nvidia graphics card. (probably voiding my warranty however) and upgrade my memory from 16GB to 32GB.

 

I'm not aware of Apple systems allowing for upgrades of any kind.. but maybe.

[The_Observer]

Emphasis mine so can we agree to the fact that both are horrible then? But the PC aspect gives you more... freedom of choice. please humor me.

 

PC's, a person can upgrade a PC GPU by buying a new card, installing drivers. PC's can change the CPU by changing the motherboard to accomodate the new CPU pin design.

 

As far as I know, observer, maybe you can clarify and educate me on this, can you upgrade a GPU and CPU/MOBO legally on an Apple system?

 

Why have your changed the talk to PCs (Desktops) i have been talking about Laptops, you have been talking about Laptops.

[tsupersonic]

That's because it got an refresh in march 2015. When xps was announced\relased it was a better deal.

Actually the latest XPS 13 was announced at CES 2015, and available for purchase in Jan '15. The MBP was refreshed early March '15. You'd think the MBP refresh prior (Mid 2014)  would be weaker, right? Nope. 

[chrisj1968]

Why have your changed the talk to PCs (Desktops) i have been talking about Laptops, you have been talking about Laptops.

 

well I thought I was talking about laptops? lol.  the desktop part was just for reference is all.

[The_Observer]

well I thought I was talking about laptops? lol.  the desktop part was just for reference is all.

 

PC = games. Dont know any macs that have a PC look. They are all iMacs which is just a laptop with a big screen on the fount of it. People dont buy iMacs to play games (well they do but it isnt the first reason why and if so WTF)

[chrisj1968]

Well actually mac is getting more games I've seen over time. I think I see such info on steam. But if that IS the case, mac/linux and windows are becoming more game centric.

[benthebear]

That's because it got an refresh in march 2015. When xps was announced\relased it was a better deal.

 

Then why did you originally say that the XPS was better? Also, the new XPS came out around February. So, if it was a better deal it was so...for a month...

 

Macs have never been more durable, longer lasting or better built, that's just a popular myth propogated by media and by those glamorous Apple ads about 'unibody' etc. They overheat, fail, have reduced speeds just like any other regular laptop except they cost 3-4x as much for the benefit of the fruit logo and shiny looks.

 

 

Actually, the popular myth is that Apple is charging 3-4x more. I don't know why people have to hyper inflate what Apple actually charges for things. Feeling insecure with your purchases, I don't know. Like, I know this thread is on its 8th page, and there's a bit to read, but there's enough material in here about what Apple is actually charging to show that someone needs to fast forward to this year if they want to join the conversation.

 

applecare and the extras you speak of don't mean a thing is your hardware if outdated when you buy it? I have OEM software with the system I have now. most people on the PC genre buy a system that will give them 1-2 years tops. but we're talking about bleeding edge technology and the best money can buy (in most cases). It seems to me that Apple is geared more for a group of users willing to pay more for lower specs and an applecare service.

 

You keep saying that Apple hardware is outdated when you buy it, so I have to ask...When did Broadwell based systems with faster storage, faster RAM, and a better resolution screen compared to your laptop become outdated? Yeah, man. CPU and GPU, you've got a beast. Hands down. I mean, you bought a gaming laptop, so that's where Toshiba was focused, but you can clearly see where they made compromises to get that to you at the price point you bought it for. 

 

 

Apple on th eother hand is the ONLY manufacturer of the equipment (hardware wise) and the OS unless people did the unthinkable with a hackintosh. (sorry mods if I did wrong by naming this, but for discussion purposes ONLY). outside of APPLE, Apple is in pure control. nothing wrong with that however if APPLE adopted the similar marketing model, there would be various manufacturers and the prices of the products would go down. Now, here's the real kicker. Apple doesn't want that. Apples model is to micro manage (this is their own choice, they are a business) the construction and design of each macbook and desktop mac. I don't buy into the "Apple wants the control over the hardware so as to not induce design issues" like some PC's have in the past. faulty hardware with faulty drivers. however, Apple uses intel products UNLESS you buy the most expensive macbook pro with retina display at $2,499 and that comes with an Nvidia card. pretty sad when a person plunks down  $1,799 for a 13" using cheap intel integrated 6100 graphics.

 

 

Yes, the prices would go down, and so would Apple's profits. Also, as it's been pointed out, Apple's prices are pretty competitive, so why would they want to further drive prices down, and lose out on profit? If Apple chased after marketshare, there wouldn't be an Apple.

[The_Observer]

Well actually mac is getting more games I've seen over time. I think I see such info on steam. But if that IS the case, mac/linux and windows are becoming more game centric.

 

Yea but the hardware is the biggest let down. I have a Home-Server with Steam installed and use the Inhome Steaming. Can play anything i can (when it works).I like this setup cause then i dont have a heavy hot laptop, but have the choice of playing some great PC games when i want to.

[Samhayes]

Asus zenbooks and dell xps 13 spec for spec are a way better buy than macbook pro\mac book\mac air. The zenbook even beats apple in the thin department.

 

 

The point is the value of the turn-key user experience with Apple hardware RUNNING OS X, both designed around the other.

 

It's the entire package, including support of said product from cradle to grave. 

 

No OS X, NO SALE. 

 

Same idea (that is, reality) goes for iPhones, iPads, and now for the Apple Watch, etc.