why are apple laptops so expensive?

[macro]

thermal+paste:

That is insane... looks awesome though

[Furikuu]

I think Digg linked to an article where the author put Dell and Apple head to head in pricing a computer and found Apple might be better value. I guess it makes sense that Apple computers appear expensive at face value; but you're getting a well-designed, good looking configuration that is guaranteed to work with the oh-so-nice OS, plus a good suite of software that you might have to buy separately with a PC. And like linux2 said, there is a price premium you pay for the brand but if you want it that much you'd be prepared to pay that little extra. You know you're getting quality with Apple ;D

[edmonton]

Well, you cannot compare Apple with Dell. It's more equivalent as ThinkPad's stability plus VAIO's design. How much will a ThinkPad/VAIO cost you? At least Apple is not charging more for a 12" than a 14".

[DigitalN.]

hey, try and find a 15" laptop with full aluminium construction, 1.83GHz Core Duo, 512MB RAM upgradeable to 2GB, X1600XT 256MB video, 80GB hard drive, backlit keyboard, Wireless LAN and Bluetooth built, 1 INCH thick, linux, mac OS, and Windows capable booting all for 2000 dollars. good luck.

[Shetland]

find me a laptop of those specs (dual core, top end graphics card, 2gb ram, fantastic screen @ high res etc) thats so thin with all the design extras apple throw in (lit keys etc) for the same price and i'll bow to you.

edit: damn you posted before me, had the page open for 10 mins in a tab

[jkrupa128]

.....The differnce is obviuse...

Great spelling... :blink:

[MiG-]

find me a laptop of those specs (dual core, top end graphics card, 2gb ram, fantastic screen @ high res etc) thats so thin with all the design extras apple throw in (lit keys etc) for the same price and i'll bow to you.

edit: damn you posted before me, had the page open for 10 mins in a tab

Apple Mac Book Pro:

* 2.16GHz Intel Core Duo

* 1GB 667 DDR2 - 1x1GB SO-DIMM

* 100GB Serial ATA drive (7200rpm)

* 256MB ATi X1600 Mobility GFX Card

* Backlit Keyboard & Mac OS

* 15.4-inch TFT display

* SuperDrive (DVD?RW/CD-RW)

* AirPort Extreme

* Bluetooth 2.0

* Apple Remote

* Power Adapter

* Battery

Price: ?2,059

Dell XPS M170:

* 2.16GHz Intel Core Duo

* 1GB 667 DDR2 - 2x512MB SO-DIMM

* 100GB Serial ATA drive (7200rpm)

* 17" 1080P (1920x1200) Display

* 512MB Nvidia Geforce 7900GTX Go.

* 8x DVD/RW

* Power Adapter

* 9 Cell Battery

Price: ?1892.75

I think i just OwNeD the MacBook;) ;)

[macro]

You didn't "OwNeD" anything but garbage if you are running Windows....

[acies]

They charge this much because they can.

everything here is expensive, but that dosn't stop people from purchasing them.

[Shaun N.]

And out pop the Trolls

[Stunna]

People will buy the more expensive products sometimes because they believe the higher price means the product is better.

[saxondale.]

Apple Mac Book Pro:

* 2.16GHz Intel Core Duo

* 1GB 667 DDR2 - 1x1GB SO-DIMM

* 100GB Serial ATA drive (7200rpm)

* 256MB ATi X1600 Mobility GFX Card

* Backlit Keyboard & Mac OS

* 15.4-inch TFT display

* SuperDrive (DVD?RW/CD-RW)

* AirPort Extreme

* Bluetooth 2.0

* Apple Remote

* Power Adapter

* Battery

Price: ?2,059

Dell XPS M170:

* 2.16GHz Intel Core Duo

* 1GB 667 DDR2 - 2x512MB SO-DIMM

* 100GB Serial ATA drive (7200rpm)

* 17" 1080P (1920x1200) Display

* 512MB Nvidia Geforce 7900GTX Go.

* 8x DVD/RW

* Power Adapter

* 9 Cell Battery

Price: ?1892.75

I think i just OwNeD the MacBook;) ;)

And does that come built in with an awesome package like iLife? Where you have a pretty advance movie, video and photo editing program. Do you have a built in media centre, which comes with a controller? Plus OS X is a great operating system, you will have to shell out around i dunno ?300 for vista? i could get leopard for around ?100 if its based around Tigers price. On top of that i can get a discount off everything since im a student, so that ?2,059 turns?1,894894 and since hes a student he can take advantage of that, get the next OS X at a discount rate, all other software. There are so many advanced programs just designed for the Mac, so if you are into music/video editing you have things like Pro Tools and Final Cut, industry stuff where as you dont get this with a micrsoft machine. You get what you pay for.

I can get a full retail version of Tiger OS X for ?58.75, what a damn good price. If you dont have iLife, thats only ?50, all the other things you need for a system comes cheap from Apple, you have to love it. You even have the luxury to run two operating systems, osx and windows, perfectly, apple have done it again.

So the thing i just quoted seems nothing now doesnt it

Edited April 23, 2006 by saxondale.

[Vice]

Apple Mac Book Pro:

* 2.16GHz Intel Core Duo

* 1GB 667 DDR2 - 1x1GB SO-DIMM

* 100GB Serial ATA drive (7200rpm)

* 256MB ATi X1600 Mobility GFX Card

* Backlit Keyboard & Mac OS

* 15.4-inch TFT display

* SuperDrive (DVD?RW/CD-RW)

* AirPort Extreme

* Bluetooth 2.0

* Apple Remote

* Power Adapter

* Battery

Price: ?2,059

Dell XPS M170:

* 2.16GHz Intel Core Duo

* 1GB 667 DDR2 - 2x512MB SO-DIMM

* 100GB Serial ATA drive (7200rpm)

* 17" 1080P (1920x1200) Display

* 512MB Nvidia Geforce 7900GTX Go.

* 8x DVD/RW

* Power Adapter

* 9 Cell Battery

Price: ?1892.75

I think i just OwNeD the MacBook;) ;)

512MB of memory? 2 inches thick? - no illuminated keyboard? not an ALL aluminium construction. You didn't match it at all. Most of the price from the Apple notebooks is due to there small thin form pushing it all in that tiny tiny case and managing heat. They run silently without a Fan spinning when able. The dell notebook you specified has like 2 exhaust fans that run all the time. And it cannot legally triple boot OS X, Windows & Linux.

[Brodel]

lol, I didn't think that this post would explode like this. I guess it's fairly even and you do get what you pay for, the only thing is that so many people have powerbooks etc yet I highly doubt they all need the extra software that a mac comes with or supports... which seems to be the only place the extra money is going.

Like I said, I'm only a student so spending ?1,894 on a laptop isn't even an option so student discounts from apple mean nothing at that price. I only want something for word processing, messenger and internet etc. I can get a Dell 630m, Pentium M 1.7ghz, 512mb RAM, 60GB HD for ?445 so I think I'm going to go with that because apple doesn't offer anything better for my uses.

what I don't quite get is why/how so many people spend so much on a powerbook etc when the uses seem to be so specific to make them worth the extra money... I guess it's apples marketing system at work again.

[saxondale.]

lol, I didn't think that this post would explode like this. I guess it's fairly even and you do get what you pay for, the only thing is that so many people have powerbooks etc yet I highly doubt they all need the extra software that a mac comes with or supports... which seems to be the only place the extra money is going.

Well from that you obviously dont need it, and in my opinion the only reason to get a Mac is for the stuff it offers (video, photo/music editing). I use the software that it comes with on a daily basis and the other stuff like pro tools pretty often.

And if you just wanted to get it for word processing etc why did you even consider a mac? when you know its meant for alot more, hence the higher price.

what I don't quite get is why/how so many people spend so much on a powerbook etc when the uses seem to be so specific to make them worth the extra money... I guess it's apples marketing system at work again.

If i tried to do the stuff i do on my Mac on a PC i would fail so badly. Macs are a creative machine, they are designed for the creative people, people who like to produce music, edit/produce videos and photo edit. I dont call that specific, its such a freedom area of computing, the skys your limit when it comes to that stuff and Macs are made for it, to excel in these areas, the areas which a windows machine cant do as well.

I could start producing a song, editing a movie straight off without any added software, straight from the box, good luck doing that on a windows machine. This is where is comes cheap, you might not think its cheap hardware wise, but when you see what comes built in you realise why, then when you want more and more software you will understand.

So clearly a Mac isnt for you, if it was, you would of had it by now, and understand what a Mac is designed for.

[Brodel]

Well from that you obviously dont need it, and in my opinion the only reason to get a Mac is for the stuff it offers (video, photo/music editing). I use the software that it comes with on a daily basis and the other stuff like pro tools pretty often.

And if you just wanted to get it for word processing etc why did you even consider a mac? when you know its meant for alot more, hence the higher price.

I was fairly certain I didn't need one before I made the post, I was just unsure as to why there was such a big price difference.

I was looking at them because I had just been in the library and realised that almost everyone had one...and I'm willing to bet about 70% of them only used it for word processing. I was interested in trying something different from XP for a change and I don't mind admitting that they look pretty damn nice too.

on a side note... wouldn't it make sense for apple to produce basic budget laptops to get people more inclined to buy one and then in the future stick with mac? I can't really see why they dont make one without all the extra software and bells and whistles for people on a budget.

Edited April 23, 2006 by Brodel

[saxondale.]

Be the smart one and dont get one, which you are already doing, personally i think people who need it for word processing shouldnt have a Mac.

on a side note... wouldn't it make sense for apple to produce basic budget laptops to get people more inclined to buy one and then in the future stick with mac? I can't really see why they dont make one without all the extra software and bells and whistles for people on a budget.

Thats the job of a PC, not a Mac and keep it as that.

[Vice]

wouldn't it make sense for apple to produce basic budget laptops to get people more inclined to buy one and then in the future stick with mac? I can't really see why they dont make one without all the extra software and bells and whistles for people on a budget.

There called iBooks.

[saxondale.]

There called iBooks.

He's talking about stuff without the built in software like iLife, iWorks etc

[sunbiz_3000]

Be the smart one and dont get one, which you are already doing, personally i think people who need it for word processing shouldnt have a Mac.

Thats the job of a PC, not a Mac and keep it as that.

I think Apple should make budget PCs as well, with their awesome design and "culture" like Steve Jobs says... I think Apple can get rich pretty fast.

Atleast even if its not the budget Macs, I think Apple should release Mac OSX for all x86 processors. Many advantages in that. Although there would be lot of piracy...I think it could benefit Apple more, coz...more people using would encourage more developers.

[MiG-]

And does that come built in with an awesome package like iLife? Where you have a pretty advance movie, video and photo editing program. Do you have a built in media centre, which comes with a controller? Plus OS X is a great operating system, you will have to shell out around i dunno ?300 for vista? i could get leopard for around ?100 if its based around Tigers price. On top of that i can get a discount off everything since im a student, so that ?2,059 turns into ?1,894 and since hes a student he can take advantage of that, get the next OS X at a discount rate, all other software. There are so many advanced programs just designed for the Mac, so if you are into music/video editing you have things like Pro Tools and Final Cut, industry stuff where as you dont get this with a micrsoft machine. You get what you pay for.

I can get a full retail version of Tiger OS X for ?58.75, what a damn good price. If you dont have iLife, thats only ?50, all the other things you need for a system comes cheap from Apple, you have to love it. You even have the luxury to run two operating systems, osx and windows, perfectly, apple have done it again.

So the thing i just quoted seems nothing now doesnt it

Im a student also, and i just get most of microsoft's software for free. sheeesh i get Visual Studio for free, can get office 2003 pro for ?59.99.

How can u call mac more productive than windows. Loading times are the same, Software loads as fast and does the same job.

If ure a professional u are going to be using the same packages, e.g. adobe.

So how does working on a different OS make u more productive, thats just complete garbage.

No it isnt made of out aluminium, but then again the XPS are damn fine looking laptops, and if you want a "1337" looking laptop all you would have to do is to contact Savrow or Voodoo and just get blown away by there amazing designs and laptops with battery lifes of upto 9hours.

I aint slating OSX but you claim it does a million things that you cannot otherwise do on winodws, such as be creative, use the thing without it being infected with spyware, or anything else for that matter such as viruses.

OSX is a good choice for digital media applications, and the best IMO, but it doesnt make you more creative by a long shot, no OS or software can do that.

Apples are expensive, and i came back with a cheaper and faster laptop with a GFX card in it that would probably cope with playing games at 1080p.

And to the quoter who said about having 2x512mb Sticks. you can configure to have 1 x 1Gb stick but you would be daft to pay extra and get rid of dual channel bandwidth.

the Mac Book, only has a 1440 x 900 resolution, the XPS has a true 1080P resoutlion, around 10x better for High Def movie editing.

It could probably also illegally run OSX and be on Par with a Macbook pro.

my 2p:whistle:histle:

[saxondale.]

Im a student also, and i just get most of microsoft's software for free. sheeesh i get Visual Studio for free, can get office 2003 pro for ?59.99.

How can u call mac more productive than windows. Loading times are the same, Software loads as fast and does the same job.

If ure a professional u are going to be using the same packages, e.g. adobe.

So how does working on a different OS make u more productive, thats just complete garbage.

No it isnt made of out aluminium, but then again the XPS are damn fine looking laptops, and if you want a "1337" looking laptop all you would have to do is to contact Savrow or Voodoo and just get blown away by there amazing designs and laptops with battery lifes of upto 9hours.

I aint slating OSX but you claim it does a million things that you cannot otherwise do on winodws, such as be creative, use the thing without it being infected with spyware, or anything else for that matter such as viruses.

OSX is a good choice for digital media applications, and the best IMO, but it doesnt make you more creative by a long shot, no OS or software can do that.

Apples are expensive, and i came back with a cheaper and faster laptop with a GFX card in it that would probably cope with playing games at 1080p.

And to the quoter who said about having 2x512mb Sticks. you can configure to have 1 x 1Gb stick but you would be daft to pay extra and get rid of dual channel bandwidth.

the Mac Book, only has a 1440 x 900 resolution, the XPS has a true 1080P resoutlion, around 10x better for High Def movie editing.

It could probably also illegally run OSX and be on Par with a Macbook pro.

my 2pence. :whistle::

If you are a professional video producer, music producer you will not be using windows. These are 2 very creative things, you have companies like Avid, dedicated to Apple, making hardware run hand in hand with Pro Tools, possibly the best music editing software in the world, all designed for Macs. You have Final Cut which is a very industry standard software for video editing, same with acid, all dedicated to Macs. Windows has none of that.

It doesnt make you more productive but the programs designed for Macs are for people into that stuff, which tend to be creative people, and you obviously want to do it good, Macs help you do it good, like i said, you have companies dedicated to Apple making the best software in the world for these creative hobbies/jobs, where as you dont for windows.

You are comparing a 17" system with a 15" system, thats Apples mid model, not the top end, before you compare wait till Apple release the full line, the 17" model.

Hi-Def movie editing, wait with what software? No company will use that, or any person who is into that when you have the best software in the world to do it. Whats the point in having that when the software provided is poor and horrible.

[macstorm]

because they are small and portables..

[MiG-]

If you are a professional video producer, music producer you will not be using windows. These are 2 very creative things, you have companies like Avid, dedicated to Apple, making hardware run hand in hand with Pro Tools, possibly the best music editing software in the world, all designed for Macs. You have Final Cut which is a very industry standard software for video editing, same with acid, all dedicated to Macs. Windows has none of that.

It doesnt make you more productive but the programs designed for Macs are for people into that stuff, which tend to be creative people, and you obviously want to do it good, Macs help you do it good, like i said, you have companies dedicated to Apple making the best software in the world for these creative hobbies/jobs, where as you dont for windows.

You are comparing a 17" system with a 15" system, thats Apples mid model, not the top end, before you compare wait till Apple release the full line, the 17" model.

Hi-Def movie editing, wait with what software? No company will use that, or any person who is into that when you have the best software in the world to do it. Whats the point in having that when the software provided is poor and horrible.

Well i guess the whole Adobe Creative Suite is Complete Garbage, and well Adobe Premier, or Pinnacle / Avid Liquid Professional is a joke.

How can you say that the mostly used platform contains no software available.

I really dont see you arguement, you say that all editing software is a joke for windows, when it is far from it.

[ATLien_0]

Laptops are more expensive due to the work required to put it together. A laptop is a solid machine, it isnt easy to cram all that hardware into the machine and most hardware like the video card for instance is specially made for that machine.