Apples vs. Cashews
April 25th, 2005A friend sent me this link. Very interesting methodology for comparing computer pricing between Dell and Apple.
You know Blurbomat is into Macs, but it’s nice to see somebody looking at the pricing like this. Macworld did a similar comparison with the Mac MIni, but I’ve been wanting to see what it was like across the board. We get Dell catalogs and while I’m always amazed at the low low prices, once you start looking at what you get, it takes a savvy shopper to get a good deal, regardless of platform/vendor.
The lesson (remember He-man and how he’d always come back after the break to teach the lesson?) seems to be that the argument about pricing is over. And He-man wins because Skeletor is all wrapped up in his corrupt DLL. o
I had an apple 2+, the first mac, mac plus, all the way through to the G3’s and G4s. I recently switched to PC because I lost my advocacy bent in favor of cost. PCs have the benefit of competition driving their costs lower. I needed a new computer, and simply couldn’t afford the powerhouse that I wanted. So I bought components, and built my own PC. You simply can’t do that with Macs.
I have a machine that’s now a couple years old, but for about $500 I can get a new motherboard, chipset and RAM (reusing my existing vid card, ethernet, sound card, housing, HD, etc) and have a smokin’ machine. If I want smokin’ performance in apple, I’d have to pay at least 2 grand, right?
Apple had a sweet handheld called the newton. This was before Palm Pilots became so ubiquitous (and I think before the pocket PC hit the market). The Air & Space Museum in DC used the newton for their self-guided tours. Apple discontinued them ’cause of low sales. Like all other Apple products, the newton OS was praised for ease of use and reliability. Before the iMac, I was afraid that the Mac was similarly doomed.
Thanks for the link to the interesting article. I’m a total Macman, although I will say that Macs have nothing when it comes to games. Either way, that was quite a lengthy and thorough comparison, which I’ll have to read more thoroughly when I’m not in the middle of a project.
Despite my Mac loyalty, I still wince when it comes to their costs. Ain’t no way around that. But I rest assured that I’m getting good, reliable quality that goes hand in hand with my creative career. I won’t dog PCs, but really, despite their crazy price tag, Macs really are a cinch and fun to use.
In my former working life as an IT person, I found Apple systems to have fewer day to day problems than PC’s. However, when the Apples decide to go FUBAR, I had a harder time getting them right again—perhaps some of that due to my inexperience with them.
Personally have 3 dif. Dell desktops w/3 dif. OS’s, all on a local network. My experience with Dell has been excellent. I’ve gotten their bargain of the week and I’ve enhanced their basic systems. They’ve backed the product when I’ve needed service (once in 6 years between all three systems). I would definitely purchase from them again. Caveat—I am a PC geek so my systems don’t get the abuse they might receive from a less-enlightened user.
However, now that I’ve really, really, really gotten into photography, I would like to add something from ‘the dark side’ to my setup and will probably find the Apple logo somewhere in my future…