Why are macs so expensive?

[Merie]

I'd probably never buy an Apple product again due to their price gouging. It's not worth it to me to pay twice what something is otherwise worth for a status symbol. Apple charges a Made In America price tag for items not made in America. That's good for them as it means gigantic profit margins when the masses line up like droves to hand over their money like cattle to the slaughter, but that's no good for me.

What gets me is how they don't spend much of any of their money, they just hoard it all. Why not make your Ipads in America and sell for the same price if you're just going to hoard all your profit? It doesn't matter if you have a trillion dollars or only half a trillion dollars in the bank when you never buy or spend anything beyond basic upkeep.

[Prokne]

Im not sure if anyone has said this yet but another reason why Apple products are more expensive is that they are the only ones allowed to use their software. You can't buy a computer made by an other manufacturer with an Apple operating system because Apple doesnt license it to anyone else and companies that have made computers with Apple OS have been sued and shut down by them. So basically if you like the OS or software you have to buy hardware from them. If other companies were able to use their operating system there would be actual competition for hardware and prices would go down.

I wonder how much they would cost if they used Windows as an operating system and the only difference was the case its put in.

[Articuno]

It doesn't mention that the other ones uses the same suppliers. They start mentioning sweatshops when it's time for apple's introduction to the sheet. Angled propaganda from where I'm looking.

It's an angled truth, but it's still the truth.

[dokilar]

lol, or swearing in french

i see what you did there with a matrix quote!!!

[DeltrusDisc]

Are people talking crap or does the glowing Apple on the computers *actually* cost $800? O_O

[Articuno]

I wonder how much they would cost if they used Windows as an operating system and the only difference was the case its put in.

The same. Look at Alienware.

[haxartus]

Are people talking crap or does the glowing Apple on the computers *actually* cost $800? O_O

It doesn't but there is no way to explain why Macs cost like x3 times more, so it's the only "logical" explanation.

[Drunkenvalley]

To summarize it up: you're right about some things, but terribly wrong on some others. I can understand a guy who buys a Mac system for his studio where he stays a lot of time to render music/video. That's an investemnt for his work and i support him since Mac are usually metter machines at that task.

But all ends there.

Yes and no. It has some excellent software in a way, but hardly worth all that money, especially not when a lot of it is also available on Windows. Anything else has been invalidated since they stopped making their own components, and instead use Intel CPU & AMD GPUs. Additionally, Mac behaves odd on the network from what I've found, but maybe that was just the telly station I worked at. :/

[noteworthynerd]

I'd like to remind everyone that baseless brand bashing is against the Computer Forum Rules.

[Drunkenvalley]

It's an angled truth, but it's still the truth.

And honestly, I think it was more to beat down on the overpricing of the components by saying "no, they're not being supplied anywhere pretty" lol. But I do agree with others that it's a point not well made, and more becomes APPLE USES FOXCONN RAWR.

[Deleted]

Because of the apple logo

[Delevicton]

Logic Pro <333

[BrerBear]

Pretty much this entire thread is idiotic, filled with people whose time is worth next to nothing.
You could make the same arguments about why people pay for auto-shift cars when manual is "just fine". Or a high-end blender.
Hell, why would anyone buy Windows or Photoshop when they could just use Linux and Gimp (shudder)?

Macs charge a premium -- and not as much as most would have you believe -- by creating easy to use, elegant and integrated hardware and software. If you like to tinker with your car, root your phone, or spend hours diddling with your video card settings, Macs are probably not for you.

I have to suffer through Ubuntu and Windows at work, but I choose Macs at home even if they cost a little more. Yes, that's right, where no one sees me using them.

P.S. Before you start, I'd put my tech credentials up against anyone in this thread.

[Keller]

I cant believe how quickly this thread got 120 posts..

Personally for the sake of being lazy im going to go with the "because of the logo" crew

[Prokne]

The same. Look at Alienware.

From what I know about Alienware is that they make performance computers so you pay more for better hardware. Apple computers usually have inferior or the same hardware as a Dell computer but cost much more. So if Apple hardware is the same as a Dell and runs on Windows then they would only be able to charge for a brand name.

[haxartus]

Actually you don't even need to compare the prices to understand that Apple is insanely overpricing stuff. Here are a few numbers:
Apple:
Revenue (2011): $108.2 billion.
Net income (2011): $25.9 billion.
Samsung:
Revenue (2011): $247.5 billion
Net income (2011): $18.3 billion
HP:
Revenue (2011): $127.2 billion
Net income (2011): $9.67 billion

[Articuno]

Pretty much this entire thread is idiotic, filled with people whose time is worth next to nothing. -snip-

This entire ad hominum argument assumes the Windows or Linux user is incompetent. The majority of people in this thread are competent, and for the population at large that could be considered incompetent Windows 8 has built in heuristic virus scanning and several other security features like UEFI Secure Boot pre-enabled if you buy a new computer with it installed.

[Ruffles]

Because it's Apple.

[Mad_Murdock]

It doesn't but there is no way to explain why Macs cost like x3 times more, so it's the only "logical" explanation.

While that could be true, I do recall a few years back(OK more like 10) that some of the low end Compaq PCs for example, where known to use a mix of refurb drives or drives that failed Quantum's and Western Digital's QA test. It doesn't mean the drives were total junk, just that their life was expected to be lower. same for Memory and other components. And for people looking to buy a $700-$900 system (back when PCs were just starting to break the $1000 mark) This probably did all they ever needed. Granted, I'd want to know if I was buying semi defective components sold in a brand new system, but I guess not everyone cared as much, especially if it worked.

Even today you can see large price difference in a lot of components. Some are rated as "enterprise" level parts. An overclocker isn't going to buy Joe Schmoo cheapo ram, even though that ram may work 100% fine in a standard (non-overclocked) PC. Apple's claim is they only use the Grade A parts and ensure the highest level of stability and performance. I don't do anything with Apple's MACs so I don't know what they really use and I'm not sure there are any public numbers that show their return\failure rates of their MACs especially compared to HP\Dell\whoever

[Keller]

From what I know about Alienware is that they make performance computers so you pay more for better hardware. Apple computers usually have inferior or the same hardware as a Dell computer but cost much more. So if Apple hardware is the same as a Dell and runs on Windows then they would only be able to charge for a brand name.

They also charge double then sager or clevo would..

---------- Post added 2012-08-01 at 08:06 PM ----------

While that could be true, I do recall a few years back that some of the low end Compaq PCs for example, where known to use a mix of refurb drives or drives that failed Quantum's and Western Digital's QA test. It doesn't mean the drives were total junk, just that their life was expected to be lower. same for Memory and other components. And for people looking to buy a $700-$900 system (back when PCs were just starting to break the $1000 mark) This probably did all they ever needed. Granted, I'd want to know if I was buying semi defective components sold in a brand new system, but I guess not everyone cared as much, especially if it worked.

Even today you can see large price difference in a lot of components. Some are rated as "enterprise" level parts. An overclocker isn't going to buy Joe Schmoo cheapo ram, even though that ram may work 100% fine in a standard (non-overclocked) PC. Apple's claim is they only use the Grade A parts and ensure the highest level of stability and performance. I don't do anything with Apple's MAC so I don't know what they really use.

Apple gets most of their components from and assembled by foxconn, widely regarded as a horrible manifacturer