Apple vs PC – This Ad Says It All

what I think they fail to realize is ( on mac’s end ) the slightly better specs do not make up for the 4x price in most consumers eyes.

They could make millions more if they sold it for even 10% less. I don’t see why they think they need to sell for that much.

Neither do I. If one followed Apple’s logic a Honda Accord would cost $100,000. No matter how good any product is there is a price point where the average person will balk.

Yes Apple is a bit pricey … but you definitely get what you pay for! A person would have to replace all 4 of those HP pc’s before they ever had 1 thing wrong with a Mac!! Believe me … I’m proof of that! It’s like the foreign car vrs American cars scenario.. there is NO comparison!

Missing info: gigabyte ethernet; bluetooth; firewire; a much better video card; up to 8 HOURS on the battery! PLUS 3+ times the charge cycle life-up to 1000 times (vs. 200-200 times?) ; .98-inch vs 1.7-inch thickness; an aluminum vs plastic case; backlit keyboard; magsafe power connector. Not to mention the difference in Vista’s memory requirements vs Leopard’s.

To think a serious businessman would choose the cheaper solution on price alone is hilarious.

And, do you seriously believe that that HP will get used as much as that MacBook Pro? I’d bet the MacBook Pro is used 2 years longer than the HP.

And it is interesting that the HP is LIGHTER than the MacBook Pro…and the MacBook Pro has a bigger, better battery. Perhaps some CHEAP, Lightweight parts in the HP, don’t you think?

I guess it really boils down to, “which would you INVEST your money into”.

Some people are even smarter and pay nothing for a great OS–LINUX! The savings can then be put to even better hardware.

And don’t forget, in 2 years both machines will be considered slow and overall not that great (at least by me ).

Now, would you rather spend $800 or $2800 in two years when replacing the ‘old’ machine?

Hi Omchi,
Exactly. I replace my systems every 3 years and have 4 computers in the house.

Thanks for the comments everyone.

Business people, in general, don’t replace their computers every 2-3 years. They keep them, right them off for taxes, and get as much use out of them as possible unless their needs change enough to justify a new one.

If you compare exact to exact, Apple’s computers are competitive. Howerver, I agree that you can’t justify the price just for that fact alone. It comes down to needs on what to buy, when, etc.

I bought my first macbook pro a year ago. I have not had the first problem with it. It just gets things done without the hassle of viruses and incompatibility with various perrifials.

On the other hand my two windows machines have had to be wiped clean and windows reinstalled twice in one year due to viruses and spyware. When your machine is infected you just can’t get anything done.

If you want to save money when buying a mac. Buy a refurbished one at the apple site. There just like brand new, same warranty just a plain brown box. I saved over $400 on my Macbook Pro.

Like they say. Once you go Mac, You’ll never go back!

I see these ads and just laugh. I’ve been using Macs and PCs for over 25 years. The Mac costs more because of the complete package. Total integration of hardware and software. Thought through in every detail all the way down to esthetics and design. It has nothing to do with selling it for the same price as a cheap PCs just to compete. You absolutely get what you pay for. Anyone not realizing this just doesn’t use a Mac.

If it were only about price then all PCs would cost the same.

The long and short of it is – if you are a college student, or a internet user (not a designer) most people just want easy access they can replace in 3-4 years. Viruses are not a selling point of the mac, they are an indicator of the intelligence of society.

I have had a PC and mac for the last 4 years, and I have never had a virus on my PC. I also didn’t have any anti virus installed at all for over 3 of those 4 years. Play smarter not harder.

Macs might have more features, but you have to explain why that person needs them. A feature you don’t use is dead weight and price.

You pay extra for the outstanding service you get when your Mac does have problems. I was unlucky and had my hard drive on my MacBook Pro die approx. 9 months in. I could not believe what a pleasent experience I had with support at the Apple Store!

A better comparison than four mediocre laptops to one pretty good Mac: two Toshiba Qosimos (with 18″ screens) with fit and finish and software-hardware integration to rival Macs… with much higher processor speeds and discrete nVidia video, etc. Blow the Mac featured above out of the water. We’ve had _one_ problem in the past four years with Toshiba laptops, and Toshiba service outdid itself fixing the issue (was a motherboard issue, but while they replaced the mobo, they replaced the screen as well).

But it’s not just price. The world of PCs offers much, much more flexibility, and if one were to want a Mac OS-like experience, PCBSD is usually about a 15-minute install and is based on the same BSD code OSX is. Heck, one can even emulate the Mac GUI using PCBSD, so why pay the Apple Tax, anyway?

I think that this wasn’t a good enough comparison as the hardware wasn’t as close as possible to each other. Acer has a new Aspire model that sports all of the features of this Mac at a 600 dollar price tag and the first person to make a stupid comment about Acer being an off brand needs to be smacked in the face because last I checked Acer was the 3rd largest PC supplier and HP was in number 12.

Thanks for all of the comments everyone and for sharing your expertise with us. It is appreciated.

It’s all about quality. The PC I got 2 years ago is already falling apart and I’ve already spent money trying to repair it. I’m replacing it with a Mac Pro as soon as my tax returns come back so I won’t have to worry, just like i haven’t had to worry about my Macbook Pro I’ve had for the last year and a half.

[...] Apple vs. Microsoft – it all comes down to cost. [...]

Mac vs. PC: It all boils down to indoctrination. Both camps are full of sheeple: Macs with their elitist left-leaning, artsy-fartsy I-only-know-how-to-fill-the-gas-tank culture; and PCs with their blue-collar, me-too crowd-following culture. Not that any of that is any more exceptionally bad than the other, but it sure makes for fun watching the fur fly.

Hi Rick,
‘Not that any of that is any more exceptionally bad than the other, but it sure makes for fun watching the fur fly.;

Sure does. LOL

Eh, you could have picked a better PC laptop to compare with THE MOST EXPENSIVE HIGH END MAC BOOK PRO, though the lesser ones aren’t that less expensive. Yes, Mac’s are pretty over priced, but if you want to get a laptop that will be the exact as a Mac sans OS X but with stupid Vista, then you may be getting near there in price.

Really it depends what you want it for. That PC laptop would not be good for a college student doing 3D computer animation or something along that lines that needs a computer to have lots of power for rendering.

If you want to surf the net, play some not-high-end-graphics PC games, look at porn, then that PC is just for you.

All in all, not really a good comparison.

The two systems aren’t even comparable (Thanks David in your post above for pointing out the glaring oversights). Go ahead and buy the bulky, plastic-ridden off-the-shelf Best Buy junk if it suits you. That’s the ultimate decision maker… does it do what you need for the money you are willing to part company with at the end of the day? If yes, knock yourself out. Oh, how many HP Best Buy notebooks I’ve seen with motherboard failures and power connectors that come loose. Enjoy that mail-in warranty and the 30-60 day wait.

Personally, quality means a lot in my purchases. While I don’t own a MacBook Pro at present, I do run three Mac systems at home, along with the several Windows machines. The PC hardware routinely fails long before the Macs ever do… in fact, I don’t have a Mac that has experienced a hardware failure. This includes hand-me-downs to my parents. iMac DV400 still runs like a champ. I even have an old Color Classic that fires right up.

Apple builds quality hardware, period. Perfect? Hardly, but I’ve spent many, many hours fixing Best Buy shelf fodder for friends and family. I’ve never had to work on their Macs. Make no mistake, though, Macs are not for everyone. I hate vegetables, but I’m smart enough to know that green leafy substances aren’t evil and out to get me. Spewing hate for something you’ve never truly used (outside of 3 minutes in a school lab or when your friend dragged you to the Apple Store), shows ignorance, plain and simple. I AM perfectly willing to pay a bit more for certain Apple hardware… not all of it, to be sure.

There are so many things to consider when purchasing your laptop; one is definitely cost, but you must also consider usability and quality. This add does no justice to the Mac, leaving out the features that set it so far ahead of the HP. Yes, there are some aspects that make the Mac stumble, mainly the price, but, tell me this. If it was a little cheaper would you not love to have one? Its like looking at a Ford Taurus and a Ferarri; they are both cars, they can bot do pretty much the same thing, but which of them would you rather be seen in?

Thanks for the comments everyone. Sharing your thoughts with us are appreciated.

All the very best, Ron

Yeah, this isn’t comparing Apples to apples. /groan

And yes, the Apple does have some things better. 802.11n (draft – where/when in hell does it actually get released?) and gigabit Ethernet are the sh|t. But now, who has a gigabit router/switch? How many people have an N wireless AP? I would like to grab a gigabit switch for my home setup, but I’m not happy with what’s out of there, and I’m not so sure that it’s going to be that much better all things considered, because right now it would only connect two machines (out of three wired, eight total). And the traffic between those two machines really doesn’t really call for it anyways. DVD-DL? Who can afford the media? It seems to be coming down, but I haven’t been actively shopping for it.

The screen, weight, battery length and size definitely push towards Apple, $2,100 more for that reason alone? Nope.

The HP Pavillion DV7-1270US is closer in CPU (Intel vs. Intel, 10% hit on HP), DVD, Wireless and wired Ethernet, (which are now the same), a few more ports on the HP (HDMI being the one that catches my eye). Firewire (4 pin, I don’t use it, so I don’t know what the difference between 4 pin and 9 pin is. 400 vs. 800?) Infrared on the HP, and an RJ-11 for a modem (last time I used a modem was for a fax). Both have a built-in web cam.

The Apple has DDR-3 memory, which means (currently) more expensive memory to upgrade to 8 gigabytes, which both can do.

Screen still only does 1280×900 on the HP (which I have issues with, but then I’m running 1600×1200 on a 20″ LCD on my desktop…I like them (pixel wise) big!). Weight, size and battery don’t seem to improve any though. Plus for the Apple.

Additional price for better matching features (I’m leaving software out of that one)? $1,100 vs $2,800. Not including rebates.

That’s still a premium I’m not going to pay with out some serious thought.

The ASUS G50VT-A2 splits the difference in CPU, weighs less than the Apple, is a little better on video at 1680×1050, but is only a 15.4″ model.

Well, I’ve spewed long enough.

Hello Bryan,
Very good points. For some of us it does come down to cost.

[...] This article is featured on the custom Apple Blog at Auto-Blogs.us. [...]

I don’t suppose I should mention the high failure rate of HP/Compaq laptops, the fact that they come with Windows packed full of trialware, or the fact that they have cheap low resolution screens that look like a Macbook’s screen would, if you had glaucoma?

Ron: You can probably get 4 cheap Walmart steaks with gristle for the price of one really really delicious one at a nice restaurant.

I’d hardly call most OEM PCs a quality job, there are exceptions but they are exceptions. When they make a “PC Decrapifier” for the Mac, then you have to go hunt down freeware to do everything from burning CDs to listening to music, to burning discs, to editing images, I’ll change my mind.