iMock

In the last week at work I've run across five people who have spent a ridiculous amount of money on Macs, when a PC would have worked just as well. Of these five people, only one has a job that requires the use of software and utilities that Macs are famous for (namely video editing, graphic design, and music production.) This person promptly installed the Adobe Suite and enrolled in classes to learn how to use it. One person spent $1400 replacing the mobo after they spilled water in their MacBook Pro. A third of the group bought a Mac, and then bought and installed Windows 7 and MS Office 07 on it. The rest bought Macs because they thought they were cool, and would have less problems than a PC. These people make me facepalm, hard. This leads to my first ever Mac Mock session, also called the iMock.

For starters, it is a well known and publicized fact that Apple is charging a ridiculous amount for the same hardware PC's use. I will illustrate. I checked out Dell's site, and Apples site to customize two notebooks. (Here's some links so you can play along at home. Apple, Dell)

I'm doing a price comparison of a base unit and a customized unit. I customized the units to the same specs. I did not include any additional software.

The base specs are:

Intel Core i5 430M 2.26GHZ
4GB DDR3 1066MHz RAM
Stock harddrive drive
15" display

The Macbook Pro's 15" specs for the Intel Core i5 2.26GHz processor are as follows:

Intel Core i5 430M 2.2GHZ
4GB DDR3 1066MHz RAM
OSX
500GB SATA drive
#1 year hardware warranty, 90 day phone support

They're starting price: $2,199.00

When I customize it, I added some Ram and increased the warranty (which is all you really need here.)

The specs are as follows:

Intel Core i5 430M 2.2GHZ
8GB DDR3 1066MHz RAM
OSX
500GB SATA drive
3 year Accidental Damage Protection

Price: $2948.00


Now for the Dell.

Starting Specs:

Intel Core i5 430M 2.26GHZ
4GB DDR3 1066MHz RAM
Windows 7 64-bit
320GB SATA drive
2 year basic warranty (includes hardware and phone support(probably from India))

Starting price: $729.00

When I customize it, I add 4GB or RAM, increase the HDD to 500GB, and add a 3 year Advanced warranty.

Specs:

Intel Core i5 430M 2.26GHZ
8GB DDR3 1066MHz RAM
Windows 7 64-bit
500GB SATA drive
3 year ADP with Lojack & in home service

price:
$1318.00


That's right. The base unit of the MacBook Pro costs $1470.00 more than the base unit of the Dell Studio 15. You get 180GB more on the harddrive, and a year less on the warranty. You could buy three, that's right THREE, Dell Studio 15 notebooks for the price of One MacBook Pro. Keep in mind, these systems are running the same basic hardware. The main difference is going to be the case and the OS.

When the units are customized the price gap closes a bit. The customized MacBook Pro costs $1630 more than the customized Dell. However, you could only buy 2 Dell Studio 15's for the price of the 8GB MacBook Pro.

The customized MacBook includes Apple's AppleCare Protection Plan. This provides 3 years of basic hardware warranty and phone support. It does not cover drops, spills, power surges, or things generally considered "Accidental Damage."

The customized Dell Studio 15 includes a 3 year Advanced Warranty, which includes hardware, phone support, and accidental damage protection. That means if you spill water in it, you won't have to spend $600.00 to $1,400.00 to replace the motherboard.

All in all, Mac's are way too expensive for what you get. Yes, they are pretty. Yes, there are some great innovations (many of which MS copied in Windows 7, like the dock and Expose.) But in the end, you can get the same results with a stock PC. I hate to admit it, but the Windows commercials were right.