
I Love My MacBook But $750 is $750 - buckpost
http://www.markevanstech.com/2008/09/06/i-love-my-macbook-but-750-is-750/
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ericwaller
I'm still not sure why people are so fascinated by this. I don't know of any
blog articles complaining about the porsche boxster: "but look! it's jussstt
like the pontiac solstice!"

It's just the way it is. Of course "the way it is" happens to embody a
significant amount of contemporary economic theory.

~~~
axod
I agree. It's a weird phenomenon. People just don't question high performance
sports cars. They seem to understand why someone would _want_ to pay a lot of
money for a porche, but they don't seem to understand why people would want to
pay slightly more for a mac :/

A mac isn't even in the same league though. A luxury sports car could be 10x
the price of a comparable 'standard' car. Mac's are only slightly more
expensive than other some cheapy laptops.

I'll just stick with my Macs though :)

edit: That 'advert' is completely bizarre.

~~~
elai
I totally question why someone would purchase a high performance sport car. 10
to 100 times the price of an already very expensive thing for performance you
can't legally use and a nicer looking design. They're nice, but they're not
$200'000 nice for a marginal increase in power, ability, & a nice body panel
design.

Plus you can get motorbikes that would beat any ferrari for the same price as
a prius.

~~~
axod
If you have the money, of course you're going to spend 100x the price to get
the best.

Getting a performance car isn't about the top speed, or performance in itself,
it's a status symbol, a big toy, something to marvel over, something to show
people, etc etc etc (I don't have one BTW.... yet).

~~~
ericwaller
To me, sports cars are about appreciating the bleeding edge in
engineering/design (I don't have one either.. haha). And I think anytime a
product is priced at 100x it's functional equivalents it's about
connoisseurship.

Now I'm not saying that macs are a work of art (though OSX is in many ways the
cutting edge of UI design), but they also aren't 100x the cost, maybe just
+50%.

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watmough
My wife replaced a HP Amada with a MacBook. The MacBook had some early
troubles but has been stable ever since. Two years or so.

The HP lasted about a year before the power cord connector came away from the
main board and had to be resoldered. This happened a couple of times before we
gave up on the machine. I bet the landfills are full of these things.

The MacBook has worked out vastly cheaper than the HP over the actual
ownership experience, even if the upfront cost was a bit more.

~~~
rsheridan6
I've never owned one, but I hear that thinkpads are also reliable, and they're
still significantly cheaper than Macs.

~~~
albertcardona
Thinkpads sell at about the same price as macs, if you choose the proper
"options" to really make the choice comparable -- the base macs are a
mid/upper thinkpad. I own both, I know first-hand. And both are very reliable,
as far as I can tell. The macs lasted 4 years each; the thinkpad is 2 years
old and kicking very well. We'll see what happens.

~~~
rsheridan6
Maybe at some price/performance points, but in April I compared a low-end
MacBook Pro with a similarlly spec'd 15" Thinkpad, and found that the Thinkpad
was something like $500 cheaper. If you want a 15" screen, you have to buy a
MBP, which starts around $2000.

I ended up getting the Mac, and I'm happy with it, but not sure if it was
worth the extra money. I still prefer Linux after working with a Mac for a few
months.

------
sanj
How much do you value your time?

My laptop is my primary tool. Day in day out.

Even at $75/h it pays off in 10 hours.

~~~
JeremyChase
Have you ever bought a computer at the apple store? It takes more than an hour
just for them to go through their sales pitch while they try to sell you on
apple care. God forbid you know what you want, and just want to get out of
there with it in hand.

The Apple products are fun to use but given the price premium the build
quality is questionable, and the machine itself is rather slow.

Jer

~~~
noonespecial
I've been in and out of an Apple store in 10 minutes. Just go in knowing what
you want. Tell the salesmen/woman clearly, right up front. If you don't want
applecare, list it like a feature. _2 gig ram, dvd-burner, no applecare._ Are
you sure? _Yes._ You don't even have to go wait in line at a cash register.
The sales guy just checks you out.

At circuit city, I got two spiels about extended warranties. One from the
sales floor guy. One from the cashier. It also took 25 minutes to "find" the
computer I wanted in the back. And this was for a preconfigured toshiba from
the display.

~~~
mrtron
I have been in and out of the Apple store in about 2 minutes buying my last
laptop.

I said give me that Macbook, and while the guy in front of me took my credit
card with his wireless POS device, another guy grabbed me the laptop.

I really find the anti-Apple movement interesting. I am not sure how to
explain it - but it is more about passion than substance than the pro-Apple
movement.

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axod
For something you use every day, and on which you may work, $750 is really not
very much at all.

Laptops are all _really_ cheap these days. When they're all cheap, you may as
well get the best IMHO.

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jodrellblank
Summary: "several products exist with different specifications and prices"

...

~~~
kyro
Can we please stop doing this?

These simplistic one sentence summaries can be applied to almost any piece.

Summary of the Constitution: "We are entitled to various rights, and there are
a bunch of laws that help us protect them."

~~~
jodrellblank
Summary: stop doing things I don't like.

:p

More seriously, his post states the cost and some specifications of a macbook,
and a low-cost windows laptop and that people might consider price and "mac
aura" before buying. He doesn't make any useful, interesting or funny
observations, conclusions, assertions or explanations. That's his entire post.

Not, "here's why I think the mac is more expensive" or "what will happen to
the mac as cheap windows laptops get more powerful" or "if the mac aura is the
main reason for the cost then it means XYZ", or "in previous economic
downturns, mac prices changed like XYZ" or "Based on this, I predict the next
device from apple will be an XYZ" or "I've built a mac price predictor" or
anything. Not even as simple as "The mac is $750 more _and I think that's too
much_ ".

"makes you wonder." - makes him wonder what? "at first glance it seems like a
great deal" - what about at second and further glances? "I know it's apples
and oranges, they're different" - how about discussing the differences in
detail? "saving $750 at a time of economic uncertainly could resonate with
many consumers." - discuss. Explain. Reveal insight. Predict.

No, none of that. Just "two products exist with different specifications and
prices".

It's a simplistic one sentence summary for a simplistic too-many-sentence blog
post.

Where's the hacking? the news? the opinion? Where's the _content_?

You love your macbook? fine, make it a four word blog post. That would be
better. A passionate outburst for a product so unusually, distinctively good
that you can't resist being happy that it simply exists!

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vlam
He forgot to mention the Acer Extreme has an AMD Sempron Processor and the
Macbook has an Intel Core 2 Duo, which probably reduces the price of the Acer
by a lot.

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jgamman
do i have to be the only one to say that i like my MBP because it looks good?
jeez, i have to look at this thing sitting in my lounge every single day, as
well as the hours i spend on it. seriously, i go to my friends houses and they
pull out these ugly chunks of plastic - i don't care what it runs, whatever
floats your boat, but why choose something ugly? begone with your specs bean
counter - i yearn for style.

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chaostheory
speaking as a former windows user, macs are worth the money given the
frustation it saves you and the tech support you no longer have to do for your
family. (I tried using linux as a desktop but it was just too unfamiliar from
windows comparatively)

I think the guy is missing the big picture

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kajecounterhack
Why people insist on macs is beyond me...get a kickass laptop for $1000, load
up ubuntu or fedora or mint or openSUSE, and call it a day.

Oh well, install wireless drivers and graphics drivers, and THEN call it a
day. Still, as far as I care, beats buying into the Mac rich-boy fandom.

News for you: LINUX ISNT THAT HARD

~~~
kajecounterhack
In self-reflection, why did I comment negatively about Mac on YC News, where
everyone is an Apple fanboy...?

Oh well.

