Have you balked at the idea of a new Mac because of price? Do you hate the idea of an “Apple Tax” or inflated price? If that’s you, I encourage you to read this post by Other World Computer here.
There really isn’t an apple tax, Apple is just a smaller company vs. giants like Toshiba, Sony, Dell, and the like. Because of this, they don’t offer 10 versions of the same computer, priced from stripped down crazy cheap to maxed out super expensive like the big boys do. Can you find a $400 Toshiba? Sure, but it won’t match the specs of an Apple. If you compare Apples to Apples (pardon the pun) Mac’s are often right on par with everyone else. Or are they? If you read the above article, you’ll realize that Mac’s are often more affordable than the competition when you factor in things like security, down time, virus protection and problems, and so forth.
A plug here for OWC as well. They make great hard drives and accessories for both Mac and windows computers. They make great stuff and sometimes it’s a little higher than the competition, like Western Digital or Lacie. But remember, you get what you pay for. Their hard drives are known for their quality, and hard drives are something you don’t want to have failing. If you save $20 by buying at Western Digital, and that drive or power unit fails in a year, was that $20 worth it? If you buy a Sony laptop running Vista and save yourself $200 over a Mac and a year later, the computer is ravaged with viruses, doesn’t plug in play, is slowed down by Norton, and crashes all the time, was that $200 worth it? Probably not.
Be real careful when looking at the prices of the other guy’s products. We American’s are short term thinkers. Be a long term thinker!