Quickie: Cold Day In Hell
New Macs Cheaper Than Equivalent Dell Machine. The juicy bit of the article:
The difference in price — and that it was in Apple’s favor — was so surprising that I contacted Dell to confirm that I had not made a mistake in configuring its workstation.
Dell spokesman Marco Pena suggested that the numbers might be closer after configuring the Mac to include a three-year warranty similar to the Dell offering. “But I think we’re still going to end up a little higher than the Mac,” he said.
“The results were a bit surprising to me, too,” he said. “But it is what it is.”
(Hat tip to Wil Shipley for the link)
Is there a consensus among the Apple loyalists as to how they feel having paid such a significant premium all of these years when in fact commodity hardware was perfectly acceptable and substantially cheaper? Or does the kool aid make them forget? :)
Comment by Brian — September 5, 2006 @ 8:08 am
I suspect the Apple loyalists would say that it was only recently that Intel chips became “better” — and that is what prompted Apple to move to them. Basically, it seems that IBM let themselves get behind the curve on the PowerPC architecture (especially in relation to power per watt). I can’t speak to the Truth of that, but I’d bet it would be the answer you’d get, kool aid or not.
Comment by Nathan Dintenfass — September 5, 2006 @ 9:48 am