This is another one of those long comments that turns into a blog post of it’s own. I am responding to my brother Bob’s blog, New Microsoft Ad: Macs are “so sexy” but… This is about the new laptop hunting ads where someone gets $1500 to go find a sweet laptop, which of course rules out Macbook Pros… unless you are me 😉
I agree that the new Macbook Pros look really good, but the best thing about the new macs for me is that they caused a major price drop of the “old” Macbook Pros on Amazon back in December 2008. I picked up a 15″ 2.5 GHz Macbook Pro with 512 MB NVidia video RAM for $1500 on Amazon after rebate. Don’t get me wrong, $1500 still seems like a TON of money to spend on a laptop, but I dare you to match those specs for less — on whatever OS. Of course I wasn’t about to spend $700 more for the new version of MBP with the same specs either (plus I had to have a matte screen — just personal preference).
I like macs and pcs for different reasons. They both have their strong points, and the truth is that I can do what I need to do on either one. So while it looks like there is a huge price difference between the two, if you shop around you’ll find that it’s not as big as you think. I say that, but the deal I got is gone. The same laptop I bought is now back up around $1700 — which is just out of range for the $1500 spending cap in the ad. If you want to look at extremes, the new 17″ Macbook Pro is “insanely” priced at a cool $2700. The laptop hunters should have fun with that one. (Apple, what are you thinking?!?)
Ultimately, I think Windows 7 will even things out quite a bit. I’m already running the beta in a VM on my MBP, and I think Microsoft is headed in the right direction. (If only they would get rid of the whole hide-everything-in-the-registry idea and go with a more stable Unix-based architecture. Just think what all those programmers could come up with if stability was more important than DRM!) Maybe I’m just too practical to really engage in this mac vs. pc thing. It seems to be a lot about personal preference. I like the hardware I chose because it’s fast, light, thin, and has a decent (3 hr) battery. If someone else finds a better deal on something else, good for them. At this point I am a little partial to macs — mainly out of habit and ease of migration. That said, I am seriously considering a PC for a media center.
I know I haven’t done a good job separating hardware and software here, and part of this is because pcs and macs have such different approaches here. With pcs, you have lots of hardware choices, and with macs… well, you don’t. I think it would be really interesting to separate the operating system from the hardware on the mac side of things, and it’s starting to happen. I would like to see more “hackintosh” desktops in the future — non-Apple desktops capable of running OSX. I don’t see a clear winner in the mac vs. pc race, but it’s great to see the user experience improving on both sides. For that reason alone let’s keep the competition going! In the end I hope the winner will be the customer. 🙂
Nice perspective, Tom. While your $1,500 Mac deal sure beats the retail price, it’s interesting to me that it’s still quite a bit more expensive than the hardware equivalent on the PC/laptop side of things. But I realize hardware specs aren’t everything, of course.
I’m curious about the “hackintosh” idea. Is it really feasible beyond the hobby of tinkerers and IT pros? Maybe I’m being too business-like here, but I’m guessing it’s a pretty limited market that Apple will likely never make official due to the costs involved.
Maybe I’ve been away from pcs too long and need a reality check. What would a comparable pc laptop cost with those specs? (Here they are again: 15″ screen, 2.5 GHz, 512 MB video RAM, 250 GB HD, 5 lbs. 3+ hr batt.) I recently tried to find a dell laptop deal for a friend, who ended up paying well over $1000 for much less than that. Maybe I’m looking in the wrong place, but I thought Dell laptops combined w/ techbargains.com coupons was a pretty good bet.
As for the “hackintosh” thing, I’m not waiting for Apple to do it. I would love to see Acer or someone else make hardware that could run Mac OSX. Does Apple have to have a corner on the mac market? Why does it have to be this way? I want mac hardware choices!
@Tom
Not sure on latest pricing, just know that when I got my HP laptop a year ago (it’s with a 17″ screen), it came with most everything you describe (except weighs more obviously) and was around $1,100. And that was a year ago.
As for hackintoshs… You would have to wait for Apple to do it. Acer could be excited about putting together hardware to run OSX, but until Apple signs off on the whole idea (which would be MAJOR), no licensing will happen. It’s not for a lack of interest that it’s not happening (I’m guessing), more that’s not happening due to Apple strategic positioning. The Apple/OSX brand would erode once it’s available everywhere (because it would face all the same issues Windows has faced by being available all over the place).
Hmm… in that case I wonder if running Mac OSX on a PC is something that will eventually be accomplished with software. Similar to the way you can use VMWare Fusion or Parallels to run Windows on an Intel mac. I wonder how much control Apple would have over that. In other words, if I buy the Mac OS separately, can Apple really prevent me from running it on a PC? Aren’t they making money on their OS? So what’s the problem? Just like I would never have switched to Mac hardware without being able to do PC stuff, I doubt I will switch back until I can do Mac stuff on my PC. If there are benefits to both, why wouldn’t I take the best-priced option that lets me do both?
Does Apple even sell their OS separately for use on something other than a Mac?
If they do, then maybe something could happen so that OSX makes it to the PC. For you and me this might be cool, but for the mainstream / general public market, it will hurt Apple.
Even if Apple isn’t involved, ultimately, any less than stellar performance of Apple’s OS on whatever hardware will come back as blame to Apple which will erode the company’s core value proposition (think Microsoft, you have a problem with Windows? In the eyes of the public, it’s Microsoft’s fault, regardless of the intricacies involved with making an OS work everywhere).
Microsoft is willing to pay the price (both in terms of engineering costs and potentially weaker brand/image) to be accessible to everyone everywhere. But Apple?
Yeah, Mac software and hardware are separate, and Mac OSX is available on Amazon for $110 (http://tinyurl.com/csomqy). So, really, it shouldn’t be any different that me buying my PC hardware and OS separately. Even though hardware/software bundles are common for PCs, it’s fairly common for people to buy the OS separately. For now the big difference is that Apple is the only game in town for Mac hardware and software. But if they gain much more market share, I’ll bet other “Mac friendly” hardware will start popping up from other manufacturers. Or at least a virtual machine on the PC that allows you to run OSX. That would make it possible to use the best of what each OS has to offer on PC hardware. I don’t think I’m the only one who wants this. I bet it happens within a year or two.