Just browsing the PCCG website and 'OH! the irony!' they have listed a macbook to their site.
I have no idea about MAC prices but this sounds cheap..
from their website:
$200 off RRP! (while stocks last) 13-inch, 2.3GHz dual-core Intel Core i5 processor, 4GB 1333MHz memory, 320GB hard drive, Intel HD graphics 3000, built-in battery.
at DSE it is 1399 (http://dicksmith.com.au/product/XC6580/apple-macbook-pro-13-…) so; it's better than that.
are you talking about the price of a complete system or the price of a sandy bridge processor?
at $500 i would assume for a whole system (probably an i3 or if ur lucky an i5 system for that price)
yeah - the cheapest you'll be able to scrape together a sandy-bridge system (and don't forget windows) is about 600. However - you would be better off spending upwards of $800 as the i5's are just so much better than the i3's.
Clock for clock the i3's hold up well, but most laptops have a locked bios :(
http://shopap.lenovo.com/au/en/notebooks/thinkpad/edge-serie…
One on the right has very similar specs to this MBP
Lenovo's are always going to be cheaper than macs - build quality is definitely an issue especially on the non thinkpad range which they bought from IBM
hakintoshes sound good on paper in practice they are generally unstable and often most programs and updates dont want to function properly. If you want a Mac so badly just get a mac.
As for the deal. Its pretty good. 10% off is usually the most you see off on Macs and $200 off is pretty good.
Actually IIRC, even if you get the same CPU, the mac OS wont run as smooth due to the structure of the motherboard or something IIRC, something to do with the way data is processed.
I actually think Apples 13" models are quite competitive to those companies with comparable sized models.
I'm not denying that Hackintoshes can be pretty unstable, but notice I said the same hardware, not just the same cpu.
Get the same hardware, flash a custom bios, and it will perform pretty well.
If you build a hackintosh yourself with parts that don't have proper drivers, and a bios that lacks customization, your hackintosh will be buggy and not worth it especially if you want OSX as your main OS.
I assume you are either exaggerating or misinformed, not sure which.
Apple offers its resellers very low margins on machines, generally around the 10% mark. The same goes for iPods. iPhones may be slightly different.
It is true that Apple itself works on very healthy margins. They have aimed for many years to work on a 40% margin, compared with the sub 10% profit margin of the industry in general. This last quarter they actually broke that 40% margin on the upside.
And then there is your maths? If half of a Mac gets you an equivalent PC in your opinion, how does double a PC price become a 200% markup?
It is true you can create a hackitosh and with some moderate hacking get it working mostly. It is stealing so I guess that is a bargain in a way? But who has time for that? I use my computers to do stuff, not tinker, fart around, build, rebuild etc. Yes, I used to do that and it was mighty fun. I loved it. But now I am an old man I just like to buy a computer and use it.
Yes, I use Macs. Each to their own. But to claim that a $600 PC is = to a $1200 Mac is facetious in my opinion. Of course I would like Apple product to be cheaper, but I'm sure if I was a shareholder I would be very pleased that Apple has found a way in a commoditised marketplace to extract almost unheard of profits. That is why they are the second largest company in the world by value, behind Exxon Mobil.
As for the bargain side, this is a pretty good deal. I tend to buy refurbs myself which are one generation behind the newest model. Saves me hundreds of dollars and with the excellent resale value of Macs, it means I usually come out ahead of a Wintel box when you factor in TCO (total cost of ownership).
I apologize, I started writing that macs were 200% of the price, and changed mid-sentence. Obviously what I wrote was wrong.
I did not say Apple sells macs to resellers at twice the price, I said the price you are paying for the hardware is twice what is actually worth.
The same goes for ipods, ipads, etc. There's only about $300aud of hardware in an iphone, and yet it costs $859 here just for the 8gb outright. Does that seem right to you at all??
You can say you're paying extra for the aesthetics, the software and the customer support. But it is really worth that much??
Edit:
Oh, and and here's a source too. $188 USD of hardware in a 16gb iphone4…
http://www.maximumpc.com/article/news/iphone_4_hardware_cost…
Here's another source that puts that $187USD as $216.06AUD and also lists the price of other models.
So 859-216.06=642.94 profit for every iphone 4 sold, and that doesn't take into account how much the hardware costs now, those articles were from a year ago. So how much profit do they make now? 650? 670? Who knows. But it's ridiculous.
http://www.itnews.com.au/News/218224,teardown-puts-iphone-4-…
32gb wifi ipad2 has $326USD of hardware and costs $729USD, a lot less profit, but still unreasonable.
http://www.itnews.com.au/News/251190,ipad-2-costs-us326-in-p…
See a trend here?
You can't put a price on a product based on the physical components in it. If so software should be about two cents a product.
And for what its worth, look at how companies like Samsung and Motorolla are struggling to release items such as tablets at a price that undercuts Apple (or the Series 9 laptop vs a Mac Air). Even in phones they compete fairly well with the top end competitor devices. If these companies could comfortably undercut Apple they likely would like others do in PC sales…the fact they don't would likely indicate theres a number of other substantial cost issues besides just the hardware (labour, support, IT infrastructure, royalties etc etc).
It's not only the hardware and software. There is this thing in marketing we call 'value'. I think Apple have nailed that down pretty well. When you ask people why they purchase iOS devices instead of Android they cannot usually come up with a cohesive answer - this is because there isn't one. Apple products just 'feel' right. Companies tend to neglect how products feel (not literally) in the hands of their customers and just roll out faster and more powerful products hoping that they induce sales. Although this is true to an extent, the success of Apple has definitely proven otherwise.
Damn, I knew Apple had a healthy profit margin for being "premium" (like LV and gucci) but I must have missed these articles when they were first posted.
Cheers cookie42!
By the way, I run Mac OSX v10.6.7 (Snow Leopard) on my EEE PC without any stability issues.
The only issue I have is with Wireless N and WPA2-PSK encryption not working out of box, which you can get around by just getting a USB adaptor.
At work, we have margins of 70% as an average, higher on some, lower on others. Hey, you have to cover the R&D, tooling, marketing costs of the product as well. When you get the unit costs, chances are its just the bare variable unit costs, and does not contain the annualized tooling and other costs.
To smigit
I'm sorry - im on my iphone and my fat fingers negged your comment when I meant to plus it. Sorry
Flash
@flash
No worries man ;)
Just food for thought:
HP makes $52.00 in profit for every PC they sell. Apple makes $370.55. In short: Apple makes more money from the sale of one Mac than HP does from selling seven PCs. Quoted from Matt Richman
refurbished vs new?
new vs refurb?
edit: beaten :)
Refurb:
Full Apple Warranty
Perfect Condition Case (No Marks or Blemishes) They replace it if you find something
Every refurb is hand checked more thoroughly than a brand new laptop
Free Shipping
Brand New:
Full Apple Warranty
Perfect Condition Case (No Marks or Blemishes) They replace it if you find something
Free Shipping if its bought from Apple
All in all theres no difference at all
Wait, so you'd rather pay the SAME PRICE for a refurbished laptop than a brand new one? Are you Gerry Harvey's son?
It's not all one sided IMO, I'd rather deal with Apple warranty than PCCG, I had to open a Fair Trading Government complaint against PCCG to get a motherboard repaired and then they dragged their heels for 8 weeks. Yet they replaced a faulty HDD quite promptly.
Wouldn't touch PCCG with a barge pole. If it were me I'd take the Apple deal over PCCG (this is all based upon personal experience).
All Apple products have warranty with Apple themself, not the reseller.
All products have a warranty with the manufacturer, just the retail store has to do the warranty claim for you within the first 12 months to make it easier for the consumer (they can just go to a store instead of some repair warehouse in the middle of nowhere)
get ya point Ben, but not just of a neg buddy :P
righto sounds like a good plan
i forgot they sell the faulty ones as new and keep the good ones to sell as refurbs
For a Mac, this is a good deal, although I don't know if PCCG is an authorised Apple reseller. If not, no free Lion for you.
something else worth noting is that this model has the thunderbolt port which means two things;
and with what device are you going to use your thunderbolt port with. Fair enough it is faster than USB3.0 but probably not cost effective, specially if you are a heavy ext HDD user and have a big collection. While your USB2.0 Cases can be swapped for a USB3.0 easily and cheaply, the premium that Apple HDD attract is not worth it to most people other than Video editing Professionals.
I fail to see your point. the_schelf was just pointing out that this model does have Thuderbolt and you start ranting about it for no apparent reason?
The point is all that Glitters is not Gold.
Having 10GBps transfers speeds isn't all that given the high cost of accessories for it.
Sony have released their Vaio Z with an external graphics card using LightPeak (same technology as Thunderbolt but with a different name).
Pretty sure Sony/Apple use different plugs, just because they're bastards and want to lock is in with their team…
Apart from that, I can't think of any other devices that would be using the new plug.
prople.. just walk in a apple store and tell them you saw this price
and they will happily price match.. =)
Didn't DSE have 10% off Macs last week?
Yes but this is $200 off, so just under 15% off.
A few big ones off the normal discount has to be good
not there any more. Anyone got a new link?
damn, its so expensive to stay with mac, i thought the sandy bridges were $500+ on average :/