You said:
You didn't say "... only in the high end graphics oriented notebook and workstation segment.", and yet those are the machines that follow.
Now you're being unfair and weaseling your way out of it.
The term PC includes notebooks too. PC is not synonymous with desktop, it means PERSONAL COMPUTER and not a mainframe. In fact Mac Pros and Dell Xeon based workstations are PCs too.
My PC isn't a laptop, it's a desktop. And you forgot to add R 4000 to the price of the Apple, for Windows.
1. I don't want to use Windows when Mac OSX comes with everything an average household needs, perhaps add R1400 for iWorks - the equivalent of MS Office Home Edition. But a Vista PC doesn't come with a word processor either.
2. If you want to run Windows in Bootcamp, getting OEM Windows is acceptable and not illegal. OEM or DSP Windows will cost the same on PC.
As for Core: Boo hoo hoo, Just because Apple are a bunch of commies who refuse to allow competition in the SA market, doesn't mean us PC users care. Our products are sold on an efficient, open market which you might recognise as capitalism. Go complain to The Party about it's actions; Apple's restrictive, condescending policies are another reason I CHOOSE FREEDOM over TYRANNY AND OPPRESSION.
Despite Core charging more, Apple Mac books are similar in price to similarly spec'ed quality made notebooks. The same goes for Mac book Pros and the same can be said for Mac Pros - when compared to Dell and HP solutions.
At the same time iMacs - remembering they include a high quality 24inch - ie true 8 bit panel not the 6bit junk Acer and Samsung sell - are similar in cost.
I don't even need to buy the DSP to get hold of a copy, I'd just download it, but that doesn't mean it's legal for me to run it. Unless the EULA has changed, the DSP can only legally be installed as a clean install (no OS X), by system builders. Has the EULA changed or have you found a loophole?
It is acceptable per the EULA to install it on a bootcamp partition because it is a clean partition. Perhaps they don't want you to run it in a virtualised environment such as under VM Ware Fusion or Parallels but installing it in bootcamp is acceptable as per EULA because the System is running in REAL mode.
That's a 3 year old article discussing R 40 000 workstations, not PCs. The focus of this thread is PCs used in the households of "rich" people. They aren't using workstations, they're generally using desktops or laptops.
I own a Mac Pro and I'm just explaining how I'd have paid a similar amount of money if I went with Dell or HP.
And by the way, that R 40 000 workstation is the cheapest machine Apple makes that out performs my R 7000 desktop. Not exactly similarly priced, are they?
I gave you a comparison of a Sony Vaio vs MB.
While your laptop comparison is valid, you forgot about Lenovo, Dell, and HP
. They all make well built machines,
Price differentials are similar. On a spec per spec basis including WEIGHT, battery life, build quality and screen resolution you'll find Mac book (pros) are similar in price to quality branded machines. What you won't find is heavy, cheaply made low range Lenovos, Dells and HPs and those machines are not well built. The only well built machines that can compare to Apple are
Sony Vaio, higher end Lenovo (IBM >> Lenovo), NEC and the Pansasonic Let's Note range of notebooks.
that you could have compared the Apple to, and cheap too. The only areas Apple can hope to be competitive are too niche to even mention, suffice to say that the households discussed in this article aren't buying Macs for their niche market superiority, but because they look better on the exposed desk in their designer middle class open plan lounge-dining room-kitchen-scullery. (No offence to the middle classes.)
Utter nonsense. Macs are bought by people who want to use their PC to get something done, then turn it off and forget about it. They don't want to have to maintain a PC - run antivirus, run internet security app, run defraggers, registry cleaners, anti-spyware, mess with settings, etc.
The Mac comes with a great video editor, great photo editor, fully functional DVD player and if you buy iWork you have a full suite for word processing/accounts/etc or use Open Office or buy MS Office for Mac.
No viruses, get that, no viruses unless you download WAREZ and authorise it to run. No viruses from USB sticks. No viruses from email attachments which just execute or execute by confusion (pretend to be a JPG file). No rootkits. No keyloggers to steal your data. No worries.
The OS is easy to use. It doesn't bother you with rubbish balloons and endless error messages to tell you that the USB stick works or that you're running low on disk space despite having clicked the X to close it 10 times already. Oh and it doesn't steal your focus of attention. If you're typing and a dialog box pops up, it won't make you stop typing. No need to learn Windows jargon. No blue screens.
No red screens. No pushing of updates and forcing of Reboot every 5 minutes.
You're just bitter.
Macs are easier to use. Safer. Usually come with everything you need (just dl Open Office). They are well spec'ed machines and the only sin Apple is committing is not making cheap machines with relatively low specs and poor build quality. And until you've handled a Let's Note or a NEC Versa or an old ThinkPad good build quality is not the junk I see in Incredible Connection, except for Mac books/MBPs.
Disclaimer:
I own a chipped, cracked chassis, paint rubbed off, dead screen R29,000 Acer Notebook (Paid R15,000 in Singapore for this high end notebook in 2006 while it cost R29,000 here, TravelMate 8104). I also own a Panasonic Let's Note and a NEC VersaPro UltraLite. These things are built beautifully and are rock solid. In contrast most Acer, Dell, HP, and basic Lenovo is poor build quality, even most Vaios feel like plastic which will fall apart with a mild knock. My Acer didn't even suffer a knock, it chipped, paint wore off, screen died on its own and a treat my stuff with kit gloves.
.
