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Why Apple Macs are still way expensive

The numbers will present themselves. Tons of blog posts and columns have been dedicated to the idea that Apple Macs are not only better but actually cheaper than your regular computers from Dell, HP, Acer and Lenovo. Let’s cut to the chase and show you hard facts and real numbers.

Just go to the Apple website and order yourself a fully loaded Mac or MacBook. Here are the screen shots:

Upgrade your MacBook’s RAM from 1GB to 4GB: $850

MacBook RAM

The iMac’s RAM from 2GB to 4GB: $700

iMac RAM

The MacPro RAM from 1GB to 16GB: $4,499 (it’s $699 from 1GB to 4GB)

MacPro RAM

Now, let’s go to the HP website and get our PC a memory upgrade.

The HP D4996T Ultimate Desktop series from 2GB to 4GB: $170

HP RAM

Note, all RAM upgrades are DDR2-667MHz dual channel SDRAM (PC5300). As a comparison, a 4GB (2GBx2) RAM purchase directly from the manufacturer’s website (Kingston, Corsair, Crucial) will only cost you $150.

So why is Apple charging almost $350 per GB or RAM when SRP is just about $50? That’s a 700% mark-up. maybe it’s hard to personally insert an extra RAM module there so Apple is actually charging for professional installation fee to add more memory to your new Mac.

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Avatar for Abe Olandres

Abe is the founder and Editor-in-Chief of YugaTech with over 20 years of experience in the technology industry. He is one of the pioneers of blogging in the country and considered by many as the Father of Tech Blogging in the Philippines. He is also a technology consultant, a tech columnist with several national publications, resource speaker and mentor/advisor to several start-up companies.

55 Responses

  1. Avatar for Hilda Drumgo Hilda Drumgo says:

    Great remarkable things here. I am very glad to peer your post. Thanks so much and i’m looking forward to touch you. Will you please drop me a mail?

  2. Avatar for Real Blogging Advice Real Blogging Advice says:

    It’s their job to install their own hardware. They don’t need to charge it.

    I think, their hardware are durable that have a long life span of usage.

    In the other side, it is still very expensive and it’s hard to find mac accessories when you are not in the big cities.

  3. Avatar for Jim Smith, João Pessoa, Brazil Jim Smith, João Pessoa, Brazil says:

    I upgraded my iMac RAM from the Standard 2 GB to 4 GB for $50. At the same time, I went to DDR3 at 800MHz.

    But on the plus side, most of the software was far cheaper than the PC equivalents when it wasn’t actually free. For example, I was using Sony Vegas that cost $700 when I bought it. The equivalent program for the Mac is Final Cut Express for $150. Plus FCE was easier to learn and use. In fact, I found many free tutorial videos.

    I have NeoOffice, a Mac-Optimized version of OpenOffice that does everything MS Office does and is free. I have other programs that were either free on under $50. So I gave saved a bundle on software.

    Yes, I can play all my PC games and they run faster and better with nothing more than Crossover Games. No dual boot, or Windows emulators needed.

    Then there are the things that come with OSX that cost extra with Windows systems like Preview for all files including PDFs (take THAT Adobe), a spell checker, a group of widgets like a translation program and unit conversion applet, etc. True some of these are also available as free 3rd-party programs for Windows, but do they all work as perfectly as one built into the OS??

    Finally, the quality of the build itself exceeds any PC I have ever owned. Even the KB is the best.

  4. Avatar for Dazed Dazed says:

    All the Mac apologists are missing the point entirely. Sure, you can go buy your ram somewhere else and install it yourself, but most Mac users are tards with no computer knowledge and heaps of money to burn.

    Apple is counting on this. You’re defending a business practice that some might call highway robbery.

    There is nothing at all that can account for the markup except greed and the knowledge that people are stupid. Don’t defend those who are trying to exploit you.

  5. Avatar for Anonymous_stumbler Anonymous_stumbler says:

    I agree that this is ridiculous pricing.

    But to be fair to apple, the last example is with Error Correcting Code (EEC) ram. It is more expensive to manufacture than regular ram. It is usually only used in specialized server and super computer hardware.

    http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/EEC_RAM

    http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dynamic_random_access_memory#Errors_and_error_correction

  6. Avatar for anonymouscoward anonymouscoward says:

    and thats via the Apple website. Not some 3rd party ‘authorized reseller’.
    Sorry Apple, your Customer Care FAIL award is in the mail.

  7. Avatar for anonymouscoward anonymouscoward says:

    Mac Book Pro 17″
    upgrade ram from 4GB 1066MHz DDR3 to 8GB
    [b]$1200[/b]

    That’s TWICE what Dell and others want. Ridiculous.

  8. Avatar for Tim Tim says:

    An alternative to Apple, Dell, HP, etc. is to build your own pc. Newegg.com offers the components to easily build your own computer. Purchase vista or xp operating system from them or install an alternative os (ubuntu etc.).
    In California, where I live, “you are what you drive” applies to computers as well as cars. This is a poor reason to select a Prius or an Apple.
    The biggest reason for the Apple bias is hate. Hate for the giant corporations from Walmart to Microsoft. This has been going on since Atari and Commodore fought it out back in my day.
    You have seen the recent Mac/PC ads. Conservative person (PC) versus liberal person (Apple). Political bias often dictates what you purchase here. Cost is not the main factor so memory cost is unimportant. These same people even buy coffee at retail plus (“to help the coffee farmer”)because they hate Starbucks giant corporation.
    My DIY pc has parts from Intel,Microsoft and other big corps. and I run Internet Explorer. Memory for my pc in February 09 at Newegg.com can be had for as little as $25 for 4GB ddrII. 300GB hard drives are $50. Build your own!

  9. Avatar for Dr. H Dr. H says:

    It is fully-buffered RAM that Apple sells, and the PC RAM you checked out was unbuffered. Check the prices on buffered DDR2.

  10. Avatar for Miguel Miguel says:

    $3,000 MacBook Air + solid state drive, for the win! At least 2 GB RAM is standard.

  11. Avatar for Sean Sean says:

    I love how all of these people think that having a MAC means that you don’t need a virus scanner. This couldn’t be any farther from the truth, but I guess some people have to learn lessons the hard way.

  12. Avatar for Miguel Miguel says:

    The Macbook has lesser specs than non-Mac laptops in the same price class. For instance, those “PC” laptops in the PhP ~60K range have discrete acceleraed graphics from NVidia etc.

    If you just need a dual core laptop with Intel integrated graphics, you could get one from Acer for less than PhP 40K.

    On the other hand, Mac OS and the “Apple experience” of owning these products are… priceless! No?

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