Apple's New MacBook: Favorable Price Comparison to Dell 36 comments
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Bear Stearns analysts Andy Neff, Bill Hand and Ted Chung sent a note to clients following Apple's (AAPL) announcement that it was releasing a new MacBook and MacBook Pro models. Key excerpts:
Apple MacBook remains price competitive too. In conjunction with MacBook Pro refresh, AAPL also introduced its latest update to the low-end MacBook line, which also incorporates the multi-touch touchpad. While AAPL did not change the form factor of MacBook, it updated the basic configuration to include faster processors and higher storage. In comparing the new MacBook to Dell's (DELL) XPS line (we did not compare it with mass brands such as Dell Inspiron or H-P Pavilion) MacBook pricing was very competitive: 13.3-inch MacBook was priced at $1,099 compared to Dell XPS M1330 at $1,119 with Windows Vista Home Premium, although MacBook has a faster CPU but Dell XPS weighed slightly less.Stock impact: positive for AAPL (Mac pricing remains competitive).
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This article has 36 comments:
It is the MacBook Pro that includes this upgrade, that was introduced in the MacBook Air.
I ordered 2 MacBooks very early just minutes after they reopened the web site :-) very happy because I was going to order 2 "older" ones
and the site was closed down .. I know when this happens something good is also happening and.. BAM a minute later the news hit the net, went back and after trying a few times I was in , ordered and had to try a few times the servers where busy it wouldn't go through
not only pc magazine ..
doesn't matter to me , I am happy I didn't buy 2 of the old ones and than 5 minutes later they let the new ones out :-) i love the apple online store service they are superfast
The only real thing these two notebooks have in common is a 13.3 inch screen. If that is the main thing they have the same, you should compare the MacBook Air to the m1330.
Maybe they should write up another one comparing the m1550 to the 15 inch MacBook Pro. You'd probably find a $700 to $1000 difference.
My favorite part of this completely bias comparison has to be the software. I think they left out a little bit on the XPS side, being as Vista Premium has a lot of software built into it, e.g. Windows Media Center, Media Player, Photo Gallery, DVD Maker, Calendar, Contacts, Mail, and Internet Explorer.
Would you have any rational basis for your assertions? I seem to detect similarities in processor, hard drive, ram, optical, you know, trivia like that.
Good try with the whole getting your "macs are more expensive" argument ground into mush. Dude, look around and do some research. If you spec out similar Macs and Dell, HPs, etc., you'll see that they price is always pretty similar. And, as you see here, sometimes the commodity box builder versions are more expensive. The reason for the "more expensive" argument is because those guys sell junk for $400 while Apple has made it clear they won't ship cheap, bottom of the bin junk.
And no, the XPS shouldn't be compared to the MBP just so you can have a mini-victory. They're not in the same segment. Just like the MBA isn't in the XPS segment, that's in a completely different segment. The comparison above is extremely accurate and relevant. You're just upset about your our grapes.
And, Vista is a bomb - why else would they already be talking about "Windows 7" with Vista only being out for a year or so? Yeah, must be a blockbuster of a system... It's not, I've used it.
Very lame try into explaining yourself and bringing up stuff like "Apple is expansive because they said so", WTF are you talking about, DUDE!?!!! And I can always say the same thing for DELL: "The reason for the "more expensive" argument is because apple sells junk for $1100 while DELL has made it clear they will chip for all people, poor and rich, top of the line care".
And yes, this article is just plain stupid Apple fanboy stuff, or a good try into getting good hits this morning by saying anything good about Apple! And as I can see, DELL is still the better option; if Apple has "DVD Player", Vista has "Windows Media Player" and "Windows Media Center" to play DVDs; if Apple has Safari 3, Vista has Internet Explorer 7; if Apple has Address Book, Vista has "Contacts Manager; if Apple has "Photo Booth", Vista has "Windows Photo Gallery" and "Windows Live Photo Gallery"; if Apple has Games, Vista has Games and DirectX 10, if Apple has "Preview", Vista has "Preview" right inside explorer; if Apple has "iChat", Vista has "Windows Live Messenger"; if Apple has "Mail32", Vista has "Windows Mail" and "Windows Live Mail" and the list goes on and on.
Basically, DELL beats Apple in software and in hardware, so I don't see any problem in the extra $100! DELL M1330 give me extra Biometric Fingerprint Reader, extra Multimedia Controls on the keyboard, Integrated Modem (even if I don't need it, some people will, and DELL thinks of these people), and "a lighter wight"!!!
So, go buy your MAC you dumb loser and enjoy getting robbed by Apple.
And for the stupid people: Apple MacBook has no Multitouch Pad, check out your sources before you start saying stupid stuff. (I checked Apple.com)
They are talking about Windows 7 after one year, but gave us SP1 for free! better than talking about the next "Service Pack" of the MAC and calling it "Monkey" or "Giraffe" then selling it to people after less than a year!
Dell = junk engineering AND design
Apple = quality.
Vista = one big embarrassing problem
OS X = the most advanced and best OS on the planet.
But it does have an Expresscard 54 slot and a memory card reader.
They are both good computers; the Dell is undoubtedly significantly more expensive, and lacks many of Macbook's subtle Apple qualities (target disk mode, for example).
In this case, Apple simply doesn't make a laptop as poorly specified as the $1119 M1330, let alone one of Dells high volume cheapies.
What should be compared is the Inspiron 1420. This gets you a 2.4 GHz Penryn, a bigger hard drive (250 GB) and more RAM (3 GB) for $1,049.
Fair comparisons are fun, aren't they?
I'm user 157077 and I decided to check this again and saw your wonderfully incoherent reply!!!
First off, I wasn't trying to bring up the "MACs are more expensive..." argument. The user I pointed out did. Basically saying that this XPS should be compared to the top of the line model at Apple just to prove a price point. That's wrong. As you can CLEARLY see here, Sparky, the prices don't differ much for machines spec'd out similarly. Apple sells higher end models (even the entry-level) than do HP and Dell. You think Apple would EVER sell a model with a Centrino chip in it? Now? Like Dell still does? Compaq? HP? Those are bargain basement machines and get bargain basement parts.
OS X vs Vista - no contest dude. OS X wipes the floor with it. Even PC Magazine says it. There have NO overtly positive reviews for Vista since it came out and NO compelling reason to upgrade (or downgrade depending on your perspective). OS X has far better integration with its programs than Vista does and it's known a fact. Apple builds with the user in mind and Vista copies what others do and expects people to figure it out. I guarantee that the iLife stuff works far better than the amalgamation of programs MS decided to throw into the system.
Really? Fingerprint reader? Is this what people think matters? No. Normal, everyday consumers have no need for that. It's just a worthless feature that was added to add "value" to the system. It's not worth anything. Card reader? Well, some people find it helpful. I personally have a card reader from my Windows Dungeon days and it works fine on both OS X and XP for me. So, I think I'm OK without that "feature" too.
And finally, SP1 is to make Vista USABLE! It's to fix the crap they didn't get right the first time. 10.5 is essentially a new version of OS X. They didn't just fix some bugs and call it a new system. There were complete system underpinnings revamped, three or four new features that add value to the system added, and some logical progression. It's not just some excuse to gather money. BTW - while OS X has had 5 iterations now, each with their own merits and foundations to build on, Windows has struggled with 2 service packs and an operating system pushed back for years and stripped of the features that were supposed to make it amazing. Who exactly is behind the curve here? And, they're talking about Win7 because nobody wants Vista!!! Why is Dell offering Ubuntu? Why are companies offering XP downgrades? Get a clue!!!!!
You can try comparing oranges with apples (pun intended), but you'll never get a coherent comparison.
Apples ARE more expensive, they come at a premium, as all merchandise that is clearly higher quality do.
This article is sensationalist and misleading Apples are priced fairly, for its quality, and I fail to see the need to be apologetic about it.
All that said I own 5 Dell laptops (4 hackintoshes) and a MB.
As for OSX, it's a nice personal OS but it's not really suitable for business because it doesn't run the software that large businesses use. Sure, you could run Parallels or use Boot Camp but you're still going to have to pay extra for a copy of XP or Vista and that just isn't economical.
It is better than Vista at the moment, but the differences are minimal as far as the average user is concerned and it's not going to make any difference to the mass market. You're also off on XP - with SP2 (and SP3 coming) it's a very good and stable OS. I actually find the fact that Apple had to release five versions of their OS in the same time a bit alarming.
Don't let your love of Apple distort the facts here.
And, 10.5 can be used for business. Except for IE, I do everything for my job at a software company on my Mac - mail, spreadsheets, documents, PDFs, etc. I don't know where people get this idea that Macs can't run businesses or do specific things.
I also see what you're saying about the laptop comparisons as well. But, Apple doesn't make a "mass" laptop. They have three models. You have to compare something with similar specs right? Would you put a Civic against a CLK? Probably not.
OK, I don't have much else, I'm off to work again! Have a good day.
I'd point out that the Macbook has a built in camera, wifi, bluetooth, etc. Maybe the dell does too, but I would wager the camera is most likely not on the dell, but someone can clarify that if they like.
Choosing XPS was not a mistake; the Inspiron line doesn't even have a 13.3" model to compare. While the Inspiron line looks like a great buy -- big screens at very low prices -- you pay for that in numerous ways. Having owned two Inspirons myself I can tell you that build quality is lousy, as is battery life. One Inspiron died completely at three years. The other was handed down after two and lasted five years total. I got two years out of each of them before moving on and handing them to other people to deal with.
Even so the XPS model they chose to compare to the Macbook was not fully configured. You need to add a higher-capacity battery, faster CPU, Vista Ultimate (otherwise the software package isn't even close to competitive), and bluetooth. There is no way to get firewire, but you don't get built-in card readers on the Mac, so we'll call that a wash. The Apple doesn't come with a fingerprint reader but given my experiences with the Thinkpad fingerprint reader I think that's a completely worthless feature anyway; way more trouble than its worth. When you get through the most price-comparable XPS configuration is $1349.
The Macbook also needs an upgrade to be competitive, from 1G RAM to 2G (although, frankly, OS X on 1G is pretty competitive with Vista on 2G, whereas you don't even want to think about running Vista on a 1G machine). That boosts its price to $1299.
That seems pretty damned even to me, although there are lots of things that don't stand out in the spec sheets. The software mix is more or less comparable with Vista Ultimate and Dell's bundle of Microsoft Works excepting that Movie Maker is useless whereas iMovie is not (although iMovie '08 is a big step backwards from previous releases, bummer) and there's nothing comparable to GarageBand on Vista. I give Apple the nod in comparing iWork to Microsoft Works, by a long shot, but really neither is good enough for a lot of people. An honest comparison prices each of them with MS Office. That is $279 more with the Dell bundle, and $347 (from Amazon) for the Mac. That pretty puts the two at almost identical prices, $1609 for the Dell and $1647 for the Apple. That doesn't really tell the whole story, I find myself buying a lot more add-ons to get Windows to be productive than I do for the Mac, including antivirus and the like, but it's as close to a fair comparison as I think we can make in terms of up-front costs.
One thing that is rarely talked about in these comparisons, however, is longevity. I've owned five Mac laptops, a 1999 clamshell iBook, 2001 Ti Powerbook, 12" G4 Powerbook, and a 2006 Macbook. All of those laptops are still in use today. The 1999 iBook can't run anything newer than Jaguar (no bootable DVD drive so you can't install it without doing more than I'm willing to bother to do) but everything else is running Leopard. What's more, the newer Mac operating systems have, without fail, worked BETTER on the older hardware than the earlier versions. Mac OS has become leaner and meaner even while growing many features. To my knowledge that makes Apple pretty unique in this industry.
Now, my experience with Dell laptops comes from the Inspirons and the quality on those was, well, lousy. One died in three years, the other in five. Both were beat to half to death in two but managed to hang on in reduced-use rolls awhile longer. I don't know how the XPS line compares, although given the price I would expect them to be much better built. But even if the hardware keeps working, consider what it would be like to run a 2001-era Dell laptop with Vista. If you had boosted its RAM to the maximum it would probably boot, but there wouldn't be drivers for most of its hardware. Dell doesn't offer that kind of backwards-looking support. Software compatibility between XP and Vista has been spotty in my experience too, whereas I have done four upgrades to OS X and had only one software package (SyncTogether, used for synchronizing address and calendar databases across Macs) break. That not only includes compatibility across OS releases, but even across a processor change; I'm still running PPC software on the Macbook because I'm too cheap to upgrade some of it given that it still works fine even in emulation.
In my experience Apple hardware pulls off twice the real-world longevity of Wintel stuff. Even when the Wintel hardware holds up (Thinkpads in particular last forever, but make Apple laptops look inexpensive) the Windows software is so fragile as to often make it more cost-effective to replace the whole system than to try to keep it running more than a few years. I bought my first Mac laptop not because I liked Apple, but because I was really tired of reinstalling Windows every 3 months when something inexplicably, and irreparably, broke. Disk corruptions, registry corruptions, malware infestations ... it's ridiculous. The Mac experience was such a huge improvement over Windows that I bought another, and another, and another.
I still use Windows systems daily, mind you: It's what my employer specs, and there are uses for them even outside of work. Given my choice, though, I'll take the Apple stuff. The hardware is much higher quality than the norm in the Wintel world, far beyond what spec sheets imply, and the software is hell-and-gone better.
As a parting shot, if you want a really serious workhorse machine you should look long and hard at the Mac Pro line, even if you want to run Windows. The price differential for equivalent systems is more than $1000. Seriously. I don't know what kind of deal Apple squeezed out of Intel, but it must have been a GOOD one.
Anyway it has been very hard to find a PC as expensive as an apple.
New MB are 1200 Euros, and I'm soory to tell that nowday, with 1200 Euros, nobody can say we cannot a find a far better PC harware, just put a debian in it and here go!