Endpoint Technologies Associates recently came out with a brilliant whitepaper (PDF link) describing the “Apple Tax,” the extra amount you pay when buying a Mac vs. a PC. I suggest reading it in detail because their analysis is so flawless that it defies description. However, just in case Adobe® Reader® is a little bit sluggish in loading that PDF, I’ve copied one of the charts from the paper below. It clearly summarizes the difference in price between Mac and PC:
I was inspired so much by this chart that I decided to make my own. For some reason my chart ended up presenting a completely opposite conclusion as the chart by Endpoint Technologies, which is strange because I used an equally rigorous methodology. Granted, my chart probably cost more to make because I used an Apple product (Keynote) instead of MS Excel, so that may account for the unusual results. Nevertheless, I present it below for the purposes of discussion:
Why i don’t get… is how in their PC analysis, they don’t cover any of the software… At all… apparently word is free on PC… and so is Quicken, and all the other software the pin on the MAC. And lets also not forget, that with FREE boot-camp… you can do all your old PC stuff on your mac… so um….
One other thing… why w/ a MAC are you having to buy a more expensive HD and HAVE to buy an apple router… and HAVE to buy one-to-one care (not like that even exists for PCs)…
Love your counter chart. Funny, you used Keynote for your graphic. At $79 (which includes two other cool programs and is now $20 via download on the Mac App Store), vs. upwards of $500 for MS Office – who’s really imposing the tax?
BTW, Kay is so proud of his work, he’s removed it from his site (the site that looks like it was done with a beta of FrontPage).
Thanks for the stellar analysis.
It’s too bad he removed it, maybe he found a minor flaw in his formula and he’s re-working it now.
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