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:

Image from “What Price Cool?”, Endpoint Technologies Associates whitepaper

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: