SubscribeThu 15 Nov 2007
Are Mac computers cheaper to own than a PC over its lifetime?
Posted by dong under My Budget , TechnologyI own 20 inch iMac Core Duo, and before that I owned a Powerbook G4 12 inch, and before that I owned a Powerbook Titanium, and before that I owed a Quantex PC Clone. But before the Quantex, I owed a Powermac 7100, a Macintosh LC, and Mac 512ke. My first computer was an Apple //c.
That list should tell you two things. 1) I’m a big dork 2) I’m a dyed in the wool Apple fan, but hopefully not a fanatic. I use PCs at work, and even have a ThinkPad which I think highly of from work on which I’m typing this right now – hence why I replaced my Powerbook with an iMac desktop. I’m not naïve enough to believe that a Mac is for everyone. I could never use a Mac for my work. I barely tolerate using Microsoft Excel on my Mac.
However, generally speaking, as a personal computer I find the Mac far superior to PCs for both ease of use, and just generally being problem free. The older I’ve become, I’ve become less and less interested in how my computer works. I just want it to work. The question is, “What price am I willing paying for that convenience? Conventional wisdom is that PCs are much cheaper. There’s little question that at initial purchase a PC is almost always cheaper. I can get a PC laptop for less than $500, while the cheapest Mac notebook is about $1000. Farhad Manjoo at salon.com believes that Macintoshes are actually cheaper to own in the long run.
Farhad’s basic argument derives from the idea of resale values, a concept I’ve put into practice. Since the rise of eBay, I’ve always been able to sell my used computers, or rather my Macs. Try to sell a PC that’s more than a year old, and you get pennies on the dollar. Sell a Mac that’s a couple year old and there’s a good chance to recoup nearly 50% of the cost of the machine. Below is a table of my own experience, and a little research into what PC laptops resale for.
While Steve Jobs likes to compare Apple computer to BMWs. He thinks both are premium brand machines that one should be more willing to pay more for. A more apt comparison might be with Honda. Honda cars like Apple computers have great resale values. Maybe that’s why I own both a Honda and a Mac 
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November 15th, 2007 at 6:35 pm
Ahhh, thank you Dong, that’s the argument I’ve been waiting for! I knew there was a sound financial reason to make my next computer a Mac
November 16th, 2007 at 12:39 am
I don’t think you’ll go wrong with the Mac. Are you looking at a laptop or a desktop?
November 17th, 2007 at 7:38 pm
Hi,
Not to be a downer, but hopefully the Mac resale values aren’t a sort of “subprime crisis” waiting to happen! Macs have gained popularity in the last few years so they have a certain cachet. The high resale value may be a result of people trying to “get in” with a Mac but not pay full price, which drive up demand of used items. If Mac popularity levels off or declines, resale values could fall to PC levels. Not that it’s in any way a good comparison since we’re talking about relatively small purchases.
I prefer PCs because of the upgradability. If you’re a do-it-yourselfer when it comes to computers, really nothing beats a PC. You can upgrade a part at a time and nurse it along for years and years.
November 18th, 2007 at 12:25 am
Ahem - your figures seem to show that the depreciation alone is more than the cost of buying a brand new PC every second year and then tossing it away (or donating it to a school)!
I like macs, but it’s always seemed to me that they’re more expensive that a PC (50%-100% more cash down for similar hardware specs. For that difference I can live with the odd glitch that comes from running an OS from one company on harware from a different supplier). I tend to use mine for 3 yrs or so and then hand them down to my wife or kids to muck around with, so resale value isn’t a consideration.
I think the PC/mac choice usually comes down to what you want to do with it more than price. For graphics and video work macs always seemed to have a better rep, though not being industry standard still caused problems in some areas like CAD-CAM. At my previous job all the engineers and designers used macs running a nify CAD program called Vellum (which even I could use), rather than the much more cumbersome AutoCad. However, they ran into problems whenever the wanted to share their drawing files with other businesses (since hardly any used Vellum). The scientists tended to use PCs as they ran models coded in Fortran or C, and they could get more ‘bang for their buck’ running on PCs rather than macs.
Personally I started out with Sinclair ZX and QL computers (which were way better than the Apple II IMHO, but that didn’t help them survive the advent on the IBM PC) before moving on to PC clones. In the past few years I’ve been tempted to buy a mac rather than a Dell or Gateway PC, but I still have lots of add-on hardware that simply won’t work with a mac - target shooting (SCATT) equipment, Data acquisition cards, Lego mindstorms robotics, telescope control software etc. etc. Lots of this sort of stuff isn’t even available in a mac version even if I was willing to pay to replace it all and move to Apple hardware and OS. So, it all depends on what you want to do with the computer.
BTW - some people (not me) thing that Google will steal a lot of market share from Microsoft in terms of office apps. If this did happen it would probably mean that Linux OS (free) running on PC hardware (cheap) would benefit more than macs.
Regards
http://enoughwealth.com
November 19th, 2007 at 12:59 pm
Jon, I actually think the recent popularity of macs are more likley to drive down resale values if it continues. I’ve owned Macs for a long time, and realize in some ways that resale values have been function of scarcity. Macs have suited me because I’m not much of upgrader. I like being to able to buy a machine and have pretty much everything I want. I think this is true for most people in the laptop space where I believe Macs are particularly popular.
Enough, I don’t think google is going to snatching corporate marketshare anytime soon. Microsoft Excel is juggernaut more than even Word. People can adapt to switch over to another word processor pretty easily, but I know the way I and other more advanaced users of Excel can’t make those changes easily. There’s so much embedded use of Visual Basic that moving to a new platform would require months of work. Besides, google spreadsheet is a joke. It’s great to share expenses with my friends if we have a group activity, but for anything serious it’s unusable.
November 19th, 2007 at 9:47 pm
Dong, I’m not sure if I’ll opt for a desktop or laptop. A laptop is handy but if I work at home more I’d like the big screen of the desktop.
Seems to me that the basic price of a Windows PC gets hiked considerably by the time you have upgraded to a workable/useful version of Vista. I’d buy a Mac for the overall aesthetic, really - not just how it looks but it how it is to use it.
I agree about Excel, it’s far and away the best spreadsheet program (and probably the best Microsoft offering). Don’t know what Apple’s Numbers (?name) offering is like.