If this happens I hope entry level Mac’s get below $500. I bought a MacBook Air for use as a Windows machine with the plan to learn iOS development at some point. It was worth the cost since I can use it as my day to day machine running Windows. I wouldn’t be able to justify spending $1000 on a Mac Laptop that could not run Windows. I could justify $400 for an entry level Mac Mini running ARM but not a lot more then that.
I find the "Apple is too expensive" argument to hold little water when you really look at it. I won't argue that up front you will pay more for the lowest-end Apple laptop/desktop over a Windows laptop/desktop but in my experience Apple products hold their value much better than any Dell/HP/etc product. Even if you hate OS X then you still are better off buying an Apple laptop and running Windows than you are buying a Windows laptop. The hardware is more reliable, the resale value is greater, and they look 100x better than anything else out there.
Comparing a Dell XPS to a Macbook Pro Retina with the very similar stats (CPU/RAM/HD), the Mac has a few better specs, leaves us with a price difference of $100 in Dell's favor but I can promise you that the MBPr will resale for much higher than the XPS in 1-2 years time. I had friends in college that always would joke that I paid a small fortune for my MBP ($1500) however these were the same people who would buy a $500 laptop every year or so because their bargain bin laptops just didn't last long before they started having hardware issues or massive slowdowns. My MBP ran quite smoothly for 2.5 years before I needed a faster CPU (I'm a developer) and I sold my machine for $900 which resulted in an operating cost of $240/yr for the period I owned it.
It is exactly for this reason my next laptop will be a MBP running Linux (I have zero interest in MacOSX).
I bought a mid level Vostro a while back and it is absolute piece of shit.
Touch pad detects my palm from across the room but is inaccurate when I actually touch it, screen is mediocre and lets dust in constantly, keyboard is mushy with no positive click.
The spec looked good and Vostro's used to be ok, the Vostro 1700 I had prior was a fine machine.
It's so bad I've found myself using my ancient Thinkpad (Celeron M) when I have to do a lot of typing.
I find the "holds value" argument to hold little water. While Apple hardware does hold its value very well, most people don't resell their hardware every year or two. Yes, some people do, and they're quite organised and know what they're doing when it comes to moving all their stuff between machines and their setup, but most people don't.
As for massive slowdowns, I'm having a problem at the moment in that everyone I know with an old 4GB ram mac is having a massively slow system once they upgrade to Mavericks. On a clean boot, these machines are already using 3.5-4GB, which makes no sense.
My parents just upgraded and sold their old (4 and 5yro) MBP's for a yearly "cost" similar to what I saw ($240/yr, it was a little closer to $300 for them). I will agree that selling and re-buying every 1-2 years can increase your savings but the fact that a 4 & 5yro laptop is worth anything is testimate enough IMHO. You don't see that with windows laptops.
Please show me a windows laptop that is still worth even half it's value after 2 years.
Please show me a windows laptop that is still worth even half it's value after 2 years.
About two months ago I was looking for a Thinkpad w700ds, and while admittedly an unusual laptop, I found two items on ebay going for more than they originally cost. As for a 5yo laptop costing $1500 after resale, the laptop I currently use is a Thinkpad x200, a 6yo laptop that I bought new for $1300 and I see now on ebay for an opening bid of $200. $1300/6 = $217/year (less if you count the $200 ebay sale), which is cheaper than any of the options you're proferring. Where is this magical Apple-only value you're talking about with laptops, then? I find that Apple fans are very skilled at convincing themselves that everything else sucks, which is fine (each to their own) until they start proselytising. Yes, Apple machines do hold their value well, but from your own numbers breakdown, my Thinkpad more than holds its own if you want to talk turkey.
In any case, the point I was making wasn't about the resale value itself, it was that most folks don't actually resell their computers. Most people run their computers into the ground, then buy another one.
Lets take the case of a ThinkPad T510 vs a 2010 MBP, the thinkpad is going for 250-350+ (low of 100 for parts and a high of 600 for a refurb system), the MBP 450-600+ (250 for a low, and 1000 or so for a refurb system) - the Apple clearly has the better resale value - that said, I think anyone buying a piece of consumer electronics for resale value is a fool - I recently bought a rMBP, simply because power for performance was better bar none than anything else I could find in the same class (read ThinkPad) - plus I wanted to give OSX a try, I wanted a Unix workstation that could run MS Office (I need Excel - and LO/OO Calc is not a suitable replacement) so that basically left MacOS - and I'm supremely impressed.
