On 14 Aug 2006 at 17:52, Darcy James Argue wrote: > FWIW, here's MacWorld's Mac Pro vs. Dell price shooutout: > > <http://www.macworld.com/2006/08/features/macproprice/index.php> > > They used a different model Dell than I did (Precision 690). > Apparently the reviewer felt that the 490 I used "isnt really > comparable to the Mac Pro in terms of expandability." > > An interesting and perhaps relevant passage: > > > What makes the Dell so much more expensive? Surprisingly, a big > > chunk of the cost is the second processor. If you need only a > > single 2.66GHz Xeon, the Dells price drops a whopping $869; its > > still more expensive than the Mac Pro, but at least theyre in the > > same ballpark. Which means one of two things: Either Apple is > > getting an amazing deal on the Xeon processors used in the Mac > > Pros, or Dell is soaking dual-processor customers.
I don't know why anyone should be surprised at this. Apple is making this high-end workstation the base model for their high-end product line. Dell is selling it only to a tiny number of customers who are buying in the workstation market. I don't know what percentage of Dell customers buy this product line, but my guess is that it's not a very large group. One could finagle the market share and customer numbers to try to come up with a situation where Dell is buying more Xeon processors than Apple, but I don't think it's likely that the chips used by Dell in this product line are purchased in numbers as high as those that Apple will be purchasing. Secondly, Dell is already a captive of Intel, while this may very well be part of the continuing deal that Apple made with Intel to make the switch. Intel may be subsidizing part of the price here to help Apple make the transition. Then again, maybe not, as that would probably violate the Sherman Anti-Trust Act. The point is that a dual Xeon workstation on the PC side is a very very rare purchase, whereas Apple is making it the flagship model at the top of their product line, with nothing really comparable to most of Dell's product line anywhere else. That is, Dell is selling into different market segments than Apple, so the cost basis for their purchases from Intel is likely to be different. -- David W. Fenton http://dfenton.com David Fenton Associates http://dfenton.com/DFA/ _______________________________________________ Finale mailing list [email protected] http://lists.shsu.edu/mailman/listinfo/finale
