> From: "Joel Rosenblum" <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> > > Previously, I thought that the eMacs were competitively priced, when I > looked at similar PCs. But now I check on eBay, and to my dismay, a > $1200 PC > (1.2GHz, 40GB HD, CDRW, etc.) sells for $250, whereas the same priced > eMac > sells for $900 or more! Isn't that a bit odd? I'm starting to wonder > if the > eMac is really worth the price difference.
There are at least four flaws in your argument. 1. There is no such thing as a 1.2GHz PC that sells for $1200. Maybe 18 months ago, but not today. 2. The $250 PC is extremely likely to be a piece of ... er crap. You get what you pay for, ESPECIALLY with Windows machines. The average Gateway and Dell sales are around $1800, not $500 as you might suspect. Why? Because even their own customers know their low-end machines are utter garbage. 3. What's your time worth? A $250 PC with a virus (or registry problems, or an expired XP license, or mysterious driver conflicts nobody will accept blame for) on it is a doorstop, and the chances of you having one or more of these problems is quite high. A $900 eMac is by comparison manna from heaven, and will both last longer and perform better in terms of personal productivity than a Windows machine at twice the MHz rating. After a few hours with tech support you'll start to see what a bargain $900 can be sometimes. 4. If you've got a $250 PC with a Superdrive (or at least a combo drive), a 32MB video card, two Firewire ports, CD-quality soundcard and 10/100baseT Ethernet on board, save me one! Give me a break. What about iMovie, iDVD, iTunes, iPhoto, iCal, iSync, and now Safari? Show me ANYTHING that even comes CLOSE to these apps. What about OS X? First of all, don't even bother to try and tell me a $250 PC can run XP well. And even if it did, XP is a very retarded cousin of OS X ... and that's on a GOOD day. If all you're interested in is the absolute lowest price, buy a PC. You'll be rewarded in spades for your cheapness with immeasurable amounts of lost income due to downtime, viruses, hackers, and component vendors that will only keep pointing fingers at each other and will NEVER work to actually resolve your problem. But hey, you might get to play a few really cool games on it before it needs replacing ... next year. Or you can learn to separate VALUE from PRICE. At that point, the Mac platform (like the iPod in the MP3 space) starts to look WAY more competitive that it does on a purely "sticker price" comparison. _Chas_ Come to ... The CHASbah! http://thechasbah.blogspot.com **Go see BOWLING FOR COLUMBINE. It may change your life.** -- The iMac List is sponsored by <http://lowendmac.com/> and... Small Dog Electronics http://www.smalldog.com | Refurbished Drives | - Epson Stylus Color 580 Printers - new at $69 | & CDRWs on Sale! | Support Low End Mac <http://lowendmac.com/lists/support.html> iMac List info: <http://lowendmac.com/imac/list.shtml> --> AOL users, remove "mailto:"; Send list messages to: <mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED]> To unsubscribe, email: <mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED]> For digest mode, email: <mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED]> Subscription questions: <mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED]> Archive: <http://www.mail-archive.com/imac-list%40mail.maclaunch.com/> --------------------------------------------------------------- >The Think Different Store http://www.ThinkDifferentStore.com ---------------------------------------------------------------
