I'm wondering how much you guys think the top of the line $2500 15" Macbook Pro laptop actually costs Apple to manufacture? What brought up the question for me is that just last night, I picked up a top of the line laptop with an intel i5 processor, a bluray drive, a dvd burner, 4 Gigs of DDR ram, a hdmi out, a built in sd card reader, wifi N, a cutting edge dedicated graphics card, a 15.6 inch high res screen, a built-in webcam and a 320GB HDD for $499. Now I figure bestbuy gets $50 in profit or so from each laptop sold, the wholesaler gets another $50 or so in profit, and marketing and shipping costs a few more bucks, and obviously the manufacturer makes a profit as well. Not to mention that the laptop comes bundled with Windows 7 Premium and Microsoft Security Essentials which I'm sure Microsoft is charging atleast another $50 for. So all said and done, there is no way the actual laptop could've cost more than $300 or so to manufacture. Yet it packs in hardware significantly more powerful than a top of the line 15 inch $2500 Macbook Pro. IMO, the Macbook Pro is still worth getting if you can afford them because of the build quality. But just because they have a high build quality doesn't make them a great value. They are a great product, not a great value. There is a difference. To illustrate what I mean, it's easy to say that Buggati cars are indeed great products, and those that can afford them want them should buy them. But it would be wrong to claim that they're a great value or give you a great bang for your buck. And that analogy doesn't even do Buggati justice. Because Buttatis in addition to being carefully hand crafted with high quality materials, are actually much faster and use more high end parts than cheaper cars. However, $3000 Macbook Pros still don't offer high end parts like a cutting edge GPU, the i5 processor, blu ray or hdmi that laptops that cost a sixth as much cost. It would be like if Bugatti's started putting V4 engines in their cars and people still bought them for the build quality. Basically, Apple needs to hurry up and include high end components like an i5 processor, a cutting edge dedicated graphics card, hdmi and bluray into their MBPs if they still want to keep catering to the high end market. Because competitors are offering these high end features for 1/5th the price. I can't see how any sensible person can justify buying a $2500 laptop that is actually weaker and less capable than a $500 laptop. Going back to the original question, I can't help but wonder what the Macbook Pro itself costs to manufacture hardware wise. Does anyone here have any idea?
Do what I did: build your own PC and then install Max OS X Snow Leopard on it. It's better and faster than a Mac Pro. Of course, that was AFTER I paid the Apple tax with my Macbook Pro in 2007. Of course, I usually get 5+ years out of an Apple computer before I feel that it's getting "slow" and need to upgrade, so I'm amortizing that cost over 5+ years. SO the $2500 I paid (bought some other stuff too that day) comes out to $500 a year or roughly $42 a month.
Lol, the only people that get viruses are the ones that don't have a clue what they're doing. I use Avast Antivirus. It's free. My friend uses Microsoft Security Essential for his antivirus needs, that's also completely free. And my brother uses AVG, also free. All of them work great and none of us have had a single virus in 10+ years. It's really no where near as bad as people make it seem, as long as you know to use antivirus software.
I agree, but I don't have any anti-virus software running at all. I have one installed in the event I need to scan, but it's not active and I haven't had a virus in as long as I can remember... probably not once on this laptop and I've owned it around 6-7 years.
The build quality of Apple laptops would be worth paying a $2299.99 premium if the hardware only cost them a cent. Ever since they switched to the unibody chassis, there's nothing that even comes close. But, if you're looking to get a deal, or shopping on a budget, a Mac isn't for you. And there really isn't anything wrong with that.
So will everyone else on the street. You could probably put the same comparison to any other premium product on the market. Mercedes, Gucci. But you just can't compare it with a cheaper brand-less alternative that offer you the same specification or perhaps a knock off from China.
It does beg the question. Why doesn't someone make a quality unibody laptop that looks gorgeous like the Macbook Pro and sell it for $1000 even. I mean Toyota was smart enough to take the awesome build quality of their Lexus cars, and put the same care into cheaper cars like the Corrolla and Camry. And they want onto to completely dominate the US Sales market. So why doesn't someone do the the same thing for laptops, offer up luxury build quality for a reasonable price.
If Apple wants to cater to premium customers, it needs to include premium products. You don't see Buggati's being manufactured with V4 engines do you? And yet, Macbook Pros continue to include 3 year old GPUs and 5 year old C2Ds when even $500 laptops are offer cutting edge graphics cards, Intel i5 processors, blu ray drives and hdmi ports. To illustrate what I mean, it's easy to say that Buggati cars are indeed great products, and those that can afford them want them should buy them. But it would be wrong to claim that they're a great value or give you a great bang for your buck. And that analogy doesn't even do Buggati justice. Because Buttatis in addition to being carefully hand crafted with high quality materials, are actually much faster and use more high end parts than cheaper cars. However, $3000 Macbook Pros still don't offer high end parts like the i5 processor, blu ray, a cutting edge GPU or hdmi that laptops that cost a sixth as much cost. It would be like if Bugatti's started putting V4 engines in their cars and people still bought them for the build quality. Basically, Apple needs to hurry up and include high end components like an i5 processor, a cutting edge graphics card, hdmi and bluray into their MBPs if they still want to keep catering to the high end market. Because competitors are offering these high end features for 1/5th the price. I can't see how any sensible person can justify buying a $2500 laptop that is actually weaker and less capable than a $500 laptop. Going back to the original question, I can't help but wonder what the Macbook Pro itself costs to manufacture hardware wise. Does anyone here have any idea?
I bought mine when i was in film school. Mac's are industry standard (because of Final Cut) and if you want a laptop, only a MacBook Pro is set up properly to edit video. There certain things that Mac offers that some people, like myself, need that you can't get with PC's. Also, no one is comparing a macBook Pro to a Buggatti. It's more like Jeep Wrangle Unlimited. It's sort of expensive, extremely durable, kind of fast, and still makes a great workhorse.
I've had 3 total Mac computers since switching to Mac in 2000. None of them have ever failed. I only got rid of the first one because my girlfriend got the newest iMac so I didn't really need mine anymore. And I sold it for $600 a few years after buying it for around $1200. It's like a Honda, it holds value really well. Then last July when I split from the gf and she took her iMac with her, I bought a MacBook Pro. Not the top of the line one, mind you, but the $1500 13" one. It's more than enough for me, and I actually prefer the smaller screen and overall size compared to the more expensive ones. For your average computer user, I think it's well worth the money. It will most likely last 5+ years without a problem, and if you're smart about using it, will last even longer. If you compare that to when I first started using Windows PC's in 1992-1999, I had SEVEN different computers. One for every year, lol. If one didn't die within a year from a fatal problem, then it was obsolete due to technology improvements within that same year anyway. At least with Mac's, there's not a new one coming out every month to make you feel like your brand new computer is already old news. They really only come out with new models once a year, and save drastic changes for every few years. Sorry that's sort OT from you actual question. If I had to guess, Apple makes a pretty penny from all the hardware they sell. iPods and Mac's both. In contrast, most other computer makers probably make very little on the hardware, and instead rely on selling software to run on it. There's too much competition in the Window's PC market, which drives the prices way down. If someone did copy Apple and tried to make knock-off Mac's, they would probably suck anyway because they'd be lacking that certain Je Nous Se Qua that Apple provides in all it's products. Mac's are pricey, and they might not be suitable for everybody, but most Mac owners will tell you that every dime they spent was well worth it.
I'd say the HP Envy 15 comes pretty close... but thats just me. But the HP Envy is also a very expensive laptop, but not as expensive as an Apple laptop.
The thing I love about Apple is that everything is self-contained. Apple hand-picks every single component in their computers meaning everything within my Mac is 100% compatible, compared to PC manufacturers that select parts and pieces from a wide range of companies simply to reduce the cost. I'm not even legally an adult yet, and I've gone through a bunch of hand-me-downs from my Dad: a desktop, and three laptops. Only one of the laptops served me incredibly well, I just ended up pouring juice on it. I've had my MBP for a year now. I've noticed no change in performance, it handles everything I throw at good to great (and no, I use it for stuff beyond facebook), the OS is slick, and it's design is natural and pleasing. No complaints.
It's difficult to argue against you when you haven't linked to what laptop to which you're alluding. However, judging by the "Best Buy" reference, you're going by what Best Buy is offering. And while true that those are offering i5s in the $700 and up range, the build quality, battery life, and screens themselves as well as the keyboards for that matter may not match up to the Macbook Pros. All of those things are a factor when buying a laptop. An i5 is great. So is an i7. But on a laptop being able to use the damned thing for more than two hours without having to charge up again is more of an issue, tbqh. BTW, I hope that, since you're looking at specs as the "be all end all" of purchasing decisions, you'll give Apple their due for selling the most affordable and best built all-in-one desktop computer utilizing the i7 CPU and a powerful discrete GPU. But, judging from your tone, I'm gonna guess you're gonna compare it with tower builds, thus showing your silliness in this matter. There are no $3000 Macbook Pros. Only way you get above the $2400 base price for the 17 inch is to include the 3GHz C2D CPU, and the faster HDD. Or double the RAM to 8GB, but buying RAM from Apple, Dell, HP, or any other company is silly as they overcharge you for something you can do yourself for almost 1/4 less. The i5 in and of itself, in the laptops out currently, is not a huge step up from the C2D used in the Macbook Pros. False. Those laptops use either Intel HD, which is not a discrete mobile GPU (it's integrated graphics), or GTMs, which are but are not a significant enough step up from NVidias earlier series (they are, quite frankly, slightly faster and slightly smaller). Macbook Pros also have a dual-GPU set up standard: a discrete GPU and an integrated graphics core. Why is this of any importance? Battery life. Macbook Pros have better battery life than those laptops to which you've alluded. And in a laptop, having a longer lasting battery (MUCH longer lasting in this case) with more than enough power to handle tasks is a better "sell" than having more power than necessary but a craptastic battery life (check the Best Buy ad for these i5 Windows PC laptops: none are really better than 3 hours...that's just sad ) Apple uses the proprietary display port output, which carries as high quality a signal as HDMI. You can go display port to DVI, which has the same properties as HDMI excepting audio integration and "license" for blu ray display...which doesn't really matter, quite frankly in the long run. As most monitors even now have VGA, DVI, and HDMI inputs, this isn't a huge issue, unless you use your laptop to watch Blu Ray movies...but how many people actually do that? Again, not really. They will, but not yet. Expect a refresh in the spring, which is usually when Apple refreshes their product line up. Not necessarily true. And they can justify it due to battery life, build quality, rate of comfort touch typing, touch pad, etc. And I see no $500 laptop that is more powerful than a Macbook Pro...so, really...stop with the exaggerations. With an all aluminum body, a unibody at that, a dual GPU set up that no other manufacturer uses, etc., I'd hazard to guess that it costs quite a bit more to manufacture than most polycarbonate laptops made of truly cheap components.
Well the thing about Apple is that they own their own software and hardware and they can get away with selling them at high prices to make a decent profit. From what I understand PC manufactures don't make much of a profit on the hardware and they end up bundling trial software to make up for the low margins. Also you are also paying the extra premium to get really good tech support unlike PC manufacture's that outsource them to save costs. That may not be an issue for many people though since more and more people know how to build a PC these days but great tech support is great for the casual computer user that doesn't want to deal with configuring a pc and just want it to work.
