Upgrade costs: Apple vs. Dell

(Credit: Crave UK)

Everybody knows Apple laptops are pricey. You know it, Crave knows it, Steve Jobs knows it. We also have a fair idea that its PC-selling counterpart, Dell, is relatively cheap. But have you ever stopped to examine just how much more you pay for Apple upgrades than you do for Dell?

Having trawled the online configurator tools of both laptop makers, we've detailed just how much Apple takes the biscuit with its pricing on the U.K. market. Base configurations look pretty similar on the surface, but when you start upgrading with faster internal components, Apple charges through the nose. Find out more here.

(Source: Crave UK)

[SSousuke]

I beleive that this is just a case of pure economics, the general consumer who buys a macbook or macbook pro, generally purchases them with the default setup. Whereas, the consumers that would want to change the settings have a higher utility for the upgrades and therefore are willing to pay for them. Apple is just maximizing their ability to rake in the bucks....

[bigmc6000]

Umm, I thought we debunked this one a while ago with the MacBook? For a similarly equipped machine Apple is about as much. Now, I'm not gonna disagree with the upgrade costs and how the take it to their international consumers but stop peddling the Apple always costs more stuff - cnet itself looked at this quite some time ago...

[George Wedding]

"...Everybody knows Apple laptops are pricey...We also have a fair idea that its PC-selling counterpart, Dell, is relatively cheap..." For the one thousandth time -- this is a bunch of crap, and it hasn't been true for years. Hardware feature-for-feature, similarly configured Macs and Dell laptops cost about the same, and in several instances, high-end Macs cost far less than Dells. The only Dells that cost less are the nearly obsolete, bait-and-switch teaser models that are advertised to suck people into the Dell Web site. I challenge C/Net to backup this latest claim. You guys still have no credibility when reporting involves your advertisers, and so you'll fit right in at CBS. Walter Cronkite must be ashamed.

[eddydavik]

Apple computers are specialty products. Always have been, always will be. Therefore, it's no surprise that they would be more expensive than that of a generic PC maker.

[solitare_pax]

Bottom line: You get what you want, and you pay the price for it. By the way, how does the "designer" Apple hardware style stack up against the new Dell "Studio" style, since they fall into the same 'specialty niche' category?

[BENITOOO]

I think Rory, just wanted to draw our attention to the very high cost of upgrading Macs.
Extra memory or bigger hdd's (which have nothing to do with design) are a lot
more expensive compared to Dell (and others) when you're upgrading you're mac.
Why this is, I don't know ....

[RicD]

Of course one may purchase a laptop lower priced than a Apple. Quote: "...Everbody know Apple laptops are pricey..." unquote. Have you failed to notice that Dell, HP, Toshiba, also sell very high priced laptops as well. When folks purchase those higher priced Dell, Toshiba, HP etc. laptops does that make them wrong for doing that?I think not.

We purchase what we want. We don't always buy store labeled food, shop a Good Will, drive the least expensive model car, live in the least expensive house, rent the least expensive apartment, purchase the least expensive clothes, shop at thrift stores, the list goes on.

By the way, everything we purchase was designed by someone so everything could be called a "Designer" product. The word, "Designer", is nothing more than a emotional, marketing, fill-word.

[Fhares]

You have no clue when it comes to apple i mean first the whole "secret" icons on the WWDC banner which were actually icons already in use by 10.5 and now this whole thing about Price. When you price a dell to a Mac they are either the same or even cheaper than the dell. what you also get is peace of mind knowing that the software is stable and secure and the computer will last you almost all of the OS revisions unlike Windows laptops which become effectively obsolete with the next OS

[supoman]

Is there a Dell equivalent to the Macbook Air? Macbook Pro?(with light sensing keyboard, Camera, titanium case, touch pad)Mac Pro 8 core tower? ......didn't think so. You'd pay out the nose for an equivalent Dell. You'd have to breach the 2000 mark just to get a Dell with such advanced features and then you'd still be stuck with a lame OS.

[sceptic007]

That's just a silly comparison. Buy your upgrades elsewhere, not at Mac store, and your upgrade costs are same as PC. I know, that would've required to actually know what you are talking about and spending more than 2 minutes writing the article, but still, may be worth a try if you don't want to seem more biased than you really are.

[billeeyum]

Most people don't want to have to take their brand new computer to another store to have things put in it. And most people don't know how to put it in themselves. So this leaves them with the option of getting it at the mac store/web site or not getting it.

[Wingates]

Who cares? If someone wants to purchase the superior machine and upgrades (Apple) instead of the inferior machine (Dell). Why cry about it. Mac users don't have a problem with the price. If you do, go buy a Dell. 'Nuff said.

[filbobagginz]

I bought a MacBook last year, and when I configured a Dell with a similar form factor with the same chip, same memory, same optical drive, and same size hard drive, the Dell came out roughly $75 more expensive than the MacBook. So who cares that Apple charges more to increase the size of the hard drive? It's the total cost that matters. Right now if you configure a MacBook and a Dell Vostros 1310 so that they are roughly equal, the Dell costs either $50 less if you go with Vista Home Edition, or slightly more if you upgrade the OS. So what is the point?

[s70fixer]

fanboys rushing to Apple's defense again....wow, shocker.
The author's point is simple: It costs more to upgrade a Mac than it does a Dell. The author wasn't comparing Macs to Dells. Apples and Oranges.
It doesn't matter what niche a mac user falls into either. That point is irrevelant.
No matter what the base cost, IT WILL COST MORE TO UPGRADE A MAC.
Makethe comparison yourselves, you'll see the author is not too far from the mark.

[runjmd2003]

Whenever this argument about the cost of Apple RAM and drive upgrades is rehashed, there is always one important detail left out. When one upgrades a Mac with Apple-provided RAM, that RAM is now under warranty, too. As a result, if you ever have a warranty repair issue and the RAM is suspect, Apple will never blame your problem on third-party RAM and require you to switch it out yourself.

While it may not justify the UK Apple Store charging double, paying more for such Apple BTO upgrades would certainly provide value for many people who are not techies and want no-hassle warranty coverage -- they can send a Mac in for warranty repair and have all upgraded RAM and drives be covered, too.