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I hope Dell isn't the only one "happily" surprised. Go apple

Let the facts be known!

magic word - gone

dell surely has gone..

I'm glad Apple isn't coming for us, but then Apple is a hardware company first and we at M$ are

FILTY STINKING RICH BECAUSE FOOLS KEEP GIVING US MONEY!


We will give away Vista for free if Apple even dare fscks with us.

Imagine, the possibliities, the millions of malware we would spawn through free software!

GLORIOUS MALWARE!!

I LOVE (to take a dump at) THIS COMPANY >>> MICROSOFT

I'll be curious to see how many news outlets pick this story up. When it's bad news about Apple, they all seem to. Good news? We'll see.

'But it is what it is.'"

Well spoken!

Only people who think choose.

Eat it, Dell!

When Leopard comes out, I plan on going to the Apple Store at Northpark Center in Dallas and buying a black MacBook. Then I will stroll on down to the Delldo store(if it is still in business) and browse, daring a saleman to approach, and watching the 2 or 3 other customers who may be considering a pruchase as they ease out of the store and head Apple way.

Sadly, it will take years of this kind of reporting to become common knowledge among 'the people' thus influencing their decision making process.

Gladly, however, Apple isn't trying to appeal to the masses, just the part of the market that understands what quality, value, and you get what you pay for really means.

Don't get me wrong, I'm as much a Mac fan as the next guy. But I'm not completely jumping for joy over this news. Yes, it's great that the Mac Pro is far cheaper than a comparably configured Dell, a fact so indisputable that Dell and Paul Thurrott agree on it.

But what about the rest of Apple's line? You can say what you like about "Total Cost of Ownership" until you're blue in the face, but Joe Average isn't going to look too far beyond the price sticker on the box. Even in the case of the Mac Pro, the cheapest Dell Precision 690 is a good deal cheaper than the cheapest Mac Pro. With the rest of Apple's line, the initial price premium is even more dramatic. And the low end of the line is where it matters most. People in the market where the Pro is will look carefully at specs and see that the Mac Pro is obviously cheaper, but the average computer buyer will be looking at MacBooks and Mac minis, which are both more expensive on the shelf than comparable Dells.

The real killer will be when Apple releases a consumer Mac that is cheaper and better spec'ed than the equivalent Dell/HP/Toshiba/whatever. That is when the masses will sit up and take notice. Right now, people can look at the Mac Pro's price advantage and go, "So what? I don't need a machine that powerful, and Apple's cheaper stuff is still more expensive than Dell's."

You mean the AssPress is printing something factual?

Any fake images with that story?

To follow up what Decrypt3 said:

You'll notice that there is no mention of OS X. The article's main theme is price. On MDN, we talk OS X and its advantages. The mainstream press, writing for the general (Doze) masses, it's all about price. You make a Mini price competitive with the $299 Dull and then we'll really have something to talk about.

The person who posted "Delldo store".... Thanks for the hardy laugh!

I actually give the Dell PR guy credit. To say "It is what it is" without trying to spin it was a fresh move...

"I'll be curious to see how many news outlets pick this story up. When it's bad news about Apple, they all seem to. Good news? We'll see."

Yes, and that includes the BBC, Mac-hating govspeak outfit that it is.

Macs are slow! Macs are more expensive! Macs can run fewer software! NOT, NOT, NOT!!! All the myths have been now busted!!!!

$2,124 compared with $3,071? Oh yeah, we left out the 3 year warranty! OK, for another $300 AppleCare includes a 3 year warranty AND free tech support AND free one-on-one training sessions at an Apple Retail Store. So let's make that $2,424 compared with $3,071.

"You can say what you like about "Total Cost of Ownership" until you're blue in the face, but Joe Average isn't going to look too far beyond the price sticker on the box. Even in the case of the Mac Pro, the cheapest Dell Precision 690 is a good deal cheaper than the cheapest Mac Pro. With the rest of Apple's line, the initial price premium is even more dramatic. And the low end of the line is where it matters most. People in the market where the Pro is will look carefully at specs and see that the Mac Pro is obviously cheaper, but the average computer buyer will be looking at MacBooks and Mac minis, which are both more expensive on the shelf than comparable Dells."

Only until Vista escapes...er, is released. Then they will find that the bottom-of-the-barrel Dell won't run it. The price differences will get even more increrdible.

Decrypt3 needs to look at Dell's web site. Their bottom of the barrel Dimension E series is $539 out the door. That's the most comparable in specs to the mini, but it doens't have core solo or core duo and it's integrated graphics chip is not as powerful as the one in the mini, and their cases are no where near as elegant or useful as the mini. The mini's size gives the computer a portablility factor and can be very useful in certain situations. Not to mention the software you get with OS X. No anti virus ect..

Dell's real piece of crap machines are $279. These are the B series. (B as is BOTTOM) The Dimension B series are Celeron processors, 256MB Ram (barely enough to run XP), even worse graphics, cheap component parts, and all housed in a super big, bulky, and ugly box. And what kind of computing experiance will you get for your money, using three year old technology? Who buys these POSs? People who don't know better and who will never use their computer to do anything useful. You can get better on Ebay. So, they can't affor $120 more for a mini? Could Apple sell old G4 mini's at that price? Sure, but why should they?

Apple will never sell to this space. Apple should never sell to this space. People who buy these computers don't know better, and maybe they don't care, but they are a small portion of the computing buying public and the wrong clients for Apple. Where Apple chooses to target their products they are the best, the cheapest, and the most value for your money.

This settlement also says Apple gets paid if Creative is succesful in suing others. Which means they are sharing the patent to an extent. I think the previous posters who suggest the Zen player will die off are probably right. Look at this as Apple paying Creative 100 million in seed money to start a new iPod accessory business. Let them sue other music player makers and recoup some of their costs. Get rid of ugly lawsuits that could hurt their stock price. Small price to pay to effectively get rid of the only real competitor to the iPod. I think Apple will more than get their money back in the long run.

Decrypt3, you raise some valid points about hi-end vs low-end but to keep it in perspective they are comparing Professional desktops in the article and those that preceded it.

As someone else pointed out that the focus has been on hardware and no mention of the OS except by name. I attribute that to the fact that those who know nothing about Mac OSX are loathe to write anything about it and those who have peripheral knowledge of it, bring hate and discontent upon themselves, from the zealots because of ignorance.

Before long someone will write an article whose words will reverberate around the world. It will be the catalyst that will provide the unwashed their epiphany. When that article appears, someone will throw it up on Digg and it will catch fire.

But before that can occur we have to kick the price around because that's all most people understand. I truly believe that many Mac users refuse to settle for less, including price, because we know, more often than not, there is a correlation between price and quality, i.e. Macintosh, BMW, Rolex, etc. But when it comes to price and microsoft price-points prove to be the exception to the rule. Microsoft has this nasty habit of withholding features in order to create a tiered system because for them it's about money and not the experience. Contrary to Microsoft, Apple has a single desktop OS that serves the entire computer lineup.

We can expect many small businesses to begin conducting financial analyses and price comparisons between Macintosh and PCs and the return on investment. When they realize they can have their cake and eat too? Whoosh!

A real plus to be found in the Mac column will be the fact that they can run their legacy windows stuff on the mac and in many cases use the same peripherals, and with a little effort be able to cannibalize the hard drives out of their PCs and put them in the new Macs, all of which could be accomplished by very handily overnight.

People coming into work the following morning would see the Apple logo on a new computer that is running windows. It's then that a light will go off in their heads.

When leopard arrives and the Mac OS is running PC apps without the need for buying Windows licenses then small business will really begin to embrace the macintosh. No longer will they be getting jerked off by being caught in the middle of Dell and Microsoft who always blame each other for the user's systemic problems.

In the meantime, workers are being introduced to the Apple experience and thinking to themselves, I can afford an iMac!

The worm is turning!

Hmmmmm.....I wonder how much of this price differential is due to Intel sticking it to Dull for their increased use of AMD's processors?

"Macs are 'also capable of running Windows if you've got a copy of the Microsoft Corp. operating system and supporting software from Apple or others,' Weston reports."

What planet is this guy on? Such blatant misinformation in just the beginning of the story! Since WHEN have Macs been able to run Windows? Is he trying to be sarcastic?

Any further credibility of this story is null.

OK... just remembered. There is Microsoft Virtual PC, but THAT isn't exactly what I would call 'running' Windows. That's 'crawling' Windows. Not a feature I would advertise.

Ernie,

Welcome. How long have you been under that rock?

http://www.apple.com/getamac/windows.html
http://www.apple.com/macosx/bootcamp/
http://www.parallels.com/en/products/workstation/mac/

Yeah, wow... Ernie.

Ernie, World; World, Ernie.

"and the gap widens when you start piling on options" actually, the gap closes in as you add on options. These AP guys make half of their stuff up. I'm surprised they didn't find a way to blame Bush for Microsoft's incredulity.

For those of you complaining about Apple's consumer models being still priced too high I should like to pose a question. What kind of a company do you think Apple would become if it decided to go after the bottom feeder segment of the computer market? I don't want Apple to build computers for the masses if it means losing the characteristics that allow it to make those "insanely great" products we all have come to love and depend upon. The masses are asses; let them suffer with Dull Windoze.

Hello Ernie,

Time to step away from the Mac SE and come to 2006 where Macs run on Intel processors...

Hello

Damn - I thought Ernie was joking - He really is that dumb!

Stupid people deserve stupid machines

Oh the joy!

It WAS a joke iPodBoy. Just got a wild idea to see what kind of responses I'd be lambasted with.

'R' definitely takes the cake for the funniest response... "Ernie, World; World, Ernie." LOL!

Apple don't have to compete with Dell across the range. They just need to be cheaper with a couple of machines so the message about Macs always being more expensive doesn't work anymore. It's one of those free-marketing stories that sell Apples without them dipping one dollar into their advertising budget.

Dell are going to start going down the pan pretty soon. HP are taking market share back off them in the corporate space and consumers are wising up to their rubbish after-sales service. All they need is one quarter of losses rather than profits and both their market share and market cap will tumble.

And good riddance. Even if you must use Windows, HP products are such better quality than Dell it isn't even funny.

"and the gap widens when you start piling on options" actually, the gap closes in as you add on options. These AP guys make half of their stuff up. I'm surprised they didn't find a way to blame Bush for Microsoft's incredulity.

Have you actually tried to configure on DELL website anything resembling a Mac Pro for anything less that $800 MORE than the Mac Pro?

Even Dell repr on the phone has not been able to.

Been too much on Windows to have neurons short circuited?

Again, even a Dell repr has not been able to give me a similar to a Mac Pro Dell for anything less than $800 MORE than the Mac Pro.

"It is what it is."

I say that phrase nearly every day, as it is one of my favorites. I can now add a new reason to my list of reasons to use it.

"Have you actually tried to configure on DELL website anything resembling a Mac Pro for anything less that $800 MORE than the Mac Pro?"

http://www.comeacross.info/2006/08/25/debunking-the-latest-half-true-hype-from-apple/