Exactly my point, DHS, I was pointing out the obvious to you, not you to me. . . Apple is not any kind of a monopoly, DHS. Apple commands those prices despite that humungous competition from PCs. . . and they don't even notice it. There's a reason. The Windows PC are not significantly competitive in quality to make a dent in Apple's upper end computer market.
You are upset, trying to complain that for some reason you want Audi to compete for Yugo's customers. . . and that somehow it's a failing of Audi that Yugo buyers aren't buying Audis. Yugo buyers aren't even looking to buy an Audi. You seem to think they are the same because they are both automobiles. Absurd. Both will get you from point A to point B—well, maybe the Yugo will get you there, but no guarantee it will get there as often or as quickly or as carefree as the Audi, or for as long as the Audi—but I assure you there are thousands of qualitative differences.
That is why we don't have a single Apple computer in our business of 150 plus computers. Even our servers are PC based (HP and Dell). I suspect that most businesses are the same. The cost premium demanded by Apple simply isn't worth it.
There you are wrong. . . but for your applications, you chose what was appropriate for you. Fine, Yugos—or Fords and Chevies—work for you. How often are you swapping old boxes for new, DHS?
But that is NOT true for everyone. Google is all Apple on their desktops. IBM is choosing to deploy up to 200,000 Apple laptops per year until they have replaced their entire company's computers with Apple products. They find the Total Cost of Ownership will be far less over the life of the computers and lower cost of maintenance.
Someone mentioned that Apple is the Lamborghini of computers and the PC is the Ford or Chevy. This was a perfect analogy. Most people would like an expensive Italian sports car. Heck, I might even test drive one. But I will never buy one. Same for Apple and for me and probably most people. So the people in the Apple store are probably just looky loos or buying music players.
There's your problem. The Apple products are NOT Lamborghinis, and never were intended to be. . . although they do have a model that may be in the low end of a Lamborghini class machine in the upper end fully decked out Mac Pro Workstation. Apple computers are the Mercedes, Lexus, Jaguar, Cadillac, Audi, and BMW of the Computer market. They also have some mid range cars in those models that allow entry for those who can't afford the upper range.
As for your contention that the people in the Apple stores are "only looky loos or buying music players", you couldn't be more wrong as the average Apple store in a Mall out sells EVERY OTHER STORE IN THE MALL COMBINED, including the so-called anchor department stores! In fact, DHS, Apple Stores have the highest per square footage retail sales of any store in the world, outselling even Tiffanies by about $2000 per square foot.
To get Apple to put a store in a Mall, the mall management has to agree to forego the normal percentage rent it charges all other tenants on their sales on top of the normal space rent in exchange for the foot traffic Apple brings into the Mall! Some malls have granted the space free of charge to attract the Apple Store to their Mall!
You don't have $183 BILLION in annual revenue (2014), and then $74.6 Billion in the first quarter of 2015, by catering to looky loos in Apple's 453 stores.
Sorry, DHS, you are simply WRONG!
BTW the people perusing the Apple store are NOT Audi people. They are average people like me who can barely afford an iphone or a music player.
My background...
I worked for multi-billion dollar computer company that doesn't exist anymore. They had captive customers and were unwilling to open their business and felt that they could do no wrong. They felt that they were entitled and their customers should love their products without question. And their customers did.... until, the price of computer hardware started dropping.
This company was very innovative and developed a lot of the technology that we all benefit from today. But their products were too expensive and they were a bit arrogant.
I am not upset. Just seeing through all of the BS. When you pay $2000 or even $3000 for an Apple product vs a PC for half that or a third, you can hire an army of IT people. I help manage the IT department where I work and everything is very stable. With raid and modern networks we rarely have an issue. Some of the PCs are 10 years old and some are even refurbished and they take a beating. They run 24 hours 7 days a week. Some of the pcs are used to test the products that we build so they are working very hard most of the day. All of the machines have PCs and are all are working very hard and in a very tough environment — high temperature, dust, etc.
Over past 3.5 years, we have lost maybe three, four PCs all due to power supplies which we can repair ourselves. Curious, can you repair your own Apple computers? I remember Apple being a real pain for the DIY person.
Impressive!
Good for Google and IBM. But it doesn't pass the smell test. It doesn't add up. Maybe, IBM or Google negotiated a huge discount so that Apple hardware pricing is inline with PCs. Something that a small business or consumer can't do. It would be impossible for me to convince management to spend 2x to 3x for hardware and software.... because it is Apple.