At A&E Television Networks, employees have to make a compelling case to get a Mac. More often than not, they're denied. That's because the high cost of a Mac is downright hard to justify, especially in these tough times.
"You can buy a PC for $400, while the cheapest Mac is over a thousand," says Jon Graff, director of IT operations at A&E. "In the real world, you're spending a lot more on a Mac. People really need to show why they can't get their work done on a PC."
Few CIOs want to shell out recession-scarce dollars for pricy Macs when a cheap PC will do just fine. Microsoft drove home this point last week with attack ads showing cash-strapped consumers choosing PCs over Macs. But are Macs really too costly in the business world?
I just bought a brand new, 24", iMac.
It was $1000 cheaper than a comparable Dell.
Actually, it was even more than that, since Dell did't offer a 1TB hard drive that isn't RAID and only offers 4GB memory, 4 x 1GB that is. The Mac is 2 x 2GB with the option to upgrade to 8GB. Otherwise, the specs, including 24" flat panel monitor, were the same.
Yes, the iMac was ~$2500, but what company actually buys $400 computers for it's employees? I bet most companies don't spend less than $1000 and $2500 wouldn't be unheard of for many users.
On the other hand, another friend of mine priced even higher end hardware and the Dell was about 75% the price of a Mac Pro. But these were 8 core, 16GB memory, multiple TB RAID level machines. Entry level servers almost. When you're spending upwards of $8000 for a computer, the price can make the difference.
The other bonus of buying I Mac? I don't have to deal with Vista. That's got to be worth $500 at least.
And I can still run Windows XP with Parallels or VMWare.
by Anonymous (not verified) on 4/6/09 at 9:45 am |reply
Once again, somebody's smokin' crack
"When Apple comes out with an upgrade to OS X, says Graff, you have to upgrade all the applications and often the hardware to meet the new memory requirements."
Bogus statement --com'on kids. This is an outrageously WRONG statement. Did Microsoft pay for this copy, because, after reading this statement and if it were true NO ONE would buy a Mac.
by Anonymous (not verified) on 4/6/09 at 9:53 am |reply
PC's are definitely cheaper
PC's are definitely cheaper than comparable Mac's in all cases. Way better support in terms of hardware and a greater variety of software. In a business environment with the proper support, planning and structure the operational costs of a PC can be low and efficient. Mac's do provide better hardware, and less problems in terms of regular support (crashes and failures), but also come with issues regarding software support and compatibility.
As a business you simply cannot afford to spend much on Apple machines, you have to keep the numbers low, yet reasonable to provide the better equipment of the Mac, to the staff that need it to get the job done.
by Edwin (not verified) on 4/6/09 at 10:07 am |reply
Where Google Chrome security fails: the password I heard mention that the Chrome OS will have some sort of encryption available a la bitlocker. If it's possible to encrypt personal data using another password or key, then it may have potential for very secure data.... And Ubuntu has an 'encrypt home directory' option, perhaps google should follow suit.
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PC's aren't always cheaper
I just bought a brand new, 24", iMac.It was $1000 cheaper than a comparable Dell.
Actually, it was even more than that, since Dell did't offer a 1TB hard drive that isn't RAID and only offers 4GB memory, 4 x 1GB that is. The Mac is 2 x 2GB with the option to upgrade to 8GB. Otherwise, the specs, including 24" flat panel monitor, were the same.
Yes, the iMac was ~$2500, but what company actually buys $400 computers for it's employees? I bet most companies don't spend less than $1000 and $2500 wouldn't be unheard of for many users.
On the other hand, another friend of mine priced even higher end hardware and the Dell was about 75% the price of a Mac Pro. But these were 8 core, 16GB memory, multiple TB RAID level machines. Entry level servers almost. When you're spending upwards of $8000 for a computer, the price can make the difference.
The other bonus of buying I Mac? I don't have to deal with Vista. That's got to be worth $500 at least.
And I can still run Windows XP with Parallels or VMWare.
Once again, somebody's smokin' crack
"When Apple comes out with an upgrade to OS X, says Graff, you have to upgrade all the applications and often the hardware to meet the new memory requirements."Bogus statement --com'on kids. This is an outrageously WRONG statement. Did Microsoft pay for this copy, because, after reading this statement and if it were true NO ONE would buy a Mac.
PC's are definitely cheaper
PC's are definitely cheaper than comparable Mac's in all cases. Way better support in terms of hardware and a greater variety of software. In a business environment with the proper support, planning and structure the operational costs of a PC can be low and efficient. Mac's do provide better hardware, and less problems in terms of regular support (crashes and failures), but also come with issues regarding software support and compatibility.As a business you simply cannot afford to spend much on Apple machines, you have to keep the numbers low, yet reasonable to provide the better equipment of the Mac, to the staff that need it to get the job done.